I remember the day I turned 16. I was on a short-term mission trip serving churches around Oregon. My team made it a great day filled with memories as I celebrated with 800 of my closest friends. Yeah, you heard the number correctly. Although I knew only about 10 of them, it was still a pretty big birthday bash. The only bad thing about being on a short term mission trip the day you turn 16 is that you have to wait another 6 weeks to head to the DMV so that you can take your dreaded driving test, knowing that the DMV employee is the only person standing between you and your independence. Talk about pressure! But then you have your license--Freedom! You can go anywhere, do anything, conquer the world, no longer walking or riding your bike, escaping the horrible oppression of your family... (OK, I might have made that one up... Sorry Mom!)
But you get it--a license to finally go where you want to go, do what you want to do, and live your life the way you want to... Or so you thought, until that first time you saw flashing lights in your rear-view mirror and were reminded that it really isn't a license to do anything. There are boundaries.
This week as we continue our study of Galatians, Paul begins to unpack the rest of his freedom message. He spent a lot of time focused on legalism, but there's another extreme he wants his readers to be aware of: license. Paul wants the Galatian believers (and us) to know that not only have we been FREED from something, we've been freed FOR something. The freedom we have as believers has a purpose, and that purpose is found in between the extremes of legalism and license. So what does it look like to live out our freedom in Christ? That's the question we're looking at this week.
--Pastor Chris Voigt
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free