Joshua Gruber: Waves at me.
Joshua Gruber: Everybody got all their fingers.
Joshua Gruber: We're good.
Joshua Gruber: Didn't go too crazy yesterday, July 4th, right?
Joshua Gruber: That's awesome.
Joshua Gruber: How how incredible how awesome it is.
Joshua Gruber: We get to celebrate our independence as Americans, but even more importantly, we get to celebrate our dependence as Christians, right?
Joshua Gruber: Our dependency on Jesus Christ.
Joshua Gruber: We have to depend on the Lord if we're going to make it through this life.
Joshua Gruber: Amen?
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: So I would be remiss if we didn't talk about freedom today.
Joshua Gruber: Right?
Joshua Gruber: Coming off of the 250th birthday of the United States, we're going to talk about freedom, but not just any old freedom.
Joshua Gruber: We're talking about freedom in Christ.
Joshua Gruber: Freedom in Christ, because true freedom is only found in Christ.
Joshua Gruber: Well, like Pastor said, obviously, I am not one of those guys that you saw on the screen.
Joshua Gruber: For those of you that don't know me, my name is Joshua Gruber.
Joshua Gruber: And I am truly honored and truly grateful for this privilege to Pastor Tyler and our elder team to be able to share with you this morning.
Joshua Gruber: We have an incredible pastoral team.
Joshua Gruber: Do we not here?
Joshua Gruber: Can we just give some credit where credit's due, please?
Joshua Gruber: Yeah.
Joshua Gruber: Yep.
Joshua Gruber: These men are absolutely incredible.
Joshua Gruber: They are godly men.
Joshua Gruber: And I'm so, so thankful to them and ultimately our Lord Jesus Christ for this opportunity.
Joshua Gruber: Before I go any further, I would like to pray.
Joshua Gruber: Lord Heavenly Father, Jesus, I thank you.
Joshua Gruber: I thank you, God.
Joshua Gruber: I thank you that because of your blood, we are free.
Joshua Gruber: Because of you, Jesus, we can walk in freedom.
Joshua Gruber: We don't have to be bound by our sin.
Joshua Gruber: We can walk in true freedom because of you and what you did on that cross.
Joshua Gruber: So, Lord, we give you all the praise and all the glory.
Joshua Gruber: I pray that you would open our ears, open our hearts this morning, that we would hear exactly what it is you want us to hear from your word, Jesus.
Joshua Gruber: We pray for chains to be broken in this place in Jesus' name.
Joshua Gruber: We pray for freedom in Jesus' name.
Joshua Gruber: God, I love you.
Joshua Gruber: I love you, Lord.
Joshua Gruber: In your mighty name we pray, and everybody said, Amen.
Joshua Gruber: So before we dive in to the word this morning, I want to give you just a brief portion of my testimony, just so you can get to know me a little bit better before, like I said, before we dive in.
Joshua Gruber: I was born in a Christian home with Christian parents.
Joshua Gruber: I knew the Lord at a very young age.
Joshua Gruber: I can honestly say that I had a relationship with the Lord starting out very young.
Joshua Gruber: But as I grew older, I uh I started to walk away.
Joshua Gruber: I started to walk away from the Lord, and it started very subtly.
Joshua Gruber: I saw some hypocrisy in the church, if you will.
Joshua Gruber: Um and I let the enemy just let that sink in, and I festered on that, and I festered on that.
Joshua Gruber: It started really subtle, it started really slow because how many of you know the enemy doesn't come after you with these big heavy chains to tie you up.
Joshua Gruber: No, he comes at you one link at a time.
Joshua Gruber: That's how he likes to come at us very subtly.
Joshua Gruber: And that's how it started with me.
Joshua Gruber: I saw some inconsistencies with people in the church.
Joshua Gruber: I knew them and I saw them outside of church, and the way they lived and what they were saying on Sunday didn't add up.
Joshua Gruber: And so I found that as an excuse to start living that way myself.
Joshua Gruber: So as I grew older, I started to get further and further away from my walk with Christ and deeper and deeper into sin.
Joshua Gruber: Deeper and deeper into sin.
Joshua Gruber: And before I knew it, I was completely bound.
Joshua Gruber: I was so deep in sin.
Joshua Gruber: I didn't care about the gospel.
Joshua Gruber: I didn't care about my walk with Christ.
Joshua Gruber: All I cared about was pleasing my flesh.
Joshua Gruber: And I lived that way for a while.
