>> Pastor Eric
00:00:00.520 What's up, Freedom Church? Good morning,
00:00:03.200 everyone. So excited you joined us on this daylight
00:00:07.000 savings time Sunday. Uh, you came to 11:00, so you're like, "I got to
00:00:10.820 sleep in. I didn't lose my hour." 9:00, they were a little sleepy still, so
00:00:14.820 I got—I'm, I'm excited to see you all full of energy and excitement.
00:00:18.180 Uh, if I haven't had the privilege of meeting you yet, my name's Pastor Eric.
00:00:21.420 I'm the lead pastor here of Freedom Church, and this is our second
00:00:24.980 Sunday of having services as Freedom Church, so let's give God a
00:00:28.660 hand. So exciting launching last Sunday.
00:00:32.460 Uh, if you missed last Sunday, you can always go and watch online on our
00:00:35.940 website, YouTube. And just wanna shout-out to everyone watching at home or
00:00:39.940 wherever you are traveling. Y—we always have the 11:00 AM
00:00:43.560 live-streamed, so we can, help get the word out to more people, more
00:00:47.380 places, and you don't ever have to miss church with us.
00:00:50.180 Um, but as I said, today we're gonna be jumping into our Foundation
00:00:54.040 series as we're s—started off last week talking about who Freedom Church
00:00:58.120 is, really some values, what we believe, what we stand for.
00:01:01.720 We're also gonna take some time these first several weeks to share a little bit
00:01:04.920 about myself. You're actually gonna hear from my wife, Rachel, who was up on the
00:01:08.240 keyboard a little bit ago. She's gonna share a short testimony and some practical
00:01:12.240 things for you as well. And we wanna get to know you, we wanna meet
00:01:16.000 you. If I haven't met you yet, I'd love to get to see you after
00:01:19.780 service today. Uh, but Freedom Church is a life-giving
00:01:23.660 church where people will know God, find
00:01:27.020 freedom, discover purpose, and make an impact.
00:01:30.420 That's what we exist for. That's what we're intending to do.
00:01:33.020 That's why Freedom Church is here in Murrysville.
00:01:35.420 Uh, we want people to know God, as we talked about last Sunday, to
00:01:39.280 know God in a real and personal way.
00:01:42.240 God's not just this big guy in the sky, He's not this ethereal thing, but
00:01:46.100 He wants to have a real and personal relationship with each and every one of
00:01:50.100 you. As a loving, perfect father, He wants to know you.
00:01:53.480 He wants you to know Him, not just know about Him.
00:01:56.540 Today, we're gonna talk about how to find freedom.
00:01:59.560 You found Freedom Church, but now we want you to find freedom that comes from
00:02:02.640 knowing who Jesus is, knowing how to find freedom,
00:02:06.620 how to stay free, and then how to really help other people find
00:02:10.480 freedom as well, which we'll kinda lead into next week with, discover
00:02:13.700 purpose. And then the following week, how do we make an impact in other
00:02:17.480 people's lives? How many of you wanna make an impact in somebody's life?
00:02:20.880 You wanna help them for the positive, right? For the Kingdom of God.
00:02:23.840 Well, to make—find freedom, discover purpose, make an impact, we have
00:02:27.860 to know who God is. So it, it all begins with a relationship with God, so
00:02:31.800 I'm gonna be unpacking a little bit of that today as well.
00:02:34.980 But for our start—starting verse, John chapter 8 verse
00:02:38.740 36 says, "So if the Son sets you free, you'll be
00:02:42.580 free indeed." We sang that in one of the songs a little bit ago, that
00:02:46.549 the Son sets you free. And what that means is Jesus, as the
00:02:50.480 Son, is the one who sets you free. Now, that word
00:02:53.920 free, it means to be liberated, to be set free from
00:02:57.880 bondage, from being held back, liberated from
00:03:00.900 captivity. So ha—have any of you ever been in, in a prison c—now, I
00:03:04.920 won't have raised hands. But some people, maybe in the room, have been in a prison
00:03:08.760 cell before, and s—getting set free is a great
00:03:12.220 feeling. I mean, let me tell you, getting out of a physical bondage or
00:03:15.940 physical prison cell is a very good feeling.
00:03:18.960 But spiritually set free is so much better.
00:03:21.420 Amen.
00:03:21.840 There's so much more to celebrate. There's so much—it's so liberating.
00:03:25.360 It's so life-giving when we get set free, set free
00:03:29.220 from our past, set free from our sins, set free
00:03:32.900 from bad lifestyles and choices that we're making, and it's, "If the
00:03:36.740 Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed," meaning that once you get
00:03:40.760 set free by Jesus, you don't have to keep trying to earn anything from
00:03:44.520 God. He's already done the work. He's already opened the prison door.
00:03:48.240 He's already said, "Go, be free," and the problem is we like to
00:03:52.120 step back into that prison cell where it's comfortable or where we're familiar,
00:03:56.240 right? Instead, He's saying, "I want you to be free." And the whole message is
00:03:59.100 helping you find freedom, to know that in Jesus, in
00:04:02.840 Christ, you can be set free and live a life of
00:04:06.660 freedom, to truly live free. But with that also comes
00:04:10.520 that it's not just a one and done. You know, there's a, a moment I believe we
00:04:14.520 have salvation. We, we—God is drawing us to Himself.
00:04:18.300 The Holy Spirit is doing a work in us, and we can truly be saved in a
00:04:21.820 moment. But at the same time, there's a lifelong process of being
00:04:25.860 saved, of working out our salvation, of trying to understand, how
00:04:29.840 do we live our lives as followers of Jesus because of
00:04:33.780 what He has done for each and every one of us?
00:04:35.740 So that process, in Philippians 1 verse 6, Paul says it this
00:04:39.280 way. He says, "I am certain that God, who began the good work within you,
00:04:43.260 will continue His work until it is finally finished on the day
00:04:47.120 when Christ Jesus returns." How many of you know you're a work in
00:04:50.500 progress?
00:04:52.010 Amen.
00:04:52.060 Every single one of us is a work in progress.
00:04:54.000 Yes, we're not who we used to be. Hopefully, and, and if you've ...
00:04:57.440 This is your first time in the church, you're in the right place, because God's
00:05:00.980 gonna help you become something that you've never maybe thought you could be
00:05:04.580 before. We see throughout the Bible that whenever somebody met
00:05:07.920 Jesus, they were different afterwards.
00:05:10.700 Jesus never met somebody and they didn't get changed afterwards,
00:05:14.440 except for the people who thought they had it all together.
00:05:17.220 When people come to Jesus and they're truly, genuinely seeking to know
00:05:20.900 truth, to know Him, He changes you.
00:05:24.200 He renews you. He makes you alive again.
00:05:27.760 That's what I believe this is—this verse and so many others of the Bible are
00:05:31.280 teaching us that God is at work and that this is not the
00:05:35.120 best—it's not as good as, as good as it's going to get
00:05:39.440 for you, that God is still doing a good work within
00:05:42.380 you. Being made into the image of God is a
00:05:45.820 process, right? It, it takes a lifelong process
00:05:49.720 of being sanctified, to be made holy as God is
00:05:53.020 holy. Over and over, God actually speaks in Leviticus and in
00:05:56.880 1 Peter. Peter's repeating and copying, quoting from
00:06:00.660 Leviticus, that he says, "Be holy as I am holy." Now, how many of
00:06:04.480 you know God is holy? And how many of you know we are not
00:06:07.764 holy, right? There's, there's a difference.
