True Freedom
summary
In this episode, Mark Oshman explores the biblical understanding of freedom through Galatians 5, contrasting secular and biblical views, and emphasizing the importance of living in the freedom Christ provides. He discusses how true freedom is found in love, faith, and living according to God's design, warning against legalism and license.
keywords
Galatians 5, Christian freedom, biblical freedom, legalism, grace, sanctification, love, faith, Christian life, spiritual growth
key topics
Biblical concept of freedom in Galatians 5
Contrast between secular and biblical freedom
The danger of legalism and license
The role of love and faith in freedom
The importance of standing firm in the gospel
Displacing idols with Christ-centered affections
takeaways
True freedom is found in Christ, not in self-righteousness or license.
Legalism and license are both forms of slavery, not freedom.
We are most free when we love God and others.
Displacing idols in our hearts is key to spiritual freedom.
Standing firm in the gospel helps us resist false paths.
Transcript:
good morning. Welcome to Redemption Park. If you're new, my name is Mark. it's my privilege to open up God's word with you this morning. We're gonna be in Galatians chapter five. You can begin to make your way there. starting next week, we will begin our new summer series nine weeks through the book of Proverbs. And as a gift for you on your way out, you can pick up a a scripture journal if you want. It's the book of Proverbs. Read through it this week. Just get oriented to it so God will prepare your heart to receive that through the series. But
grab one on your way out. We're in Galatians five this morning. Everyone have a good fourth of July, twenty and fiftieth, yeah? Anyone do anything especially fun? Anyone? No? You're like, no, there was a fire ban. We couldn't do anything fun. We had a bunch of families over. We had families over. Okay. What else you guys do? Anything else this weekend? w that was cool. Yes. F sixteens were was it?
I heard about that. Yeah. What else? Anything else? Good?
Eight steak, yes. Yes, I'm here for it all. I mean I had this weekend several brats, several burgers, several steaks. it's what the founding fathers would want. just trying to honor them. but I'm here for it all. Like this is this is a great time of year. USA's still in it, right? In the in the soccer matches. I call it soccer 'cause I'm American. Let's just keep it real. We're not calling it football here. We have football. We're calling it don't don't worry about it.
so all week I've just kind of like, yeah, this is this kind of a big deal, two hundred and fiftieth. and I I've been here for it all. So my daughter Abby and I, she's the only one that will watch good movies with me. So we watched the Patriot. Yeah, that was good. I was reading Nathaniel Philbrook's Valiant Ambition, seventeen seventy six, that was great. I I I'm grateful for I'm grateful for all of it. I'm grateful to to be a citizen of this country.
I'm grateful for those that have come before us and sacrificed so much so that even now, 250 years later, we can be in a a government-owned building and freely worship and proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. This is we should not take this for granted. and so I'm here for for it all. I I think Christians tend to make two mistakes when it comes to their their posture or their thinking of America. And the first one is
Forgetting that we are dual citizens. the the Bible says we are s our citizenship is in heaven. This is our first allegiance, absolutely. And yet he has us here in this time and this place and calls us to be good citizens in the country set he sets us. And I hope wherever you're from, that that you you love and and serve the country for the glory of God and the joy of all people. So that's the first thing. And then the second thing I think we can take for granted.
Take for granted the like the fact that we get to freely and openly worship. and that's not a necessary condition for our worship by any means. there are there are countries the fastest growing church i in the world right now in is in Iran, where it's illegal to be a Christian. It's legal to proclaim Christ, it's illegal to gather and worship, and yet the Spirit of God is still working and moving there. So how much more of those that have been given much
are required much. And so I I hope as as as believers we embrace all of that. So we we love our freedom though as Americans. It's like in our cultural DNA. Like w whatever freedom is, we we're here for it. We we love books, movies about freedom. It's like it doesn't even have to be about American freedom. We'll we love Braveheart, right? Like you're like freedom, yeah, for the Scottish people. Well I don't I don't I'm not Scottish, but we love that, right?
My wife pointed out we love freedom for wills. Free willy, there you go. So we we love it all. We just love the idea of freedom. We love movies, stories, books, songs, all all that stuff. but if if you think if you if you look over the past two hundred and fifty years, the like what we perceive, or at least the secular definition of freedom, has shifted from what even was the world view of seventeen seventy six.