Joshua Gruber: But I'll tell you this: even in my darkest moments, even amongst the sin, the muck that I was in, I still remember very clearly God in his grace and in his mercy showing his love to me through conviction.
Joshua Gruber: There would be nights, I kid you not, I'd be driving home after the party was over and everybody went their own ways.
Joshua Gruber: I would drive, I was in my truck all by myself and I'd have to pull over.
Joshua Gruber: And all of a sudden I would just, I'd feel just this weight on me.
Joshua Gruber: But it was a it was a good thing.
Joshua Gruber: Even though I was literally just coming out of sin, I felt it, I felt good over this weight.
Joshua Gruber: And I would just start weeping.
Joshua Gruber: And in my heart, I could almost audibly hear the Lord saying, Joshua, when are you coming home?
Joshua Gruber: Son, when is enough enough?
Joshua Gruber: When are you coming home?
Joshua Gruber: Very much like the prodigal son.
Joshua Gruber: I walked away.
Joshua Gruber: God never walked away from me, though.
Joshua Gruber: He kept his hand on me my whole life, even though I was sinful, even though I was running from him.
Joshua Gruber: He pursued me in those moments, and I would weep.
Joshua Gruber: I would turn on a worship song.
Joshua Gruber: I'd repent.
Joshua Gruber: I'd stop living that life for a few days or so.
Joshua Gruber: And then I was right back in it.
Joshua Gruber: It was this ongoing cycle of sin, repenting, sin.
Joshua Gruber: It was just this ongoing thing.
Joshua Gruber: Till finally, again, God in his goodness and his grace woke me up.
Joshua Gruber: I realized that the life I was living was not sustainable.
Joshua Gruber: It wasn't good.
Joshua Gruber: I was going nowhere fast.
Joshua Gruber: And I didn't know what else to do.
Joshua Gruber: I'd stopped going to church at this time.
Joshua Gruber: So the only thing that I could do was call up the one pastor that I knew in my life.
Joshua Gruber: He's known me since I was a little kid.
Joshua Gruber: Call him Uncle Marvin.
Joshua Gruber: I called up Uncle Marvin.
Joshua Gruber: I said, man, you know me.
Joshua Gruber: You know what's going on.
Joshua Gruber: I said, if I'm gonna change, I have to get out of this town and I gotta get around Christian people.
Joshua Gruber: Because I grew up in a small town.
Joshua Gruber: I forgot to mention that.
Joshua Gruber: I grew up in a small town of Okeechobee, Florida.
Joshua Gruber: If you've never heard of Okeechobee, I don't blame you.
Joshua Gruber: That's fine.
Joshua Gruber: There's some good people there.
Joshua Gruber: But I called him up and I said, listen, I have to get out of this town and I have to get around Christian people.
Joshua Gruber: And he said, Well, have you heard of Master's Commission?
Joshua Gruber: I never heard of this before in my life.
Joshua Gruber: It was a discipleship Bible school program that was exactly what I needed in the time that I needed it.
Joshua Gruber: So I ended up there, ended up in Fort Myers, Florida.
Joshua Gruber: Ended up in Fort Myers, Master's Commission, and it was there that God wrecked me.
Joshua Gruber: I mean, He wrecked me.
Joshua Gruber: All that sin, all that bondage that I had accumulated, it was, it didn't take long that God said, we're gonna start breaking those chains.
Joshua Gruber: And it was the big stuff that came first, right?
Joshua Gruber: It was the drinking, it was the drugs, it was the promiscuity, it was those things that started to fall off first.
Joshua Gruber: And then as I furthered my walk with him, he started fine-tuning me, right?
Joshua Gruber: That's what he does.
Joshua Gruber: Even now, he's fine-tuning us, right?
Joshua Gruber: And now it was it was pride, it was bitterness, it was unforgiveness.
Joshua Gruber: He was starting to show things to me that that these gotta go.
Joshua Gruber: These gotta go.
Joshua Gruber: You see that thing that you're holding on to?
Joshua Gruber: Yeah, I died for that.
Joshua Gruber: You don't need to hold on to it anymore.
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: And it was liberating.
Joshua Gruber: It was liberating.
Joshua Gruber: It was, I was at that school for three years.
Joshua Gruber: It was where the Lord set me free.
Joshua Gruber: It was there I felt the call into pastoral leadership.
Joshua Gruber: It was also there where I met my beautiful wife.
Joshua Gruber: Yeah, amen.