00:06:10.384 However, when His Spirit is within us ...
00:06:12.754 And why, why would God tell us to be holy as He is holy if we could never be
00:06:16.404 holy? And being holy is to be set apart, to be perfect, to be
00:06:20.424 pure. The only way we can be holy is to have the Spirit of
00:06:24.384 God within us, to have the blood of Jesus that covers us, that that's
00:06:28.244 what makes us holy. And many Christians, I
00:06:31.904 find, are very good people, well-meaning,
00:06:35.384 moral, they don't break many laws except for speeding maybe a little bit here and
00:06:39.144 there, right? They, they—A—and in general, most Christians, most of you are
00:06:42.804 really good people, but we're operating our Christian
00:06:46.204 life out of our personality more than our
00:06:49.064 spirituality. More than letting the Spirit of
00:06:52.944 God lead us and determine our steps, we often go, "Well,
00:06:56.944 that's not my personality," or, "That's not the way I was wired," or, "I'm
00:06:59.744 introverted," or, "I'm extroverted," or, "I'm, I'm this personality," and we live
00:07:03.084 out of our personality rather than what does the Spirit of God
00:07:07.064 living in you ask of you
00:07:10.064 and direct you and guide you? And that's really what we're gonna talk about is how
00:07:12.984 does the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, guide our
00:07:16.404 lives, direct our steps, and that we can follow
00:07:20.164 Him to truly find freedom. So Galatians chapter 5,
00:07:24.124 and this is gonna be the bulk of our text today, is Paul writing
00:07:28.004 to the church in Galatia, the, the Christians at the time.
00:07:31.024 He's writing this letter to them, and many people don't realize, the, the Bible is
00:07:34.904 mostly letters that were written, compiled together, what we call books
00:07:38.844 that make up this one book called the Bible.
00:07:41.444 66 books all together. Galatians is one book which is
00:07:45.264 actually a letter that the Apostle Paul was wri—writing
00:07:49.044 inspired by the Holy Spirit giving these instructions, and they
00:07:52.884 apply to us as well today. He says, "So I say, let the
00:07:56.624 Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be
00:08:00.354 doing what your sinful nature craves." And this, this
00:08:04.124 wording of, letting the Holy Spirit guide your lives, it's to
00:08:07.824 guide you on, to keep you on track, to keep you going in the
00:08:11.344 right direction. He goes, i—and, "With the Holy Spirit guiding your lives, then
00:08:15.004 you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves.
00:08:18.444 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite
00:08:22.404 of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are
00:08:26.424 the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.
00:08:29.624 These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are
00:08:33.304 not free to carry out your good intentions." Let
00:08:37.324 me ask, how many of you have ever done something you didn't wanna do?
00:08:40.584 Anybody? Okay, half of you are honest.
00:08:42.504 Um, but how many of you have ever done something that you knew you shouldn't do but
00:08:46.184 you did it anyways, right? Part of that's the wrestling
00:08:50.104 and battling within us. And how many of you have ever tried dieting, right?
00:08:53.584 Anybody ever try dieting? Most of you are like, "No, I gave that up a long time
00:08:56.404 ago." But then you're on a diet. You're like, "I'm doing well.
00:08:59.104 I'm eating right, did—had a good weekend," and you show up on Monday and
00:09:01.784 someone brings in donuts. And you're like, "Come on," right?
00:09:05.504 And in the natural, you're like, "I'm trying to do well. I'm trying to eat right.
00:09:09.484 I'm trying to exercise. I'm trying to be healthy.
00:09:11.764 But man, there's these donuts, and they got my favorite kind." And then you go,
00:09:14.944 "Maybe I'll just try a half. Maybe I'll, maybe I'll have, like, a half of one and a
00:09:18.364 half another. It's not that bad." And before you know it, the whole thing's gone
00:09:22.024 and you're no longer on the diet, right? You just give up trying completely.
00:09:26.104 Very similarly in the natural, we have these desires and this, these, these
00:09:30.164 temptations, these things that come against us.
00:09:32.484 Spiritually, we have a sinful nature, and we have a spiritual nature,
00:09:36.344 that God Himself, His Spirit, when we truly are following Jesus and trying
00:09:40.344 to follow Jesus, the Holy Spirit within us is trying to guide
00:09:44.324 us and help us in our walk. But yet all the stuff in the natural, these
00:09:48.304 sinful things, keep creeping up, and we have to choose, are we
00:09:52.164 gonna stay the course with the Spirit, or are we gonna allow our flesh and our
00:09:56.224 natural selves, our na—sinful nature, and give in to that?
00:09:59.844 So which one are we going to feed? Feed the Spirit of God within
00:10:03.464 us or feed our sinful nature? And this internal
00:10:07.144 battle, you know, it's not—I wanna be very clear that, that God and
00:10:11.164 Satan himself are not equal in power. God created Satan.
00:10:15.144 The creator is greater than the created, that there's nothing
00:10:18.964 on this earth that compares to the power and ability that God
00:10:22.463 has. But in us, we have this internal battle.
00:10:26.384 It is like the little demon and the little angel on our shoulders, like, trying to
00:10:29.544 help us and, and one's trying to distract, one's trying to help,
00:10:33.424 but that's an internal battle within us that which one are we gonna feed
00:10:37.064 determines what results we have in our lives.
00:10:41.844 And even though we have
00:10:43.624 good intentions, Paul says, "You're not free to carry out your good
00:10:47.444 intentions." I believe every single one of you have good intentions,
00:10:51.324 right? You wanna do well. You wanna be good. You wanna help people.
00:10:54.684 Most of you, raise your hand, you wanna make an impact in other people's lives,
00:10:58.284 right? And he says, "You're not free to carry out your good intentions," because
00:11:01.804 good intentions, especially in our human minds and our human
00:11:05.444 reasoning, leads to us, "Well, I really mean well, but I'm not gonna do
00:11:09.174 anything well," and it becomes just intention rather than
00:11:12.624 action. If any of you have kids and your kid said, "Well, I mean to
00:11:16.244 —I, I plan to clean up my room," but then they never do, did they obey
00:11:20.364 or did they not obey, right? They didn't obey, right?
00:11:23.184 And it's not just about obedience because there's these tensions that we live in
00:11:26.964 where on one side, I kind of picture it like this road, and on one side of the
00:11:30.284 road, there's this thing called legalism, where it becomes a lot of
00:11:34.064 religion, a lot of works, a lot of do good, pray certain prayers,
00:11:37.984 repetitious prayers. You gotta follow the steps. You have to go to church.
00:11:41.224 You have to pray this prayer. You have to do ...
00:11:43.134 And you get all the check marks, and you feel really good about
00:11:46.384 yourself. And those things are all good, but those things
00:11:50.204 cannot ever replace what the Spirit of God can do in your
00:11:53.424 life. But the other side of that road is what I call lawlessness,
00:11:57.244 where because you've been forgiven, because Jesus's blood was
00:12:01.224 shed for you, you can just go on and sin all you want.
00:12:04.424 Do whatever you feels good, do whatever you think is right.
00:12:07.624 Your truth is your truth. And that leads to lawlessness.
00:12:11.052 That leads to everyone leading, walking astray, fulfilling their
00:12:14.752 sinful nature rather than the Spirit of God.
00:12:17.392 So neither legalism nor lawlessness actually is the path that we're
00:12:21.352 supposed to walk, and it's not a mix of both.
