*below are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

 

Move > Near | Galatians 5:13

 

What does it mean to be a Christian to you?

That was the question pastor and theologian R.C. Sproul asked the man who had led him to Christ just days before.

He had not even been a Christian for two weeks, but Sproul was fully engaging with his new faith and he wanted to know what he was supposed to do with his new faith.

This is how his mentor replied:

Unknown

It means to me that to be a Christian is that I’m going to outwork you and I’m going to outfight you and I’m going to outlove you.

Outwork and outlove sound okay, but outfight?

Are we supposed to hand people a gospel tract and then say:

“Put ‘em up, put ‘em up!”

No.

Sproul went on to say that what his mentor was describing with those “outs” is that to be a Christian is a call to excellence that goes beyond the standards of what is acceptable in the world.

It’s not just a different standard, it is a higher standard.

So, please don’t go to work or school or retirement tomorrow and walk up to your teacher or your boss or the waitress at your breakfast joint and announce:

• “Praise Jesus! I’m going to give my work a solid 57% today!
• “I’m going to tip 3% today for the glory of God!”

No, if there is any communication from your life that you are a Christian, then to the best of your ability, be an outworker and an outfighter.

Or put another way:

Work hard and do your best and don’t be quick to quit and take a cappuccino break every time something gets difficult.

But what about that last one…outlove?

What does it mean that Christians have been called to outlove?

And does it matter?

Do you really need to try and outlove?

Yes, you do.

In fact, in a sense, your life depends on you outloving.

So, what do you need to do?

You need to move – you need to move…near.

What does that mean?

Let’s find out.

The Apostle Paul was writing to his friends in the church at a place called Galatia and this is what he said:

13 For you were called to freedom, brethren;

Paul wrote a letter to the folks at this church because he heard that they had gotten off track since the last time he had been to Homecoming Sunday.

How had they gotten off track?

There were some little groups at the church that were drawing people away from the gospel.

They were drawing people away from Jesus as the only source of salvation and joy and satisfaction.

They were telling people that if they really wanted to be right with God, they had to honor some religious laws and some religious ceremonies.

Sometimes when we hear the words “law” or “ceremony” we think of old or ancient things.

But remember laws and ceremonies can be traditional or contemporary.

• Wear a coat and tie and wear some skinny jeans
• Sing an ancient hymn and sing a modern praise song
• Use the hymnal and use the screen
• In your Sunday School class, drink regular and drink decaf

But don’t confuse those things with the gospel of Jesus Christ that rescues people from the everlasting terror of sin and hell.

That’s what was happening in Galatia.

Some folks were creating confusion about the gospel.

They were persuading people to believe that the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection were not enough.

So, Paul wrote this letter to directly challenge those ideas.

How did he challenge?

Listen to a little bit of his language:

Galatians 1:6

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him…

Galatians 1:9

…if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

 

Galatians 3:1

You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you…?

 

Galatians 5:12

I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves.

You can tell Paul struggled with saying what he really felt.

But this was a big deal.

People were pulling believers away from Jesus with religion.

And how does Paul respond to it?

Well, one of the ways he responds is by reminding them that they were saved and called to freedom.

• They were not called to ceremony
• They were not called to traditionalism
• They were not called to contemporariness

They were called to freedom.

They were called to remember that even if they were able to foolishly convince themselves that they could perfectly keep the law of God for a few seconds or a few minutes or a few hours or a few days they would eventually mess up and break the law.

And breaking the law enslaves a person to the consequences of breaking the law.

And when it comes to the law of God the consequences are wrapped up in being permanently separated from all that is happy and holy and satisfying.

So, Paul is reminding them of the truth behind those treasured words that we sing:

Stuart Townend, Keith Getty

'Til on that cross

as Jesus died

The wrath of God

was satisfied

For every sin

on Him was laid

Here in the death

of Christ I live

Life in Christ!

Freedom in Christ!

Why?

Because every sin on him was laid!

Jesus paid it all!

Paul is writing to the Galatians because they were ignoring that.

They were following a path that as one theologian put it was making Christ’s death seem unnecessary.

And Paul is loudly pleading through the pages of his letter:

“My fickle, foolish, friends, please, please, please, quit living and thinking and going to school and work and church in a way that makes the death of Christ seem unnecessary!”

The death of Christ is necessary because only in his death can we overcome death and receive and enjoy everlasting life!