Joshua Gruber: That's after Jesus, he is the greatest thing that happened, right?
Joshua Gruber: Come on.
Joshua Gruber: So it was there that I felt the call.
Joshua Gruber: When we were in that school, we traveled a lot.
Joshua Gruber: We did a lot of um like dance and drama and things like that.
Joshua Gruber: We traveled all over the United States.
Joshua Gruber: And we landed in Knoxville a lot during my three years at this school.
Joshua Gruber: We landed in Knoxville a lot.
Joshua Gruber: And it all the other states, all the other cities that I went to in my travels, I never felt like I felt when I was in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Joshua Gruber: There was just a poll.
Joshua Gruber: There was just a poll, and I can't explain it.
Joshua Gruber: I mean, it was the Lord, but I couldn't understand it.
Joshua Gruber: And so anytime we were here, I felt like this is where I was supposed to be.
Joshua Gruber: Well, I went back and finished up school.
Joshua Gruber: I graduated and I got into my first ministry position.
Joshua Gruber: I was a youth pastor for Uncle Marvin at his church in Jupiter, Florida.
Joshua Gruber: I was a youth pastor there for three years, and it was there that God really just really started to show me and teach me and continued to grow me.
Joshua Gruber: During that time, it just the call to Knoxville kept getting stronger and stronger.
Joshua Gruber: And we knew that at some point we were gonna leave.
Joshua Gruber: Well, the Lord said, All right, let's do this.
Joshua Gruber: And so my wife and I, excuse me, my pregnant wife and our eight-month-year-old baby, eight-month-year-old, eight-month-old baby.
Joshua Gruber: That didn't make sense.
Joshua Gruber: She was pregnant and we had one already.
Joshua Gruber: Said, now's the time.
Joshua Gruber: So we stepped out in faith.
Joshua Gruber: We didn't have family here, didn't have a job, lined up, no connections.
Joshua Gruber: It was a pure step out in faith, like, God, I trust you that this is what you've called us to do, so we're gonna do it.
Joshua Gruber: He called us to start a house church, and so we did.
Joshua Gruber: We did.
Joshua Gruber: Right before that, I think it's important to note that we were having dinner with some family friends of ours, of my parents also.
Joshua Gruber: They've known me since I was little.
Joshua Gruber: They used to live in Knoxville, and we were telling them we were moving up there to start a church, and they said, Oh, that's awesome! That's great.
Joshua Gruber: Hey, if you have any downtime, you should check out this church called Trinity Community Church.
Joshua Gruber: And I was just like, Yeah, sure, maybe, but I know I'm going up there for a purpose.
Joshua Gruber: I don't plan to get tied in anywhere, but thank you.
Joshua Gruber: Well, planning a church takes a little bit of time.
Joshua Gruber: There was about a six-month gap from the time we moved up here to Knoxville to when we actually started the house church.
Joshua Gruber: And so we didn't want to just be stagnant and do nothing.
Joshua Gruber: We did.
Joshua Gruber: We checked out some other churches in Knoxville, and then we ended up here.
Joshua Gruber: And right when we walked through those doors, man, it was just like electric.
Joshua Gruber: We could feel the presence of the Lord.
Joshua Gruber: I mean, everybody was just so welcoming, so loving.
Joshua Gruber: And it was hard.
Joshua Gruber: It was hard.
Joshua Gruber: I mean, every single one of the pastors came up to us at some point, introduced themselves, like, I want to take you out for lunch.
Joshua Gruber: We should hook up.
Joshua Gruber: And I'm like, no, no, no, no.
Joshua Gruber: I'm here for a reason.
Joshua Gruber: I can't get tied in here, but thank you.
Joshua Gruber: You know, and so we kept everyone at kind of an arm's length.
Joshua Gruber: Um, but it was hard.
Joshua Gruber: It was hard.
Joshua Gruber: So we we stepped out and we we then started our house church, and it was awesome.
Joshua Gruber: We had about five or six families that joined us throughout a three-year stretch.
Joshua Gruber: And about towards the end of that three years, my wife and I began to pray and fast, and we felt like it was time to lay it down because life was getting heavy.
Joshua Gruber: Life was getting heavy.
Joshua Gruber: And I found myself teaching and preaching from an like an empty well, and it wasn't good for anybody.
Joshua Gruber: It wasn't good for me, it wasn't good for the people there, and so we prayed and fasted, and we felt like it was time to lay it down.
Joshua Gruber: And God confirmed that in other ways.