Like the modern idea of freedom is what what I'll call a negative freedom, meaning a freedom from. a freedom from any constraint or impediment that would block me from pursuing what what I desire as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. This is like the ideal, this is the air that we breathe, and this is probably what most of us share. Like, we want a freedom from. But but if you look at even what the founding fathers said, like
It wasn't just a freedom from, it was a freedom for. there there's a freedom from tyranny, yes, but but but they they had a vision for a country that would would provide the the path to flourishing. Obviously they had blind spots as well. and so on this side of eternity there's always going to be holes and and and marks against that. But but they had this idea, and and one of the reasons why it's people say sometimes, well, this is a Christian nation, and others like, no, it isn't. Well, have you studied
You have to define your terms, right? Like the vast majority of the founding fathers would never come to Redemption Parker to worship with us if they fast forwarded 250 years, right? Like like a lot of them were followers of Jesus, others embraced the the the moral worldview. They were deists. They were like, hey, virtu so so they shared a a Christian virtue, but didn't not necessarily our Christian faith. And that's why there's some contrary. Was it Christian or not? But they believed that virtue was the necessary for a free people to govern.
themselves. And if you did not have virtue, that then it would go off the rails pretty quickly. Let me just read a couple quotes for you. And I promise you this is not a sermon about America. I'm just it's my introduction. Okay? Some of you get nervous, but it's an appropriate time. Okay, here we go. Ben Franklin said this only a virtuous people Franklin's not a follower. He's he's at best a deist. He says, But only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.
As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters. So they're like, if we're going to be a country, there's got to be a virtue. And now their virtue came from the Christian worldview. John Adams, who was a believer, said this Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. So if we go off the rails there, it's not going to work. George Washington said, Virtue and morality is necess is the necessary spring of popular government.
Again, I think there's lots to be celebrated, and then you're also like, man, you had some blind spots. What what's going on there? They're human, that's why. Okay. But the Bible, now we're going to transition, the Bible actually has a lot to say about freedom. The the the Bible is saturated in the language of freedom. There's these themes of slavery and freedom. In general, you can think of it this way when the Bible talks about sin or rebellion, it talks about being enslaved. but but when the Bible talks about
freedom it talks about salvation in Christ. The Bible's definition of freedom is a freedom from and a freedom for. And so in Galatians chapter five, the kind of a a a a central text on what does it mean to be free, what as followers of Jesus, as we as we think as a nation about our freedom, what should we think of as our freedom in Christ? And what Paul is going to show us is that there are some ditches on the the path of freedom. On the left
And and the right. And and and it's constantly pulling us to one side or the other, constantly trying to enslave us again. So there's freedom from these things, but it's not just that, there's a freedom for something. So if you have your Bible, Galatians chapter five, we'll pick it up in verse one. Paul writes, It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Or we are free for freedom. What does Paul mean by that? Let me give you some context to so far to the book of Galatians. So you can read about how the churches came to Christ in Acts chapter 13 and 14. Paul's first missionary journey to this area called Southern Galatia. So it's several different towns where Paul went and he preached the gospel to Gentiles. So pagan Gentiles who were marked by a life of
pagan worship, idolatry, sexual immorality, all of that. Paul comes in and says, that there is Christ has come, here's the gospel, freedom comes into their life, they embrace it and and they love Jesus. But the first heresy to infect the church came shortly after that, after Paul moves on to plant other churches, that the a group called the Judaizers came in and they said to the church at Galatia.
Hey, it's great that you have faith in Jesus, but that's not enough. You need Jesus plus. It's a Jesus plus system. And and we are always tempted, for 2,000 years, tempted to have a Jesus plus system. And it looks different in different cultures and churches and families, but but it's essentially Jesus plus whatever. In in that day it was Jesus plus. Hey, you Gentiles, you need to become Jewish now.
And it kind of made sense to them. They're like, Well, he's the Jewish Messiah. And and it's weird that Paul didn't tell us about that, but you're saying what you we have to follow the law. And and the mark in the first century of following the law, the outward mark of following the law, what was circumcision. And so they they taught you men, you need to be circumcised, and they're like, Well, I'm not so sure about this Christianity thing. And the others are like, No, you have to follow the whole law. And they're like, Well, maybe.
And and some fear begins to creep in. So so Paul says it is for freedom that Christ set you free. He set our feet on the path, the narrow path of freedom, but there's a pull for for this these Galatians to step into the law, to to obey all of the law out of an external self righteous motivation. And they're like, Well, we should just we we we don't want to miss like like this like yes, Jesus, but also
Let's cover all our bases. Let's cover the whole thing. And so it's a Jesus plus something, which in the end we're gonna see is not the gospel. For four chapters in the book of Galatians, Paul has been hammering one theme over and over and over and over again, and it is simply this it's Christ alone, Christ alone, Christ alone. That's it. That's the whole thing. It's not Christ.
