“Serve One Another” 1-15-23

Overview

Called to Freedom, Called to Serve

Life is full of "do's and don'ts." Even the Ten Commandments, when we hear them apart from the gospel, can feel like a parent's running list of cautions—heavy with law, demanding either avoidance or performance we cannot sustain. Paul addresses this very tension in Galatians 5:13: "For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another."

The freedom Paul speaks of is not a license to "do you." That kind of unrestrained autonomy is really self-indulgence, and it leads back to the works of the flesh Paul lists in Galatians 5:19-21—not merely individual sins, but a whole orientation of the heart away from God. The freedom we have been given is something far greater: freedom from the curse of the law, which is eternal death and separation from God. As Galatians 3:13-14 declares, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." On the cross Jesus took our sin upon Himself, and in His resurrection He secured for us eternal life with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So what is this freedom for? Paul lifts the old command of Leviticus 19:18—"You shall love your neighbor as yourself"—to a new height. The Christian life is not a grim ledger of do's and don'ts but a life governed by the law of love, empowered by the Spirit. Christ Himself is love in the flesh, and through His Spirit we are freed and equipped to fulfill what the law could only demand. We don't have to serve one another out of fear; we get to serve one another out of love.

There is one more dichotomy worth naming: serving and being served. Pride often makes us willing to help but reluctant to receive help. Notice that Paul writes we are to become "slaves to one another"—plural, mutual. When a brother or sister is in need, lend a hand. And when a brother or sister offers to help you, let them. To refuse to be served is to deny another saint the joy of exercising the very freedom God has given them. This is the shape of our fellowship: a community where, every day, we are free to serve the Lord by serving one another.

Transcript

If you would please open your Bibles to Galatians, the fifth chapter, will be studying out of Galatians, 2s

the fifth chapter. 10s

Have any of you spent any extent of time around a toddler? 13s

There are days. 21s

There are days when you are with a toddler, where it feels like the only word that is said 23s

is no or some former fashion of no. 28s

And it can wear us out. 35s

It feels like even within the positives of a good day with a toddler, it is still heavy with 40s

the caution with the don't, with the law of the parent. 50s

And there's a dichotomy. 60s

There's a dichotomy that we find in life, especially with the toddler. 61s

Do this, don't do that. 68s

Do go to bed early, don't stay up late. 71s

Do eat your broccoli, don't eat that candy. 75s

And the 10 commandments, when we read the 10 commandments, we can really look at those as 81s

a list of do's and don'ts. 88s

And a lot of times we read the 10 commandments, or we hear the 10 commandments as the toddler. 93s

Don't, don't, don't. 100s

But really, in those 10 commandments, we have both don'ts and do's, do's and don'ts. 103s

Don't kill, do help your neighbor. 112s

Don't lie, do speak well of your neighbor. 115s

Don't swear, do use the Lord's name in circumstances of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. 120s

But the burden of the law is still hanging there. 129s

Because as we read through the 10 commandments, as we hear them, we hear the do's and the don'ts. 136s

Much like a toddler hears the parent, do and don't. 144s

And it still remains heavy with law. 149s

Still, something that we either have to avoid or that we have to live up to. 153s

And we have that dichotomy of life constantly. 161s

The do versus the don't. 166s

The nuance, the nuance between the do and the don't is still heavy with the law. 171s

And the law brings about a split. 181s

The law, as we read scripture, brings about the split between the Gentile and the 185s

Jew, between the slave and the free. 191s

And our reading today is also filled with these dichotomies. 195s

You were called to freedom, be cake, become slaves to one another. 200s

Love your neighbor, love yourself. 204s

Last week, we launched into a new sermon series. 208s

And we began as a congregation to reflect, to reflect on the picture that God has given us 213s

for his church, the vision that he gives us. 224s

And we lifted praise to the Lord for calling us into fellowship with one another through 228s

