Freedom or Slavery – unveiling the truth of the gospel

This morning's reading is found in Galatians 4, verses 8 through 20.

Galatians 4:8–20

Please follow along in your bulletin.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

But now that you know God, or rather are known by God,

how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces?

Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

You are observing special days and months and seasons and years.

I fear for you that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you.

I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you.

You did me no wrong.

As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you.

And even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.

Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.

Where, then, is your blessing of me now?

I can testify that if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good.

What they want is to alienate you from us so that you may have zeal for them.

It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always, not just when I am with you.

My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

How I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you.

This is the reading from God's Word.

Good morning, Watermark.

How are you guys doing?

I guess you can't start a sermon without asking that question anymore here.

We are in the church plant, but we have a lot of traditions starting.

My name is Mike.

I am working with the university students here at Watermark.

Let me just say thank you for all the people that have helped over the past two days.

We had an amazing outreach to the college students with Gangor from the U.S.

There were a lot of people helping with that.

Also, a lot of people have supported us on making the mission trip possible.

We are going to the Philippines next Saturday with a group of students.

So I just want to start out saying thank you to so many people who have been praying and supporting and helping out.

So I've been a part of Watermark and just seeing how we've come together as a family really has been humbling and amazing to see.

We've been on a journey of studying the book of Galatians.

And I've studied the book of Galatians many times before, but this is the first time studying Galatians while being a part of a church plant.

And it's interesting how many new dimensions and layers of the scripture are revealed when you look at Galatians just through the lens of church planting and being a newly formed community.

To quickly recap, we are on that journey.

We are now in the third week of looking into Galatians.

And just to recap for those who either have not been here or are new to the church, I just want to give you a brief overview of what we've been looking at.

So the book of Galatians is actually a record of a letter written by Paul.

And the letter was written about 20 years after the death and resurrection of Christ.

Paul had become to believe in Jesus as the one true God.

And now he has been starting to travel through the Roman Empire and sharing this message of Christ.

And the people that started believing in the message formed communities, churches.

And so one of these churches starts in Galatia, which nowadays is central Turkey.

And so there is a community that starts gathering and they are like-minded followers of the message that Paul has been passing on.

Now, what Paul is addressing in the letter of Galatians is that there's a conflict arising.

Now, the conflict is that there are new people stepping into the community and they are bringing a message in that is contradicting to what Paul has been sharing.

And so there's a struggle over, so what message should we follow?

What's really the truth about this?

Paul's message that really united that community is called the gospel.

The gospel means the good news.

Now, what was good about this news?

Why was it a good news?

The news was basically that as we look around, the world is broken and we see injustice and hurting people.

And ultimately, this brokenness in our world, we see a sin.

Now, the good news is that God didn't leave it with that, but that he actually came in the person of Jesus Christ.

And he died on the cross for the forgiveness of the sins.

He reconciled everything back to himself.

And so by his love and grace and not by our own good deeds and anything that we can add to that, that's what we are saved by.

The conflict arises because these people that are stepping in, they're looking at this message and they are saying,

yeah, that's not really the whole message.

No, you actually have to do a lot of things.

You have to observe these like dietary laws and rituals and traditions and Jesus' death on the cross is not really all that there is.

So here we are now in chapter four and starting in verse eight, it says,

Now, just last night I experienced that, that there are these things that I've learned,

that there are not gods that try to pull you in.

They are by nature not god, but we treat them like a god.

The god that I'm talking about is the god of football.

For those who know that sport is soccer, let me explain about last night.

Because last night, exactly between like three and six a.m. in the morning, there was a Champions League final.

Now, the Champions League is like the Super Bowl, right?

But a lot more interesting and exciting.

So, last night there were these temptations of these weak and miserable forces that wanted to enslave me,

getting up in the middle of the night, watching TV, despite having had a really busy week, not a lot of sleep, having a cold.

And on the other side, there was God saying, no, you should get some rest.

