Christian Circumcision: Freed By Romans 2:29

Thank you for choosing this podcast. Bye. Bye.

Good morning. How are you? Thank you. Okay, I

don't have a bulletin. So, um, Miss Jamie. Will

you remind us of our announcement? If you are

a volunteer willing to deliver along on day products

for the pantry before bus bed, please seek your

job. This would be an on -call opportunity. Let

me know when you are available. Please make sure

to fill out your questionnaire if you are a member

and return to Pastor Van. Please register for

Bless Every Home to pray for people in your neighborhood.

and the church. Pastor Dan can send you the registration

link. There are also paper slips in the back

of the sanctuary for the instructions. Okay.

Weren't you able to hear the sermon and listen

to it on the podcast? Okay, that's good. It's

all good. There's a link to the podcast. Thank

you, Dan. All right. And speaking of Bless Every

Call... Who we will be praying for today includes

Juanita Henley, Tina Parker, Linda and Jackie

Osborne, Ronnie Lynch, and Jaina Collins. All

of you. On Kelsey Avenue. Almost to the end of

Kelsey. Get there. We'll get them on there. All

right. And Alicia, as you're welcome back, will

you open us up in prayer? Yes. Real quick, after

service today, and I know the pantry will be

going on, so we'll try to be helpful with that

also, but I'm having a team meeting to go over

the missions calendar for the year. I have multiple

mission ideas. We just need to place them out

in the calendar so we can start planning for

those. Anyone, even if you're not on my team,

because my team consists of my sister and my

husband, please stay if you would like to help

plan the missions for the year. Okay. Dear Heavenly

Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you

for bringing us here from our lives. All of us

have lives at home that we live out to the best

of our ability, Lord, and I hope we do that for

you and we come together collectively to worship

you and to learn from you. I'd like to pray for

our neighbors today, the ones that are in our

area close by. We hope that they know you, that

they have the opportunity to do that. We'd love

to invite them to come and join us if we have

done that. Reach out to them. Lord, fill our

neighbors with the desire to experience your

goodness as they take refuge in you. Taste and

see that you are good. Blessed is the man who

takes refuge in you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you very much. and inspired in some way

this week. I had a couple of interesting experiences

myself, and so I'm always very interested to

hear how you've heard from the Word, what you've

seen, what you've done. Where did God say, hey,

pay attention to that? And that's what this is

all about. It's not a time that I lead, but a

time that the Lord leads. And I hope that you've

looked for His leading this week, and I hope

that you've been able to find it and see it and

see some amazing things happen and some things

that maybe aren't quizzical. Maybe that's something

you saw this week and made you go, hmm. But you

don't know what the end of that is. And maybe

somebody else here would want to chime in and

say, I think maybe the Lord would want us to

hear that kind of thing. Maybe that's the kind

of thing we need to do. So that's what this time

is about. So what have you done? What have you

seen? What have you heard? Let's go. Michael

Bershman. Snowboard. The Lord seems to keep me

busy Monday through Friday. That's cool. And

with that come challenges, which I prayed for

challenges, and then I'd be able to overcome

them in a way that would be honoring to him.

That being said, I got stuck about three times.

Twice here at the church, and one guy from Lexington,

I got stuck there, and that was probably the

worst part of being stuck. And today we got some

help out there. I prayed, please help me get

out. And basically, I buried the cloud. The truck

itself wasn't stuck. The cloud was stuck. But

I'm praying. We're working, digging it out and

whatnot for about 45 minutes or so. And I was

probably able to get some wood up under the front

tire. And I thought we might be able to do something.

I said, God, please just get me out of here.

And I didn't do all this time. I think I stuck

about three times. I didn't pray. I didn't do

my thing. They said I just worked hard trying

to figure out how to get out. Anyway, I got out.

I was able to finish. And I was able to serve

another church and do it. So, ask God to help

you through it. And he sees through it. He'll

see through it. And I'm just thankful. Well,

I didn't break nothing. And I was able to keep

serving. And I didn't lose my cool. So, Michael's

been asking for God to keep him busy serving.

And that's why we got all the snow. That's what

I heard you say. That's all your fault, brother.

But, praise God, you then used that for an opportunity

to glorify Him. And so that's worth it. What

I went through, I'm so glad. I would have prayed

for five days of snow for you if I didn't know

it was going to be that awesome. Praise God.

Good stuff. Alright, anybody else? Good stuff.

Brother Frank. I've been reading this prayer

book and stuff, and there's a prayer that stuck

out to me and I just wanted to share it. Absolutely,

please do. It says, Lord God Almighty, I pray

to you that nothing is impossible with you. Train

us and lead us into extraordinary prayer. Help

us throw off any sin, surrendering ourselves

to you. May we see the needs of our city and

nation the way you see them. Unite all believers

in my church and community in extraordinary prayer.

May we walk in love, free in heart, fast in faith.

Uniting, working, and persisting. Bring revival

and spiritual awakening to our land. Be glorified

through us all. Amen. Good stuff. So, I had an

encouraging text this morning. Somebody out of

the blue, and I didn't know who it was, asked

me how they could listen to the podcast and watch

the service. It struck me that there's so much

going on that we're doing. Some of it we've never

done, had never done before. We've been podcasting

for, we're at 226 episodes, I think it is. 226

episodes, something like that, on the podcast.

And it's generally no more than two a week at

most. So you figure that is about four years.

Coming up, we'll be coming up on four years,

we'll have been podcasting. That's a lot. And

that means a lot of worship to God that's out

there for people to listen to and find. A lot

of messages. Some with quirky titles. Some with

stuff that probably no one will ever search for

on Google. Things like that. But we've had a

lot of opportunity for God to move and work.

And that was an encouragement to me. And then

the night before last, I was cleaning. And I

re -stumbled. I don't think that's actually a

word, by the way. I just made that up. But anyway,

re -stumbled on a song. which is called Burn

the Ships. I'm not going to play the song for

you, but I wanted to share with you something

that happened. It was unique for me, something

I had never had happen before. And so I was cleaning,

and I was going through some bins that are in

our short -term storage shelves and pulling things

out and just looking to see what was there and

throwing a bunch of stuff away. I did throw probably

four or five smaller boxes of stuff away, stuff

that we don't need anymore or that isn't. It

wasn't really reputable. It wasn't usable. And

then I started playing the song, Burn the Ships,

which is by King & Country, a Christian band,

a Christian professing. And in the song, there's

a lyric where it says, burn the ships, and then

it goes on to talk about flushing the drugs and

getting rid of the things in your life so you

can't go back. And I know historically, burn

the ships is a saying that comes from when a

king would go and invade another land, and they

would invade by ship, but it would be somewhat

risky, when the invasion was somewhat risky,

and they might not succeed, they might take heavy

losses, and people might want to retreat. The

king would order, burn the ships. And the idea

is, if you've burnt the ships, there is nowhere

to retreat to, right? Now we're all in. And it

occurred to me two things. out of that. The first

one was, it went back to years and years and

years ago. I think we took a work call, but he

can hear this object lesson later. We were at

a gaming convention, and at that time it was

in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. And we were playing

a pirate crew, and we charged onto the boat to

take this ship, right? And we were maybe a little

bit outmatched. They had a bigger crew than we

did. And Brother Ron was playing the bosun, which

is the bosun in the pirate days and sailing days

was the guy with the biggest mouth, basically.

And so very loud. And so we're trying to demoralize

the troops. And Brother Ron yells in character,

mind you, he yells, take no prisoners, no surrender

about the enemy troops. And instead of having

the effect of them wanting to surrender or quitting

fighting, They immediately went, uh -oh, they're

not going to take any prisoners. So they started

fighting a lot harder. So as I was cleaning and

I was listening to that song, I was thinking

about that. I was thinking about, you realize,

as Christians, there is no surrender. So we talk

about surrendering to God, surrendering something

to God, giving God over control, right? And that's

what being a Christian is. We let God lead us,

teach us, protect us, provide for us. We surrender

the things that we can take into our own power,

into his power, because that's so much better.

But surrender isn't necessarily the right word.

Surrender is a human way of expressing what we're

doing spiritually, right? It's a mouth way of

doing what's happening with your heart, like

we've been talking about in our sermons, the

circumcision of the heart. But the other thing

that occurred to me at that same time was, when

it comes to being a Christian, there is now no

surrender. You're in. You've accepted Jesus Christ

as your Lord and Savior, if you indeed have,

and you now will live for Jesus, with Jesus,

with him in person, his Holy Spirit in you, doing

things that you've committed to do for the rest

of your life. Eternal life. Life beyond death,

even. So that's what it is. There's no going

back. Jesus said it this way. He said, if a man

should put his hand in a plow and then look back,

he is not fit for the kingdom of God, Jesus said.

There is now no surrender. You don't want to

look back at the things of your old life and

yearn for them or whatever. And so I was thinking

about it as I heard that lyric, burn the ships,

I was thinking about how that's what I did when

I got saved. I said, there's all this stuff that

I want. It's all part of my personality. I don't

know what if it's good and what if it's bad.

But I just said, Lord, I'm going to drop it all

in favor of this one thing, unity with you, that

I could be yours. And I put it all behind me.

And then, you know, some of it, God said, no,

you take this. This is good. Keep that. Use that

for my glory and things like that. But most of

it, most of what I was and the way I acted and

stuff, it all was on the ships. And the ships

were burnt. I wasn't going back. And here's what's

interesting. This is what never happened to me

before. As I was playing Burn the Ships on my

phone, I selected it and I left it sitting on

the desk. Before the first song, before the first

time played through, it's about three minutes

and 14 seconds or something like that, but the

first time played through, I had already moved

stuff off of the shelves between me and my phone.

