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Summer is in full swing and going super fast. I know the last Thursday and Friday were terrible with the Canadian wildfires, and I just pray, please pray for those people, because if it was that bad here, and we really shouldn’t have went outside, can you imagine how it is up there? I just feel bad. So July often includes like 4th of July, watching fireworks, doing outdoor picnics, just the nation’s independence.You know, we have freedom of speech and freedom of worship. You know, not other countries can sit in a place of worship and worship, they have to sneak to do it. I remember watching fireworks as a child, and we were at my mom’s parents’ on the porch in 1976 during the Bicentennial, and I remember that we had the Bicentennial t-shirts, and do you remember that, Rob? Or were you too young? You were probably three.So it was just beautiful. But I never really knew the meaning of freedom until I was older. Like I said, the freedom of speech, of worship openly, to pursue a good life over here in the US.Many people, many men and women sacrificed greatly so we could have those freedoms. And like I said, we celebrate with fireworks, barbecues, picnics, family vacations, reunions. But today, I wanna set that aside and talk about an even greater, deeper freedom, and that is true freedom, freedom that only Jesus can offer.Bless you. So Galatians 5, one, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. I did this PowerPoint, I should probably use it.Oh, are you doing it for me? Thank you. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.So Paul tells us there that we don’t have to have chains that tie us down. We don’t have to have burdens of worry. And as your guest speaker today, I’m just a fellow follower on this journey of life.And I have experienced God’s grace so many times throughout the years to know it’s true and it’s life-changing, just as I had just explained to you. I don’t think I ever shared that testimony in church before, but the ones that have been here forever knew what I went through. You know, I don’t do drugs.I drink very seldom. And I do have a bad habit that I’m trying to get rid of, and it’s gonna be today. So let’s explore what true freedom means, why we need it, and how Jesus provides it, and what it looks like in everyday life through the fruit of the Holy Spirit.The Holy Spirit, like Pastor Steve had talked about, produces fruit in us. And like myself, I am sure some of you are still in bondage with some chains. You know, we don’t have to stay in chains and bondage.And what that happens is, you know, when we have chains on us, God cannot, you know, it keeps us from the total freedom God wants us to have and experience. We cherish the idea of being free, yet many of us feel trapped. We chase freedom, but we chase it by doing whatever we want to do.And that’s called false freedoms. And independent from rules, responsibilities, we find ourselves enslaved to worry, bitterness, bad habits, anger, or the pressure to impress others. It’s kind of like a prisoner that’s released from jail, but they didn’t take the chains off.Like, he’s thinking, oh, I’m free. You know, but he still has the shackles on his legs, and he still has handcuffs on his, like he can’t do what he is meant to do. The other analogy I had was, you know, when we’re on vacation, we’re supposed to really be on vacation away from work and away from the daily task.For laying on the beach, I think I have one of them. I thought I put these in order. So we’re on vacation, but you’re not totally free if you’re checking your work emails, if you’re taking work phone calls, if you’re taking texts from work.Like, that’s really not a true vacation. Romans 6, 16 through 18. Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey? Whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness.But thanks be to God that though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. So maybe today you’re feeling chained up still, you might have some financial pressures, family tensions, health concerns, or the one thing in your life that you can’t seem to quit doing, or just the general weariness of life.And the great news is God doesn’t leave us stuck. He provided us a way to live our life the way he intended us to live it. And the cross will always be more meaningful than the flag when it comes to true freedom.And I’m not saying anything bad about the flag. You know, we have the freedom from all the men and women that sacrificed, and I am grateful for that. But the cross is where true freedom comes in, what Christ did for us, freedom on the cross.It is for, Paul says, it is for freedom that Christ sets us free. Jesus declared our independence on the cross. By his death and resurrection, he broke the power of sin and death.When we put our trust in him, we are set free indeed. And that was John 8, 36. This freedom is twofold, freedom from guilt, condemnation, fear of death, and the need to earn God’s favor.We don’t need to earn God’s favor. You know, he loves us just as we are. Freedom for a new way of living, loving God and serving others.So, I think I read Galatians 5, 13. You, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in love.Love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So, instead of using our freedom to indulge in fleshly things that we want to do, because I remember a couple weeks ago, Pastor Steve said, of course sin is fun, feels good, you know? But that’s not what God wants us to do.Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. True freedom isn’t self-indulgence. It’s liberty to become who God created us to be and to bless those around us.So, what does true freedom look like day to day? So, to walk by the spirit, you will then not gratify the desires of the flesh. The closer you get to God, I don’t even know why I did this. Okay.The closer you get to God, the more you’re gonna have the fruit of the spirit from the Holy Spirit and not the acts of flesh. So, I know Pastor Steve touched or talked about this, so I’m just touching on it. So, we wanna get rid of the fleshly things that we want to do that feel so great sometimes.And then we want to walk more by the spirit and let the spirit lead us. So, freedom is not selfishness. Use your freedom of speech to encourage one another.Use your freedom of worship to draw nearer to God. Freedom of time to serve someone else. Freedom of resources to bless somebody else.Freedom of forgiveness to empower someone to move them into the action of love instead of having unforgiveness in their heart because we know that Jesus says if we don’t forgive others, he can’t forgive us. Most of it, this is not done on our own willpower. It is done by the Holy Spirit.So, helping the Holy Spirit helps us take these steps of faith. So, the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside of us. If we have accepted Jesus as our savior, that same Holy Spirit, it’s not a little kid’s Holy Spirit.It’s not a teenager’s Holy Spirit. It’s not an adult Holy Spirit. It is the same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead that lives inside of each of us.And we are called to do more than what he did. You know, I can’t, sometimes I wonder how’s that possible but we are told that we’re supposed to be his hands and his feet and his mouthpiece and we are to do more than when he walked here on this earth. As we grow closer to God, the Holy Spirit produces more fruit in us, in our character.So, for example, if you’re dealing with road rage, I don’t drive anymore to work, so God has taken that from me. So, if you’re dealing with difficult family members or road rage or, you know, show patience and gentleness. If your plans change suddenly or you become disappointed in something that you really wanted to do and you can’t do it anymore, your plans change, come show peace and joy instead of getting angry and disgusted, you know, show peace and joy.Like, it’ll all work out, it’ll be fine. In our daily interactions at your family gatherings or work or church, social events, show kindness, goodness, and love. Now, in keeping our commitments, show faithfulness and self-control.You know, there’s nothing worse than when somebody commits to something and then you’re standing there like half an hour prior to doing something they back out or they just don’t show up. So, show faithfulness and self-control if you’re committing to something, commit to it. A good way to do this is doing a self-check at the end of each day, reflect on which fruit was evident in your life that day and which acts of flesh tried to creep up in your life that day.So, the goal isn’t perfection overnight, but a steady growth as we depend on God. And so, as we, so the closer we build our relationship with Jesus, because it’s not performance for anyone, it’s not religious acts, it’s about a relationship with him, so, you know, you don’t have to, you know, I love this church so much because we can kind of just, well, there’s an angel over us named Freedom that just came to my mind. Years and years ago, it was proclaimed that there is an angel over the church in the area named Freedom.So, you know, we have the freedom in this place to dance and run around the church. We had somebody doing cartwheels one year. Like, we are free to do whatever the Holy Spirit leads us to do and not be ashamed of it, you know, because we are letting the Holy Spirit lead us.And the spiritual gifts in this place, like, it’s powerful when people use them. I think a lot of people probably have words of encouragement and messages that they’re afraid, you know, to come up front or to say. I think if we, as a church, let the Holy Spirit move and not, you know, excuse me.And not squinch the, I don’t know if that’s a word, squelch the Holy Spirit, you know, this place would explode. Like, I think God really wants to do things in this place. I think we are holding back.I think that’s how I think. So, learn to hear his voice. Learn to listen for it.Take time, even if it’s five minutes at the end of the day, you know, ask him, you know, what could I have done better? Or what did you have for me to do and I missed it? You know, they say that he doesn’t give us, he won’t do the little things, or he won’t give us little things if we, you know, if we don’t do the little things that he has for us, he won’t give us the big things. So, maybe ask him at the end of the day, you know, what could I have done better? Or what did I miss? You know, what did you have for me that I missed? So, on this Sunday, we’re gonna celebrate that Jesus breaks the chains of sin, shame, fear, condemnation, spiritual bondage, and we can walk in the new life that he has for us. Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.And true freedom is found in Christ. So, we’ll close up by talking about the four freedom practices. So, walking with the Lord in scripture.Before you sit down in the mornings or at night, whenever you read your Bible, ask him, you know, ask him, what do you wanna show me? What do you want me to see here? Ask Jesus for help with that one thing that you need freed from to overcome. Number three, use your freedom to love one another. Serve someone, call that one person that you’ve been putting off, text someone, encourage them, and then practice the spiritual pause.So, the spiritual pause is when you’re dealing with someone that might be difficult or you’re going through a situation and you typically react before, talk before thinking. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you that pause. So, before you speak, before you react, before you post something on social media, before you send that text because you’re so mad, ask for that pause and ask the Holy Spirit, how should I respond? How would you have me respond? It’s definitely not gonna be the same way as what you wanted to respond, I’m sure.So, really, I know that was short, but that’s okay. I really wanted to just say that, you know, yes, July represents July 4th and Independence Day, but the real, true freedom is in Christ. You know, he gives us so much more and he can grace us and make every day just new for us.So, if we can start in the habit of, you know, opening up our Bibles every morning or right even before you get out of bed, thank him, thank him for letting you wake up that day. You know, thank you, God, that my eyes are open and I’m breathing, you know, because I, these days are coming, they’re coming to the end, I believe, with everything going on. I just think that, you know, we’re definitely towards the end times and, you know, we’re gonna definitely enjoy our life in eternity, so much more than here, but he wants us to have abundant life here and enjoy, you know, let it be on earth as it is in heaven.So, we are supposed to enjoy all that now, too. So, I just wanted to just say a prayer and if anyone, I had asked Jason and the worship team to do that, you know, Waymaker song again. If anyone wanted to come up and, you know, we don’t need to pray for you unless you want us to, but if you wanna just take that time during that song or you can do it in your seat, just take that time with that song playing to really just repent and start to stay fresh and let those chains fall off.You know, that’s what Jesus wants for each and every one of us and I think, you know, if we take care of ourselves individually, this church is going to, you know, hold the 300 and we’re gonna have to make new buildings and, you know, we’re gonna have all that stuff that was prophesied over us. You know, he has blessed us all these years still here. So, when other churches are unfortunately closing, you know, he has plans for us here.So, Father God, we thank you for the many blessings that you give us each and every day. We are thankful for all the sacrifices those men and women have done for our national freedom. We thank them for our liberty, our safety, and opportunity in this great U.S. of A. But as Christians, God, we celebrate an even greater declaration of independence and it wasn’t won by war or guns.It was by the cross and what Jesus sacrificed for us. We thank you for allowing each and every one of us the chance to have true freedom in you and we thank you, Jesus.