You should take care of yourself.

The message that you should give, you should be rested for that and you should focus.

And so I leave it up to you, your imagination, whether the miserable force is one or God.

Just that much, when you start to follow the miserable forces, they have a habit of disappointing you.

So, there are countless gods trying to grab our attention.

They want to enslave us.

They want us to worship them.

They want us to devote our time.

They want us to devote our resources, our passion.

But really, by nature, they are no gods at all.

Let me share you a story that, throughout the seminar, I'll use it to illustrate a little bit more what I'm talking about.

The recent conflict between China and the Philippines reminded me of that story.

Actually, in the year 1944, there was an island in the Philippines, the island of Lubang.

And a person, Lieutenant Hiro Onoda from the Japanese Army, was sent to this island of Lubang,

just about 100 miles south of where the current conflict about an island is happening in the Philippines.

And so he was on that island, sent in the Second World War,

to gather intelligence and coordinate guerrilla attacks out of the jungle during the Second World War.

Now, here's his mission report and what it said.

Your mission may take three years, it may take five,

but whatever happens will come back for you.

Until then, so long as you have one soldier, you are to continue to lead him.

You may have to live on coconuts.

If that's the case, then live on coconuts.

Under no circumstances are you to give up your life voluntarily.

Now, soon after he arrived on this island,

the island was overrun by the Allied forces.

The surviving men, they retreated to the jungle,

and Onoda actually joined with three others, and they formed a little unit.

And there they started to organize attacks on the people that were going by

and tried to survive on coconuts, as the mission report basically stated to them.

Now, there was something happening in 1945.

They found a little leaflet, and the leaflet said,

the war is over, come back out.

But they were very smart.

It's a trick from the enemy.

They are just trying to get us out.

We're staying right here where we are.

So they stayed.

And the years passed by.

And after several years, all his friends had either died or surrendered.

But Hiro Onoda stayed true to his calling till the year 1974.

After almost 30 years in hiding in the jungle,

a college student from Japan got on the plane,

went to the Philippines,

and he followed the myth of Onoda,

trying to figure out what happened to him.

And he found him in the jungle.

Now, when he told him that the war had long been over,

he did not believe what Norio Suzuki, the young college student, had to say.

So he said, not till I get from my commander the report that says that my task is over,

will I leave this jungle.

So he flies back, gets him, comes back,

and there his commander tells him,

yeah, it's true, the war has long been over.

Freedom had come,

but Onoda did not believe in the message of peace.

Instead, he has wasted many years of his life,

enslaved by the lie that he believed,

not realizing that he had just had to step out of the jungle into freedom.

Galatians 4 says,

formerly you did not know God,

you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

And then, how is it?

You are turning back to those weak and miserable forces.

Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

So what is Paul talking about here?

We are all slaves to countless gods.

We are slaves to idols,

lies that we believe.

And Paul describes these idols as not being God in nature.

They actually are weak and miserable forces.

In my own life, I've seen that a lot.

When I worked in banking,

I had an idol lifted up of success and money.

Now, as a pastor,

it's what status and how people think about you.

We all build up these idols in us.

Idols desire our passion.

They desire our devotion and everything about us.

And ultimately, they control our life.

Let me share one other story that happened about two years ago.

One of my new friends here in Hong Kong,

from mainland China,

he studied at a university here as well.

He came to Christ.

Now, I'd been discipling him for a while,

and we were sitting up on a pond up in Kallun Park.

And we were just talking about the gods we worship.

And he says,

I'm from mainland China.

I am an atheist.

Until the day that I became a Christian,

I did not have any gods in my life.

So I need to continue talking about what it really means

to having idols and having things we worship

to have a Christian.

I asked him whether he has anything that ever brought him good luck.

He said, oh, yeah, yeah.

And he pulls out of his pocket

this little jade coin or like circle.

He said, my mom gave that to me before I left to Hong Kong.

And every time I had an exam,

I took it into the exam.