00:12:24.092 It's actually a higher road that we walk, this walk called—called the
00:12:28.012 spirit of grace and the spirit of love, that God's path, His
00:12:31.812 Spirit guides us in our lives so we don't live in legalism, we don't live in
00:12:35.852 lawlessness, but we can truly know the love of God, His
00:12:39.572 mercy and His grace that because He died we
00:12:43.432 wanna do the good things that lead to legalism at times if you get too far,
00:12:47.452 but we know we're forgiven when we do stumble. We know we are—
00:12:50.432 His grace and His mercy is enough to cover us when we make
00:12:54.272 mistakes 'cause we're not going to be perfect.
00:12:57.432 He keep—continues in verse 18. Again, he says, "The Holy Spirit guides your
00:13:01.332 life. But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under
00:13:05.392 obligation to the law of Moses." A second time he uses this
00:13:09.412 word directed. He's say—it's as if the meaning of the word is
00:13:13.252 he's taking you from one place to another place.
00:13:17.252 He's directing you, not just from here to there, but from, not just from
00:13:21.192 something, but to something. You're not just saved from
00:13:25.212 hell, you're not just saved from your sins, you're not saved just from your
00:13:29.052 past, but you're saved to something, that God, the Spirit of God, wants to
00:13:33.072 direct you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of
00:13:36.932 light. He wants to direct you out of the life of death and
00:13:40.152 destruction into a life that is life-giving and full of
00:13:43.992 Him. He wants to pull you out of something bad and put you into
00:13:47.792 something good. That's the Spirit of God directing you, not
00:13:51.632 restricting you, not holding things back, but actually opening up
00:13:55.712 so much more for you to experience.
00:13:58.152 You people think grace is something that, grace means you can't do
00:14:01.432 something. That's actually a lie.
00:14:03.392 Grace is so that you can do something.
00:14:05.732 Christianity isn't just rules and religion and, and holding you back.
00:14:09.472 It's actually grace to say you don't have to do those things anymore.
00:14:12.472 You don't have to live that lifestyle. There's a better way.
00:14:15.772 There's a more profitable way, a more e—effective way, something that's gonna
00:14:19.372 actually bring life within you. And not profit for finances, but profit
00:14:23.072 for blessing and benefiting other people around
00:14:26.452 you. That's the way that the Holy Spirit wants us, to, to
00:14:30.272 direct us, to guide us, to lead us in our
00:14:33.472 lives. He says, "When you're directed by the Spirit, you're not under
00:14:36.772 obligation to the law of Moses." Now, he doesn't say, "You should
00:14:40.792 just be lawlessness. You should just go do whatever you want." No, the law of Moses
00:14:44.692 is actually still good. Like, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not
00:14:48.492 steal, thou shalt not—all the commandments in the Mosaic Law, they're still good
00:14:52.792 laws and good rules. But he's saying you're not under the obligation of the law of
00:14:56.632 Moses to earn favor with God, to earn God's
00:14:59.972 love. He's already done it. Jesus has already done
00:15:04.292 the work for you. But he gives these, this
00:15:07.932 explanation. He says, "This is what's gonna happen when you follow the, follow
00:15:11.972 the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very
00:15:15.532 clear: sexual
00:15:16.932 immorality, impurity, lustful
00:15:20.772 pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling,
00:15:24.492 jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition,
00:15:28.012 dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and
00:15:31.972 other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have
00:15:35.912 before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit
00:15:40.172 the kingdom of God." He lists out these sins, and
00:15:44.152 it's a pretty extensive list, but it's not all-encompassing 'cause he says
00:15:47.892 there's other sins like these. Paul was not afraid to call out
00:15:51.912 sin. We today, in twenty twenty-six, if there ever was a time, we need
00:15:55.912 to be very clear and still helping to call out sin.
00:15:58.832 Say it, call it what it is, not shying away from the truth.
00:16:02.692 I believe one of the most loving things you can do is to speak truth
00:16:06.732 in love, not truth to condemn, not truth to beat somebody
00:16:10.652 up. 'Cause Jesus himself said, "I came not to condemn, but to set the world
00:16:14.372 free." So how are we to ever condemn somebody else?
00:16:17.772 But we speak truth to people. We don't lie to people.
00:16:21.062 We don't s—let them go on living a lifestyle.
00:16:23.192 Now, there's equity and relationship and a lot of those things, but
00:16:27.012 ultimately these sins that are listed are for us to look at ourselves
00:16:30.992 as well. Are we doing an introspective and reflective
00:16:34.992 look at how we are each living our lives?
00:16:37.752 He says these things, people who live these, this lifestyle, they will not
00:16:41.772 inherit the kingdom of God. Now, sins don't
00:16:44.992 disqualify you from heaven because those are your things, things you choose to
00:16:48.772 do. However, living a lifestyle, it's as if he says, "You're
00:16:52.592 gonna feed your sinful nature so much, you're gonna do the opposite of what the
00:16:56.612 Spirit of God says. Why would you be close to God?
00:16:59.352 Why would you inherit the kingdom of God?" Because ultimately what sin does
00:17:03.732 is separate us from God. So this not
00:17:07.333 inheriting the kingdom of God is a separation from
00:17:11.072 God. When we don't desire to feed the Spirit of God
00:17:14.873 within us but instead desire to feed our sinful nature, why would
00:17:18.833 we feel close to God? Why would God wanna be close to us,
00:17:22.892 would be a great question to ask. Instead, Paul lists out
00:17:26.992 all these things. If you do these things, you live this lifestyle, this is what's
00:17:30.532 gonna happen. You'll be separated from God.
00:17:32.852 But in verse 22, "The Holy Spirit
00:17:36.512 produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love,
00:17:40.372 joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
00:17:44.412 faithfulness, gentleness, and
00:17:46.452 self-control." He says, "There is no
00:17:50.512 law against these things." There's no law.
00:17:53.232 You can't have too much of the fruit of the Spirit.
00:17:56.672 Even in the natural you can have too much fruit, you can have too much water, you
00:17:59.812 can have too much of good things here on earth, but in the Spirit he says, "The
00:18:03.692 pr—Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives,"
00:18:07.672 these virtues, these nine virtues that we can live our lives by.
00:18:11.372 You can't have too much. You can't have too much love, you can't have too much
00:18:15.368 joy, you can't have too much peace.
00:18:16.688 Now, some of you are probably like, "There's that one girl at work, she is so happy
00:18:20.008 all the time. Like, that's a little too much." But y—the reality is you can't have
00:18:23.328 too much of the fruit that is produced by the Holy Spirit of
00:18:27.268 God in our lives. Now, contrast that with the list of sins that he listed
00:18:31.028 out, any one of those is too much. Like,
00:18:35.068 I know none of you would wanna eat brownies that had a little dog doo doo in it,
00:18:38.988 right? Now, just even just, just a little bit. Just a little bit, is that okay?
00:18:42.748 But why do we treat our sin any different?
00:18:45.548 We say, "Well, it's just a little sin. Well, I'm only hurting myself.
00:18:49.208 Well, I'm only looking at stuff on my, my, by myself in the dark of night," or,
00:18:52.908 "I'm only doing this thing b—privately. I'm not doing—I didn't—
00:18:55.728 It's not like I'm killing anybody." And we justify our sin, and
00:18:59.748 we think that just a little bit's okay as long as we don't go too far.
00:19:03.248 Instead of having a little bit is still too much.
00:19:06.368 And again, the same breath, none of us are perfect.