Joshua Gruber: Some of the families got jobs out of state, all these other things.
Joshua Gruber: And so we laid it down at the Lord's feet.
Joshua Gruber: But even though we stopped doing house church, we didn't want to stop church altogether.
Joshua Gruber: And both my wife and I at separate times could not get this place out of our mind.
Joshua Gruber: You remember that that church we went, what was it called again?
Joshua Gruber: I don't even remember.
Joshua Gruber: Some community thing.
Joshua Gruber: We both thought the same thing at separate times.
Joshua Gruber: Like, you know what?
Joshua Gruber: In our process of trying to find where God wants us, let's just go start there.
Joshua Gruber: Let's just start there.
Joshua Gruber: So we did.
Joshua Gruber: We walked in those doors about four years ago this summer.
Joshua Gruber: We haven't left.
Joshua Gruber: It's been awesome.
Joshua Gruber: Now, I just I want to tell you all this again, just so you could get to know me just a little bit better.
Joshua Gruber: But also, the main takeaway from that testimony is the part that I walked away and I got really bound.
Joshua Gruber: I got really bound in sin.
Joshua Gruber: But because of God and his goodness and his grace, it was him and him alone that set me free.
Joshua Gruber: And that's the takeaway here.
Joshua Gruber: That's the takeaway here.
Joshua Gruber: So I'm gonna move right into the word this morning.
Joshua Gruber: Again, the title for this morning's message is Freedom in Christ.
Joshua Gruber: Freedom in Christ.
Joshua Gruber: And we're gonna be going through Galatians chapter 5, verses 1 through, I believe 18.
Joshua Gruber: Yes.
Joshua Gruber: 18.
Joshua Gruber: And if you've got your Bibles, go ahead and turn there.
Joshua Gruber: It's gonna be on the screen behind me.
Joshua Gruber: But while you're turning, I want to give a little bit of context of what's going on in this letter.
Joshua Gruber: Paul wrote this letter.
Joshua Gruber: If you didn't already know that, he wrote this letter to the churches in Galatia.
Joshua Gruber: These were the Galatians were fairly new believers at this time.
Joshua Gruber: Paul had established some churches there.
Joshua Gruber: But there were people that were opposing the gospel, the true gospel.
Joshua Gruber: The gospel that Paul was preaching, that justification came through faith alone.
Joshua Gruber: Well, there was a group of Jews that were coming in and confusing the Galatians and telling them preaching a false gospel.
Joshua Gruber: They were teaching them a false gospel.
Joshua Gruber: They were teaching that it was works-based, that righteousness could be found through works, not faith.
Joshua Gruber: And even more so, it was just a gross, perverted, twisted message that they were.
Joshua Gruber: And so Paul is combating this in the letter of Galatians to the Galatians, right?
Joshua Gruber: He's combating this, and he he does it very well.
Joshua Gruber: He does it very well.
Joshua Gruber: For freedom, Christ has set us free.
Joshua Gruber: Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Joshua Gruber: Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.
Joshua Gruber: I testify again that every man who accepts circumcision, that he is obligated to keep the whole law.
Joshua Gruber: I'm gonna pause really quick.
Joshua Gruber: So he's saying, if you're gonna take this one part of the law, you better be prepared to follow the whole thing.
Joshua Gruber: If you're gonna use just one part of it, get ready because you have to abide by the whole thing.
Joshua Gruber: And guess what?
Joshua Gruber: That's heavy.
Joshua Gruber: That's real heavy.
Joshua Gruber: That's too heavy for any man to bear on his own, right?
Joshua Gruber: Pick him back up.
Joshua Gruber: Verse five.
Joshua Gruber: For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.
Joshua Gruber: For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
Joshua Gruber: Only faith working through love.
Joshua Gruber: Verse 7 You were running well.
Joshua Gruber: Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
Joshua Gruber: Paul's saying, drop some names.
Joshua Gruber: Who was it?
Joshua Gruber: Tell me, I want to know who it was.
Joshua Gruber: He's getting he's getting feisty here.
Joshua Gruber: Who hindered you from the truth?
Joshua Gruber: This persuasion is not from him who calls you.
Joshua Gruber: A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
Joshua Gruber: I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view.
Joshua Gruber: And the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is.
Joshua Gruber: But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted?
Joshua Gruber: In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed.
Joshua Gruber: I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves.
Joshua Gruber: That's serious.
Joshua Gruber: You see what I mean?
Joshua Gruber: He's not, he took the gloves off here, just straight up.