But the power of a believer’s freedom is not wrapped up only in the death of Jesus, but also in his resurrection.

Stuart Townend, Keith Getty

Up from the grave

He rose again

And as He stands

in victory

Sin's curse has lost

its grip on me

Why and how?

How is it that the curse of sin has lost its grip?

Stuart Townend, Keith Getty

For I am His

and He is mine

Bought with

the precious blood

of Christ

How does a person translate that they right with God?

Their soul can say with deep confidence:

“I am His and He is mine!”

What makes a person right with God?

A person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ.

• Being saved
• Being born again
• Being right with God

Those can only come through grace alone by faith alone in Christ alone.

There is no other way.

And what happens when a person is made right with God?

They are set free!

• Free from the everlasting terror of Hell!
• Free from the everlasting chains of rebellion!
• Free from the everlasting condemnation of sin!

Romans 8:1

…there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

No condemnation, but freedom!

If you are a believer, Christ has set us free so that today and tomorrow and next Tuesday and a hundred years from now or a hundred thousand years from now what will make us most happy is Him!

True freedom is Christ!

Christ is true freedom!

Christian, you have been called to freedom.

So, what do you do with that freedom?

Well, first, let’s look at what you don’t do.

13 only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh,

You don’t use your freedom as a base of operations to be self-centered or self-focused or self-promoting.

You don’t do whatever you want and just keep pulling out your church membership card or that little cross in your pocket that you got at Vacation Bible School and rub them for good luck.

No, you use your freedom first and most to love and honor the One who set you free!

As one song says:

Alex Nifong

O praise the One

who paid my debt

And raised this life up

from the dead

We use our freedom for Jesus – the One who raised us up from the deadest death of our sin!

That sounds cool and noble and like something we would want to do, so, how could that freedom turn into an opportunity for you to be selfish?

Imagine it this way:

• “Yea, I know I’m not honoring my vows to my spouse.”
• “Yea, I know I’m not training my kids to honor God.”
• “Yea, I know I’m slacking off at school.”
• “Yea, I know I’m not really doing my best at work.”
• “Yea, I know I’ve traded reading my Bible for talk radio.”
• “Yea, I know I’ve traded praying for social media.”

“And, yes, I know I’ve traded being committed to a local church for sports and shopping and family time or me time.”

• “But don’t worry about me!”
• “It’s all good.”
• “I prayed the prayer.”
• “I joined the church.”
• “I gave some money.”
• “I’m free in Christ.”
• “Thank God Almighty, I’m free in Christ!”

Maybe not – you might not be as free as you think.

Because that attitude is the opposite attitude of someone who is truly free in Christ.

So, if that’s the opposite, what’s the real thing?

What does it really look like to be free in Christ?

Paul tells us:

13 but through love serve one another.

Being free in Christ means being free to love and serve others.

• To love God first and most
• To love other Christians strategically and sacrificially
• To love non-Christians strategically and sacrificially

This is what Jesus said:

John 13:35

By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

How do you know if you have love for other Christians?

How do you know if you have love for non-Christians?

Well, how much do you love yourself?

Martin Luther

If you want to know how you ought to love your neighbor, ask yourself how much you love yourself.

If you want to figure out some ways to love other people than look at some of the ways you would love yourself.

John Piper

…all the longings that I have for my own safety and health and success and happiness I now feel for that other person as though he were me.

So, how are you doing at that?

• How are you doing at outloving your spouse?
• How are you doing at outloving your parents?
• How are you doing at outloving your kids?
• How are you doing at outloving your in-laws?

Or what about outside of the family?

• How are you doing at outloving others at work?
• How are you doing at outloving others at school?
• How are you doing at outloving others in traffic?
• How are you doing at outloving others at the mall?
• How are you doing at outloving employees at the IRS?

And what about the church?

As we celebrate the birthday of Holland Avenue Baptist Church today, how are you doing at loving and serving others in Sunday School and with where you sit in the sanctuary and with the music in the worship service and in church conferences or in committee meetings?

How are you doing at loving other church members in the same way you love yourself?

How are you doing with taking all the longings that you have for your own safety and health and success and happiness and longing for the same things for your fellow church members?

Or put another way:

Are you being selfish or are you sacrificing?

Are you serving the Lord with gladness?

Or are you serving the Lord with griping?

And why does it matter?