00:19:09.918 There's always that mercy, always that grace that brings us back into a
00:19:13.948 right relationship with God, that the Holy Spirit produces
00:19:17.868 this kind of fruit in our lives. Now, many people would say, you
00:19:21.868 know, the big, powerful demonstrations of God, the miracles,
00:19:25.608 raising the dead, physical healings, those types of things, those are
00:19:29.168 powerful. But why don't we see love, joy, peace, patience,
00:19:32.888 kindness, goodness, faithfulness, why don't we see that as powerful?
00:19:35.898 When someone cuts you off in traffic and you choose not to lay on your horn and,
00:19:39.528 and give them the one-finger salute, like, that's called self-control.
00:19:43.548 That's called, "You know what? Maybe they're having a bad day.
00:19:45.768 Maybe they do deserve to get a—a ticket," but we choose to be under
00:19:49.528 self-control, God control of ourselves, that these
00:19:53.478 evidence, this fruit of the Holy Spirit is just as powerful when
00:19:57.488 we walk it out, when we allow the Holy Spirit to produce
00:20:01.488 this fruit in us. In verse 24, he
00:20:05.308 says, "Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the
00:20:08.788 passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross
00:20:12.908 and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us
00:20:16.908 follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our
00:20:20.508 lives." Three times Paul uses this language, that the Spirit of God
00:20:24.368 guides us, that He's directing us.
00:20:27.088 And here he says, "When we're living by the Spirit, let us follow the
00:20:30.768 Spirit's leading." Holy Spirit is not your co-pilot.
00:20:34.328 Jesus is not the co-pilot. He, He should be in the driver's seat
00:20:38.088 leading, directing, and guiding your life.
00:20:40.608 We follow Jesus, not go on our own way and say,
00:20:44.428 "Jesus, would you bless it?" Big difference in how we view our
00:20:48.268 walk with God. Many times we say we wanna make our plans, and then
00:20:52.268 we pray, "God, would you bless my plans?" Instead, start with
00:20:56.208 saying, "God, what's your plan? What's your direction?
00:20:59.188 What's my next step that I should be taking?" And He guides your
00:21:02.748 steps. The Word says in Psalm 119 that, "The word is like a lamp to our
00:21:06.748 feet." He doesn't give you the, the 20 steps ahead, He gives you the lamp to your
00:21:10.648 feet to take your next step, to take your next step to follow Him.
00:21:14.408 And if you get too far behind, it's really hard to follow somebody.
00:21:17.288 So we keep following in step with Him.
00:21:20.008 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their
00:21:23.968 sinful nature to the cross. Jesus was
00:21:27.488 physically nailed to a wooden cross with metal s—
00:21:31.208 spikes through His wrist, through His feet, nailed to a cross.
00:21:35.088 That's where our sinful nature and all the desires of our sinful
00:21:38.908 nature were nailed when Jesus was put on that cross.
00:21:42.308 When the enemy thought he had won, Jesus was just getting
00:21:45.788 started. He split the veil in two. He made a way for us to enter
00:21:49.548 heaven, that Jesus was nailed to the cross just w—for the
00:21:53.408 sake of all of our sins and our sinful nature.
00:21:56.808 So when we wanna pick up our, our sins and we wanna go back to a sinful
00:22:00.368 nature, what we're doing is we're putting Jesus back on the cross in some sense of
00:22:04.248 we—that wasn't enough. We wanna go back to something that we should have left
00:22:08.248 b—in our past, we should have left dead and where it
00:22:11.368 was.
00:22:14.228 But these, in these things as we are, as we're leading, following the
00:22:17.988 Spirit's leading in every part of our life, in all of the fruit of the Spirit,
00:22:22.028 it's not for, just for us to receive.
00:22:25.268 You know, if you think about a, a, a tree, a fruit tree, many different fruit
00:22:28.368 trees, how do you identify a tree? It's by its
00:22:31.568 fruit. But a fruit tree doesn't eat the fruit that it
00:22:34.928 produces. That fruit is meant to benefit and be a blessing to
00:22:38.568 others, to feed others, to spread seed, to br—plant new
00:22:42.488 trees. Likewise, the Spirit of God produces fruit
00:22:46.468 in us not so that we can receive something good, but so
00:22:50.428 that we can give to others, so that we can be a blessing to others, so that we can
00:22:54.388 benefit other people. Freedom is not just so that
00:22:58.488 we can live free, but we use our freedom to set other people
00:23:02.068 free as well. And I wanna share a story, of
00:23:05.928 freedom. My wife Rachel's actually gonna come up and share a b—part of her
00:23:08.808 testimony and give some practicals of how do we find
00:23:12.488 freedom. So she's gonna take it over now. Let's welcome Rachel.
>> Rachel
00:23:18.008 Thanks. Hi, everybody. It's such an honor to share.
00:23:20.668 Um, I just can't believe that the Lord would use us
00:23:24.648 to lead His people here in this, in this area, knowing our stories, knowing our
00:23:28.448 backgrounds. And you'll get to know me here as I share a little bit about my
00:23:31.808 story. Um, Second Corinthians, Paul,
00:23:35.788 he says, "So now I'm glad to boast about my weaknesses so that the
00:23:39.808 power of Christ can work through me." And that's my prayer this morning.
00:23:43.728 Um, I'm excited to brag on God. Amen.
00:23:46.868 So my story, I'm gonna start it at age seven, because that's when I accepted
00:23:50.628 Christ. He became real to me. I understood the salvation message, I
00:23:54.568 understood the gospel, and I accepted Him as my Lord and Savior.
00:23:58.208 And that was in kids ministry, so shameless plug for those of you that are working
00:24:01.888 in kids, you're making an eternal impact in the kids' lives.
00:24:05.388 Amen.
00:24:08.048 So I knew the Bible. I started memorizing scripture.
00:24:11.588 I knew the stories. Um, and really, as I was in the church, I got
00:24:15.468 to see what it looked like for people to live their lives for
00:24:19.088 Jesus. So I'm so thankful for that.
00:24:21.388 I'm thankful to my parents who raised me in the church, who brought me week after
00:24:25.168 week, and I got to experience what that looked like.
00:24:27.628 It was so foundational for my life in being able to move
00:24:31.088 forward.So then I'm gonna fast-forward a whole bunch of
00:24:35.084 years to the summer before going into college.
00:24:38.684 Um, I met someone who I had previously known. He was super cute.
00:24:42.644 He was a soccer player just like me.
00:24:45.024 Um, he showed himself to love the Lord.
00:24:48.064 He was in the same area where I was going to school in State College, at Penn
00:24:52.164 State. So win-win, check, check, check.
00:24:54.924 I was like, "Okay, this is great." We started dating, and then a couple
00:24:58.884 years later, when I was still in school, we got
00:25:01.424 married. And there were some red
00:25:05.184 flags as we were dating, so I saw things that I was
00:25:09.084 like, "Okay, this isn't right. This isn't good, but Lord, I know you can
00:25:12.624 transform. I know that I could help." Um, all these different
00:25:16.684 things that I was seeing and sensing but just kinda pushed off to the
00:25:20.424 side, and I did end up decide—deciding to get
00:25:23.284 married anyways. And, during
00:25:27.184 that time period, I would eat, and my stomach would
00:25:30.784 stop digesting food well, and so I would get sick, and it
00:25:34.604 was super frustrating. I was trying to figure out what was going on,
00:25:38.944 but it kept happening over and over again, and it would get
00:25:42.164 worse. So I would eat. I would get sick, and then
00:25:46.004 this unintentional sickness turned into
00:25:49.724 intentional, and, it became an eating
00:25:53.444 disorder that was started to take over my life.
