Synopsis of Sermon 7.2.23

Delivered by Bishop Walker III

Galatians 5:1 NKJV 
Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

1. INTRODUCTION 
2. One of the most important things to a Believer’s life is to live free. Many of us go through life not living free, because we are prisoners of our past. We really don’t know what liberty is.
3. The Enemy doesn’t mind you saying you are free as long as you are still chained to your past. Many of us walk in doubt and uncertainty because we really don’t know what liberty looks like. This separates us from God.
4. God not only want us to be free, he wants us also, to live free. For example, when God delivered the Children of Israel out of Egypt, the issue was not just getting the Children of Israel out of Egypt, it was more importantly about getting Egypt out of them! You can be out of something physically and still be mentally wrapped up in it, but you ought to be glad to know who the Son sets free, is free indeed. God wants us to be free of all Guilt and Shame!
5. We are not just bragging about going to heaven. We want to live free, and everything connected to us will be free. We will no longer live in the bondage of the past.
6. What’s interesting about Galatians is we run into people called Judaizers. These were people who said that they were Christian’s, but they held on to legalism or the Law. They would deputize themselves to enforce the Religious Laws. The problem is, they didn’t allow any space for grace.
   1. Paul tells them that we have been saved, and grace was what has done it. Paul preached that Jew and Gentile alike were justified by their faith in Jesus Christ without keeping the law. When you experience the Grace of God, you choose voluntarily not to be entangled in the hype of bondage.
7. You have to get to a place where you want to be free of your bondage, instead of simply being afraid to be in it. There comes a moment you decide to be free of , bondage because you love God. This is truly living free.

1. RESILIENTLY COMMIT TO THE FAITH 
2. Paul shares that we have to live in this reality. Our belief is tied up in our relationship with Jesus. Our relationship cannot be separated from his Word because He is his Word. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
3. When I stand in liberty, I stand on my convictions, which is rooted in the Word of God. The Word then becomes the foundation of my faith. That means you are standing in the root of the Word.

1. We Must Be Unwavering in His Word 

1. The Bible speaks of the things that are happening in the world today. 2 Timothy 4:3-4 says For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables – We see evidence in today’s times, where people are caught up into whatever sounds good.

• The world has shifted to a place where they only accept God’s Word if it:
• Assimilates To Culture – If we can’t make it look like the world, they don’t want to accept it.
• Accommodates Their Carnality – People won’t accept the Word if it calls out issues concerning their flesh.
• Abolishes Consequences – People only want to accept the Word if there are no consequences for what they do. They want to be able to do what they want and still follow God.
• We have to have an unwavering faith when it comes to God’s word.
• We have to learn how to live by that Word. Other things will pass away and wither and die, but only God’s Word will last.

• I’m Invested in My Relationship with Christ 

1. I have to be consistent in my relationship. We don’t need to get saved and just sit in the pew. We need to stir up the gift that God gave us!
2. Relationship is something that you have to work at. Relationships die when you are no longer willing to work at that relationship.
3. You’ve been saved from things, but you have to put the work in to remain free. You fall because you don’t want to do the necessary work needed to stand.
4. What’s necessary to work on your relationship with God?
5. Priorities In Perspective – God has to be my chief priority. God wants to know if he blesses you, would the blessing get more important than Him?
6. Positive People – You have to change your crowd. The people you surround yourself with are important. Often we adapt our crowd to accommodate our relationship.
7. Pursue His Presence – We have to get to a point in our lives, where we want to pursue God’s presence, no matter what. When you have a relationship with God, you realize that you have to be in His presence. In him we, live, move, and have our being.
8. Personal Prayer-Life – This simply means that we talk to God. When you’re in relationship with someone, you will talk to them on the phone until you fall asleep. When you are away from them, you just can’t wait to be with them again. In like manner, you have to spend time talking to God.
   1. You don’t have to paint your prayers with a lot of doctrinal King James verbiage, when you pray. When you have a relationship with God, it’s not the length of your prayers, it’s the strength of your prayers that matters.
   1. Even when we don’t know what we should pray for, the Holy Spirit helps us out. Romans 8:26 says “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans”  
9. Passionate And Persistent – We’ve got to get to a point that our love is so powerful, that you wake up in the morning on fire for God. This is what makes you want to serve. Stand in the liberty whereby Christ has made you free!