Why do we need to try and outlove?

Well, Jesus said if you aren’t at least trying to outlove then you might be proving that you are not one of his disciples.

Right now, you could be separated from God and without hope in this world because there are no patterns and no habits of love in your life that reveal that you have truly been saved.

That sounds like it could matter.

So, how can we prove ourselves to be disciples of Jesus?

Well, we have to move – we have to move near.

Moving near is an attitude that helps us:

• Live out our freedom
• Love and serve one another

A couple of hundred years ago people would sometimes use the word “charity” instead of the word “love”.

John Angell James was a pastor back in those days and he said this about the Christian call to charity:

John Angell James

Look at the operations of charity…It was this which existed in the mind of Deity from eternity, and in the exercise of which He so loved our guilty world as to give His only-begotten Son,

John Angell James

that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Who has perfectly modeled love and service and charity?

• The Good Shepherd
• The Lord of hosts
• The God of Israel
• The Great I Am

John Angell James

It was on the wings of charity that the Son of God flew from heaven to earth, on an errand of mercy to our lost world;

John Angell James

it was charity that moved in the minds and hearts of the apostles, and urged them with the glad tidings of salvation, from country to country.

John Angell James

The whole missionary enterprise is founded, not of course on the basis of brotherly kindness, but on that of charity.

That is a huge statement – the whole missionary enterprise is founded on charity.

How do we know that?

• Because charity has come to you from the throne of God!
• Because charity has come to you from the cross of Jesus!
• Because charity has come to you from the voice of the Spirit!
• Because charity has come to you from the words of the saints!

The whole missionary enterprise is founded on charity.

Don’t miss that math on this birthday of the church.

The whole existence of Holland Avenue Baptist Church is founded on charity and love and service and freedom.

This church would not exist were in not for the love of God.

It was for freedom that we have been set free and it is for freedom that we have been called and it is only in freedom that we can continue!

So, let’s continue and let’s move – let’s move near!

What does that mean?

It means that the only way we can truly honor the past 64 years is to continue to embrace that we have been called to freedom.  

Freedom to what?

• Freedom to love one another
• Freedom to serve one another
• Freedom to greet a visitor
• Freedom to visit a shut-in
• Freedom to pray for an unreached people group
• Freedom to pray for a School-Time Bible student
• Freedom to read with Heart 4 Schools
• Freedom to give financially to this church
• Freedom to give financially to other gospel opportunities
• Freedom to go to Guatemala
• Freedom to volunteer at God’s Helping Hands
• Freedom to join the Pregnancy Care Group
• Freedom to fill a baby bottle for LaVie Pregnancy Care
• Freedom to get involved with Lighthouse for Life
• Freedom to sing in the choir
• Freedom to cheer on our students
• Freedom to cheer on our young adults
• Freedom to cheer on our middle adults and senior adults
• Freedom to honor and help and serve with the church staff
• Freedom to join a small group
• Freedom to be considered as a small group leader
• Freedom to be considered as a deacon
• Freedom to not be petty
• Freedom to not gripe
• Freedom to not gossip
• Freedom to smile
• Freedom to hug
• Freedom to laugh
• Freedom to cry
• Freedom to evangelize
• Freedom to rejoice

Freedom to love Jesus first and most and then freedom to love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself.

Freedom Sunday after Sunday after Sunday to stand here and sing in victory because sin’s curse has lost its grip on you!

This past Thursday one of the Heart 4 Schools reading volunteers from our church was reading to their student at Springdale Elementary.

The book they were reading was called “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?”

The book teaches kids the importance of filling someone’s bucket with kindness and helpfulness.

Generally speaking, we could say that if we aren’t filling someone’s bucket we might be dipping out of their bucket.

Dipping would be getting and filling would be giving.

When our reading volunteer got ready to leave the student looked up and smiled at her and said:

“You filled my bucket today.”

And our reading volunteer responded to the student:

“You know what? You filled my bucket today, too!”

Some days we are weak and weary and tired and tormented, and we really do have to be a dipper – we are needy.

But there are a whole lot of days and a whole lot of moments that we can use our freedom to be a filler.

If you are in Christ, you have been called to freedom, so use your freedom to love one another.

Use your freedom to fill up someone’s world with just a little bit of the love our Savior – our Savior who paid our debt and raised our lives up from the dead!

So, be free in Christ and move near.