00:25:56.404 So I would go through periods of starving myself. I would eat.
00:25:59.884 I would throw up. I would over-exercise. It was ugly.
00:26:02.754 Sin is ugly, right? Um, and so I started
00:26:06.424 into the, this eating disorder behaviors, and I wasn't
00:26:10.264 telling anybody what was happening, and I
00:26:14.104 didn't tell anybody what was happening in my marriage after we got married.
00:26:18.024 Um, when some of the emotional and the mental abuse started,
00:26:21.964 I wasn't sharing what was happening, keeping everything a secret.
00:26:25.944 So there was so much shame that started in my life
00:26:29.824 that just kept cycling. Um,
00:26:33.744 yeah, so the, the hiding and the lying and the shame was just totally overwhelming.
00:26:37.564 And then two—so it was only two months after we got married
00:26:41.524 that I found him on my computer and realized that he had a
00:26:45.364 horrible pornography addiction, and at that point, it was like
00:26:49.264 something switched, and the abuse just got way
00:26:52.504 worse. So now it wasn't just emotional and mental abuse.
00:26:55.924 It became physical and sexual abuse as well.
00:26:59.204 And,
00:27:01.224 it got really ugly. It got really bad, and the more abuse that I
00:27:05.224 was in, the more that I was going to eating disorder behaviors to try to
00:27:08.804 cope, you know, the feelings of not being comforted.
00:27:12.544 So I would, I would act out in these eating disorder behaviors to try to feel
00:27:16.404 some sort of comfort and some sort of control,
00:27:20.044 and I would think, "I will stop tomorrow," you know?
00:27:23.314 "I can, I can handle this. I'll just stop tomorrow." Um,
00:27:27.484 and then tomorrow would come, and I couldn't because the, the addiction that I
00:27:31.364 was in was just so overwhelming and had total control over
00:27:35.144 me. What is it? Sin takes you farther than you wanna stay,
00:27:39.164 keeps you longer than you wanna stay, and costs you more than you wanna
00:27:43.004 pay, right? And that's what I was experiencing.
00:27:46.184 I was stuck in this bondage, and the shame that I
00:27:50.104 was feeling was so overwhelming, and it was just fueling everything that I was
00:27:54.064 doing. Um, so somehow I did
00:27:58.024 really well in school. I graduated, and I wanted
00:28:02.004 to be a physical therapist, so I, I had applied
00:28:05.324 to North Georgia University and was
00:28:08.904 excited to be able to start fresh. I hated the Pittsburgh weather.
00:28:12.944 Anybody with me? And wanted to go down to sunshine in Georgia, thinking,
00:28:16.854 "Okay, we can start fresh. This will be a brand-new start," and I was excited to
00:28:20.664 start into my doctorate program. Well, the abuse just got worse.
00:28:24.164 We didn't know anybody down there.
00:28:25.424 We were even more isolated, and so,
00:28:29.944 what I thought couldn't get any worse got worse, and I
00:28:33.824 became super suicidal. I did not wanna live anymore.
00:28:37.604 I was having—my body was falling apart.
00:28:39.424 I was to the point where it was hard to go up and down stairs,
00:28:43.484 and
00:28:44.704 just didn't wanna live anymore. Didn't wanna be in that marriage.
00:28:48.083 I didn't want to be alive at all. And I remember one time I
00:28:52.784 was sitting on my couch,
00:28:54.964 and I prayed to the Lord and said,
00:28:57.324 "God," like, "I either need out of this...
00:28:59.984 You have to do some type of miracle, or I just wanna be done."
00:29:03.864 Um, and it was shortly after that
00:29:07.364 that it was a snowy day in Georgia. Who knew?
00:29:09.944 It snows in Atlanta. And, I got locked out of the
00:29:13.804 house, which wasn't super uncommon, so locked
00:29:17.704 out in the snow, and it's a total God story of how I got rescued
00:29:21.584 out. There was a neighbor that was actually home, which he normally wasn't home.
00:29:25.524 Um, emailed a friend who was in s—in one of my classes that I barely knew.
00:29:29.264 She answered the email right away.
00:29:30.904 She came to get me, and I opened up, and I shared with my parents when I called
00:29:34.564 them, and I said, "I need help. I need you to come get me." And I was to that
00:29:38.504 point where I wanted to be out. I wanted to be rescued, and so
00:29:42.344 my dad drove all the way from Pittsburgh to Atlanta overnight to come
00:29:46.224 rescue me out of that. Um,
00:29:50.584 yeah. Thank you, Lord, right? So, I was
00:29:54.544 home with my parents, but I was still stuck
00:29:58.044 in so much shame, s—still majorly stuck
00:30:02.084 in the eating disorder behaviors.
00:30:05.084 So I was, I was home. We got, um—we figured out how to file for
00:30:09.104 a protection order. Is this—acceptable to
00:30:12.984 get a divorce? So went through the divorce process, and he was
00:30:16.944 completely out of my life after that.
00:30:20.184 So this addiction that I was in was still taking over my
00:30:23.533 life. Um, I was having a hard time keeping a job.
00:30:27.264 Um, friendships were broken. It was—
00:30:30.084 I was doing a lot of hurtful things because I was in addiction,
00:30:32.744 so—um, my life did not look very good at that, at that
00:30:36.604 time. And after months of slowly sharing the things that had happened to
00:30:40.004 me, I really said, "Okay, I, I need some, I need some
00:30:43.604 help." And so I traveled the country for years from
00:30:47.584 2010 to 2014. I was in multiple different
00:30:50.624 treatment facilities to try to get help.
00:30:54.064 It was very much like prison, being locked in a facility for a
00:30:57.724 while. Um, but I was searching for freedom.
00:31:01.544 I was searching for deliverance, and I would go
00:31:04.984 to all of the healing and deliverance ministries 'cause I started getting back into
00:31:08.584 the church. Um, so going to all the prayer meetings, going to
00:31:13.124 deliverance ministry time, being a part of Celebrate
00:31:17.104 Recovery, the 12-step program, went through that.
00:31:20.464 And there were times—there was a time specifically that I remember where someone
00:31:23.684 prayed over me. It was a deliverance prayer, and I literally felt the chains
00:31:27.724 fall off of me. It was such an amazing feeling, like, oh, my goodness,
00:31:31.244 this, this is what it feels like to be free.
00:31:34.184 Um, and I stayed in, in that freedom for a while,
00:31:38.124 and then I relapsed. And when I relapsed, I realized I'm literally just
00:31:41.944 putting these chains back on me. Like, my eating disorder behaviors right now
00:31:46.024 aren't even working. This is so frustrating.
00:31:48.704 Um, that I would go back into those behaviors
00:31:52.384 when it wasn't doing anything for me. So I was improving.
00:31:56.064 The Lord was helping me. He was revealing things to me, and I would have these
00:31:59.704 times of recovery and then relapse.
00:32:02.384 Um, I didn't have any more PTSD. The Lord had taken that away from
00:32:06.164 me. I didn't have any more nightmares that were affecting the rest of my
00:32:09.984 day. And through that, I realized that
00:32:14.424 I had been blaming God for what I had gone
00:32:18.364 through when I realized I needed to be blaming the enemy.
00:32:21.154 The enemy was the one who was condemning me.