1. REAL COST OF YOUR FREEDOM 
2. Have you ever thought about the real cost of your freedom? Freedom is never free!
3. We celebrate the 4^th of July because we celebrate the sacrifice people made for our freedom. In like manner, God paid a price for us! He did so, that we could live!!

1. He Died So I Could Live 

1. In order to be reconciled to God, there had to be a sacrifice. In the Bible days, people used to bring animals to be sacrificed for their sins. Jesus Christ became the ultimate sacrifice for us, so that animals didn’t have to be sacrificed anymore and so we wouldn’t have to go to a High Priest. Jesus became the Lamb of God.
2. God loved us why we were yet, still sinners. He died for us!
3. You ought to thank God that he paid a price for you!

• He Left Me the Power to Fulfill My Purpose 
• God didn’t just save me and give me a ticket to heaven. The moment happens where we get saved and we think that’s all we have to do, but no! It takes power and work to stay free.
• When God died, it wasn’t the end of the story. He got up with all power and He gave that power to us.
• God sent us a helper and a comforter. The helper in you gave you the ability to serve your purpose. God saved you to serve a purpose.
• The Helper, the Holy Spirit gives us:
• Ability – The Holy Spirit gives us the ability to overcome and fulfill our purpose. The bible says, “And now unto him who is able to keep me from falling…” It’s his ability and not our own.
• Access – The Holy Spirit also gives us access. Access means I have access to heavenly places and heavenly resources. Ex – You get a key to your hotel room. There are lots of people in the hotel lobby, but you have to be given access to go up on the floors of the hotel. Your key gives you access to the amenities on the upper floors. Without it, you can only access the lobby. In a similar manner, we have access to stuff in our lives, but some of us are comfortable just staying in the lobby.
• Authority – We think we need to have people pray over us when things go wrong. God gave us the authority to pray and speak healing over ourselves. Somebody ought to declare they have authority! You have to walk in it!
• REFUSE TO BE CAUGHT UP IN FOOLISHNESS 
• We are not supposed to allow ourselves to be entangled again. This causes us to be under the yoke of bondage. You must declare you are going forward because you know what freedom feels like.

1. You Must Be Disciplined in Your Decisions 
2. People may offer you one bite, but when you do, it opens your spirit up. If you are trying to get rid of something, you have to have some level of discipline, because you know yourself and you know your struggles.

• When You Grow Up, There Are Things You Outgrow – When you grow up there are some things that you outgrow. When they pull the strings of the yoke on an ox, they turn, because the yoke is heavy. Getting entangled again, with the very thing that God delivered you from, means that it has become a yoke that now controls you.

1. You are growing so fast, some people haven’t got the memo that you have outgrown some things. Some people are still trying to invite you to places that you have outgrown.
2. You have to forget those things that are behind you and reach towards the thing that are ahead of you.

• REJOICE THAT THE ENEMY DIDN’T ROB YOU OF YOUR FUTURE 
• The enemy did not rob you of where God was taking you. Having said that, don’t allow the enemy to pull you back into that which God has delivered you from.

1. Every Plot of The Enemy Was Blocked by The Blood 

1. God blocked every plan of the enemy by the blood. There were some things that could have taken you out, but the Blood blocked it!
2. The blood provided protection! The blood guaranteed healing! The blood yielded you sanctification! The blood promised redemption!
3. Story – A woman was headed for an interview for CEO of a corporation. She has on a white pressed suit. She looks down at her lapel and sees blood. Her nose had started to bleed, and she didn’t know it. She asks herself, “How this could be? Not now!”

She asked the driver to take her back to change. While in the closet, picking out something to wear, she sees the 911 tragedy on the TV. Had she not gotten the blood on her clothes, and returned home to change, she would have been in that building when the planes hit the towers. If it wasn’t for the blood!!

• What’s Ahead Is Better Than What’s Been 
• Living in freedom, sets you up for the best that God has for your life.
• Today we declare that we are walking and living in freedom! Now you are free to dance, shout, and worship! Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!
• Where there is liberation, there must be celebration!
• David says, God brought him out of the pit of miry clay and set his feet upon a rock.
• Give God glory for living and standing in the freedom of liberty! You are not going back. The chain has finally been broken!