Joshua Gruber: He's like, okay, first of all, who is it?
Joshua Gruber: Point them out.
Joshua Gruber: Secondly, I wish, like, give me their man card.
Joshua Gruber: They don't even deserve to be called a man anymore because they're preaching a gospel that isn't true.
Joshua Gruber: Right?
Joshua Gruber: That's how we should be when we hear a gospel that isn't true.
Joshua Gruber: Anyways, we're gonna keep going.
Joshua Gruber: Verse 13 for you were called to freedom, brothers.
Joshua Gruber: Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word.
Joshua Gruber: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Joshua Gruber: But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.
Joshua Gruber: We'll read the rest later.
Joshua Gruber: I'm gonna stop there.
Joshua Gruber: We're gonna go through three main points this morning.
Joshua Gruber: Three main points in which us as believers still tend to get caught up in bondage.
Joshua Gruber: I believe out of these three points come everything else that get us caught up in bondage.
Joshua Gruber: But Christ came to set us free, right?
Joshua Gruber: The first point is freedom from legalism.
Joshua Gruber: Freedom from legalism.
Joshua Gruber: Galatians 5:1.
Joshua Gruber: For freedom, Christ has set us free.
Joshua Gruber: Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Joshua Gruber: The yoke of slavery Paul is referring to here is exactly that legalism.
Joshua Gruber: It was the law.
Joshua Gruber: The law in which the Jews were teaching was burdensome.
Joshua Gruber: It was heavy.
Joshua Gruber: It was works-based.
Joshua Gruber: You had to do all of these things in order to be righteous or be declared righteous.
Joshua Gruber: And that's not true.
Joshua Gruber: We are not justified by works.
Joshua Gruber: We are justified by faith in Christ.
Joshua Gruber: Righteousness is declared, it is not earned.
Joshua Gruber: This word justified comes obviously from justification, the doctrine of justification, which is the theme all throughout Galatians that Paul is trying to get into their head.
Joshua Gruber: You are declared righteous by God because of faith in Jesus Christ.
Joshua Gruber: By grace, by grace alone, through faith alone, we're declared righteous.
Joshua Gruber: But again, I can't stress it enough.
Joshua Gruber: It's not your grace.
Joshua Gruber: It's not even your faith.
Joshua Gruber: It's the grace that he gives us by the faith that he gives us.
Joshua Gruber: It's from him, it's for him, it is to him.
Joshua Gruber: And it's our faith in his son that God looks at you and looks at me and says, You're justified.
Joshua Gruber: You're free.
Joshua Gruber: You are free.
Joshua Gruber: I believe it's it's so important as Christians, we have to understand the doctrine of justification because without it, we can't walk in freedom.
Joshua Gruber: Without understanding this doctrine of justification, we cannot walk in freedom.
Joshua Gruber: Let me tell you something here.
Joshua Gruber: I'm gonna I'm gonna quote Charles Spurgeon really quick.
Joshua Gruber: The moment a man truly trusts his God, he is justified.
Joshua Gruber: What does that mean?
Joshua Gruber: It means it happens at salvation.
Joshua Gruber: It's not an extra step, it's not anything crazy that you gotta start doing.
Joshua Gruber: It happens at salvation.
Joshua Gruber: The moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you're justified.
Joshua Gruber: That quick, that moment, it happens like that.
Joshua Gruber: Makes you wonder why we still walk around with all these burdens.
Joshua Gruber: Christ set us free.
Joshua Gruber: Right?
Joshua Gruber: Point number two freedom from sin.
Joshua Gruber: Freedom from sin.
Joshua Gruber: We got freedom from legalism, freedom from sin.
Joshua Gruber: Verse 13 do not use your freedom as an Opportunity for the flesh.
Joshua Gruber: Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh that sounds very much like what the world does today.
Joshua Gruber: Doesn't it?
Joshua Gruber: We do so many things.
Joshua Gruber: The world does so many things that are gross and perverted and messed up, all under the guise of liberty, rights, freedom.
Joshua Gruber: We all know a woman can kill an unborn child in her stomach under the guise of woman's rights.
Joshua Gruber: You can marry whoever you want to marry, sleep with whoever you want to sleep with.
Joshua Gruber: Even the same gender under rights, gay rights.
Joshua Gruber: This is a sick, twisted perversion of what freedom truly is.
Joshua Gruber: Freedom is not a license to sin.
Joshua Gruber: Jesus did not die on the cross for your freedom to sin.