And I did really well.

I've been really lucky.

So I took that coin and I said,

so do you mind if I just like throw it in the lake?

And he, no, no, no.

And I, what?

Like, why do you react so strongly?

Like, I thought you don't have any idols.

Oh, and as we are starting talking about,

he realized that he had assigned something very powerful,

something divine to this little thing.

And he had given that little thing a power over him.

And he put his hope in it.

Paul talks about these weak and miserable forces,

which are no gods by nature,

but we do assign power to them.

And we let them rule over us.

There's a leading theologian from the 18th century,

and this is a little tongue-breaker,

Friedrich Schleiermacher.

And he talked about this whole concept in detail.

So he has these different levels that he talks about

to help us understand how many gods we actually create.

So the first level that he talks about

is what he would kind of describe as talismanism.

So a talisman is a man-made thing,

a little item,

that we assign something powerful,

something divine to.

Now, it's like my friend's jade coin.

Well, when I was young,

I had a little stuffed animal

that I would actually take to my exams as well,

so I could relate to how my...

It was my good luck monkey

that I took into all my exams,

and I did really well.

I was very lucky.

Now, you may have a little necklace you wear.

You may have a pen that you use

to sign all your important papers,

make sure that all your contracts go well.

You may have red underwear.

Some people do, I heard, in China.

Or you may have a little golden statue in your home.

Even the banks and police stations,

actually, in Hong Kong,

you see they have cannons or dragons in the entrance.

And they actually are man-made idols

to keep the evil spirits out.

The police station, the cannons were set up

so that the police would not be depressed.

And the dragons were set up

to keep the spirits from coming in

and bringing bad fortune to the bank.

Now, it's pretty obvious

that we have man-made idols

all around us in this city.

But it's not just man-made things

that we can assign the divine to

and lift up as idols over us.

There's also people.

So the second level that Schleiermacher

talks about is shamanism.

Now, a shaman is a divine person.

Like, we assign the divine to a human being

and lift them up as being something powerful.

In Hong Kong, you see that at Temple Street, for example.

You go to the fortune teller,

they'll read your hand,

or they'll look in the stars or your birth date,

and ultimately,

they will point you to what you need to do,

and you assign the divine power to them

over your life.

You may adjust your life according to it,

or you call the Feng Shui master into your home.

Now, there may just be an architectural thing about it,

but ultimately, there's a whole spiritual dimension behind it.

And you may want to adjust everything in your home

according to how the spiritual balance

and harmony in your home should come through that.

And then you may actually pay money for it,

and suddenly you realize

how you've elevated a person

with something divine to your own life.

But I would say we even do that with pastors in Hong Kong.

The way that I have sometimes seen pastors being viewed

as this powerful person

that has something that I cannot have,

and I need to go to that pastor

for not just wisdom and a pointer to God's power,

but that somehow this person has power that I cannot have,

but Christ has come to be the mediator for us.

So we see that even there,

we begin to assign something powerful,

something divine to people,

but it may be as subtle as your spouse, your children,

and you begin to find more hope in your own family

than you find in Christ.

And suddenly you realize

how much you have elevated people in your lives.

Now, the third thing,

the third level that this guy talks about

is nature and the unseen.

So we've talked about things or people,

but there are also unseen things

that all around us we assign something powerful to.

It may be something like a spirit of a mountain

or of a river,

but even if you look around in Hong Kong,

if we could look this way,

you know that there's a spirit of a dragon in this mountain,

and in the Bel Air,

one of the most expensive real estate pieces in the world,

they had to cut out holes

so that the dragon actually will not get upset

and bring bad fortune to the people living there.

Now, when you think about how expensive real estate is over there,

why would an architect ever cut out a place for 20 apartments

that's like 50 million Hong Kong dollars

just to please a dragon spirit?

Now, or the number four,

how many people would not want to pay the same price

for an apartment on the fourth level of a building?

So you suddenly realize that there are forces

that we assign the divine to that we don't see,

but we give them power.