So I had no easy way to get back to my phone.

And while you might be able to say, okay, whatever

your phone's name is, and it will talk to you,

I don't do that. I don't have that set up on

my phone. So I have no easy way to change the

song. So for the next roughly hour, as I'm cleaning

and going through bin after bin of stuff, finding

all this stuff, and I got some cool stuff. Saved

myself like a hundred bucks one time. It was

pretty fun. Sometimes going through your storage

stuff can be very useful. But it's playing over

and over again. And here's what happened. Every

time they sang Burn the Ships, which is part

of the chorus, so it's like two times or three

times in each song, for an hour, every time they

said Burn the Ships, the Holy Spirit in me went,

there it is. Pay attention to that. Now the song

is playing in the background, like Muzak or something,

just playing. I wasn't hearing most of the song.

But every time they said burn the ships, the

Holy Spirit went, there it is, pay attention

to that, pay attention to that. And why did the

Holy Spirit do that like a hundred times in an

hour? Because that's part of the message of what

the Holy Spirit is trying to get us to see and

do and believe every day. It's not that he was

saying, hey, there's something you haven't heard

before. He was saying, hey, that's part of what

I've been telling you. So if the message is God

loves you, and you should be saying that all

the time, by the way, everywhere you go, get

these words in your mouth, God loves you and

God bless you, especially that one, because if

the person is unsaved, when you tell them God

bless you, what is the blessing they need? Salvation.

If the person is saved and you tell them God

bless you, what is the blessing they need? A

continuing walk with Christ, right? So you should

be saying God bless you everywhere you go. And

every chance you get, if somebody texts you,

text them back God bless you. Every time you

can. Because we need to ask God to bless this

world because this world is not in a very good

place. But that being said, if it's part of who

you are, part of your message, then every time

it comes up, you go, yep. So when we were kids,

I'll close with this. When we were kids, there

were certain sayings, or certain things that

would come up, somebody would say it, and my

dad or my mom or our family would always say

the same things over and over again when that

happened. It was part of who identified us, right?

So, for example, if I said something like, I

never stubbed my toe going through the living

room, then I would go through the living room

and stub my toe, and my dad would say, chickens

always come home to roost. If he's listening

to this, he'd probably, yeah, he still says that

to this day, right? So the point is, there were

things that we would always do that became part

of who we are. It's time that we realize there

are certain things that are a part of who we

are. Reaching new heights in Jesus. You understand

that? That's about growing a little bit every

day, being more like Jesus every day, hearing

from God. That's part of who we are. You should

be using that phrase. Every time you see a text,

every time you see it on Facebook, I was reading

an article this morning, which I'm going to quote

in my sermon, and the guy says, I hope that by

learning... a little bit more about this topic,

you have reached new heights today. And the spirit

in me went, oh! Because it's reaching new heights,

right? I was online and I was searching for something

and I bumped into New Heights Gymnastics, which

is an actual gymnastics place. There's like several

of them all across the country, right? And the

spirit went, oh! That's it. You should get used

to the things that are of the kingdom. And I'm

not saying you've got to learn great big words

like propitiation, sanctification, justification,

gratification. Oh, that's not one, is it? That's

a worldly word. But anyway, the point is, you

don't have to learn what all those words mean,

but what I'm saying is there are certain things

about who Jesus is. If someone says go, and they're

trying to tell you to go and do something, you

should probably know that the word go occurs

a few times in the New Testament. Someone says

love, they say, well, you don't love me because

you say this or you do that, or he tells me I

have to do this because if I love him, I'll do

it. Now, you should know that that's not the

kind of love that God is talking about, right?

What they mean is control, lust, envy, jealousy,

like that. So we should have certain things that

we know that's part of what the Holy Spirit is

teaching us all the time. And every time we come

up, we should go, hey! You know, and I'm the

same way. I've started doing that. But don't

be surprised if I do it a few times because that's

what I felt like a hundred times at least when

that song played over and over again. I can't

tell you most of the rest of the lyrics, but

I got that words ingrained in my brain. Baby,

you want to follow Jesus? Burn the ships. Let's

pray. Father in heaven, I'm blessed. Having you

as my God, not even knowing all of what that

means. I'm blessed. Having this life that you've

given me full of people for me to love and people

that I don't even know that I'm supposed to love.

People whose names I've never learned. whose

eyes I've never looked in. There's people on

Facebook, for example, or on social media that

will post something, and I'm like, I don't even

remember where I met that person or how I became

friends with them on Facebook. Some of them are

all over the country, and they're a difficult

spot. And in me is the desire, and I'll send

them a text and say, God loves you, and so do

we. And I can say that with certainty. It's a

real thing. Because I know You are God and You

love us. And You love us when we would be, by

all human standards, unlovable. You love the

unborn. You love the not yet dying. And You have

so loved all those who wept before us that You

sent Your Son, Jesus, to foster a seed to Abraham

that will last for eternity and will go to heaven

and live with You. I know that we're living in

difficult times. I'm asking You, Lord, please

get the reins of our nation. Not in such a way

that you would have to destroy or in such a way

that tons and tons of people need to be punished.

I'm not praying for punishment. I'm praying for

grace. Lord, get the reins of our church. That

there is someone here today who claims that he

or she is the church and they are not submitting

to You, Lord, then get the reins of their heart.

And again, I'm not praying for punishment. I'm

not praying for chastisement. I'm praying for

grace. And I believe that chastisement and punishment

by You, is grace. It's part of it. Lord, I thank

you for the sacrifice that you made. Everything

we have, every penny, every moment, every word,

every action, every flexing of every muscle,

every replication of every cell, every breath

we take in, every moment praying along with some

guy who's too long -winded, Lord, it's all yours.

And we ask you to use it to glorify yourself.

We ask you to help us praise you with these last

few songs. We ask you to help us praise you with

our gifts of our tithes and offerings. And we

know the tithe is not really a gift. It's your

money anyway. It's all your money, 100%. And

we just ask you, Lord, to use it as you see fit.

I thank you that there are people all over the

world having the opportunity to listen to our

podcast. stumble on topics about Jesus, about

the Word, about the Bible, about the Holy Spirit,

about what it means to reach new heights in Jesus.

I thank You there are people, strangers, completely

unknown, that will reach out and say, how do

I watch? How do I listen? I thank You that there

are lists, dozens long of people in the Toledo

area who say that they're looking for a new church

home. And I see that the fields are white unto

the harvest. And I pray that You will send Your

workers, and I know that that probably means

You'll send us. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful

because you are my God. Even though I don't always

know what that means. Bless us as you see fit.

And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank

you. and sung this song on a little bus across

town in UP, Marquette, Michigan. Sang it so loud

that one of the people on the bus got upset and

asked us to stop. They got off the bus and right

afterwards the bus driver asked us to start singing

again. Amen. Pastor Dan, that has been many,

many, many, many memories over the years because

I have been with you in some way or another since

sixth grade. And this past Thursday was Pastor

Dan's birthday. And as I was thinking, I was

like, man, you know what? This guy does lots

of crazy things. And I have lots of crazy memories

with him. So I started thinking, what's something

crazy that the church could give him for his

birthday? So, Pastor Dan. What? Rapid weasels.

So, Pastor Dan, I forgot to wrap your present,

so in the tradition of MacGyvering, as we sometimes

do, this is a trash bag wrapping gift, and it

smells really good, so you know if you want to

save it. So, on behalf of the New Heights Fellowship,

we have a good present and a card for you. Enjoy.

Amen. For a minute I thought you were just going

to rub it in, but now I got a gift. Praise God.

Thank you. The last thing I need Thank you. Thank

you. So once again, as I've been studying this

sermon series, which felt like the Lord laid

on my heart a few weeks back, I have since realized

that every single one of these sermons could

be at length like a book for me. And so it's

been challenging for me, as you may have seen

last week, to sort of boil it down into something

that I could bring to you and try to make sure

I do a good job with it. That does not change

today. So I'm asking you to be a part and have

your thinking caps on as we're going to do a

quick survey of where we've been. Largely, we've

been following the circumcision of the heart.

And we started out with the understanding that

the circumcision is not of a physical part of

your body, but rather of your internal being.

And that is what makes us a Christian. And we

become alive the moment we're born again. Get

circumcision of the heart. At that point in time,

we begin living for the Lord. We followed that

logic through to the end last week of a key point,

which was that the Holy Spirit who is now in

us, if you have been saved, the Holy Spirit is

in you. He is actively working to kill sin and

wants you to actually be a part of that fight.

And as we got to Romans 8 and we read the words

that says, there is now therefore no more condemnation,

meaning now since we've become Christians, there

is no judgment, there is no going back, there

is really no sin that changes anything about

your condition between you and God because of

what we read in Romans 7, which was that you

are an active part in the fight with the Holy

Spirit to destroy sin. So because we are in the

fight, and some days we may win or lose, and

the battle rages forward and backwards, and some

days you do really well, and some days you don't

do as well, and so on. But because of that, there

is now therefore no more condemnation. All of

this essentially is coming out of, up until this

point anyway, I think we've got two left and

they don't necessarily specifically as clearly

come out of this verse, but all this has been

coming out of Romans chapter 2 and in particular

Romans 2 · chapter mention

2 .29 which is our verse for today. So if you

haven't done so already, maybe take a breath,

hoot, holler, get excited, stomp your feet as

we go to Romans 2 .29. Alright. Thank you. I

heard one more stomper. I wasn't the only stomper.