Jesus Christ. 236s

And we are going to spend the rest of this sermon series looking at how that expresses 238s

itself today, we're going to explore the reality of the fellowship that we have as 245s

God's people, as a church, as we are called to serve one another. 254s

Let's go to chapter 5 verse 13, just that first part of our verse. 266s

We're Paul Wrights, for you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. 273s

Freedom, freedom is such a beautiful word. 280s

Freedom is a word that is so filled with possibilities. 285s

Do you remember the first time you went grocery shopping without mom and dad? 289s

Freedom. 295s

Freedom. 296s

And what did you do with that freedom? 297s

You bought fruity pebbles, Oreos, and hot dogs, and you were ready for a feast. 299s

Freedom has a lot of possibility in it. 305s

Freedom means absolutely no restraint. 311s

If we are free, nothing is holding us back. 316s

Nothing is stopping us from living, holy, and completely autonomous lives. 322s

You know the saying, you do you. 328s

That is freedom. 331s

But. 338s

But that freedom, when we look to freedom in that sense, that is something that is called 342s

anti-nominomialism. 350s

That is anti law. 353s

That is we are completely free. 354s

It is a you do you. 356s

Your truth is your truth. 358s

My truth is my truth. 360s

I am going to do act say think whatever I want and it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks 361s

does. 373s

Says believes because we are free. 376s

Let's look at a Galatians again. 386s

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters, only do not use your freedom as an 389s

opportunity for self indulgence. 396s

Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self indulgence. 401s

And here we have that dichotomy of freedom and self indulgence. 408s

You are free. 416s

You absolutely are free. 419s

But let's look at what we're free from. 422s

If we go back just a couple of chapters to Galatians 3, verses 13 and 14, we find exactly 425s

what we are free from. 434s

Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit writes Christ redeemed us from the curse 436s

of the law by becoming a curse for us. 442s

For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. 447s

In order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so 451s

that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. 456s

We have been called to a freedom of freedom from the curse of the law. 462s

What is the curse of the law? 469s

The curse of the law is death. 471s

And we're not talking about physical death alone. 475s

The curse of the law is eternal death. 480s

It's eternally separated from God, the Father's Son and Holy Spirit. 484s

But instead of letting us continue in our lives as sinners under the curse, 490s

under the curse to be damned, under the curse to experience the eternal wrath and punishment 498s

of God, the Father that we so rightly have earned and deserved in our sinful nature. 506s

Instead, instead of that we have been freed. 516s

We are freed from the eternal consequence of the law. 522s

When Jesus Christ hung upon the cross, when He suffered, 529s

He took our sin upon Himself. 535s

When He rose triumphant from the grave, when that tomb was found to be empty, 538s

when Christ showed Himself alive again, risen indeed, 543s

He has shown that we are eternally free. 548s

We live in eternal freedom from the curse of the law. 555s

We're free to live eternally with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 565s

Christ rescues us from the curse of the law. 575s

He rescues us from the punishment of the law not so that we can go and do as we please. 580s

If we jump down in Galatians chapter 5, we hear about doing as we please. 590s

In verse 19, Paul writes, the works of the flesh are obvious. 600s

Fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, 604s

emnities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, 609s

dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness, 613s

curousing, and things like these. 616s

Notice that when Paul speaks of things like these, 622s

he's saying these are things of the flesh. 627s

Earlier, he had told us not to use our freedom as an opportunity to self-indulge the flesh. 631s

He's not using the word sin, because the word sin brings us right back to the law. 641s

Here, he's bringing it to a new, height, a new level that it's not just a matter of the 654s

dues and the don'ts, but it's the matter of the heart. 663s

It's a matter of the spirit that is in us. 669s

Are we going to live by the spirit of God or by the flesh? 676s

The flesh actively works against God. 683s

The flesh, the flesh brings awareness to the nature of our sin. 693s

We have freedom in Christ, not to indulge the self. 705s

And Paul doesn't leave it there. 716s

He doesn't just say you're free and he doesn't just say you're free to not 719s

take the opportunity for self-indulgence, but he tells us exactly how to use this 725s

freedom. We're going back to verse 13. For you, we're called to freedom, brothers and sisters. 732s

Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for indulgence, but through love, 739s

become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment. 746s

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 753s

Through our freedom, we have the opportunity to look past ourselves. We have the opportunity 761s

to lift our gaze from our navel and see our neighbor. 772s

And we get to look to our neighbor and we get to serve our neighbor. 781s

Love your neighbor as yourself. That was given through Moses in Leviticus. 791s

It is part of the Levitical Law. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 799s

But in Galatians, in Galatians, Paul again brings this to a new height. 809s

And he brings it from the dew and the don't, which we will fail. We will fall. We will stumble 819s

and we'll give up. But Paul brings it to a new height. And he's showing us that the Christian life 828s

is not about being restrained by the law, but it's about being governed by the law of love. 836s

Christ is love in the flesh. The word of God made flesh love in its purest form is God. 846s

When I'm teaching the ten commandments to our conformance, we don't ever go past the 862s

we shall fear and love God so that. The so that in the explanation is so important, so critical 869s

because it takes it from the dew and the don't back to the Lord being good. The Lord filling 882s

us with the Spirit. And so we will fulfill the law of loving our neighbor because we are empowered 892s

by the spirit of love to do just that. We are free to love and serve one another. And the word for 902s

serve being slaves to one another. That is, that is giving your whole self to the others needs. 915s

We're going to talk about one more dichotomy because there's a dichotomy in serving. 928s

We have an incredible congregation and we partner with incredible ministry partners. And we have 936s

incredible missions that we do every single week, month, year, always working to serve the neighbor 949s

out of love. How many of us have fallen into the trap of self-indulgence in pride 960s

in refusing to be served? Paul does not write. He does not write that we are called to freedom 972s

to be a slave. He says we are called in freedom to be slaves to one another. There are times 987s

when we will be the one who gets the opportunity to serve. And it is glorious, getting to be the 1005s

ones in feet of God. I have never met anyone who has ever come back from helping someone saying, 1014s

go, that's stunk. Didn't like to help that person. But on the flip side of that, 1021s

if we are to have the opportunity to get to serve one another, 1031s

then we also have to give the opportunity for others to serve. Do you see that 1037s

that nuanced issue there of our pride that gets in the way and then we fall back to the flesh? 1049s

But we are never left high and dry in the flesh. And Jesus never commands something that 1061s

he himself will not make happen. He gives us the opportunity to show our love, to show his love 1075s

in this fellowship by serving one another. So when you see your brother or your sister in need, 1088s

lend a helping hand, offer to support, however that may be in that particular moment or that 1098s

particular brother or sister's life, and offer it with the freedom that we have to offer to serve. 1108s

And when a brother or sister comes to you and says, I want to help. 1118s

How can I support you? Give them the opportunity to love and exercise the freedom that God has given 1125s

them to love and serve you. We are free. We are free. And instead of you, do you and I'll do me, 1138s

we get to exercise the God or the love of God together with one another and for one another. 1154s

I can't accurately articulate the exciting nature of the opportunity that is serving one another 1162s

because it all comes from the Lord. The Lord has baptized you with his spirit. He has sealed you 1178s

into his spirit. He has called you into his spirit. His love and he has called you into his church, 1190s

into fellowship with him, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and into fellowship with one another 1202s

as the saints. So this week, I always love to give you something to do. You are free, 1211s

free to serve one another. And it's not a matter of do and don't or don't or do. 1222s

It is a matter of we get to. We get to. And my prayer for you as you serve and as you are served, 1233s

that you rejoice because God has called each and every one of us into this community of faith, 1248s

into this fellowship with one another where we are free. Every single moment of every single day 1257s

to serve the Lord by serving one another. Amen. 1268s