This morning, I stepped out of my door,

and there's my neighbor,

and he does his thing in the morning.

He has a little pot right in the middle in front of my door,

and he burns all that stuff for the ancestors.

He has a little sticker that he put next to our lift

so that the ghosts don't come up.

And in Sai Yen Poon,

you know that there has been a mental institution

that there are a lot of ghosts in that area.

So he's very thorough.

Every morning, he goes through the ritual,

and you see how he has been enslaved

by pleading the spirits by the unseen forces.

And don't hear me wrong.

I'm not saying that these forces don't exist

and that they are not real

and that they are something to joke about.

I very much believe that there are forces

that can be assigned to people or to the unseen

and that there's a spiritual world all around us.

But in the words of Paul,

I believe that these powers are not of God,

that they are weak and miserable forces

that ultimately try to enslave us.

As you think about your own life,

what and whom are you assigning divine power to?

What resonates with you?

What idols are there that are a part in your life?

Are there tangible things in your life

that you put your hope in?

Maybe you have good luck chumps,

but maybe it's just your flat, your money, your status,

and you put your hope in the security

that comes through that.

Or are there people that you seek out

for your well-being?

It can be a monk or a fortune teller,

but it could be your spouse

that you put in more hope than Christ.

Or unseen forces,

spiritual forces like the chi

and everything that's related to the chi

and ghosts and ancestors,

but maybe also the unseen spirits of pride and lust

and being in control of everything.

Now, I spent a lot of time unpacking some of these idols,

but I think it is important to just stop

and not just look at Galatians

and what it was for them,

but what does it mean for us now,

here in Hong Kong,

right here in this year?

It's easy for us to say,

I don't really have the same kind of idols.

Actually, if I look at my life,

I don't really think I struggle so much

with gods that I lift up.

But are you sure that you are not like

Lieutenant Onoda?

That after years and years living in the jungle,

one day you look back at your life

and you realize,

money enslaved me,

studies enslaved me,

I had idols in my life that I lifted up

and they controlled every one of my steps.

Paul reminds the Galatians of the truth

that freedom has come

and Christ has set him free.

For Lieutenant Onoda,

when he was in the jungle,

there were flyers that were dropped in the forest.

There were cars going around the jungle

with big speakers announcing peace.

But every time when they were starting to talk

about these things that were happening,

they talked to each other

and confirmed to each other that,

oh no, this is all a lie.

They were so caught up after some years

of living this false reality

that it became their truth.

He could not really flee.

He couldn't really step out

and was completely uncaptured

by the lie he was living.

And I wonder,

so when I look at the Galatian church

and being a young church,

what does it mean for us?

Like Watermark is only a year and a half old

and we are on a new journey.

And a lot of people,

maybe young believers,

some of you,

you may have still like a lot of questions

about the truth of the gospel.

So what does it mean for us?

How can we find out

whether we're living in the truth

or whether we're living a lie?

So I want to just look at a couple of things

and how we can maybe protect ourselves,

how we can evaluate that.

How do we not fall into that trap

that the Galatians fell into

and how do we identify these lies

that come at us?

So one of the first things

that I would suggest is

that we can do as a church

is to simply know the gospel.

Like if you know what the truth is

and you match it with what not as truth,

then you can like know where to go.

But the point is,

knowing the gospel

is not like knowing the right answer to your exam.

The gospel is all of life.

There's so much about this message.

And you saw the Galatians being very confused

as soon as like a new twist

and a new little bend to that message came.

They said,

oh, maybe that's still true.

So I grew up in Germany

and I lived in a culture

that supposedly is Christian.

But as I grew up,

I actually went to Christmas services.

I also went to Easter stuff,

but it had more to do with the bunny

and not so much with the real message.

So ultimately,

as I went through that,

I realized that the DNA of the gospel

was so hidden.

The truth of the gospel

was so hidden beyond all this other stuff

that I couldn't really see it.