Alright. So Romans 2 .29 then was kind of the

end of the discussion of what we're summarizing,

everything we've been talking about, the circumcision

of the heart. And 2 .29 says, but he is a Jew

who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that

which is of the heart, and we talked about that,

by the spirit, and we talked about that, not

by the letter. Actually, that was last week's

sermon, right? Spirit over letter. And then it

says, and his praise is not from men, but from

God. His praise is not from men, but from God.

And that brings us to our sermon, if you will,

for today. And so we're going to talk about how

we've been freed. All right? Because we've been

freed through war, we've been freed through the

ending of a relationship. You may have been in

a relationship with somebody and they were a

bad influence on you and then you broke up. You

might not even have wanted to be broken up from

them or separated from them, but from the moment

that you were no longer with them, you were essentially

freed and so on. You may have had a job that

you were working at and you thought, man, this

is the greatest job in the world and I'm... I'm

glad to be here. I'm making good money and whatever.

And then all of a sudden the job was taken from

you and then you got on to looking for a new

job, found a new job and realized that your old

job that you thought was the greatest job in

the world wasn't the greatest job in the world.

It was really sort of just holding you back from

the greatest job in the world. So we get freed

when things in our lives change. And these verses

are talking about how we get freed. Listen to

what he says. He says, now his praise is not

from men, but from God. And so the very first

thing that you can see, I think clearly in that

little phrase, is that we now have an audience

of one. Here's a parable for you. Circle World

War II, somewhere in Europe. There's a young

lady and she was becoming an actress. She was...

had her first role in a major play. She was the

lead character. It had singing parts. It was

a musical. And she prepared and prepared and

practiced and just didn't really feel capable

of doing the job. But opening night comes nonetheless,

right? And so on opening night, she goes, she's

behind stage and she's nervous and she's wringing

her hands and her hands are sweaty and she's

walking around. It comes time for the curtain

to come up on the very first scene. And the first

scene of the play, the opening scene of the play,

is her and her alone on stage. And she starts

talking and then she's got to sing a part which

basically explains to everybody what her character

is for the rest of the show, right? And so she

goes out on stage and they open the curtain and

guess how many people are in the audience? None.

Zero. There's nobody there for the play. And

so she stammers over her first line as she realizes

that there's nobody there. And the director is

off backstage and he says, just go. Just do it.

And he probably knew there was nobody on before

the curtain went up. I don't know. But anyway,

he says, just go. So she starts to act, right?

And she realizes suddenly, what? There's no pressure.

This is just like another rehearsal. In fact,

it's actually easier than another rehearsal because

the people who are training her are not sitting

in the audience coaching her and correcting her.

and causing her all kinds of nervousness. And

so she's acting out the play and she gets all

of her lines correct. Every line is just right.

And then she sings the songs and every note is

not perfect, but it's good. It's at least as

good as what she practiced or better and she's

feeling pretty good. And so other characters

come on the stage, she interacts with them and

they're all carrying it out and they all deal

with that momentary realization that they're

doing a play in front of nobody. And then...

They get about a third of the way through the

play and somebody comes in and sits down to watch.

One person. An older gentleman. Somebody passes

the word that he's a connoisseur of the arts,

that he's pretty knowledgeable about plays and

stuff like that. He's written articles. He's

done things. And so they want to do a good job

for him. But it's just one guy. Just one. And

so they're kind of like, well, he could make

or break our play depending on what he says outside,

but at the same time, he's just one guy. And

so they're in this conundrum, but what are they

going to do? They're already in the middle of

the play. They do the best they can. They could

put on a pretty good performance, sing the songs,

and so on. The show ends with just him in the

audience. And when he writes his article in the

paper the next day, he doesn't say the crowd

was full. He didn't say the crowd was empty.

He didn't say that there was nobody there when

he arrived. He says, this is a good play. He

did a good job. And the next night when the play

opens, there's more people in the audience. and

then they go and tell. But, of course, now, because

they have been now seen by more people, they're

a little more nervous or whatever, but they've

had a whole other night's practice, and they

got that confirmation from the guy who wrote

in the newspaper. It's a good play. These guys

did a good job. So now they have confirmation.

So now other people come and look at them, and

then when they do the play, they do an even better

job, right? It keeps improving. And those people

go and tell other people, and even more people

come and see the play. And by the time the audience

is packed a week later, The play is awesome and

everybody knows it. When you have an audience

of one, but it's somebody that you know can make

a difference, somebody that you know can bring

you forward, that can take you where you're trying

to get to and so on, it makes a huge difference.

When you have an audience of a lot and you're

not really ready, let's be really truly honest

for a moment here. How many people in this room

are comfortable, just flat out comfortable, you

enjoy doing it, speaking in front of an audience

of 100 people that you don't know, perfect strangers?

I mean, it's okay, right? Does anybody really

feel comfortable? I often find myself when I'm

talking just in front of you guys that I find

myself going, I wonder if my fly is zipped. You

know? Is it? Yeah, it is. Good. That's excellent.

The point is, is anybody really comfortable on

this? But if you have an audience of one and

you know what the expectations are and you can

do what you're supposed to do in front of that

person and that person then is able to present

you as a fine jewel, as a refined performer,

as somebody who can really do what you're supposed

to do, you can trust. Preachers learn this. When

you start a preacher, Arjun, when you start a

preacher and you sit up here, it's a little nerve

-wracking, isn't it? It's a huge responsibility.

But then you go, well, wait a minute. Actually,

I'm just going to say what God wants me to say

and I'm going to say it in the way God wants

me to say it. And then probably, you know, I'm

going to tick some people off and some other

people are going to be happy with me and whatever.

I don't know how it's going to all turn out,

but this is what I know. It's really about God.

So I can reasonably say that I'm going to stand

up and preach even if I was just preaching for

God. I kid you not, I'm giving you a little inside

story here, but I preach in my mirror to myself,

not to you. I don't like practice preaching in

my mirror, but I preach to myself. I preach to

myself sometimes when I'm praying. I preach sometimes

when I'm walking around the yard or whatever,

just because this is what God has called me to

do. And if you have an audience of one like that,

can you not see how powerful that is and can

be used? Then you have no need to pursue an audience.

you literally will have for your entire life

an audience of one. At the same time, God then

takes Christians and makes them a bit of a spectacle.

So after you are ready to perform for your audience

of one, after you've shown God that you actually

are obedient and faithful, circumcised in the

heart, fighting sin in yourself, and you really

actually are living for God, then God is going

to give you somebody. He's going to walk in,

like I've had happen a couple times. He's going

to say, see, you tell me how I can be saved.

You tell me what I need to do to be saved. And

if you don't know Acts 16, I suggest you read

it. Because when that person comes and asks you,

what do you need to do to be saved? You should

hear the verses of Acts 16 in your head. Because

that's the story in which somebody came in and

said, what must I do to be saved? And they answered

the question. So you should have that if somebody's

going to come and ask you that question. But

even now, you've got a simple understanding.

You know what you did to be saved. The bottom

line is, as you present yourself to God, or rather,

as God presents you to himself, You don't have

to pursue an audience. You, first of all, already

have people in your life that you can work with.

And secondly, God will put you in front of the

people he wants to put you in front of. He says

he would send the disciples, and by extension

the church, in front of kings. And so we have

an audience of one, according to Romans 2 .29,

and that is amazingly liberating. You have no

need to act for an audience. I know this is going

to be painful for some of you, but the people

you're sitting with, your friends, your family

members, or whatever, you don't have to act the

way they want you to. You have to act the way

God wants you to. You don't have to say what

they want you to. You don't have to, wait for

it now, this will get me in all kinds of trouble

later, you don't have to obey your parents. You

do have to honor and obey your parents according

to Scripture, right? That's what Exodus says.

But when your parents would tell you to do something

that's not godly, then you can disobey. I literally

have taught my kids growing up that if I ever

ask you to do something that you would say is

sin against God, I want you to immediately refuse

me. Now it doesn't mean that I won't punish them.

I've even warned them of that. If I think it's

right and they think it's wrong, it's not what

God would want, then I've given them permission

to not do what I've told them to do. It doesn't

mean I won't punish them. Well, what does Scripture

say about it? You get punished for doing what's

right, and then God takes care of you and He

rewards you. When you get punished for doing

what's wrong, which kids do all the time, and

so do adults, right? When you get punished for

doing what's wrong, God is not going to reward

you for that. You got what you deserved. That's

just justice. So there's no need for us to act

for an audience except for if we were going to

be for God. And if you learn who God is and let

God work in you, then it is not about... acting

for God, but in some sense, it's about God acting

in you, right? And through you. This brings death

to regret. And properly handled, it brings death

to fear and worry. Now that's huge for today.

Do you understand that if you are answering to

God and God tells you to do, insert whatever,

even though the rest of the world may hate it,

even though the rest of the world might be against

it, and if you're sure, and you should always

check verses of Scripture, don't get away from

last week's sermon, right? You should always

be listening to the Holy Spirit and checking

verses of Scripture. But if you now have something

you're supposed to do, like wear odd clothing

or say something that you normally wouldn't say

or... intervene in somebody else's life and say,

hey, I'm here to show up and I'm here to make

a difference in what situation, tell me what

situation, let me fix it, let me do what I can.

If you're supposed to do that, then when you're

doing that for God, it doesn't really matter

what other people think. So you don't have to

fear. If God is for us, who can be against us?