00:32:23.204 The enemy was the one who was trying to steal, kill, and destroy my life.
00:32:26.944 But God was there that whole time, and He was the protector, and He was helping me,
00:32:30.604 and He had saved me, and He had rescued me, and I was understanding my
00:32:33.904 identity in Him, and that was really helping to
00:32:37.784 set me free.
00:32:39.524 So a couple years later, 2016, I meet this handsome guy right here,
00:32:44.023 and, that's just another total God story of how
00:32:47.864 He placed us together and brought us together.
00:32:50.444 But, once we were together and realized
00:32:55.124 the love of Christ through him, the way that he was loving me, the way that he
00:32:58.224 continued to show love even when I was messing up and screwing up
00:33:02.004 and felt so much shame, he just kept pouring out love.
00:33:05.684 And that continual love and the building of trust really helped me
00:33:09.744 to get free as well. Um, and it was, it was during that
00:33:13.724 time, it was about a year after we got married.
00:33:16.124 So our first year of marriage wasn't exactly the best.
00:33:18.724 It was pretty rocky 'cause I was still somewhat in and out of
00:33:22.604 eating disorder behaviors. Um, but we had always wanted to have
00:33:26.524 children, and I remember one day I was praying
00:33:30.464 to the Lord
00:33:32.104 and I said, "God, let this be the day that I don't have any more eating
00:33:35.824 disorder behaviors, because I know that if I continue this, we're not gonna
00:33:39.804 be able to have kids." Um,
00:33:43.244 and ever since that moment, ever since that prayer, I have been completely
00:33:47.444 free from eating disorder behaviors.
00:33:54.324 Like, not just dry drunk, kind of getting through life
00:33:58.184 trying to muster up the strength, but, like, completely free.
00:34:01.104 Do not have any urges or desires to go back into that lifestyle, and, like, I
00:34:05.004 can only give God the praise for that.
00:34:07.364 Um, so totally free from that point.
00:34:09.495 And,
00:34:11.644 you know, one of the things I'll add is that I really had done some damage to my
00:34:14.824 body. But even the, even in that, the Lord was so gracious, and He
00:34:18.424 restored my body. And after four years, yeah, four years of
00:34:22.104 waiting for children, the Lord gave us Judah, and now we
00:34:25.584 have two other girls, one on the—one on the way.
00:34:28.864 So, the Lord was totally so gracious and just helped to restore
00:34:32.904 even that. So I wanna give some practicals of what I can
00:34:36.884 see from my story that really helps me to be free.
00:34:40.265 One, I kept putting myself in places for healing,
00:34:43.624 so I just kept searching. I kept putting myself in those places where there was
00:34:46.804 possibility for hearing truth, where there was possibility for receiving
00:34:50.725 freedom. And I stopped going out. I stopped
00:34:54.544 drinking. I stopped going to the bars.
00:34:55.864 I stopped hanging out with those friends that were pulling me away, which is my
00:34:59.424 second point. I surrounded myself with people who could help.
00:35:03.264 And, I think, you know, that's a huge part of why we started Freedom Church
00:35:07.364 is that realizing the Church is the hope of the world. Amen.
00:35:10.844 Um, when we come together and we're operating in the gifts that God has given us,
00:35:14.324 and when we can use our stories to share, we can bring freedom and life to
00:35:18.284 people who come in these doors
00:35:20.944 and into our communities. So I was a part of Bible study groups
00:35:24.824 that were helping me. I had intentional Christian friends that I
00:35:28.824 knew that I could be open and honest with, which is so key.
00:35:32.484 Um, in my story, if I hadn't been open and honest, I would not
00:35:36.484 be where I am today. You know, Scripture says, "Confess your
00:35:40.304 sins to one another so that you may be healed." It's so true.
00:35:43.484 We have to confess. We have to be open.
00:35:45.164 We have to be honest with what's going on in our lives.
00:35:48.924 And then medication and Christian counseling too.
00:35:51.664 Um, the Lord used that for a season.
00:35:53.304 I can say I was on medication that really helped me to get out of major
00:35:56.964 depression and anxiety, and thankfully, I actually am not
00:36:00.864 on any medications at all anymore. No need for that.
00:36:04.164 Um, so I'm very excited about that, but I do know that the Lord used that for a
00:36:07.264 time, as well as Christian counseling, to be able to
00:36:10.644 receive freedom. And then the last point that I have that I'm most
00:36:14.384 excited about is just getting excited about being in the Word, being in
00:36:18.384 the Bible. The more that I was in the Word and,
00:36:22.064 allowing the words to renew my mind.
00:36:23.744 You know, Scripture talks about transforming our thoughts, transforming our minds.
00:36:27.424 It's so true. I would realize that I didn't have to live in
00:36:31.204 shame, that the, the enemy was condemning me, but the Holy Spirit
00:36:35.104 was, He was convicting me and h—drawing me closer to Him.
00:36:38.044 Things like that, that were helping me to be able to step forward and to walk in
00:36:41.744 freedom.So now I get
00:36:45.124 to live my life to give back. Do I have more freedom to come?
00:36:48.544 Yes, in dif—a lot of different ways, but, I'm just excited to be
00:36:52.464 able to share my story and to be able to live my life for Christ.
00:36:56.004 So thanks for letting me share.
>> Pastor Eric
00:37:02.804 Amen. Um, what a great, great testimony
00:37:06.864 and, I mean, just being with her for the last 10-plus years, getting to hear so
00:37:10.364 much she could share. Um, I, you know, I just wanna say Rachel has
00:37:14.304 done the work, but it's ultimately the Spirit of God who, who sets us
00:37:17.984 free. And now she uses her life to minister to women, she uses it to minister
00:37:22.024 at, at different ministries all over the place to help women
00:37:25.524 especially get, get fr—out—get freedom and get out of addiction, get
00:37:29.344 free from their past and their shame.
00:37:31.824 Um, and, and that freedom is available to each of you.
00:37:34.974 That every one of us, I believe, can grow and have experience more
00:37:38.884 freedom in Christ. There's a quote from Chris Hodges who
00:37:42.624 teaches and he's been the leader of Church of the Highlands, now Highlands
00:37:45.924 College. He says, "Temptation is a test of your
00:37:48.904 relationship, not your self-control." That
00:37:52.424 it—getting, finding freedom is not how good you
00:37:56.224 are. It's not about how hard you work, yet there is work for
00:38:00.244 us to do. There is things—there are things that we can do to help ourselves, but
00:38:04.014 ultimately, temptation, when it comes, it's a test of your
00:38:07.404 relationship with God. The same applies in your marriage and when
00:38:10.924 temptation comes, if your marriage is not good, you're more likely to fall to
00:38:14.744 temptation. But when you love God so much and you're
00:38:18.304 pursuing God, then sin isn't really a bother to
00:38:22.324 you anymore. It's like, "Why would I dabble in that when I have something so
00:38:25.884 good?" The fruit of the Spirit, the, the Holy Spirit of God.
00:38:29.464 Sin is just, it's disgusting at that point.
00:38:31.664 You lose your taste for the things of this world when you're truly
00:38:35.124 walking with God. One of the problems I believe we do is we
00:38:38.804 focus too much on not sinning, we forget to focus on our relationship with
00:38:42.704 God. Focus on the life, focus on what's positive, focus on what God
00:38:46.684 is giving us rather than what we're not supposed to do.