Now, when I was 19 years old,

I started to think about it more.

And I was confronted with the gospel.

And step by step,

I realized that the gospel message

about God coming to this world

in the person of Jesus Christ

being 100% God,

100% man,

dying on the cross for my sin.

And that there was no way around

to twist that message

and that this God is not a distant God,

but that he longs for a relationship with me.

I wrestled with that.

I started to study archaeology and history

and I did not want to embrace this message.

But all my searching and wrestling with it

ultimately led me after several years

when I was 23

to ultimately give my heart to that message.

And the deeper you begin to understand

and allow the gospel to sink into your lives,

the more you become rooted in the message.

I've been thinking about what it means for us

and one of the things that has come to my heart

was like seeing Eric work with the youth.

I've been a youth minister for three years

when I first stepped into ministry

and started to think about

what does it mean for your kids

and the youth in this church.

Because one of the things that I have seen

and that I've wrestled with

while being in Hong Kong

is that sometimes you see parents

dropping their kids off at church

on Sunday morning,

maybe sending them to youth group

and the hope is that somehow

they'll become good kids

and they'll do the right things.

But there are like these three, four hours

of exposure.

And as they go back into the world,

into their schools

and into their families,

is that the same message?

Will they come back

and will their parents pray with them?

Will the kids look at their own parents?

Will they see the gospel message,

the truth being lived out

on a day-to-day basis?

And I don't know how it is for you.

And there's a tension obviously

in looking at this message

and realizing that there's freedom,

but there's also responsibility for us

to live out this message.

So I'm not,

I not want to put that guilt

and responsibility on parents,

but for us as a church family

to ask this question together,

how can we expose,

how can we make the gospel known

not just on two hours on Sunday morning,

but in every aspect of our lives?

How in the school,

in your family,

how can we come alongside each other

and exposing each other

and rubbing that DNA

on each other of the gospel?

Now the second thing

that I think is pretty significant

is community.

Now who is the community

that surrounds you?

What do they tell you?

In verse 17,

it says that those people

are zealous to win you over,

but for no good.

What they want is to alienate you from us

so that you may have zeal for them.

It is fine to be zealous,

provided the purpose is good.

And to be so always,

not just when I'm with you,

I have had people in my life

that I was very close with,

very close friends,

and as I look back,

I realize they did not have a good purpose.

And I look at my life

and I realize sometimes

I haven't had a good purpose

about being around people.

When I think of a true friend,

I would ask myself the question,

do I have people in my life

that would really tell me the truth?

Honestly, that's difficult stuff.

Like think of you being upset

with your boss

or with your wife

or you have a conflict with a friend.

What do you want them to say?

What do you want them to say?

You are right.

He's a jerk.

Your boss treats you bad.

You are right.

Your spouse just should respect you more

and do this better

and love you more.

Or do you have friends

that actually will tell you,

you know what?

You really messed up.

You need to go to apologize.

Stop treating people that way.

Stop being prideful.

Stop with your unethical business practices.

Now, which friend would you prefer?

And I have to say in my heart,

I want people to like me, support me.

But what does the gospel say?

Now, in verse 16, Paul says,

have I now become your enemy

by telling you the truth?

I think it is a very clear indicator

of how honest community looks like.

At Watermark, you know,

we talk about Watermark Community Church,

so community is the center

of where we want to go.

So how we can protect ourselves

from not falling into lies

and living out these wrong messages

is to be in a community

where we tell each other the truth.

So we have community groups

all over the city.

And so I would encourage you

to think about,

if you're not a part of a community group,

to step into a community group.

And I'm not saying that

they will all have a good purpose,

but hopefully we will move step by step

and go on this journey together

that we become people

that will have a good purpose for each other,

speaking the truth to each other.

And when we fail,

that we can approach each other again

and become step by step

more transparent and real with each other.

That's my hope for what it means

to stay true.