That's what Scripture says. So you don't have

to fear doing what seems a little odd. you may

have to give up certain freedoms or things that

you think are freedoms in order to be free. In

other words, sitting home fretting and worrying

about what tomorrow is going to bring is like

a human pastime. We're all concerned about what

our grades are going to be, is the paycheck going

to be big enough, are the bills going to get

paid? Sitting and fretting and worrying about

what the future is going to bring is like a natural...

fleshly human pastime. And yet, if you have an

audience of one, what if the bill doesn't get

paid? What if the money isn't enough? What if

the thing you're supposed to do tomorrow you

didn't properly prepare yourself for? Etc. If

you have an audience of one, you really only

have to answer to God. And if God wants to take

you down a different road because you didn't

do what you were supposed to do, then that's

up to God. Now, if you know what you're supposed

to do, of course, then do it. Right? In fact,

it says in the book of James, if you know what

to... What's good to do and don't do it? That

is sin, which is contrary to God. And by the

way, what is the Holy Spirit trying to kill in

us again? Bottom line is you need to figure out

who is your audience. Who are you playing to?

Who do you care what they think? And you need

to stop letting that be other human beings for

the most part. And I'll give you an exception

to that later. But for the most part, you need

to stop letting that be other human beings and

make it totally and completely about God. I'm

going to stop right there with that thought and

we'll come back to it. But you know, I hope,

and if you don't, I'm about to basically tell

you about it, that Jesus had a bunch of folks

who were following him. And some of them began

to believe in him. In fact, there were a number

of Jews. And there are today, by the way, one

of the largest growing... of Christianity is

Jews who are coming to realize that Jesus really

was the Messiah. It's worldwide. It's one of

the largest growing areas of Christianity because

he was really the Messiah. That's why they've

been taught for so long they're not supposed

to look at the New Testament but with information

flow becoming more available and it's kind of

hard to even Google the internet without bumping

into the Bible unless you're Googling something

you probably shouldn't have anything to do with

and that kind of thing. And so lots and lots

of Jewish people are now coming to the realization

but there was then that day people who had come

to the realization coming out of Judaism And

they thought, well, we think this guy is a Messiah.

He's got miracles and incredible things. And

his teachings are phenomenal. And he comes from

kind of a mediocre background. So how did he

get all this? And they started thinking he was.

And so they believed in Jesus. And Jesus looked

at those who believed in him. And he says, now

that you believe in me, come follow me. And then

you will know the truth. And the truth will set

you free. Now I understand that you and I might

want to dumb that down, John 14, 6, and say that

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And

say, come follow me, and then you will know me,

and then I, being the truth, will set you free.

You could do that if you really want to do that.

It's not even a bad extrapolation, but it is

by no means the whole of what he's talking about,

right? He's talking about something considerably

more than that. Because they had already believed

in him in what he had said. They didn't really

know him necessarily, personally. but they knew

him enough to know that what he was saying was

true. So they had already believed him. It says

those Jews who had believed in him, to them he

said that. So when you come follow Jesus, there

is a process in which God interjects more and

more, and you eventually will be free. Come,

then you will know the truth, and the truth will

set you free. And I submit to you that this is

a large part of that truth. You live, I live,

we live, corporately and individually, family,

familially, oh boy, that's a big word, or on

your own, you live for an audience of one. And

that one is not you. Because of what we learned

last week, Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence

in us. Our flesh, which had previously, through

our fleshly desires, used the word to kill us,

we've now been resurrected, and the us that's

in us that has been resurrected now lives for

an audience of one that is not us. Because if

it was me, then I would be constantly getting

pushed by my desires and having to do what I

want to do, right? My flesh wants to do what

my... My carnal mind wants to do. But no, that's

not who I live for. I live now for God. And of

course, Paul wrote it this way. He said, we now

live not for ourselves, but for He who died for

us. Talking about Jesus, who was God in the flesh.

You can be free. You have been freed if you've

become a follower of God. If God says I'm free,

I'm free indeed. Whom the Son frees, He is free

indeed. If you have an audience of one, you have

been freed. Stop worrying about what other people

think of your little idiosyncrasies, etc. Now,

there is a place to pay attention to other people's

opinions, and we'll get there. Bottom line is,

first thing out of these, just a short phrase

that I want you to see there, is that we are

now freed by having an audience of one. The second

thing, there must be a humble realization that

even you don't really know you. Let's get realistic,

okay? So a number of times I've been posed with

some hypothetical question like, if you and your

wife were walking down the street and a guy jumped

out with a gun, what would you do? Now I have

some class answers that I might use, things I

might want to do, things like that. But really

what they're asking you is, would you interpose

your life in front of somebody else's life? Would

you take the bullet? Would you jump out? Would

you dive on the grenade? Would you take the knife

slash in order to protect the people that you

love? And I hope that every man in the room is

going, boy, yes, I would. Because that's the

kind of people we're supposed to be. Not only

for our wives, which is nice, or our daughters,

or whatever, but really for people in general.

RJ, if you and I are walking down the street

and a guy jumps out with a knife, I'm hoping

you're jumping in way, okay? I mean, I'm hoping

I'm jumping in the way. Well, whatever. I'm hoping

RJ and I will be like the little chipmunks. You

jump on the knife. No, I'll jump on the knife.

Yes, I'll do it. No, I'll do it. The bottom line

is there has to be a humble realization that

in that moment you don't really know what you're

going to do. Now there are people in this room

who have been put to the test in the most drastic

of circumstances that you or I, most of us, have

not seen. There are military people in the room

who have been in a fight to the death. There

have been people in a room who have rescued a

child from a moving car or who have held the

hand of a dying loved one while their heart was

literally breaking for hours or even days. There

have been people who have sat in a room with

one of their loved ones and tried to explain

to them, look, what you're doing is damaging

to you. You have to put the drugs away or you

have to give up this illicit sexual relationship.

Whatever. And they plead and beg and no way of

getting them to accept the truth and how damaging

and how bad it is for them. And their heart is

breaking the whole time and some of us have never

been there. You have to come to a humble realization

and understand that you don't even know what

you would do in those hypothetical situations.

And I understand they're radical situations.

You might say, everybody in this room has probably

been... the caregiver or the person in charge

making sure that a small child doesn't walk out

into traffic at some point in time. You probably

have a brother, a sibling, a friend, you did

it for church ministry, something. Almost everybody

has been there. But if they ran out into traffic

and you're 10 feet away and they're clearly about

to get hit, do you know, I mean, with absolute

certainty that you're running out there to try

to dive and take them to the other side of the

road or grab them and throw them out of the way

so you could be hit or whatever? It's hard to

know what we would do in those situations. I

get it. They're radical situations. They're nth

situations. They're the bottom of the barrel.

You hope you'll never be there. I've been in

a couple of situations and I still cannot explain

to you how I found the character or fortitude

or whatever because I'm here to stand before

you today. I don't have it. As a human being,

I do not have it. Before I got saved, I was intimidated

by everybody. I didn't talk with strangers unless

I had to. And if I did, it was always in a business

relationship. And if I wasn't the person in charge,

like a manager or something like that in a business

relationship, then I would avoid those conversations.

I never, ever, ever complained when my food was

wrong. I wouldn't go to a restaurant. They're

all listening to my ringtone online right now

because apparently I forgot to turn it off. That's

all right. Just ignore it. Anyway, I'll push

the button. Okay, anyway, so I wouldn't even

go and order a sandwich plain because I was afraid

of the minimum wage worker working behind the

counter thinking badly about me because I don't

like condiments. And now I have been in situations

where I've been extremely, I've faced violent

people, people with weapons, people who are getting

loud up in my face, people who could have broke

my neck at an instant, people who could have

cost me my job like that and found somewhere,

And I'm going to submit to you it's from God,

but found somewhere the courage to do the right

thing under those circumstances and then afterwards

for God to go, yeah, that was the right thing.

And I'm going, I'm glad you knew because I totally

didn't. And some of you have been in much more

difficult situations than I have and I'm by no

means trying to set myself out as an example.

What I'm saying is that we all have to humbly

realize that even we don't know exactly what

we would do in a lot of circumstances that we've

never been in. But this having an audience of

one and recognizing humbly that you might not

know yourself all that much comes with a freedom

so that when the chips are down, when I have

nothing left, when I don't know what I would

do, God is with me, will not abandon me, and

will act through me. If you don't know God, then

you don't know that He's that kind of a God.

You don't know that he has that character, that

he loves you, that he'll go beyond, that he'll

be there. And if you don't know that... then

I suggest you retreat back to point A and realize

that you were born with a fleshly desire to sin.

You sinned. You need a Savior. Jesus died for

you. Believe in Him. Accept Him as Lord of your

life and that God raised Him from the dead. Confess

that out loud with your mouth and begin today

to live as a saved Christian with a circumcised

heart, the Holy Spirit in you, killing sin daily,

and you and I together, hopefully, but if not,

then severally, learning. More of what it means

to belong to Him each day. And one of the things

that it means is not knowing exactly what I would

do in the worst of circumstances. This much I

do know. What God will do. And that is God will

always show up. He will always be with me. He

will not abandon me. And He will empower me.

God will do. Will I? I hope so. But this much

I know for sure. God will. Some see James chapter

James 4 · chapter mention

4, which we're going to go there and look at

briefly. I thought you were going to get away

from not turning too many pages today, but not

so lucky. Some see James chapter 4 as a sort

James 4 · chapter mention

of a, oh, what's the word, like a restriction

or a burden, right? They think of it as a ball

and chain. And you're going like, what is he

talking about in James chapter 4? Well, let's

James 4 · chapter mention

go look at it. James 4, beginning in verse 12.