Be free and move near.

Dow Welsh | March 3, 2019 © Holland Avenue Baptist Church

 

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Above are pre-sermon manuscript notes, not sermon transcript

Sermon scriptures NASB unless otherwise noted

Lots of help from many pastors and theologians

Weekly help from Bruce Hurt at www.preceptaustin.org

 

 

So what does it mean to be a Christian to you? That was the question that RC Spro last just a few days after he I became a Christian. We don't become a pastor and theologian, but but just a few days after he was a Christian, he turned to the man who led him to the Lord and he said, Hey, we wasn't mean to be a Christian to you He was a new believer. But he was He was Dolly and he wanted to know what this thing was about. What am I? What am I supposed to do? And this is what his mentor said to him. It means to me that to be a Christian is that I'm going to outwork you and I'm going to outfight you and I'm going toe out, love you outwork and out. Love those. Those sound okay, but but out fight. That feels a little off, right? We're supposed to hand someone a gospel track and then step back from up above. Come on, come on. I'm pretty sure that's not what it means. Now, Spro goes on to say that what his mentor said was that out, loving and out fighting and outworking us. It's this picture that no matter what you do, no matter what you do that you do it for the glory of God that that you have as a believer a ah standard of excellence that goes beyond what the world says is excellent. It's not just a different standard, it's a it's a higher standard. So this week. Don't don't goto work or or go to school and go up to your boss. So your teacher and said, Hey, you know what? That's what you know. But I went to church yesterday, and I'm going to give it fifty seven percent today for the glory of God, fifty seven percent as what I would give. Don't don't go say that to your teacher or to your boss. Or don't go up if you're retired to the girl in your favorite breakfast joint, say, man, praise Jesus. He's the way in the truth and the life and then leave her fifty seven cents for a tip. Okay, No, as a believer, is a follower of Jesus. If if we are communicating in any way with our life that we are Christian, then we need to be out workers. We need to be out fighters. In other words, we work hard. We need to do our best. And we don't need to be quick to quit and go take a cappuccino break just because something's getting a little bit difficult. We need to press on and press in. We need out work and out fight What about that other one out love? What is it about being a Christian that calls us tow tow out love? And does it matter? I mean, do you really need to try and out love? Does it really matter in your life today? Whether you're trying to out love as a Christian? Well, actually, it does matter. In fact, it it matters so much. In a sense, your very life depends on whether or not you are out loving. So what do we do? Well, we're going todo move. We're going to need to move near. So what does that mean? We'll see if we can find out. Galatians Chapter five, there's thirteen. Paul is riding to the church and delay Hsia to his friends there. And this is what he says for you were called to freedom brethren. Paul's writing a letter to this church in Malaysia because it had been a year or two since he had been the homecoming, he was out missionary in other places. So he had been back in a while and and he had kind of heard that the church had gotten off track. Well, how had they gotten off track? Well, it seemed there were some people there in the church that were pulling people and drawing people away from the Gospel They were drawing people away from the fact that Jesus is the only source of salvation and joy and satisfaction. They were telling people that if they really wanted to be right with God, yet they needed Jesus. That was good. But they also needed some, some other things. They needed some religious laws and some religious ceremonies. And sometimes we hear the word law or ceremony and we we start thinking of old things or ancient things. But remember, laws and ceremonies, especially religious ones, they can be traditional or they could be contemporary. So it's important for us to always remember that we're thinking about the Gospel and the Gospel first and most So where. Skinny jeans and wear a coat in time, sing ancient hymns and sing modern praise songs. Use the hymnal on DH, Used this screen and your Sunday school class. Drink regular and drink decaf. It's I I It's okay. There's some things that that it's okay for us to do. But don't ever confuse any of those things with the Gospel because the gospel is alone. This message of how people can be rescued from the everlasting terror of sin in hell. So we get the gospel right. We talk about the gospel and we don't let anything distract us from the Gospel you see, that's what was happening. Regulation. They were being distracted from the Gospel. Some folks were confusing them about the gospel. They were persuading people that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ wasn't actually enough, that they needed a few more things. And Paul writes this letter to directly deal with it, to directly challenge those ideas. And what does he say in terms of challenging? Just listen to a few verse, A few verses from this letter. Galatians, Chapter one, verse six. I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Jesus. That's a strong word, right? It's not like Hey, I've hurt. You missed a couple of Sundays, you know. Hey, I heard you had been a church in three years, but you made it the