Like, I don't want to sit in the jungle

with three people that wrestle with,

oh, I think it's a lie,

and then ultimately wake up and say,

I wasted my life.

I have been following these idols.

The third thing that strikes me

about Galatians

is that I don't see anything mentioned

about an outward focus.

Now, we talk about upward,

inward, and outward here a lot at Watermark.

Upward is your relationship with God,

and that's an important part.

And then inward,

that you are a part of community

and you grow deeper.

But this outward part,

I think, is very essential.

You know,

when I think about being outward,

I think about being missional

and being in the workplace,

being in the family,

and living out the gospel,

not just in the Christian Bible,

but there where I may not have

Christian community.

Sometimes when you talk about maturity

in the Christian faith,

we think about coming to church

and how much Bible knowledge we have.

But I would suggest a different question.

A question of Christian maturity

could be,

who do you disciple?

Who do you mentor?

Who do you pass on

the message of Christ?

Who do you rub Christ on?

And if you have a hard time

thinking about who these people are,

then maybe you need to ask yourself,

like, how can I take steps

into being outward?

And again, remember,

there's freedom,

not a burden in this.

It's not to walk away

and feel like,

I have to do these things.

No, Christ has set you free.

Now, how do you go

in a community together

on the journey

that we become more outward focused?

I like this phrase of saying,

maturity is not

how much solid food you can eat,

but how much milk

you can give to the immature.

So how much do you feed the babies,

the young people?

How much do you pass on?

Is your life centered around,

oh, I go to all these Bible studies,

I know so many things.

Or do you ultimately say,

because I know these things,

I now want to go outward

and impact people around me.

I look at the Galatian community

and I wonder,

where are the people?

And when Paul writes

that letter to the Galatians,

like, why is he not saying,

hey, listen to your elders.

Listen to the people

that tell you

what you need to do.

No, it's him who has to write

and direct people.

So I wonder,

where were the people

that took that leadership?

But it was probably,

like Watermark,

a very young community.

So we just need to hope

and pray

that as we all take steps forward,

that we grow in maturity,

that more and more people

will become people

that are not just eating solid food,

but begin to pass things on,

care for those

who are not as far down

in the journey.

And finally,

ask yourself

whether you actually

want to be free

or do you want to be enslaved?

Now, you may say

that's a ridiculous question.

Of course,

I don't want to be a slave.

I want to be free.

But when I look at my life,

I have to say,

do I really want to?

Now, let me explain that.

In Galatians,

that was a big question.

On the one hand,

the message of grace was there.

God did everything.

He came down.

He died on the cross.

By grace,

by his mercy,

you are freed.

That's it.

Now,

the other guys step in

and say,

hey,

that's not really

the full message.

It's actually also

what you need to do.

You know,

you can observe

these dietary laws

and go get circumcision

and follow these festivals

and it's all that you can do

and you can control

how you're saved.

And somehow,

it's in us

that we want to be

our own savior.

And I think we all

have that in us

that we somewhat

want to control areas

in our lives.

Do we really want to be

in that freedom?

Paul writes in verse 20

that I'm perplexed by you.

Why would you ever

want to turn back to that?

It's like,

Lieutenant Onoda,

after coming out

of the jungle

after 30 years,

he would have said,

oh,

okay,

there's freedom,

but actually,

let me go back

to the jungle.

The funny thing is,

he wrestled with that.

The jungle had become

his dear home

for 30 years.

That's where he functioned.

The world had changed so much.

So how to adjust to that?

Or some studies have shown

that when people

have spent years and years

in prison,

they have a hard time

living in freedom again.

They prefer the controlled

environment of prison.

So the responsibility

of really living

and wanting freedom

is big.

We much rather want

to have a religious system

where we know,

if I just go to church

and I go through

my daily Bible reading plan

and then I tithe

a certain amount,

then I'm good

and I've done

what I need to do.

But Christ has done it all

already.

Nothing for you and I

to add,

but to live out the gospel

in all its beauty.