It says this, James 4, beginning in verse 12.

There is only one lawgiver and judge. Notice

the emphasis on one. There is one who is able

to save and destroy. That ain't you. That ain't

me. That ain't a collected body of us or a president

or a governor, an officer, a lawyer. There is,

let me say it again, one lawgiver and judge and

one who is able to save and destroy. But who

are you who judge your neighbor? Hear that? And

in the context of that statement, he goes on

to say, Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow

we shall go to such and such a city and spend

a year there and engage in business and make

a profit. Yet you do not know what your life

will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that

appears for a little while and then vanishes

away. Instead, you ought to say, If the Lord

wills, we shall live and also do this or that.

But as it is, You boast in your arrogance. All

such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who

knows the right thing to do and does not do it,

to him it is sin. So the first statement, if

you will, was there is only one lawgiver and

judge. There is one God. He is the one. He is

our audience of one. And then he says, Come now

you who say, today or tomorrow, and he goes into

this idea of planning, controlling, you being

in charge. You realize that the last time you

really got down on somebody because they lied,

you were basically saying that you'll never lie

again, ever in your life, for any circumstances.

I'll not lie. I am not a liar. I'll never lie.

And so now I can be really down on people who

lie. The last time you really got down, somebody

stole from you, you basically said, wait for

it, that you'll never talk on your cell phone

around a corner. While you're on the clock again.

Or, you'll never clock out five minutes early

and get paid for the whole hour. Or, you'll never

not return the change when you get a little bit

of extra change. Or, you'll never not find a

dollar on the ground and look around for who

it belongs to. Etc. So we judge people and we

say what they're doing is wrong. Well, we really

ought to be majoring in figuring out how to do

right. That's really what our job is. It's so

much, I'm just going to go aside for one second,

it's so much true that if you see somebody do

something wrong, and you can't fix it, you saw

somebody lie or whatever, then you ought to do

everything in your power to make reparations

for what they did. Not make them do what's right.

That's not your job. You don't control them,

you control you. Now I'm aware that here we have

a victim. Here we have somebody who stole from,

lied to, hurt in some way, doesn't have what

they want. So now, how can I spend my time, my

money, whatever, to help that person to overcome

what that person did to them? That person has

nothing to do with you. The person who did wrong,

they have nothing to do with you. And we'll come

back and talk about what that could look like,

but the bottom line is you don't have to worry

about fixing them. They live for an audience

of one, just like you or I do. But this person

over here has been hurt. Why aren't you doing

something about it? Why aren't you stepping in

and trying to make it better? Unless, of course,

you've lost your humble realization and you say,

well, you know, I would never do that. I could

never even accidentally victimize anyone. If

that's true, you are arrogant, probably not walking

in the Lord. Because you know that intentionally

or by accident, you will eventually hurt someone.

And I say this to you, I think a humble realization

that I don't even know what I would do adds this

to my character. If I screw up and I hurt somebody,

and I don't know about it, or if I do it on purpose,

I want somebody, if it's not going to be me,

I want somebody to come behind me and fix it.

Do what they can to make it better. I make mistakes.

I don't even make the right decisions sometimes.

And you don't either. And we have to realize

that as we're living for God, a humble realization

that even we don't know what we'll do frees us

from judging anyone else, frees us from needing

to make plans about what the future is going

to be like, and I'm going to control this. You

realize that for all of us, and I'm not speaking

against financial management, I think we all

should be, for example, planning for our retirement

or... maybe saving for your vacation. If you

think you're going to take a vacation next year,

then you should be putting money aside for that.

If you think you're going to buy a new car in

three to five years, you should have that in

your spending plan, planning to put aside that

money. You know your car is going to break down

sometime, so there should be money set aside

for that. And I'm not against that in any way,

shape, or form, but this is the truth. The money

that you're putting aside to fix your car next

year, you could be dead before then. So if you've

got it in your head, next year I'll have two

grand, or if I need a car, I'll just go buy one

in cash, you realize you may die before you ever

spend that two grand. And that's a realism. That's

just understanding the way the world works. Now,

because we're working for God, odds are, if the

world's still here until the rapture, until Jesus

takes us away, we're still going to be here because

we can still spread the gospel. So probably you're

not dying anytime soon if you're faithfully walking

with the Lord as your audience of one. But have

a humble realization that not only might you

screw up and hurt somebody, and somebody else

might have to fix it, therefore I can do the

same thing. Instead of me judging, they screwed

that person over, and so now I'm mad at the person

who did the bad thing. I should be fixing the

problem and doing the best I can. Because it

might be me. I might be the next person to screw

somebody over and hurt somebody, and I might

need somebody else to fix my mess. But if you'd

never do it, then you don't have to worry about

it. But if you think you'd never do it, you're

probably already doing it on a fairly regular

basis. Some see this equation here as a kind

of a ball and chain. Like, well, I can't plan

to do anything. I have to say, get God's permission

first. Yes, you have to get God's permission

first. Totally made the world, created you, created

atoms. You know, set everything up. He's in charge

of it all. He owns it all. Yes, you have to get

God's permission first before you do what you're

about to do. Just like if you're living in your

parents' house and you're going to stay out too

late or you're going to go make a huge purchase

or you're going to break something in the kitchen

or you're going to make dad's steak instead of

leaving it for him to eat. You have to get permission

first, right? So get permission from God. Walk

with God. Follow God's leadership. The Holy Spirit

in you. Circumcised heart. He's about killing

sin. You're doing what you're supposed to be

doing anyway. And then if you make a mistake,

God will be there with you. The third thing to

see in this text then is that following God or

having God as an audience of one, humble realization

that even you don't know what you would do under

certain circumstances, is that we're also freed

by not having a set of rules. Coming from a gamer

from way back, I've been playing board games,

card games, role -playing games, every kind of

game that ever was invented. I've never really

been good at video games, but I've played quite

a few over the years and things like that. One

of the things I first learned, if you sit down

to play a game, somebody's got to know the rules

to the game. Otherwise, you're just going to

fiddle around for a couple hours and never get

around to playing while everybody learns how

to play, but nobody actually plays. As long as

somebody knows the rules, then what's the next

thing that has to happen? Whoever knows the rules

has to help those who don't know the rules basically

understand how to play. And here is what's really

frustrating. This has driven me nuts every single

time it has ever happened to me to the point

that I've always been ready to just go, I'm never

going to play this game again. Just totally blew

up. When you sit down with somebody that you've

never played before, and they're explaining you

how to play, and then halfway through the game,

they say, oh, you know, there is this little

known rule here, this extra phase to the turn,

or this thing that your whatever can do, or whatever,

and it causes me to be able to do this now, so

now they have this massive advantage in the game.

They never told you about the rule, but they

used the rule halfway through the game to make

it so that they have an advantage. Now they're

going to win the game, and it's a foreseen outcome

because you didn't know you could do that. You

go, look, I could have done that five turns ago,

and I could have done that ten turns ago, and

I could have done that at the beginning of the

game, but I didn't know about that. But now I

know about it because you wanted to do it, and

you taught me. This is the funny thing about

a set of rules. It's all in perception. Does

the Ten Commandments say thou shalt not lie?

Should we take a poll? Let's do that real quick.

How many of you think the Ten Commandments say

thou shalt not lie? Raise your hand. I got one

hand. Anybody else? Come on. It's okay. I'm not

going to scold you when you're wrong or anything.

All right. It says thou shalt not bear false

witness, right? And written in a legal document.

So what does it mean to not bear false witness?

In what context? No, it doesn't mean don't talk

about others. That would be broadening the context

too much. Elsewhere in scripture it says that,

but it doesn't say that in the Ten Commandments.

What's that? Don't give false testimony against

someone else. If a brother is in sin, this is

going back to the old days, if a brother were

in sin and they did something wrong, and three

people came against him and accused him in a

public way, essentially a court has begun. Right?

And if... What he did wrong. So if he was caught

in adultery and three men came and accused him

of caught in adultery, is he hauled off to a

judge? Is that what they did? Now what do they

do? Take him outside the town or outside the

camp in their case, right? And stoned him, right?

So they threw stones on him. The first thing

they did was put a big boulder on his chest so

he couldn't get up. The first stone was this

huge stone. Put it on his chest. And then they

throw stones at him until he's dead. No court.

Right? So the point is, If you would bear false

testimony against this guy, he could be stoned

to death. So you're lying about him in a legal

situation that can have ramifications. That's

what the Ten Commandments are about. But when

you interpret the Ten Commandments and say, now,

let me be very clear. Lying is a sin. You shouldn't

do it. That's in the New Testament, not the Old

Testament. It's also in the Old Testament. But

it's clearly laid out in the New Testament. Lying

is a sin. You have to give that up as a Christian.

But that being said, When you go to anybody you

know and you tell them that the Ten Commandments

says thou shalt not lie, and there is one translation

that has it, maybe more than one, that has it

that way, you aren't wrong per se, but you're

not exactly right either, are you? See what I'm

saying? That's the problem with a set of rules.

That's the problem with beating people up with

your Bible. It says right here you can't do that,

smack. Right? You can't just do that. Because

a set of rules, are we living by a set of rules?

No. A set of rules will at best build you a cage

to keep you away from a burning fire or falling

off a cliff or running into a guy with a knife.

