I’m free, Thank God Almighty, I’m free.

Steve Brown:
I’m free. Thank God almighty, I’m free. Let’s talk on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
Being adopted into the family of God is not about doing more or trying harder. It’s about being welcomed by God because of his radical grace, free from the penalties of sin and never alone in your suffering. That grace is what Key Life is all about.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. I hope you had a great weekend and I hope your pastor’s sermon was as good as my pastor’s sermon. Man, being a pastor is hard. And you say I’m tired of you saying that, but some of you, aren’t some places where I go, people come up to me and say, by the way, Brown, my pastor sermon was better than your pastor’s sermon. So I’m trying to start a movement of affirming one’s pastor. Cause they walk a hard road. Tell him that was a sermon that made a difference in your life. And then tell him why it made a difference in your life. He’ll rise up and call you blessed. We’re studying the book of Galatians and we’re going to be here a long time. There was a, I think I told you, but there was a road in Canada that said, choose your groove carefully, you’re going to be in it for the next 20 miles. That’s kind of where we are, this is the groove we’re going to be in for a long time as we take the time to study the book of Galatians. So if you have your Bible and you’re in a place where you can open your Bible, open it to the book of Galatians, and we’re going to be studying that. We’d been looking at the main themes in the book of Galatians. We did that last week and, and I’ve got one more theme and then we’re going to go to the next text. But before we do any of that, let’s pray. Father as we come into your presence, we come with joy. The joy of the forgiven. The joy of being accepted. The joy of having meaning in our lives. The joy of home. Father, we worship you because you made all of that possible. But if you had not done that, you’re still God. You’re the sovereign creator. You’re the sovereign ruler. You’re the sovereign sustainer of everything that we see and you’re worthy of our worship. Father as always, I pray for the people who are listening to this. You know their story, every bit of it. Cause you wrote it. And you’re sufficient for everything in that story. Remind us again that that is true. And then father do forgive the one who teaches his sins, because there are many, we would see Jesus and him only. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Okay. We’ve been looking at the themes that Paul sets up in the first 10 verses of Galatians. And we, we have seen that, uh, that, that Paul talks about truth. He talks about apostleship, talks about salvation. He talks about grace, and then he has one other theme that he, that he speaks of in these verses. Uh, he talks about freedom, Galatians 1:3

Grace to you

And then he flushes that out in Galatians 2:4

But because of false brethren secretly brought in– who slipped in spy out
our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus.

And Galatians 5:1

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.

Uh, there are a number of senses in which Christ gives us freedom. Paul said the good that I want to do, I can’t do this is Roman seven and the evil I don’t want to do, that’s what I do. What God does is gives you the freedom to walk with him when you don’t do what is pleasing to you. And then he said, Oh, wretched man, that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. And then he says, it’s Jesus, there’s a freedom to do things you couldn’t do before. Just say things you never would have said before to be places where you wouldn’t have gone before to be obedient in ways that you wouldn’t have been before, because you know that if you don’t, that you will be loved anyway. There’s the freedom to godliness. One of the problems is that sometimes when we teach the subject of freedom, and we want to make sure that we’re not giving people encouragement or license to sin. We say that freedom is a freedom to be obedient. And it is, but it’s a freedom to be disobedient too. And if that freedom isn’t there, the other freedom isn’t a freedom. It’s a constraint. And what we are promised is freedom. If you will know the truth, Jesus said, and the truth will set you free. And then he said, I’m the truth. And so there’s real freedom, not a made up freedom, not the kind of freedom that people who are really uptight, religiously teach you, but real freedom to be who you are to go where you are. To want to go, to be who you want to go. You know that story, and I’ve told you probably more than once, about the slave that Lincoln bought and he set her free, and he said, young lady you’re free. And she said, yeah, what does that mean? And does it mean I can say whatever I want to say. And he said, yes, that’s what it means. And she said, does that mean I can go wherever I want to go? And he said, yep. You can go wherever you want to go. Can I do whatever I want to do? And Lincoln said, yes, that’s what freedom is. You can do whatever you want to do. And then she said with tears, I think I’ll go with you. That’s where it comes from. I don’t. Man, I am free to do stuff that would shock you. And sometimes I think about it, but I don’t want to, cause I really want to go with him because of his love and his forgiveness and the knowledge that he will never let me go. That’s freedom. A Christian is free. Well, those are the themes that Paul talks about. It’s my hope that as we study the book of Galatians, that some people who are not believers will listen and run to Jesus, but more important, because this is what I do is I teach this to Christians. I have a belief and a desire that you get the Gospel too. And that you not only get saved by it, but you live by it, in the freedom that he offers. Someone has said the joy of freedom, is to remember the weight of the chains you wore when you were in prison. Oh my, it really is. So those are the themes, and those are the themes in the first 10 verses of the book of Galatians. Now the next text, and I don’t have time on this broadcast, cause it’s a long text. We’ll read it tomorrow, have to do with the proof of the pudding. And especially in the apostle Paul. As you know, uh, there are people in Galatia and certainly those who had come from outside and who were stirring up the congregation there, who put down Paul, who put down his apostleship, who said that he was not godly. Who said that his words were not truth. And so Paul spends considerable time and he does this in other places in the New Testament and in his Letters too. And trying to say, I’ve been called of God. And this is the reason I’ve been called of God. Do you ever, one time we were coming from church with my little brother and me, and we’re just a little kid and, uh, my, my brother’s, this really happened. There was a jar in the backseat of the car. And my parents were in the front seat and my brother’s smacked me up the side of the head with that jar. And I hit him back and then our parents separated us. By the way, we got better. As we got older, before he went to heaven, he was my best friend. He was my best friend, all of my life, and I still miss him. At any rate. He hit me with that jar. And our mother said to Ron, Ronnie, what did you do that for? And, and, and he said, cause I wanted to see if Steve was a real Christian. The pastor had preached that morning on turning the other cheek. And then Ronnie said to me, and you’re not. And, uh, so how do you know? I mean, where’s the proof in the pudding. When people say you can’t be a Christian and be like that and say those things and do that kind of thing. When they say that, where’s the proof? What is the, what is the evidence? It’s not what you think it is. What is the evidence of that truth? Well the Apostle Paul, sets that up in this next text that we’ll get into tomorrow, but he sets it up to say, this is why I’ve been called and then looking at him, we’ll learn something about ourselves. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. Steve Brown there, continuing his guided tour of Galatians today touching on the beautiful theme of freedom through Christ. We’ve explored the first 10 verses of the book so far and much more to discover tomorrow. It is our fond hope that you will join us then. So here’s a question for you. Have you ever flown and the airline just unexpectedly upgraded you to first class? If you haven’t, trust me, it’s an amazing feeling. Well, we’d like to give you something of that same kind of VIP experience by inviting you to join the Key Life CD family. If you’re not familiar, the Key Life CD family is what we call the group of folks who get two free CDs from Steve each and every year as funds permit, no cost ever, no commitment ever. They just show up in the mail. Upgrade. The audio is from talks from various events where Steve speaks throughout the year. Get in on this now by calling 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also drop an email to [email protected] and ask for the CDs. By mail, send your request to

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