And that's freedom.

And so the only challenge

I can leave you with today

is embrace your freedom.

Let's pray.

Father,

we just come before you

realizing that

that freedom

that you want to give us

is not something

that we run after

and that we really

desire all the time.

So we just pray

that if we don't know

that freedom

that the gospel message

really talks about,

that you would reveal it

and really show

the lies we're living,

that we would step out

of the jungle

in our life,

realizing the idols

that we follow,

that we are

enslaved by so many things

in this world.

Father,

that you would just

reveal that to us

and help us see

the beauty

of the freedom

that is in you

and in what you have done

on the cross.

Father,

I just pray

that no one

would walk away today

with the burden

of guilt

and responsibility

and I need to do

all these things

and I do these things

wrong,

but what you hear

is your message

of freedom.

The freedom

that you invite people

into community

with you

and community

with one another

just take steps

forward at a time

to really embrace

the fullness

of the freedom

that you have given us,

Father.

And so help us

see the idols

that we worship.

Give us the freedom

to step out of it

as we find

the freedom

and the beauty

of what you have

done for us

and we would

fully embrace it.

I pray this

in Christ's name.

Amen.

Wow.

You want to be free,

right?

That's the question

we have to ask ourselves

today.

What does it look like

in our lives?

What does it look like

to walk out of here

different and free

and not go back

to the jungle

that so easily

kind of beckons us

back?

I kind of feel like

I don't need to do

announcements right now

but just continue

worshiping a little

or just thinking

about the message

and what God

wants for us

in our relationship

with Him.

What does it look like

to be free?

Do we want

that in our lives?

Honestly,

do you want that?

Or do you want

to go back?

There's a lot

of neat things

going on in the church,

in the community.

I want to encourage you

to get into a community group.

It's the next step.

It's the only thing

we want you to do here.

It's where life

is lived out.

It's where people wrestle.

It's where people

are honest, hopefully.

Again, we've always said

we're young

and we make a lot

of mistakes.

We're not perfect.

We're trusting the Lord

as we go on this journey

with Him.

I wanted to ask

Natalie Mann

to come up

and share a little bit

about what's going on

with the children's ministry

for the summer.

So,

summer is here

and it feels good

and our church

is growing

which is another

great thing

happening here

at Watermark.

And I wanted to share

that we are looking

for new volunteers.

So,

we're not just looking

for them,

we actually need them.

So,

I wanted you guys,

those of you

who had a feeling

like,

wow,

I love kids

but I just don't know

if I have that energy

or I just don't know

if I want to give up,

you know,

my Sunday service.

It's actually

a really great opportunity.

We're only asking

for once every month.

So,

for those of you

who think,

hey,

I can give up

one Sunday a month,

we really do need you.

So,

parents who have kids

in the nursery

or in the three

and four year old class,

whoever you are,

we're looking for you.

And so,

please approach me

after service.

The great thing

about this opportunity

is we have training

this week.

So,

Thursday night,

dinner provided,

it's going to be

an amazing time,

7 to 9 p.m.

if you can come

for an hour,

that's great too.

Saturday morning

from 10 to 12 p.m.,

breakfast provided.

So,

you won't miss a meal.

It's all about the food,

right?

It's all about the food.

And so,

please,

if you have any questions,

if you're kind of

on the brink

and thinking about it,

please just ask me questions.

But we do need you.

So,

we're saying

we need you.

That's at the

community center.

At the community center,

Watermark Community Center

in Sying Poon.

So,

thank you so much

and happy summer.

That's great.

Thank you.

We have just a couple

of really quick things

I just want to run through.

Next week is the

beach party.

So,

you want to come.

There's buses

that will be available

to take you out of here.

There's places to eat there.

We've already told them

to be careful

and be ready

because there will be

a lot of people

coming to visit them.

And so,

we'd love for you to come

and get a pick up

a ticket on the way out.

There's two or three buses

that will leave

immediately after this.