It will at best give you some protections. It

will not. So the Pharisees and the Sadducees

in Jesus' day, this is what they had done. They

looked at the rules of the Old Testament, the

laws that God had given them. We can't break

those. Gosh, we can't break those. We could die

if we break those. This is a horrible thing to

break those. So let's be super careful we don't

break those. Let's make a bunch more rules that

make it so that we never get close. So, for example,

keep the Sabbath day holy. Don't work on the

Sabbath was their command. So then they made

a rule to say, well, we need to know exactly

what constitutes work on the Sabbath. So they

made a rule that says if at the end of the day,

after walking only a certain number of steps

that you're allowed to walk, after that, at the

end of the day, if you find a pin in the hem

of your garment, you have worked on the Sabbath,

you have profaned the Sabbath, and you must undergo

a ritual cleansing. Now you show me where that's

at in Scripture. That's the problem with a set

of rules. At best it will bind you. At best it

will manipulate you. At best it will propel you

in a certain direction, like a bank of a river.

But we are not subject to a set of rules. Truth

is, some people think being subject to a set

of rules would actually be easier. If we had,

say, a three -point plan, that's how you get

to heaven, you just got to do this, then we follow

those three points very literally and we would

get there, right? But actually, what we're called

to is a, you're going to need to get this because

it's a lot of Ps here, a permanent personal pursuit

of His presence. That's what we're called to.

A permanent personal pursuit of His presence.

We want God at work in us, which amazingly is

what God wants. Also, as we are called to a permanent

personal pursuit of His presence, we are called

to prefer His promised perfect end and His present

peace over a wasteful worldly wickedness that

amounts to little more than wishful wantings.

How many people do you think want to go to heaven?

For those that believe what heaven is, everybody.

Mike's right. Everybody. For those who want to...

that have an idea. Some people will deny that

there is heaven because they don't want to admit

that they're not going there, right? But let's

be realistic. If somebody says, I know what heaven

is, I know what it's like, do I want to get there?

Yes. Even if you go in false religions across

the world, they all have different ways to get

into the eternal life that God talks about. They

talk about them in different words or whatever.

Like if you die in a holy war, you get 13 virgins

in heaven for eternity, right? Things like that.

They all have different ways to arrive somewhere.

That's an image of what they understand heaven

to be. We all want to go to heaven. But God says,

actually what he wants for us is a permanent

presence with us. A lasting, permanent relationship

with God. That's what he wants. And that's what

you'll have in heaven. And because you have it,

you'll get to heaven. And then he'll be there.

in a more physical way perhaps, even though He's

spiritual and we'll be spiritual too. And yes,

there are hard things to understand. And so,

because we don't know all the rules, and you

couldn't know all the rules, and if you did know

all the rules, you could be pretty sure you'd

break them anyway. What God has called us to

is a permanent personal pursuit of His presence.

And being satisfied, preferring His promised

perfect end, where we're going to go, what He's

going to eventually do in us, preferring that.

and His present peace, in other words, He's already

at work in us. Jesus says, my peace I give you,

my peace I leave with you, not as the world gives

you peace. And all that over a wasteful worldly

wickedness that amounts to little more than wishful

wantings. That's freedom. That's being freed

from a set of rules. Now, are the things that

are in the law good? We talked about that last

week. Yes, they are. Is the law meant for life

and light and to bring people to a good place?

Yes. Ideally, the law was supposed to make people

go, oh gosh, I'm a sinner. I need a savior. God,

please give me a savior. They wouldn't know his

name was Jesus Christ, Jesus the Christ of Nazareth,

but they would know that God was going to prepare

a way. How do you think Abraham got saved? He

trusted in the way that God was eventually going

to make. By recognizing in some, it was before

the law was written, but recognizing in some

little way that he could not live in this permanent

personal presence with God except that God did

something for him and gave him grace. Well, that

brings us to our conclusion already. But it's

kind of a lengthy conclusion because I'm going

to try to give you some application of what it

is that we need to do. Okay? And the conclusion

is called naked and unashamed. Now we're all

going to take our clothes off. No, we're not.

Because I would not be unashamed, and nor would

you. Right? We're not going to take our clothes

off. And I don't mean literal physical clothing

anyway, right? Who am I referring to? Does anyone

know when I say naked and unashamed, what am

I referring to? What does that bring to mind?

Naked and unashamed. Yeah. Today we'd be bearing

your soul away. Adam and Eve, right? Adam and

Eve were in the Garden of Eden, naked and unashamed.

How many people were in the garden with Adam

when he was naked and unashamed? One. Who was

it? Eve. How many people were with Eve in the

garden when she was naked and unashamed? Okay,

I'm going to tell you a little something. I'm

going to be a little transparent for a moment

right now, okay? I don't mean to embarrass any

young people in the room. When I first married

my wife, before we were married, we had Elisha

because we were not saved. We had an adulterous

fornication, whatever you want to call it, affair,

and created a beautiful... baby, and God later

saved our souls. I did not want to be naked in

front of my lover. I did not want to be naked

in front of my wife. Now, I'm not so sure I would

quite say I was ashamed, but I felt extremely

uncomfortable. I've gone to a number of cookouts

and things, and it's really common in East Toledo,

and guys run around with their shirts off. They

wear pants or shorts, whatever, no shirts on.

And they've got maybe tattoos, or maybe they

don't. They've got chest hair, or maybe they

don't. They've got boobies that they probably

shouldn't have, or maybe they don't. They've

got bellies hanging out, most of them, right?

Because they're mostly drinking a beer, and I've

been there. RJ? Right? And they all hang around.

I'm here to tell you, and I'm not bothered by

it. It does not bother me one bit, but I don't

need to see it. And they're unashamed. And these

are guys that have got 50 extra pounds on their

gut, walking around, unashamed, slightly tanned,

whatever. Now, when they start taking their pants

off, I much more than don't need to see it. You

see what I'm saying? I'm gone. I'm out of there.

If they take their pants off in front of my wife,

I may not be out. She'll be out of there, but

I may not be leaving. Except when a squad car

comes to get me. It's going to be ugly. What

I'm saying to you is, Adam and Eve, so how many

days? Let's be really realistic. How many days

did Adam know Eve before he walked naked in front

of her? Zero. He met her the day she was created.

Right? No days. So he literally did not know

her at all. Never had met her. And there he is,

just buck naked, walking around with this junk

hanging out in front of this beautiful woman.

And not ashamed. Not bothered by it at all. Also,

not lusting. Nothing unhealthy going on here.

How many days did Eve know Adam before that happened?

None. Yeah, 30 seconds. She woke up, she went,

oh, I exist. Oh, there's a naked man. I mean,

that would freak almost anybody out, right? But

there's Eve, and she's like, no, I'm not freaked

out at all. This doesn't bother me. This is what

we do. Right? And so now here we are, not at

all naked and unashamed, and not free. I'm not

saying we should be free to be naked. I don't

want to be naked. with people. That's not my

thing. Alright? And I understand we have to deal

with some of that because of the lust and the

issues that go along with it. You need to dress

appropriately and everybody needs to dress appropriately

and probably men should not be hanging around

drinking beer with no shirts off around other

people's women. Maybe. I don't know. That's between

them and God I suppose. The bottom line is we

are freed by we have an audience of one. So let's

be I'm just going to be again very candid. Does

God say when it's you and God alone Do you need

clothes? No. You get in the shower, God's there.

He sees you naked all the time. Are you ashamed

of that? Right? So when it's you and God alone,

you don't need clothes. But you bring in other

people, interpersonal relationships, and now

you need clothes. And it all goes back to Adam

and Eve in the Garden of Eden and ever since

then and lost in fleshly nature. And the other

person that's there is trying through the power,

if they're a Christian, trying through the power

of the Holy Spirit to kill sins. They shouldn't

lust. You don't want to see. So, by the way,

if you're a man or a woman and you're not married,

don't ever see anyone naked ever until you're

married. Just avoid that. And if you're, except

maybe like in a gym if it's other guys and, you

know, or something like that. But otherwise,

just avoid it. And if you're... A young person,

you're dating somebody and you're engaged, you

don't see them naked until your wedding night,

right? Because you're exposing yourselves to

lust. But we're really talking about, as Ron

said, nakedness of the soul. If you can trust,

as we talked about under a humble realization

that even you don't really know, that God will

always act, then you really don't have anything

to worry about. You can be you. You can be essentially

naked and unashamed. Now, I'm not saying take

your clothes off. I'm saying you can basically

be you. You can act the way you think God wants

you to act. You can stop holding yourself back

because you're so concerned about what the world

will think. You can be okay being you. You can

get your spiritual beer and take your shirt off

at your own cookout because it's your cookout,

but really it's God's cookout. You're going to

be okay. You can be you. But there's a couple

of practical things. Based on all this then,

so I had a few questions that I had to ask and

maybe you would ask these same questions too.

So what happens with all of this? Like if I'm

living for God and I just really let it all hang

out, not in a nasty way, but I really live for

God and I don't hold anything back, what happens

when I have nothing left? If I take all my money

and I spend it for the poor, as Jesus told the

rich man to do, or if I, because money's a problem

for you, maybe you need to do that. If I do all

these things, I take huge risks. If I wind up

on a cross and I'm about to be being crucified,

or if I wind up on a stake and I'm being burnt,

or if I wind up persecuted in a back alley near

to death, what do I do? What happens when there

is nothing left? To which I would say, taking,

no pun intended, the devil's advocate position,

maybe it would be easier without the blessings

of God. When we're talking about being freed

by these things, maybe it would be easier if

we didn't have the blessings. You realize that

most of the things that you're afraid of losing,

they are the blessings that God has given you.