homecoming. You know, that's not what he's saying. He's saying I'm hearing that you've deserted. Jesus. And you've done it quickly. Why? Why? Chapter one, verse nine. If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed. Hi, Galatians three one. You foolish Galatians. Who has be Wicht? You and then the verse right before what we're looking at today, Galatians five twelve. I wish that those who are troubling you with thing religious ceremonies like circumcision. I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. Paul had a hard time expressing his feelings, right? He struggled with telling people how he really felt. But this was a big deal. Your people were pulling believers away from Jesus with religion. So Paul had to use strong language. And what's one of the ways that he wanted to challenge this thinking well on the first ways is he wanted them to understand that they I've been called to freedom. They've been called to freedom. They had been saved and called to freedom. They had not been called to ceremony. They had not been called to traditionalism. They had not been called to contemporary nous. They had been called to freedom. They had been called to remember that even if they foolishly convinced themselves that maybe for a few seconds or a few minutes or a few hours or a few days, that they felt like they could honor and keep and obey God's law. Eventually that time would be up and they would mess. They would break the law. And when you break the law, you've got to deal with the consequences of breaking the law. But the consequences of breaking the law of God is that you are permanently separated from all that is good and holy and happy and satisfying. We forget the beauty and the glory of what it means to pay attention to our freedom. Suppose, challenging these ideas? He's trying to remind the church of of those things those truths that we sing that song in Christ alone. Because like this till, on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God, it was satisfied why, for every sin on him was late. And here, in the death of Christ, I live I live life in Christ. Freedom in Christ. How? Why? Because every sin was laid on him, Jesus paid it all. That's the gospel and what was happening in the churches they were ignoring that they were ignoring the fact that that every sin had been laid on him. One theologian said that what they started to do was to to make their life and live their life in a way that kind of maid, the death of Christ, seem unnecessary, unnecessary. And so Paul threw his letter. He is pleading loudly, he said, All my foolish, fickle friends. Please, please stop thinking. Please stop living. Please stop going to church and work and school and anywhere else and living in such a way that you act as if the death of Christ is a new necessary. From the death of Christ is necessary. The only way that we can overcome death is through the death of Christ. The only way that we can overcome death is through the fact that Jesus has taken on all of arson. The only way that we receive eternal life is through the death of Christ. It is necessary. But it's not just the death of Christ that gives a believer his or her freedom. It's also the resurrection. The song er zone up from the grave. He rose again, and as he stands in Victory Sins, Curse has lost its grip on me. How? Why? How is it that the the grip of the curse of sin no longer has agreed? Songer Zone Prime Hiss And he is mine. Bought with the precious blood of Christ. How does a person translate to themselves that they are right with God? How did they translate in their mind in their heart that they are right with God. It's because their soul is able to say with deep confidence. I am his and he is mine. I am hiss and he is mine. How is it that a person is is made right with God? They're they're made right with God through the blood of Christ, through their faith in the blood of Christ. The only way to be saved. The only way to be born again. The only way to be right with God is in and through Jesus Christ, by grace alone through faith alone. In Christ alone, there is no other way. And the church. Hank elation. They they were forgetting it. It's a Paul had to remind him how you're made right. With God through Jesus and Jesus, Jesus makes you free. What happens when a person is right with God? Well, they start living in that freedom. I mean, it's not just Oh, yeah, I'm free and Jesus. No. You are free in Christ. You are free from the everlasting terror of hell. You are free from the everlasting chains of rebellion. You are free from the condemnation of sin. You're free pulse. Is this to the Roman church? There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Jesus. No condemnation, but freedom. The picture here is that that one of the things that we have as believers is if that if we're in Christ, it means that today and tomorrow and next Thursday and a hundred years from now and a hundred thousand years from now, Being in Christ means that what makes us the most satisfied, the most joyful, the most happy is Jesus. That what makes us the most happy His Jesus s what it means to be free in Christ. True freedom is Christ. And Christ is true freedom. If you don't get anything else today, get get those two thoughts. True freedom is being in Christ and Christ is true freedom you've been called to freedom if you are Christian. So what do you do with your freedom? Well, let's first look at what you don't do. Galatians five thirteen Paul continues on Lee. Do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. No worries. You don't use your freedom as a base of operations to be self centered or our self focused