Christ plus anything. In fact, the gospel says, and Paul says throughout Galatians, if it's Christ plus anything, then it's nothing. You don't have saving faith if you're trying to, in any way, shape, or form, add to your righteousness through your self-righteousness, because it's a failure to believe the gospel. So it is for freedom that Christ said, verse 2, mark my words. He's warning them.
I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, this is not language of our day, but but whatever it is, whatever it is that you think that you need to add to your faith in Jesus to somehow add to your righteousness, you have failed in that moment. Again, some might be Jesus plus no dancing. You know, Jesus plus no drinking. Jesus plus you know.
Any number of things. Jesus plus this kind of food. Jesus plus this day of worship. Jesus plus like it's a Jesus plus system. And he says, that's no value to you because you're adding or trying to add to the finished work of Christ. He goes on, he says, again, I declare to you every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. It's like you can't just pick and choose.
You can't wake up and say, Well, today I'm gonna add to my self-righteousness by looking at this law that I can't have mixed fibers in my clothing. So I'm gonna not do that today. Good luck with that. Today I'm gonna I can't mix dairy and and meat. So it's just cheese pizza today. Like like you go on, but okay, you wanna try that? Paul says, Good luck with that.
If you're going to abandon the the perfect righteousness of Jesus for your own self-righteousness, do it. But you have to do all of it, and you have to do it perfectly. And you can't. You're dead in your sins. This is why he gets so worked up. These people that had been freed from a life of debauchery, free from idolatry, free from sexual immorality, now just for a moment on the path, but then pulled off to the other side, like, works.
Righteousness He goes on. He says, You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ. You have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. This is a real warning. The warnings of the New Testament are there to warn us. There is danger down that road. If you stay enslaved to fear based religious righteousness, y there is danger.
For in G in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. We'll come back to that. Faith expressing itself through love. Do you ever feel this pool though? Listen, I've been a follower of Jesus for over thirty years now. But I can still wake up and be like, I'm gonna do these things.
And I don't I don't I don't say it out loud. I don't even say it consciously, but subconsciously, like I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna be this generous, I'm gonna do this thing, I'm gonna serve in this way, I'm gonna did you see me reading my Bible, Lord? Do you see did you see my quiet time? Like, did you see how religious I've been, Lord? Just take note and you know, reward me accordingly. Again, I would never say that, but my heart feels that. Does it do you ever feel pulled to like doing things? Not because
It it flows from the inside out, but because the outside in, if I do these things, then maybe the Lord will do something for me. It's a y you've missed the gospel. It it's trying from the outside to transform the inside. This is just not how it works. This is how what the world thinks religion does. The world looks at at Christianity and is and and even some churches and they and they see, these people.
They look like they just they just can't have any fun. They look like they have to do a lot of things and so God will be happy with them. that that they look like all that God cares about is that we are nice people. And and they rightly reject that. And we should too. Is that all that God is trying to do in the world is to make nice people? No. I I love what C. S. Lewis wrote. This is in the nineteen fifties or forties.
He wrote in Mere Christianity, he says this: a world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world. It might even be more difficult to save. I mean, this is Parker, Colorado. All my neighbors are nice. And they have no felt need for their salvation. Things are going well, they're moral.
They're nice. And and Lewis says, They're difficult to save. He says, For mere improvement is not redemption. Though redemption always improves people, even here and now, and will in the end improve them to a degree we cannot yet imagine. God became a man to turn creatures into sons, not simply to produce better men of the old kind, but to produce a new kind of man. Lewis in a half gender inclusive language, forgive him.
But you get it. He didn't come to just make us nice, a new kind of man. It's not like the teaching, it's not like teaching a horse to jump higher and higher. Better and better, but like turning a horse into a winged creature. If anyone is in Christ, he has a new creation. The old is gone, the new is here. And so Paul is just reminding you have freedom from that ditch.
You you don't have to do anything to prove your righteousness. You ha simply have to look to Christ, believe in him, faith expressing itself in love. He goes on. He talks about how this is working a little bit. Verse twelve, I'll just point it out just 'cause it's the most aggressive verse in the whole Bible. I've said some pretty aggressive things from the stage, never like verse twelve. I always look at verse twelve and be like, Whatever I said, it's not as bad as what Paul said in Galatians five twelve.
says as for those agitators, those people that are running in on them, blocking their way to Christ. As for those agitators, those ones that are like, you need to be circumcised. As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves. Hello?