00:38:50.624 Um, just a kind of a funny story that, several years ago when my wife and
00:38:54.644 I were, early in our relationship, she's a phenomenal swimmer.
00:38:58.384 I would say she swims like a fish. I, I don't, I sink.
00:39:01.684 Um, so it's the opposite there, but she's trying to help me swim one day.
00:39:05.184 And we get in the pool at the Y, and she goes, "Just swim down to the back.
00:39:08.424 Go down and back one time, and I'll see how you're doing." So I'm swimming,
00:39:12.424 and I'm swimming, or you'd call it swimming.
00:39:14.124 I was, I was moving in the water, making a lot of motion.
00:39:17.384 I get to the end of the pool, I come back, and I get to the edge of the pool, and
00:39:21.344 I'm, like, just barely breathing.
00:39:23.654 And she's like, "What are you doing?" I'm like, "I'm trying not to
00:39:27.684 drown."
00:39:29.424 And she's like, "Why don't you focus on breathing, not on the—the
00:39:33.084 water?" And it was like God spoke in that moment of I'm
00:39:37.004 trying so hard to fight the water, to not drown, to not
00:39:40.784 die, instead of have my head lifted up, my eyes, where does my
00:39:44.544 help come from? It comes from the Lord.
00:39:46.484 Having my eyes fixed on God rather than not
00:39:49.844 sinning. And I believe that's gonna be something that sets some people free, to
00:39:53.664 stop focusing so much on not sinning and start focusing
00:39:57.684 on the God who's paid for your sin, who wants you to live in freedom,
00:40:01.644 who wants you to find freedom by knowing Him and living a life of
00:40:05.644 freedom in Christ. Would you please stand to your feet if you're able
00:40:09.084 to? I wanna pray for you before we close
00:40:12.704 today. And, and I believe every single one of us in the room, we can experience
00:40:16.624 more freedom, right? 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, "The Lord
00:40:20.684 is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
00:40:23.964 freedom." That every one of us can have more freedom because
00:40:27.844 there's more of God to be had. There's more of His Spirit in us and through
00:40:31.784 us and in our, in His presence. So I just wanna pray.
00:40:34.324 If you're here today and you say, "I just want more freedom.
00:40:36.544 I wanna find that next level of freedom for my life," just to
00:40:40.424 lift up your hands, open your hands, just as a posture saying, "Yes, God, I
00:40:44.364 want more of you," and I wanna pray a blessing on you.
00:40:47.724 Heavenly Father, I pray for every single person here who wants more
00:40:51.544 freedom. God, we all can acquire more freedom in our lives.
00:40:55.504 We can obtain more of you, God. We can know more about you.
00:40:59.184 God, we can know you in a more real and personal way.
00:41:02.284 So Father, I pray that your freedom, the true freedom that comes from when the
00:41:06.364 Son sets us free, that true spiritual
00:41:09.544 liberation, the kind that Rachel was sharing about that the thoughts and the
00:41:13.264 feelings and the lifestyle that she used to live don't even come into her mind
00:41:16.764 anymore, that she understands and lives now a life
00:41:20.424 spiritually free, physically free, mentally free.
00:41:24.064 God, that you want more freedom for us, God, and I pray that we, each and every
00:41:28.044 one of us, would walk in a greater level of freedom so that we'd
00:41:31.924 use our freedom to help others get set free as
00:41:34.984 well. In the same moment, if, if you're here
00:41:37.984 today and you don't know how you can get set free,
00:41:42.224 you don't know God in a real and personal way, I'm inviting you
00:41:46.184 to make the decision to say yes to Him, to
00:41:50.124 know God the Father, because of what Jesus Christ has done for
00:41:54.064 you. Through the empowering, the grace of the Holy Spirit, you
00:41:58.004 can know God. And when you know God, you can know that He is more than
00:42:02.004 enough to pay for your sins. Maybe you're facing addiction right
00:42:05.864 now. Maybe you're dealing with some, some bad habits that just keep creeping up
00:42:09.804 in your life. I wanna pray for you.
00:42:13.644 I pray right now, Father, that you would bring freedom to each and every person
00:42:17.324 who's dealing with addiction, who's dealing with depression, suicidal
00:42:21.164 thoughts, anxiety. Unworthiness, shame, guilt,
00:42:25.148 whatever it is, Father, I pray that you would break off the chains and
00:42:28.668 bondage of addiction, you'd break off the lies and the false
00:42:32.468 identities that people have been carrying around for far too long.
00:42:35.868 God, that you would break off every evil, lying thought that people
00:42:39.828 are having right now or even have been having.
00:42:42.408 God, that you would bring freedom to your people, that Jesus,
00:42:45.888 you, what you did on the cross was more than enough to pay for
00:42:49.768 our sins, to remove our sins as far as the east is from the
00:42:53.568 west, to renew us, to wash us as clean and white as
00:42:57.388 wool. Father, I pray you're washing, your Spirit right now would move on each and
00:43:00.828 every person's heart. As we say yes to you, we wanna say yes
00:43:04.748 to feeding the Spirit of God within us, not our sinful
00:43:08.308 nature. And God, that we'd use our freedom from this moment
00:43:11.708 forward to help other people get set free.
00:43:14.808 In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Well, let's give
00:43:18.728 God a great big hand. Celebrate what He does and who He is.
00:43:22.588 You can be seated. Uh, I actually invite everyone at this time, if you have your
00:43:26.188 cellphone, you could actually hold that to the connection, to the tap card on
00:43:30.128 the back of the seat in front of you.
00:43:31.988 You can fill out a connection card on there.
00:43:34.388 You can also fill out a form that says, "I wanna give my life to
00:43:38.308 Jesus." If you wanna begin a relationship with God or you wanna
00:43:42.188 find out more information about what does that mean, fill out that
00:43:45.908 form through that tap card. That's the best way to do it. Use your phone.
00:43:49.088 You can scan that QR code, fill out the form.
00:43:51.228 You can also sign up for baptism, as you're gonna hear about in just a few moments.
00:43:54.928 Uh, that's a great way to connect with us so we can keep you connected with what
00:43:58.688 God is doing right here at Freedom Church.
00:44:00.788 At this time, Sly's gonna come on up and close us out with a few
00:44:04.768 announcements and opportunities.
>> Sly
00:44:07.248 Thank you, thank you. Appreciate that.
00:44:08.788 Hey, I just want to acknowledge Pastor Eric and Miss Rachel.
00:44:12.708 Thank you so much for bragging on God through your message and also through your
00:44:16.588 testimony. That was absolutely incredible because, I actually wor—
00:44:20.468 once heard it said that strongholds or idols, they ask,
00:44:24.648 they ask for, they, they ask for nothing and give you everything,
00:44:28.108 right? And by the end, they, they take everything from you and
00:44:32.128 ask, and, and ask for nothing. And so
00:44:35.248 you can stay there. It's easy to stay there for a long time and, and then to go
00:44:38.768 into your own sustainability and your own fortitude.
00:44:42.048 Uh, but eventually you come to an end where you become into a pit, you become into
00:44:46.048 being bound to that. And so thank the Lord for their stories today.
00:44:49.768 Thank the Lord for the truth that sets us free, and telling our truths
00:44:53.768 can set other people free. So I'm really, compelled and encouraged
00:44:57.508 by, by the story today. And, if you're here today, I'm just so thankful
00:45:01.428 that you are, present today because,
00:45:04.888 if, if, if you can be reminded of finding freedom, it's a beautiful
00:45:08.848 thing to find. It's a beautiful thing to, to think about.