Joshua Gruber: He died that you would be free from sin.
Joshua Gruber: Freedom without discipline leads to bondage.
Joshua Gruber: The very things we use to celebrate our freedom, if gone unchecked, irresponsibly, they turn into the very things that bind us.
Joshua Gruber: Sure, you're free to drink, but if you drink too much, you're a slave to the drink and you become an alcoholic.
Joshua Gruber: Sure, you're free to spend your money however you want on whatever you want, but if you spend too much and you get yourself into debt, you're a slave to the lender.
Joshua Gruber: You're free to indulge and sleep with whoever you want to sleep with.
Joshua Gruber: But now you're bound by brokenness, bound by sin.
Joshua Gruber: And Christ came to set the captives free.
Joshua Gruber: Christ died so that we would be set free from these things.
Joshua Gruber: The flesh promises freedom but produces slavery.
Joshua Gruber: That's when we're walking in our flesh, church.
Joshua Gruber: That's the result of walking in our flesh as opposed to walking in the spirit, because walking in the spirit promises freedom.
Joshua Gruber: Galatians 5, 16 through 18.
Joshua Gruber: But I say, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.
Joshua Gruber: For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh.
Joshua Gruber: For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
Joshua Gruber: But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law.
Joshua Gruber: That's the ticket right there, church.
Joshua Gruber: That's the key to freedom.
Joshua Gruber: Walking in the spirit, living a life in the spirit.
Joshua Gruber: When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, the old you is gone.
Joshua Gruber: It's dead.
Joshua Gruber: It's been crucified with Christ.
Joshua Gruber: Scripture tells us that, and we get a new clothing.
Joshua Gruber: His righteousness.
Joshua Gruber: And that's how we walk in the spirit.
Joshua Gruber: Amen?
Joshua Gruber: So we have been freed.
Joshua Gruber: As believers, we have been freed from this from the penalty of sin.
Joshua Gruber: That's salvation.
Joshua Gruber: We are being freed from the power of sin.
Joshua Gruber: That's sanctification.
Joshua Gruber: That's the process.
Joshua Gruber: That looks like sin has this grip that's so tight.
Joshua Gruber: When we come to Jesus, that grip starts to loosen.
Joshua Gruber: It starts to get a little less, a little less.
Joshua Gruber: That's the process of sanctification.
Joshua Gruber: That's the fine-tuning I was talking about earlier.
Joshua Gruber: The further we go in Christ, number one, the more we realize we need him.
Joshua Gruber: And number two, he starts to fine-tune us.
Joshua Gruber: That's sanctification.
Joshua Gruber: And then finally, one day we will be free from the very presence of sin.
Joshua Gruber: That's called glorification.
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: Yeah, that's something to get excited about.
Joshua Gruber: Can you imagine one day we will be free from the very presence of sin?
Joshua Gruber: I can't even imagine that right now.
Joshua Gruber: Even as believers, even it doesn't matter if you've been a Christian for a hundred years or one year.
Joshua Gruber: We will always be struggling with this.
Joshua Gruber: Because we're still in this flesh.
Joshua Gruber: We will always be struggling.
Joshua Gruber: Our struggles look different.
Joshua Gruber: They should look different as a maturing Christian.
Joshua Gruber: You shouldn't be dealing with the same exact things necessarily.
Joshua Gruber: And yours look different than mine.
Joshua Gruber: But regardless, we're still gonna have to deal with it until that glorious day when we stand in front of our Creator, God and King.
Joshua Gruber: And he says, Well done, my good and faithful.
Joshua Gruber: And we get that glorified body.
Joshua Gruber: No more sickness, no more sin.
Joshua Gruber: How amazing.
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: You guys with me?
Joshua Gruber: In John chapter 8, verse 36, Jesus says himself, if the sun sets you free, you are free indeed.
Joshua Gruber: If the sun sets you free, has the sun set you free?
Joshua Gruber: I'll tell you, if you have faith in Jesus Christ, he absolutely has.
Joshua Gruber: He has set you free.
Joshua Gruber: You are free.
Joshua Gruber: Indeed, the third and final point this morning, freedom from condemnation.
Joshua Gruber: We've got freedom from legalism, the law, freedom from sin.
Joshua Gruber: Now, freedom from condemnation.
Joshua Gruber: Again, out of these three things, I believe all sin and bondage comes out of these three things.
Joshua Gruber: And these are the easiest ways as Christians, we still get bound.