Remember Lazarus and the rich man? The rich man

got his stuff during life. Lazarus didn't. Lazarus

goes to heaven. The rich man goes to hell. Jesus

used it. That was talking about the rich man

got his blessings. That's what he said. It's

not really the topic of this, but it's notable

that the rich man went to hell and Lazarus went

to heaven. Remember the parable that Jesus told

about the man who would build many barns? If

you don't, it's okay, but I'm going to tell you

the gist of it. Basically, there's a guy and

he gets kind of nearing to the end of his life

and he says, I've done really well and now I'm

going to tear down my barns and I'm going to

build new ones and store lots more stuff and

then I'm going to live out my days in ease. And

God says to him, no, actually you're going to

die today, so then who's going to have all your

barns? Or all your stuff. And Jesus, God of that,

says store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,

not on earth where moth and rust and thief and

so on. Maybe you're familiar with the parable

of the four soils. It's about a farmer who goes

out sowing. Taking his bag of seed, he's going

to go sow the crops. And some falls along the

trail. Some falls in the thorny soil and so on.

Different soils. You've probably heard this parable.

If you haven't, you can read it in Mark chapter

Mark 4 · chapter mention

4 or Matthew chapter 13 or Luke chapter 8. And

Matthew 13 · chapter mention Luke 8 · chapter mention

those lists are now on the podcast. And maybe

somebody on Facebook will type them in. Mark

4, Matthew 13, Luke 8. But the bottom line is,

there's one set of soil where the seed starts

to take good root and produce. But the cares

and the what of this world then choke it out.

The riches. The cares and the riches of this

world. The problem with us being freed by having

an audience of one, by realizing that we might

not even know ourselves all that well what we

would do in certain circumstances, and by not

living by a set of rules, is that we have all

these things that we want to keep for ourselves.

I can't tell you the number of times I've seen

a child or a grandchild say, I can't wait until

my friends come over and play with me with my

toys. And how does that always go? I want that

toy he's playing with. I wanted them to come

and play with me, but now that they've come,

I want what they're playing with, right? The

hardest thing to living this way that I'm talking

about is the stuff that we get attached to and

the ideas and stuff that we get attached to.

Wren Financial Management, there's many of them,

but Wren Financial Management says it this way.

The purpose of wealth is basically broken down

into three things. One, protect capital. That

is, stay rich. Two, grow capital. That is, get

richer. Three, enjoy capital. That's it. And

so everybody in the world who's got a little

something is going to their financial advisors

and learning how to keep what they've got, get

more, and enjoy what they've got. That is not

what life was for. And so if you get wrapped

up or tied up in the trappings of this life,

another financial manager, Care Financial, adds

this. They say, also it's true, equally important

is what your wealth can help you do in a larger

sense for your community, etc. That's almost

getting close, isn't it? What if the only thing

that's actually important about your wealth is

what you can actually do with it? to bless other

people, to show love, to spread God's word, etc.

According to the Bible, pretty sure that's basically

it. So it isn't about getting richer. It isn't

about keeping your riches or about enjoying your

capital. It isn't about any of those things.

Rather, Jesus said, store up treasures for yourself

in heaven. So what happens when you run out?

God wants you to have more. He'll give you more.

You know how many people there are in the history

of the United States of America? Big names. Guys

that you'd recognize who filed bankruptcy three

or four or sometimes seven times before they

finally made their big name that you're familiar

with. Newspaper men. Satirists. Mark Twain did

it. Mark Twain filed bankruptcy and then went

back and intentionally paid off all of his debts

because he thought it was the right thing to

do. You don't need half of what you have. You

have it as a blessing from God. And you can use

it as a blessing for God. And if you run out

of it, then that was just meant to be. Second

thing is, where does the church fit in all this?

Because we've been talking an awful lot about

living as an audience of one. So God is our only

audience. And so I'm going to show you two things,

two short videos that Josh has queued up for

me. The first one is a flock of geese. It's very

short. Tommy, we'll get that light. It's on the

other side. This is a flock of geese. I hope

you can see it. See them there? Flying across

the screen. It's a little closer. They're flying

in a V formation. Geese do that. While we're

watching this for a few more seconds, I want

you to think about how far away the front geese

in the V is from the furthest back geese. There's

some distance there, right? There's a still shot

to end on. I think it actually paused. So 23

seconds left. 22 seconds left. Okay, there we

go. There's the geese flying. It's still going.

27 seconds. Press the play button again. There

we go. Gotta love the internet sometimes. Okay,

so there's a little more there, but you've seen

enough to know what I'm talking about. Where

does the church fit in? So when a V of geese

flies, I'm going to ask you a couple questions

to make you think, and I think you'll get the

picture. Is the front geese in the V together

with the back, front goose together with the

back goose? Are they together? Yes, they are

together. In fact, they are so much together

that when that front goose gets tired, He'll

go to the back and fly and they'll rotate and

somebody else will fly in the front. So that

eventually that V will fly hundreds of miles

and everyone will get a turn in the front. That's

a picture of what the church is. We're all going

the same way. We all have a circumcised heart.

The Holy Spirit is at work in destroying sin

in us and we're partnering with him to do so.

and we're going the way God wants us to go. Now,

I understand some will leave the V. Some will

fall off. Some will not actually do what they

said they would do, and so on. Where does the

church fit in? The church is all one master,

all one purpose, all together going, watching

over one another, sacrificing for one another.

Your concern for each other person's concerns,

your concerns for other people, keep you on track

in the pack. This is important. How much you

care about the rest of the church and doing things

for the rest of the church, that's what will

keep you going the right way. It's not how much

you care about yourself because you can go out

then and be a Lone Ranger Christian. You can

go out then and meet your own needs. You can

go out then and find a way to get a second or

a third job or steal or whatever to get the money

that you need to make sure you have enough, right?

If instead... you care about the other people

in your church, that will actually guide you.

I'm going to show you a second short video, if

it works. Josh? Okay. These are called starlings.

They're flying in what's called a murmuration.

See them? Those are birds. Small birds. That's

called a murmuration. It's probably about 2 ,000,

3 ,000 birds in there. A murmuration will get

together and starlings and other small birds,

mostly starlings, but other small birds do it

too, they'll get together and they'll swoop around

like that in a mob. Tommy, you can turn the light

back on now. And never once does one bird collide

with another bird. They don't have radar or sonar.

A lot of times they don't even make a noise.

I mean, sometimes they'll chirp and things like

that. But even if they don't make noise, they

will never collide with another bird. No bird

falls out. They foop all around like that. And

eventually they pick a direction and they go.

And they'll fly off essentially in a V formation

or whatever. And off they go. Occasionally parks

will break off and settle and then later come

back to the pack and things. Now, a couple of

things about starlings that are important. Number

one, starlings were not native to North America.

They were introduced to Central Park in New York

by some Shakespeare lovers who wanted all the

birds that were in Shakespeare to be present

in North America. I know that sounds really weird.

But since then, they've become almost like a

plague across the entire country. There are millions,

tens of millions, hundreds of millions of these

birds across the entire country. In fact, some

people lobby to get rid of them. There's so many

of them. They don't really hurt anything. They're

just like other small birds. Unless, of course,

I suppose if you flew a plane into their murmuration,

that'd probably be the end of your plane, I suppose.

But the point is, These birds manage to function

together. Scientists watch them. Here's what

they found out. Each bird, each starling, watches

seven other starlings that are near them. They

keep track of those seven starlings that are

near them. One of those is keeping track of seven

others, which might include the original or it

might not. It creates this vast web of starlings

caring about the other starlings in the murmuration.

And whatever way one goes, they all go. And they

flit around. And they literally, you saw them

take hairpin turns at 30 mile an hour in the

air and don't bump into each other. Because they

care about the others in the flock. This is what

the church is supposed to look like. As you are

concerned for each other, that keeps you on track

in the path. Here's what happens sometimes. People

go, well, so -and -so is not doing for me. So

-and -so didn't show up and visit me enough.

So -and -so didn't send me enough cards or gifts

or so -and -so said something I didn't like.

As soon as you do that, you divorce yourself

from what God meant the church to be. And when

you do that, we get crashes and we lose people.

We lose love. We lose faith. Rather, what we

should do is taking turns and let people lead

as their spiritual gifts become appropriate.

Care about other members of the group. And as

you care, that will keep you on track. The entire

New Testament was written to the church collected.

Was sealed by the church collected. Some people

say, I don't know about the church where I can

just go off and be a follower of God. I've lived

for an audience of one, right? If you're living

for an audience of one, you cannot do that without

the church because the church is the place and

the people in which someone lives for an audience

of one. And you will keep on track by caring

more about the people around you, not just your

family members, but by caring more about the

people around you than about yourself. Why not

a Lone Ranger Christian? Well, of course, there's

the command to evangelism, to make other Christians,

or tell them about Jesus so they can become other

Christians. And then there's the command to love

your brother. 1 John 4 .20 says, By this everyone

will know you are my disciples if you love one

another. That's not 1 John 4 .20. That's Jesus

speaking. 1 John 4 .20 is where it says, if you

cannot love your brother or sister that you have

seen, then you cannot love God whom you have

not seen. Don't you understand that these people

here, and yes, we're all flawed and have issues

and whatever, but these people here were created

in the image of God. They represent God. If you

don't love Tommy, you don't love God. That's

all there is to it. I didn't say it. John wrote

it. If you don't love Arden, you don't love God.

If you don't love Rayleigh, you don't love God.