That's a wild thing to say. It's like this is like he's trying to shake the Galatians through his letter, like, why? How how could you how could you experience the freedom of Christ and then say, I'm gonna step into s the slavery of self righteous religion, fear-based self-righteous religion. But it's not just freedom from that, it's freedom from the other side of the ditch as well. This is where he begins in verse thirteen.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. So so this is the other side. You we we might say legalism on one side you can fall into and abandon the gospel, or license on the other side, which which is just sinful behavior, and you can abandon the gospel as well. He goes on in verse 19 to show well, what is the flesh? He says the acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality.
Impurity, debauchery, idolatry, and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. And on and on I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. Either way, if you're in legalism or license, you're still enslaved and you're not part of the kingdom of God.
Now, individually we struggle with this, but entire churches can struggle with these things, one way or the other. The Galatian church, having been pagan Gentiles, had renounced all of that. They had stepped on the road for freedom for a minute, but then they had fallen off the other side into self righteous legalism. But the Corinthian church is the opposite. They're like, we are free in Christ. We can sleep with whoever we want.
We can do whatever we want sexually because Jesus has to forgive us. Paul's like, no, that's slavery on the other side. It is for freedom that Christ set you free. Walk in freedom. This is. And sometimes we we can do both, right? Like you feel the pull towards self-righteous legalism, but but we all feel the pull in our culture to indulge the flesh. What is the flesh? The flesh is this that gap.
That that old nature. So in the moment you turn in faith to Christ and trust in his finished work on the cross, the Bible says that you are a new creation, that you have the righteousness of Christ imputed on you so that you are positionally perfect before God. Paul says, We are seated with Christ in the heavenly realm. This is who we are perfectly righteous.
And yet we're on this side of eternity, still in these bodies. We're still trying to make away the gap there that we're trying to close. It's called sanctification. And where we fail, it's the flesh, the old nature coming to the surface. And Paul says, You've been set free from that. That's not who you are anymore. You say, Well, I'm just you know, I'm addicted to these things. I'm like, not in Christ, you're not. That's not who you are. Start to live like who you are.
And and we we can we can go from one slavery to the next in a moment of in just a moment. In any of these things on the list. Let's just take the first one. Where what does he say? The acts of the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality. So you feel in your flesh a growing temptation. Maybe it's through things you've watched on your screen or your computer, your phone. Maybe you you're feeling this with with another person, you're feeling this pull, and what what happens? You you start to justify. Like, well.
This won't hurt anybody. Negative freedom. As long I can do whatever I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else. Which is a lie, by the way. Or or you tell yourself, well, you know, I kind of deserve this. I've been working so hard. And and and if my spouse understood and treated me the way I should, I wouldn't even be in here. It's really their fault. And and and so you indulge in this sinful nature. And what happens? In a moment, you if you haven't totally seared your conscience, if you haven't totally cut off the
the conviction of the spirit. You're like, my gosh, and and you flip from from the sin of flesh and you go all the way over to the slavery of self-righteous religion. What do you do? You're like, well, I'm gonna feel really bad, God. I'm really gonna show you this time that I feel r I I I'm gonna show you I'm gonna mope around the house for six days this time. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna delight in anything. I'm not I I'm gonna show you how serious I am, Lord, to
Finally break free of this. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna pray more, Lord. I'm gonna read my Bible because I'm gonna show you that I I I'll I've taken this seriously. I might even go to church. I might I might give more, like all these things to try to now earn the favor back from God. Either way, it's slavery. Either way, it's not the gospel. It is for freedom that Christ set us free, is what Paul says. And so any belief that takes the flesh lightly, like
Isn't believing the gospel. But like just look at the cross, see what sin costs. It costs the very life of the Son of God. And so we should never cheapen it. We should never be like, I'll do this because I he's got to forgive me. You're not understanding the gospel. You're enslaved to that. So we were freed from self righteous, fear based religion and the flesh, but we were also freed for. It's not just
Freedom from, but it's a freedom for. Where where do we see this? It says the second half of verse thirteen. Well, I'll read the whole verse. You brothers and sisters were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh. Rather serve one another humble humbly in love, for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command. Love your neighbor as yourself. We were freed for something.