Joshua Gruber: And if you weren't necessarily born in a legalistic home or dealt with that, I know everybody deals with sin because the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short, right?
Joshua Gruber: So we all have been in that camp.
Joshua Gruber: And same thing for this one.
Joshua Gruber: At some point or another, we've dealt with condemnation.
Joshua Gruber: Romans 8:1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: Condemnation keeps us bound.
Joshua Gruber: Condemnation keeps us in chains.
Joshua Gruber: Condemnation is beating ourselves up, or letting the enemy beat us up over things that Christ already took the beating for.
Joshua Gruber: I'm gonna say that again.
Joshua Gruber: Condemnation is beating ourselves up, or letting the enemy beat us up over things Christ already took the beating for.
Joshua Gruber: Christ paid the penalty.
Joshua Gruber: We all accumulated a debt that we could not pay back.
Joshua Gruber: Christ stepped in and said, I'll take that.
Joshua Gruber: I'll take that bill and I'll cover the tip too.
Joshua Gruber: He did it.
Joshua Gruber: Christ sets us free.
Joshua Gruber: It's Satan that is the accuser of the brethren, it's the enemy of our soul.
Joshua Gruber: Satan is the accuser.
Joshua Gruber: Christ came to set us free.
Joshua Gruber: And if you're struggling in this camp today, Christians, if you struggle with condemnation, repent and rest in the fact that Christ has set you free.
Joshua Gruber: That because of his blood, because of what he did, we can now walk in freedom.
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: Freedom is not doing whatever feels good.
Joshua Gruber: Walking in freedom is actually doing good.
Joshua Gruber: The world says freedom looks like doing whatever feels good.
Joshua Gruber: Do whatever feels good.
Joshua Gruber: Your feelings are misguiding.
Joshua Gruber: If you go based off your feelings, you're gonna feel your way right into the ground.
Joshua Gruber: It's not about doing what feels good, it's about doing good.
Joshua Gruber: What is doing good?
Joshua Gruber: Living by the Spirit, serving one another in love, walking in obedience to Christ.
Joshua Gruber: Again, we find that in Galatians 5.13.
Joshua Gruber: Through love, serve one another.
Joshua Gruber: Getting towards the end here.
Joshua Gruber: If um Zach or somebody could jump on the keys, that'd be awesome.
Joshua Gruber: The main takeaway here this morning is true freedom is not the freedom to sin, but it's the freedom from sin.
Joshua Gruber: Jesus did not die on that cross for a license for you to sin.
Joshua Gruber: It's not about just saying a quick prayer.
Joshua Gruber: Say, well, I know I'm going to heaven, so I can live like hell till I get there.
Joshua Gruber: No.
Joshua Gruber: No, that's not what it's about at all.
Joshua Gruber: It's about walking out this freedom.
Joshua Gruber: It's about living in the freedom that Christ gave us so that we can then go to a lost and bound and dying world and help set them free.
Joshua Gruber: Because we know the ticket.
Joshua Gruber: We have the key.
Joshua Gruber: We have the answer.
Joshua Gruber: His name is Jesus Christ.
Joshua Gruber: He set us free from legalism.
Joshua Gruber: He sets us free from sin.
Joshua Gruber: He sets us free from condemnation.
Joshua Gruber: So that we can therefore love him, love others, serve others, and walk in his spirit.
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: I don't know what you're going through this morning.
Joshua Gruber: I don't know out of these three things what it is, if it's all three of them.
Joshua Gruber: Maybe you're sitting there, you're like, you don't know me.
Joshua Gruber: You don't know what I deal with.
Joshua Gruber: You don't know my past.
Joshua Gruber: I don't have to.
Joshua Gruber: God does.
Joshua Gruber: And he has the power to save.
Joshua Gruber: Only he has the power to save.
Joshua Gruber: Only he has the power to set you free.
Joshua Gruber: It's by his blood.
Joshua Gruber: Has nothing to do with you.
Joshua Gruber: But everything to do with him.
Joshua Gruber: So I don't know what's got you bound this morning.
Joshua Gruber: But I do know that there's freedom in Jesus' name.
Joshua Gruber: And Christians, He's called us to walk in freedom.
Joshua Gruber: What would that look like if we truly walked in the freedom that Christ has provided for us?
Joshua Gruber: What would our worship look like?
Joshua Gruber: What would every day look like if we walked in true freedom in Jesus Christ?
Joshua Gruber: It's funny because this can kind of be a heavy topic, but it's supposed to be liberating.