If you don't love Rosie, you don't love God.

And by love, I don't mean, oh, I love them. Yes,

I do love them. They're kind of cute and I would

like to pet them. No. That's not love. Love is

when you go, they have a practical need of some

kind. I'm going to meet it. I am going to get

an extra part -time job. To pay to get their

car fixed. Or I'm going to take from my savings.

Or I'm going to give them my key. Or I'm going

to step up and encourage them. Or I'm going to

call them when they're hurting. That's love.

It's practical, intentional action on their behalf.

And I have a problem with that. Because I don't

see it present in the church the way it should

be. Which makes me wonder whether the church

even is the church. Except that I know our church

is the church. So then I'm asking you to repent

of that. And to begin to love each other in that

way. And to work for each other. You say, well

I don't even know if they're... Christian. Not

your job. So I see them messing up and I don't

like it. Not your job. Your job is to love them

and as you love them, that will keep you on track.

You cannot be a lone ranger Christian because

if you are a lone ranger Christian, you do not

love God. John wrote it. Seeing how people have

messed up, here is the actual place for Matthew

7. Don't judge salvation by what your eyes see.

You don't save people and your standards don't

save people and the rules you think are right

don't save people. God saves people. And if they

say they're saved and they're living for the

Lord, then you don't judge them and say they're

not. We do practice accountability. We're required

essentially by this very thing. You say you're

living for an audience of one. You understand

what that means, right? If I'm living for an

audience of one, I no longer, and this is going

to hurt a little bit here when I say this, I

no longer have to care, at least not for the

direction of my life, What my wife thinks. Man,

that's hard. I no longer have to care, at least

for the direction of my life, what my boss thinks.

I only have to care what my God thinks. So, it

can require leaving behind those you love. Jesus

said it this way, If anyone comes to Me and doesn't

hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers

and sisters, yes, even their own life, such a

person cannot be My disciple. And a little follow

-up, and whoever does not carry their cross and

follow Me cannot be My disciple. Understand?

Now, Jesus did not mean that you should hate

people. But He's saying, if in the moment, if

it comes right down to it, And I have authorized

Sherry, if Jesus comes again, and in that moment

she has some kind of doubt that I'm not going,

she's supposed to go anywhere. Go anyway. Go

without me. Leave me. Go. And if we're in a situation

where following God has us do something, and

she knows it. It's happened a couple of times.

She knows this is what God wants us to do. And

she'll come to me afterwards and she'll say,

okay, well I did this. I felt like it was what

God wanted us to do. And whether I agree or not,

it doesn't matter. She's got to live for an audience

of one. Now, as a married couple, collectively,

we live for an audience of one. So we're supposed

to be working together. She lives for an audience

of one. I live for an audience of one. Together,

we live for an audience of one. God. And that's

when we become one. And it's the only time you

ever actually really are married. It's when God

does that. You will have to leave behind those

you love to live this way. Freed. At the same

time, it's not really about that, is it? What

is it really about? It's actually really about

bringing along those you love. So if your wife

or your children or whatever are not understanding,

your job is to bring them to an understanding.

If they're not going the direction, you have

to bring them to the direction. If somebody's

struggling in sin, you're to bring them in the

right direction. Remember we saw the geese flying?

And there's a leader, and they take turns being

a leader, and I think that's the way the church

is supposed to work in that regard. But guess

what? You know what happens when a goose becomes

wounded or injured? Does anybody know? And what?

It does. It gets left behind. But what else?

This is the most important part. Nope. Two other

geese. Always two. Never more than two. Two other

geese leave the V and stay with the wounded or

injured goose until either it dies, or is healed.

At which point, the three of them fly with all

their might, switching leaders, flying in a V,

to catch back up to the original V. The gospel,

the church, the power of God, living for an audience

of one, realizing you don't really know what

you would do under all circumstances, and that

it's not a set of rules, is all about bringing

everyone along who will come. And of course you

love your wife, and of course you love your children,

and you love the people you went to school with,

or at least you darn well better, because if

you can't love Christians that you've met, you

don't love God. You say, but they sin. Yes, they

do, and so do you. You say, but they've messed

it up. Yes, they have, and so have you. Now the

church has certain practices in which we can

finally recognize that we are no longer indebted

to take care of a certain person who has essentially

left our number. They've gone off in sin. They

don't want anybody around them or whatever. And

we can deal with that another time. But the bottom

line is the goal is we're all moving in the same

direction like a murmuration headed for heaven.

And it may take a lot of twists and turns. Five

years from now, we may not be able to meet publicly

in a building. We have to meet in houses or in

somebody's house because the law may not allow

it. We don't know. We may have a bomb threat

against the building because we're living for

Jesus. It can happen. You don't know. We've already

had a pandemic that said that we shouldn't and

probably couldn't meet together in public. You

don't know if that won't happen again. I don't

mind to believe that that was the first of a

series of, and we're not even done with the first

one yet, but it's the first of a series of pandemics.

I don't think it's over. And people were so afraid

to worship God and to gather together with other

believers. You realize that if you can pull back

from the body and not love the rest of the body,

you have a real problem. And so if you can pull

back because you think you're avoiding fellowship

because of COVID, I'm not saying there's anything

wrong with that. You have an audience of one.

Do what God would have you to do. If God is saying

to you, you don't go to church because you could

be risking getting COVID, fine. But God has not

stopped saying to you that you must love. The

body. So you should be going, the people that

can't go and the people that do go and the people

that sit there and the people that I sit near

and the people that are in trouble, how can I

help them? The people that are online right now

should be thinking about how can I help the people

that are in the room and the people that are

in the room should be thinking about how can

I help the people that are online? We have got

to be the church. No church. No audience of one.

No freedom. No humble realization that even you

don't really know. And then I guess we're back

to a set of rules, which, after all, would be

easier, wouldn't it? It'd be easier, but it just

won't get us where we're going. It's time we

started caring about the people around us and

live for God in love and kindness. Even the people

who are... out there in the world who don't claim

to be Christians, who are doing terrible evil,

we should love them and wish that they would

get saved and turn from their wicked ways. And

God can do it. Because when you have nothing

left, He'll be there and He will do. I pray for

you briefly. This has been... our expose, if

you will. We are freed by living as an audience

of one, realizing that even we might not know

ourselves and what we're capable of. Not living

by a set of rules. We're freed in Christ. To

be freed in Christ is to function as part of

the church and to love the people around you

more than you love yourself. Stop thinking about

how you can get ahead or what you can get or

preserving your riches or spending your riches,

enjoying your riches or making more riches. Start

thinking about people that are hurting and showing

up to make a difference in their situation. Father

in heaven, help us in a day when so many people

are so alone. And some of them are our people.

There are people maybe in this room who feel

alone, who feel separated, feel distanced, they're

injured, fallen away. And we have a tendency

when we see that somebody's injured or fallen

away to let them kind of go away and heal and

come back when they're strong. And that's not

what you've called us to. Lord, help us lift

up one another. Lord, help us be the church that

we're supposed to be. For those who feel restrained

that they cannot participate in person, kindle

the love and the fire in their heart and they

can think about what a difference they could

make. can make, will make, should make, and how

to make that difference in the lives of others

who are the church. And for those who are here

in person, let them care about one another and

those who are joining online and those who are

hurting. Let it truly be said of your people

that they know who we are because they see the

love we have for one another. You loved us so

much. You demonstrated it so clearly. And we

ought not spit on that memory. We ought not squander

that memory. We ought not keep for ourselves

certain blessings that You intend for us to share.

Lord, help us in the midst of this trouble. Your

will be done. Your kingdom come. Your name be

holy on the earth. Lead us not into temptation.

Give us Your Holy Spirit strength and power to

destroy sin in our lives. Deliver us from evil.

We want to come to be with You for an eternity

and to be found faithful doing what we're supposed

to do now until that time comes. There may be

somebody in the room who has not said, okay,

I do believe there is a God. I do believe that

Jesus came and died on the cross for sins and

that He has a right to be my Lord and Savior

and I want to give my life. into His control.

I want to let Him be in charge of me. And I pray

that you would speak into their voice, or speak

into their heart, that they would hear your voice,

and that they would say, during this song we're

about to sing, yes, that's me, I want to live

for Jesus. There might be somebody in this room

that knows that they are a follower of Jesus,

and they know that they have been more often

than not living as a Lone Ranger Christian. Working

it out themselves. Yes, trying to live as an

audience of one, but realizing that they've been

dismissing your commands to truly love others.

And so they've been offending you. I ask you,

Lord, to give them an understanding and an ability

to repent and turn to you. Peace. A plan to love

others. Father, there may be somebody in this

room that thinks that they're going to get to

heaven by a set of rules before or after they've

been saved. And they know now from your word

that it's not about the rules. It's about permanently

pursuing a personal presence of our God. And

we want to be part of whatever you want to be

part of. And we want nothing to do with that

which you say is wrong or that you say we should

keep away from you. Keep away from ourselves.

Lord, help us as we sing in Jesus' name. Amen.

That's the praise team to come forward and lead

us at this time. If you're making some kind of

a decision today, maybe you've accepted Jesus

Christ as your Lord and Savior while you've been

here or recently, then you come forward at the

invitation time. And if you want to social distance,

that's fine. You can come here and stand here.

If you want me to pray with you, I'll do that

too. Thank you for joining us for this podcast

from New Heights Fellowship Baptist Church of

East Toledo. I hope you've given some serious

thought to what we're freed by and how freeing

it is to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I would ask you to consider what our obligations