or self absorbed or self promoting. It means that you don't just do whatever you want to do and keep your church membership card in one pocket And that little cross You got a vacation Bible school in the other pocket, never down, and you pull him out. You just rub him for good luck. No. Now that that's not what it means to be free and Christ to be called the freedom is that first and most you seek to love and honor the one who set you free as one song puts it, O praise the one who paid my debt and raise this life up from the oh praise the one who paid my debt and raised my life up from the grave from the dead. We use our freedom for Jesus. The one who raised us up from the dentist. Death of arson. That sounds cool. That sounds noble, that that were free in Christ. And so how in the world could that freedom turn into an opportunity for the flesh? How could our freedom in Christ actually move us to be self centered and self focused and self absorbed and self promoting? Well, he's just kind of one way to think about it. Imagine somebody says, Yeah, I know I'm not honoring my vows to my spouse that the way I should And yeah, I know I'm not really raising my kids to honor God. And I know I'm kind of slacking off a school, and I know I'm kind of slacking off it work. I realized that, you know, I've traded reading the Bible for listening to talk radio. I realized that I've trading prayer for for scrolling through social media. And, yeah, I realize that I've traded being committed to a local church for sports and hobbies and family time in me time I got. But you know what? Don't worry about me. I'm good. I prayed that prayer. I joined the church, gave some money. I'm I'm free and Christ praise Jesus. I am free in Christ. Really, because all of that is the opposite attitude of someone who's truly been set free by Jesus Christ. Is the opposite. So fast? The opposite. Then what's the real thing? What does it really mean? In the simplest of ways to be free and Christ, Paul tells us. Look at the next part of her thirteen, but through love of serve one another being free and Christ means that you are free to love and serve. You are free to love and serve God first and most, and then you are free to love and serve other Christians strategically and sacrificial. And then you are free to love and serve non Christians strategically and sacrificial. You're free to love. You're free to serve. This is what Jesus said in John thirteen thirty five. By this, all men will know that you're my disciples if you have love for one another. So how do you know if you have love for other Christians? And how do you know if you have love for non Christians? Well, ask yourself this. How do you love yourself? How do you love yourself? Martin Luther said this. If you want to know how you ought to love your neighbor. Ask yourself how much you love yourself. If you're looking for some ways of how you can love and serve other people, look at the ways that you love and serve yourself, John Piper said This way. All the longings that I have for my own safety and health and success and happiness, I now feel for that other person as though he were me. So So how are you doing with that? How are you doing it out? Loving your spouse. How are you doing it out? Loving your kids. How are you doing out? Loving your parents. How you doing it out? Loving your in laws. A meddling now, right? What about outside the family? How you doing it at out loving other people at school? How you doing it out, loving other people at work. How are you doing out loving another people in traffic? How you doing it out? Loving other people at the mall. I struggle with that one for the way you know that that's a harbor for me. How you doing it out? Loving employees of Paris. How are you doing it out Loving. And how are you doing at out loving in God's church? I mean, here we are today. We're celebrating the birthday of Holland Avenue Baptist Church. So how are you doing it at out? Loving your fellow church members in the sanctuary with where you sit or with the music we sing? How are you doing it out? Loving each other and your Sunday school class or in a church conference or in a committee meeting? How are you doing it out? Loving one another. How are you doing it at thinking about your own health and your own safety and your own happiness and longing that the other people that you do life in church with it they would have the same kind of health and happiness and safety. Maybe put another way, are you moving toward being sacrificial? Are you moving toward being selfish? Are you serving the Lord with gladness, or are you serving the Lord with griping? How are you doing it out? Loving your fellow Christian. Why does it matter? I want the big deal. Does it really matter if we're out loving one another? Well, Jesus said that if you're not at least trying tow out love one another, then you might be proving yourself to not be one of his disciples. That kind of feels like it would matter that that you right now might be separated from God, that you might be lost and without hope in this world. Because there are absolutely no patterns of biblical love in your life. No patterns in your life that is seen that you are out loving others. So it sounds like it could matter if we out love. So how can we prove ourselves to be disciples of Jesus Way? Become out lovers? We we move and we move near. What does it mean to move near? Well, moving near is an attitude that helps us live out our freedom. Moving near is an attitude that helps us love and serve one another. A couple hundred years ago, people would sometimes use the word charity instead of the word love when