And so,

bring your beach clothes.

If you don't know

what those look like,

just revert back

to my birthday picture

two weeks ago.

That's what it looks like.

Colorful,

loud,

and just easy to wear

in the hotness.

So,

that will be next Sunday.

Also,

someone asked me

last week,

they said,

okay,

you don't talk about

tithing anymore.

Are we not supposed

to tithe?

And just so you hear

our heart,

you know,

we haven't talked about it

for about three or four weeks

because we feel like

it's a journey

that we're going on

as a church,

but it's a response

to God

and what God's done

in your life.

And so,

we need you to tithe.

I mean,

the scariest time

for churches sometimes

is the summer

because everybody leaves,

but ministry keeps going on

and community keeps going on

and outreaches keep going on

and training keeps going on.

But sometimes we forget

about how that happens.

But we want tithes

to be a response

on your part

to what God has done

in your life.

So as you think

about the message,

as you think about

the church,

as you think about Galatians,

as you think about

what God has done

in your life,

we want you then

to respond in that fashion.

And everything you give

to God is already His.

It's already His.

But Scripture says

that's probably

one of your highest

forms of worship

because it's the thing

that grabs our heart

the most.

So there's little

purple envelopes.

You can fill those out

and put them in the boxes

and worship God.

Blue.

We have this little discussion

in our office

all the time.

We're going to do

an Israel trip next May.

We're already planning that.

We already got the dates,

so we want you

to pray about that.

We think it's a great opportunity

for the church.

Christine and I

have had the incredible privilege

of taking people

every other year.

My mentor will be

taking us again.

We have, I think,

the best tour guide

and one of the top

church historians

in the world.

And so we'll be praying

about being a part of that.

We'll give you more information,

but it'll be in May.

And I just want to pray

right now.

I'm kind of a little hesitant

in doing this,

but we have the university

students going out,

and I think that we talk

about missions, right?

There's one other person

here I wanted to pray for,

but they're not here,

so I think they're serving

in the youth because

they're going to be going

out to another city,

another country.

But Scripture says

that we're all missionaries,

that we're all on a mission.

And so the minute you leave here,

you are a missionary.

The minute you go to work,

you're a missionary.

Wherever you go back

to your family,

for some of us,

our families are the hardest

mission field we'll ever be in.

But we're called to be missionaries

and to point people

to the gospel and to Jesus.

So I'm going to pray

for the university students

as they go to be missionaries

in another country

as opposed to their university

where they already

are missionaries.

But I want to pray

for all of us

as we head out.

Remember the great

responsibility we have

and the privilege

of throwing out flyers

and saying there's freedom.

There's freedom.

You don't have to live

in a jungle.

You don't have to be in bondage.

That's why God

has called us here

as church.

Father, I pray for this family,

our family.

What an amazing privilege

to come and just worship you.

To feel your spirit

in our life.

Father, I pray for us

as we leave here

that we're different

than when we came.

I pray that we wouldn't

so easily be entangled

by the jungle around us

help us to be friends

and yell out at friends

who jump into the jungle

and remind them

get out of there

because you're going

to get caught.

Help us to be missionaries

wherever you send us

because you've called us

to do that as a church

and that's our chief purpose

is to glorify you

and to make you known

to the nations

wherever our nations are

and wherever you send us.

So I pray for the

university students.

I pray for safety

and travel

and just an amazing time.

I thank you

that you've given us

the privilege

of sending them out

to minister

in a different country

as opposed to Hong Kong.

But Lord,

in the same way

I pray for all of us

that as we go out

of here today

that we just realize

that we're all missionaries

and we're all called

to love well

and to share well

and to serve well

and to give well

because of what your son

has done for us already.

So Lord,

we love you

and we need you desperately.

We pray all these things

in your son,

Jesus' holy name.

Amen.

God bless you

and have a great week.

We'll see you next Sunday.

God bless you.

Thank you.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

oria