So the secular definition of freedom, a freedom from, a negative freedom, is insufficient and it falls flat on its head. So, so secular freedom says this I I should be able to do whatever I want, whenever I want, as long as it doesn't hurt anyone, then I'll be free. I should be able to follow my heart to do whatever I want, whenever I want, then I'll be free. But it doesn't take long to just think that's not a freedom.
Like like our hearts are in our hearts are all sorts of passions and desires and conflicting wants that actually can lead to our bondage all the time. Right? So let me give you an an example. So let me give you an extreme example. if anyone ever has been around or struggled with or has family member that has struggled with addiction to drugs or alcohol.
So, for example, when I was a senior in high school, my stepfather became addicted to cocaine. And what you see is someone just absolutely pursuing their freedom. When does the drug addict feel most free? When they get the next hit, they get the next high, when the the drugs hit their system and the euphoria comes into their brain. they feel free. But everyone knows from the outside you're not free, you're enslaved. You're enslaved to your own desires, it's killing you.
This is why negative freedom is not enough. Our our hearts are not the guides to whatever we want. That this is not how the Bible sets us up. We are freed from something. What are we from something and then for something? What were we freed for? We are freed for the ability to live as God has created us to live for our purpose. Now you start to think, well, okay, well, what is our purpose? Well, think about this. I think it was Elizabeth Elliott that used this first.
If you take a fish out of the water and you put it in a tree and be like, be free, fish, like that fish isn't free anymore. That fish is about to die. Right? sure, you took him out of the the slavery of water. No. Or take an F one car. An F one car is not free in rush hour traffic, downtown Denver.
Just kind of going. Right? That that's not its design. It's free on the track. So then we have to ask ourselves, as followers of Jesus who have been made into a new creation, when are we most free? When are we most fulfilling our our our purpose in life? We are image bearers of God, remade to reflect God to the world and one another, and if God is love, then we are most free when we are walking in love towards God and towards God.
one another. But think about that. Love is not the secular definition of love of freedom. Freedom from. Love actually has a ton of constraints. Right? Any husband, father that truly loves their family doesn't just do whatever he wants to do. No, no. He is designed to serve and lay down his life and and and to consider the the needs of his wife and kids. He doesn't just go off and do his own thing because he's free. No, he's created to love. You and I were
Created to love. We when we fall in love, we we we willingly subject ourselves and and we love it, right? We love it because we're in love. This is the context where our freedom is meant to thrive. This is true freedom. So then you say, Okay, well, how do I get to there? How do I make sure I walk on the narrow path, not following into self-righteousness and not following into the flesh? Is it just a matter of believing the right things? No.
It's not. That's enlightenment thinking. The enlightenment came along and said, you're just a a thinking thing on a stick. As long as you think the right things, then you'll be good. But but we know that's not true either. Like we all know many things that we should be doing, but we don't do. Why don't you eat better? Why don't you exercise more? Why ha why don't you why aren't you better with your money? You know what's right, you know what you should be doing, but you don't do it. Why? Because
Bible says that the the primary driving force in our life is not our brains but our hearts. That there's a often a disconnect. Like we can look at the cross, be like, I believe Jesus died for me, I believed all this, and and I just want to give myself to any number of idols. That's why Calvin said the human heart is an idol factory, just cranking out new things to worship, new things to pursue, new things to give our lives to, new things to be enslaved to.
This is our hearts. So what do we do? Or or think of nineteen ninety two, Woody Allen. After the firestorm, he got he got caught. He was in a love relationship with his adopted daughter. She was twenty two at the time now. Soon ye and Walter Isaacson of Time Magazine sat sat him down for an interview, and Woody's like, these things, there's no logic to them, you know. The heart wants what the heart wants. As if that was the reason.
It's just my heart wants what the heart wants. The world is rightly horrified? Because you're like, that's terrible. Why are we rightly horrified? Because there's still a little bit of Christian borrowed cath borrowed ethical capital in our culture. That's horrible, right? It's it's it's enslavement. So it's not just believe the right things. That's the start, but but how do we get into our hearts what we say we believe? How how does
Jesus capture our hearts so that we walk on the path of freedom. Well that's that's a lifelong journey. Paul Paul gives us a clue in verse one. After he says, It is for freedom that Christ has set you free, us free, he says, Stand firm then. Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Stand firm. This is intentionally
standing on the path of freedom, intentionally saying, This is freedom. I'm not going to the left or the right. This is that there's some there's some holding ground here. This is even even kind of a military term. This is the ground I'm gonna stand on. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to stand firm on this. I'm gonna rehearse the gospel. Lord, my heart and passions are going this way. I know this tr this is true about you, and so I I need to
Meditate on what you've done for me. I need to meditate on who you are. I need to meditate on the cross. I need to meditate on my sin being taken from me and on you on the cross. I need to see your love. I and I need to see it often and I need to sing it. I I need to memorize it. I need to study it. That's the first thing. We have to rehearse and catechise our own hearts. We we have to go through a liturgy. Like liturgy is meant to shape us.