00:45:12.688 Uh, but also there's a reality, whether that, that prison door was
00:45:16.408 open or that pit that you came out of and you were running really hard,
00:45:19.828 eventually maybe you gassed out, right?
00:45:22.988 Maybe the comfortability of what was left behind starts to
00:45:26.928 sink in a little bit more, and you needed people to remind
00:45:30.728 you of your true purpose, the reason why you left there in the first
00:45:34.168 place, and that's what I believe the church is.
00:45:36.528 And so, as we get ready to prepare for tithes and offering,
00:45:40.528 I hope that you guys would be reminded of that today.
00:45:43.388 That more than just obedience, and a discipline,
00:45:47.448 and, and even just a, a depiction of an adoration to God, that you'd be
00:45:51.428 reminded that it's also paving the way.
00:45:52.968 That someone before you was faithful enough to give to the church,
00:45:56.888 right? To give to equipping the saints so that, that way you could hear
00:46:00.848 the Word. Hear that you could hear the living Word of God.
00:46:04.168 And so on today as we prepare to give our tithes and offerings,
00:46:08.148 I'm gonna pray. But before that I want to give, just ways of, of
00:46:12.128 giving. And so you can tap the, the card in front of you, and that would take
00:46:15.708 you online. You can also give, through, if you have
00:46:19.468 Zelle on your, on your, with your bank, you can also give it that way as well.
00:46:23.468 If you would rather give cash or check, there's a box in the back of the auditorium
00:46:27.448 that you actually can go to, and there are some people back there that can direct
00:46:30.448 you as well. Um, if you do have the Church Center app, you can actually click on
00:46:34.468 there and there's a section in there that says Give.
00:46:36.768 If you click on that, it'll actually take you through the process of how you can
00:46:39.628 give. Hey, I'm gonna pray, and then I'm just gonna put a couple things in front of
00:46:42.828 you to put on your radar for the rest of this week.
00:46:45.068 God, we come to you now. We thank you that we are not what has
00:46:48.868 happened to us, and it's because of you that we are reminded of that.
00:46:52.048 I thank you for what you're doing with the, the saints right
00:46:55.828 now, not only in Freedom Church but just in this world, that are reminding
00:46:59.568 others of who you are and whose we are.
00:47:01.948 Our God, I pray that today as we give, I pray that it is out of obedience, but I
00:47:05.728 also pray that it's with an attitude of gratitude and with a posture of
00:47:09.628 joy, God, and that we know that we are paving a way for others to hear your
00:47:13.648 Word, your truth, that can set others free, God. And we give all these things.
00:47:17.468 Let them be a sweet aroma unto you. In your name we pray and we love you so much.
00:47:21.388 Amen.
00:47:22.888 Hey, if you are new here, we welcome you.
00:47:25.188 We are so thankful that you are here because maybe Sunday
00:47:29.108 is easy. You know, as we come into the spring, it's a little bit easier.
00:47:32.688 You kinda wanna wake up, get that coffee, get that walk in, just open up the,
00:47:36.488 the, the shades and just kinda enjoy the day, but maybe Friday, maybe
00:47:40.168 Saturday's really hard for you. May—maybe there's something going on in your life
00:47:43.628 that would hinder you from actually wanting to come.
00:47:45.568 So I'm thankful that you made a, an effort to come
00:47:48.988 here. If you're a teenager, maybe you actually were just told to come here, or
00:47:52.488 maybe you're like five or six years old and your parents just woke you up, but
00:47:55.628 you're here, and we're so thankful that you're here.
00:47:57.688 And because of that, we just wanna give you a token of our appreciation.
00:48:00.668 If you were to go back to the connection point, we will actually give you a
00:48:04.268 little—a little gift. And also you can, scan the QR code and,
00:48:08.208 there's a connec—there's a connection card on there that you can fill out, just so
00:48:10.968 we can get your information. That way we can continue to let you know what's going
00:48:14.888 on at Freedom Church. Um, next we have next steps.
00:48:18.688 So next steps is actually right after this service.
00:48:21.628 And as a way to give—
00:48:23.360 —or find out more about what's going on at Freedom Church, how
00:48:27.360 you can get connected. Also meet Pastor Eric, meet Rachel, meet some
00:48:31.240 other people that are in the church.
00:48:32.880 Um, and if, if even for whatever reason if you're like, "Hey, I, I don't even know
00:48:36.640 what next steps is. I don't necessarily know if I even wanna hear more about it,"
00:48:44.040 it's, it's so important that, that we
00:48:48.060 collectively come into community because we are ripe for a fall when we
00:48:52.040 isolate. And, and I really, I really want you guys to know that because it's
00:48:56.060 so important that you don't leave here holding onto the
00:48:59.860 same schemes and lies that you might have come in with.
00:49:02.460 And maybe that collectively as a family or individually, I really urge you to come
00:49:06.280 afterwards. You can get some lunch.
00:49:08.280 Um, maybe stay away from that donut you were maybe thinking about, right?
00:49:11.200 'Cause he put in that—that seed in you earlier.
00:49:13.580 Stay away from that donut and stay after and get to know some people, even if it's
00:49:17.140 not for lunch. But it, it's a great way to just get to know other people in the
00:49:20.920 church as well. And lastly, I leave you with this.
00:49:22.880 This is water baptisms, March 22nd,
00:49:26.860 okay? And if you wanna know more information about that, you can scan the
00:49:30.700 QR code. But, but bottom line, water baptism is an
00:49:34.080 external declaration of an internal decision, and you accepting the
00:49:38.020 Lord into your, into your life. So whether you've been walking with the Lord for
00:49:41.020 years and maybe you've never done that, maybe you did it when you were younger and
00:49:44.120 you're like, "I don't even remember actually making that declaration," this is a
00:49:46.760 great way to, to, to get some information and, and, and
00:49:50.660 actually make that declaration. If you are new to, to the faith, this is
00:49:54.660 a great way to get some more information, not only Pastor Eric, but there are other
00:49:57.880 people here that would love to talk to you more about
00:50:01.400 baptism and just talk to you overall about life.
00:50:03.540 Get coffee, get lunch, just do life with one another.
00:50:07.040 Um, I'm gonna pray, and I hope you guys have a wonderful,
00:50:10.920 beautiful, lovely day. God, we come to you now, and we thank you so
00:50:14.760 much for this, this day that you've given us. Thank you for being the owner of it.
00:50:18.760 Thank you for your faithfulness, and because of that, Lord, we get to know
00:50:22.700 our true purpose in life. We get to walk, Lord, no longer,
00:50:26.940 bound, no longer, i—in lies and
00:50:30.480 schemes, but Lord, we get to live freely.
00:50:32.479 And in living freely, Lord, I pray that you will continue to lay the
00:50:36.320 next step. Lay, lay the—the next brick there that you have us to walk in,
00:50:39.980 God, and that we continue to work, walk in purpose, continue to walk with meaning,
00:50:43.640 continue to walk with value. Thank you for, all, everyone gathered here
00:50:47.340 today. I pray for those that are even online, God.
00:50:49.980 I pray that they would be connected into community as well, that they would not
00:50:53.440 feel ashamed, not feel alone, not feel isolated
00:50:57.440 away from you, but, but that they would get to know you more.
00:50:59.880 And we give all these things up to you, God. Thank you for loving us first.
00:51:03.120 And amen. You guys have a great Sunday, and we'll see you next
00:51:06.600 week.