they were talking about love. One of the creatures back in that day was a guy named John Angel James. And this is what he said about the Christian call to charity. Look at the operations of charity. It was this this charity which existed in the mind of deity from eternity and in the exercise of which he so loved are guilty world as to give his on ly begotten son that who so ever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So who has perfectly modeled love and charity and serving others? The Good Shepherd, The Lord of hosts, The God of Israel. The Great Eye. Yeah, God has modeled it. John Angel James goes on. It was on the wings of charity that the son of God flew from heaven to earth on an errand of mercy to our loss world. It was charity that moved in the minds and hearts of the apostles and urge them with glad tidings of salvation. For a country to country, the whole missionary enterprise is founded not, of course, on the basis of brotherly kindness but on that of charity. On that of love. It's a huge statement. The whole missionary enterprise is founded on charity. How do we know that? Well, we know that because charity has come to you from the throne of God, charity has come to you from the cross of Jesus. Charity has come to you from the voice of the Spirit. Charity has come to you from the words of the saints. The whole missionary enterprise is founded on charity. Now put that into the birthday of our church. You see, this church only exist because of the love and the charity and the service of God. In fact, if this church existed without the love and charity and service of God, it would not be a church. And so what we do today is we listen to Paul, tell the Galatians, but also us that we need to remember that that everything that we have is found in Jesus Christ and we have been saved and we've been called to freedom. It was for freedom. We have been set free. It is for freedom that we have been called. And it is on ly in freedom that we can continue. And so let's continue. Let's continue in our freedom. Let's move. Let's move near. What does that mean? Was it mean it to move near? Well, it means we've been called to freedom. We've been called to love and serve one another. And so therefore the only way we can keep the next sixty years plus years the next six plus decades. The only way we can keep going. E only way we can keep living as a church is to live in the freedom that we have and Christ, freedom to what we're free and Christ. But were we have this freedom? Freedom. Tow What? This's where it gets good. We have freedom to love one another. We have freedom to serve one another. We have freedom. Toe greet a visitor. We have freedom to visit a shut in. We have freedom to pray for a nun reached people group. We have freedom toe pray for a school time Bible student. We have freedom to to read with hearts for school. Spring Elementary. We have freedom to financially support this church. We have freedom to financially support other gospel opportunities. We have freedom to go to Guatemala. We have freedom Toe, join the pregnancy care group. You have freedom to fill up a baby bottle with coins for Livi Pregnancy Center. You have freedom toe volunteer With God's helping hand. You have freedom to be engaged and involved with lighthouse for life. Rescuing women from human trafficking. You have freedom to cheer on children. You have freedom to cheer own students. You have freedom to cheer own young adults. You have freedom to cheer on single adults and model of the middle adults and and senior adults. You, you have freedom to cheer on the staff. You have freedom to not be Patty, you have freedom to not gripe. You have freedom to not complain to not Gaza. You have freedom to smile, You have freedom Toe hug, You have freedom Toe laugh You have freedom to cry You have freedom to evangelize You have freedom to rejoice. You have freedom to love Jesus first And most of them love your neighbour In the same way that you love yourself You have freedom to come here Sunday after Sunday and stand and victory because the curse of sin no longer has a grip on you. You have freedom. Let's be free. This past week, one of our heart for school volunteers from our church was reading with their student at Springdale Elementary. The book they were reading. This called Have You Filled a Bucket Today? Great book. The book, basically is teaching kids the importance of filling the buckets of other people by being kind and helpful and nice to them. You know, if you think about it kind of practically speaking, if you're not filling someone's bucket, then you're kind of dipping in their bucket, right? So, so dip in this kind of like getting and feelings kind of like like giving. And so when our volunteer got readyto leave that day, her student, I said to her, You know what? You filled my bucket today. And our volunteer Look back at that elementary student said, You know what? You filled my bucket today, two. Listen, life is tough. We're going to be tired. We're going to torment it. We're going to be weak and weary. And some days we will have to deal. We are we're going to have to get. But there's a whole lot of other days. There's a whole lot of other moments that we can give that we can fill some buckets. How we'll see with your believer, you've been set free and Christ, you've been called to freedom. So let's do everything we can as often as we can to fill up the buckets of other people with the love of our savior the one who paid our debt and raised us up from but dad. Let's fill people's lives a little more with him. Let's be free and Christ and let's move near. Let's be free and let's move near.