This is why we have liturgy even on every Sunday morning. But it but did you know you're constantly, constantly being bar bombarded by liturgy? Like there's a cultural liturgy. You go to the mall, and there's a liturgy that will shape your heart to woo you to some certain certain things. And so we have to push back the darkness. We have to stand firm and go through a liturgy just to remind ourselves: here's what's true. And as you do that, it starts to warm your heart.
Heart, it starts to displace. So in 1819, there was a Scottish pastor theologian named Thomas Chalmers. He wrote a sermon. It was entitled The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. So, not the explosive power, the expulsive. So it the pushing out. And and what he said is what many had said before him, Augustine and who's the French guy that was the mathematician? Pascal, he said it like lots of lots of people have said, hey, listen.
As we study the human heart, Calvin, as you study the human heart, the heart is always going to desire something. Something is always going to be on the throne of our hearts. And whatever's on the throne, the heart is going to go after it. It's going to go after it fully. And so it's not enough just to say, well, I I've got this problem with greed. I'm gonna stop being greedy. You you have to displace it. The the greed is powerful. I've got the it could be displaced with lust, but that's just one.
Master for another, it could be displaced with power or safety or comfort. Something is on the throne of your heart and you feel it even now. It's pulling you in a direction. How do we put Christ on the throne? This is you need the expulsive power of a new affection. You need to catechize your heart. You need to intentionally put Christ on the throne. You need to know him and get to know him and so on and so forth. So a couple of weeks ago we were with some friends for dinner.
Jimmy and Kelly Needham. They're he he Jimmy's like Tord some of you might know him, a Christian artist. but we were sitting down and we're talking there the authors and my wife's an author and I write sermons. So we were talking about how we how we write our our how we write. And I'm like, well, I have to I can't have any words when I'm listening to music, I can't have any words or else I'll my ADHD is too much. I'm like, What what did he say? It doesn't matter what the song is, I'll just start listening to that. I have to have like
Who who's the guy that anyway? cool like mu movie soundtracks with no words. That's what I listen to. Okay. And Jin Jen can listen to all sorts of w pop music. It's wild. but Kelly, she she was trained as a classical musician. And she grew up just like studying. She plays the violin. She and she's like, yeah, I cannot listen to this composer
and and this symphony because what happens is I find a half hour forty-five minutes later I'm just I'm not doing any work, I'm just enjoying the music. Why? Because she's she's been catechized into love that that composer. She she's trained her heart to to tune into that so that that she's just captured by it. It takes time. It takes train. Now most of us
Some of you are like that, some of you are like, Yeah, I've I've really developed a taste for really good classical music. But most of us would be like, No, we c I don't even know what that is, right? But we can train ourselves, we catechize ourselves, okay. And the other thing so that Paul says is not only just rehearse the truth, but we we do this for one another. We're we're not on this path alone.
In fact, we're not intended to walk the path of freedom alone. Look at chapter six, verse one. Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you may be tempted, may also be tempted, carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ. This is why the body of Christ is so important for catechizing our hearts.
Listen, if you're not doing actually doing some life together with other brothers and sisters, if you've not opened your life such that if you fall off to one of these sides, that that no one has permission in your life to help you up, man, you're lost before you even got started. That's why we do life together. That's why we do gospel communities. That's why we we we pour into each other. He says, if anyone has fallen off to the side, to the left or right, gently pull them out. But be careful, don't let them pull you in.
Right? You see a a brother or sister being legalistic, and they're like, No, you should be legalistic with me. There's something that's enticing to that. See a brother and sister indulging the flesh? They're like, Well, maybe I could do that if they're like that too. Like, no, we we walk together. And so we move forward in freedom. One hand holding on to the gospel, remembering, rehearsing the gospel, the other hand holding on to other brothers and sisters walking the path of freedom. It is for freedom.
That Christ set us free. Amen? Let me pray for us to that end.