Joshua Gruber: Don't let the enemy get in there right now.
Joshua Gruber: Don't let them get in there.
Joshua Gruber: Don't let condemnation slip in even now.
Joshua Gruber: You are free in Jesus' name.
Joshua Gruber: Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
Joshua Gruber: Do you believe it?
Joshua Gruber: Would you stand?
Joshua Gruber: I'm gonna close this out with a prayer.
Joshua Gruber: And then if the prayer team could make their way to the front, and if there's anybody in here, like Pastor said earlier, before we took communion, if you haven't taken that step and put your faith and put your trust in Jesus, he's knocking on that door.
Joshua Gruber: He wants you to be co-heir to the throne.
Joshua Gruber: He's called you to be a son and a daughter of the Most High.
Joshua Gruber: If you haven't taken that step, I want to encourage you to do it today.
Joshua Gruber: If you're watching online, you can do it right there in your living room.
Joshua Gruber: There's nothing necessarily magical about this building.
Joshua Gruber: You could do it right where you're at.
Joshua Gruber: God will meet you right there.
Joshua Gruber: Because that's how much he loves you.
Joshua Gruber: That's how much he cares about you.
Joshua Gruber: He doesn't leave you there.
Joshua Gruber: He'll meet you there, but he's not gonna leave you there.
Joshua Gruber: Like he met me in my muck.
Joshua Gruber: And he pulled me out.
Joshua Gruber: His goodness and his grace, he pulled me out.
Joshua Gruber: He can do it for you.
Joshua Gruber: He can do it for me, he can do it for you.
Joshua Gruber: I almost forgot something.
Joshua Gruber: For those of you that are dealing with prodigals, one crucial part of my testimony that I almost forgot.
Joshua Gruber: Years later, I was talking to my parents about this.
Joshua Gruber: I was talking to them about my past and growing up and things.
Joshua Gruber: I was confessing some things.
Joshua Gruber: Be careful how you do that with your parents.
Joshua Gruber: Use wisdom there.
Joshua Gruber: But my parents weren't dumb.
Joshua Gruber: They knew what was going on.
Joshua Gruber: I thought they were dumb.
Joshua Gruber: I thought I was outsmarting them.
Joshua Gruber: Nah.
Joshua Gruber: Y'all hear me, your parents aren't dumb, okay?
Joshua Gruber: They know what's going on.
Joshua Gruber: But my mom told me years later, Joshua, those nights that you were out late and you weren't coming home, the Lord would wake me up and I would pray for you.
Joshua Gruber: Part of my testimony is a praying mother and a praying father.
Joshua Gruber: For those of you with a prodigal in your life, don't stop praying.
Joshua Gruber: Don't stop praying.
Joshua Gruber: He hears you.
Joshua Gruber: And guess what?
Joshua Gruber: He loves that prodigal more than you do.
Joshua Gruber: He's bringing them home.
Joshua Gruber: When I would hear the voice of the Lord in those moments, son, when are you coming home?
Joshua Gruber: I can't confirm it, but I almost feel like that was when my mom was praying.
Joshua Gruber: I can't confirm that, but I really feel like it is.
Joshua Gruber: It was those because it happened multiple times.
Joshua Gruber: She said, I always prayed for you.
Joshua Gruber: Mothers, fathers, don't stop praying.
Joshua Gruber: Heavenly Father, God, we just thank you.
Joshua Gruber: We give you all the glory and all the praise and all the honor right now.
Joshua Gruber: We declare freedom in Jesus' name.
Joshua Gruber: Break those chains, Lord.
Joshua Gruber: Break those chains by the power of your blood, your precious blood that you poured out, Jesus, willingly for my sins, for our sins.
Joshua Gruber: Lord, help us as we walk with you, that we would become stronger, that we would walk in the freedom that you have provided.
Joshua Gruber: Lord, that we would show others the freedom that we have in you to help set them free in Jesus' name.
Joshua Gruber: We thank you for what you're doing here, Lord.
Joshua Gruber: Continue it.
Joshua Gruber: Lord, we do lift up prodigals right now.
Joshua Gruber: For those that have walked away from you, we pray they would answer the call to come back right now.
Joshua Gruber: In Jesus' name.
Joshua Gruber: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
Joshua Gruber: All this is for you and to you.
Joshua Gruber: Thank you, Jesus.
Joshua Gruber: Amen.
Joshua Gruber: Thank you, Church.