Well, good morning, guys! We're gonna have some fun in church, huh? How about Shaq wearing that tank top? I don't even know if we're allowed to do that. I've been wearing shirts this whole time like a sucker. I could be wearing tank tops! Geez, nobody told me.
Uh, my name is Graham Cowgill, one of the pastors here. Yeah, thanks, Eric. I got your 20 after the service, buddy.
Hey, can we help welcome everybody watching online? Hey, guys!
Um, we mentioned Grub Club earlier—Pastor Donnie did. So, Grub Club's one of the things that we do. We focus on the church, and we feel that Shoreline Church has a unique calling in this area to the greater Destin area. One of the things that we are very proud of is that our role has shifted. We are no longer just a church that's appreciated or a church that's relied on, and we've talked about what a beautiful responsibility that is.
So, because of that, God has given us almost kind of like a unique vision for this area—how to step into it. Grub Club is one of those things. So, every Thursday, a lot of you guys volunteer your time to kind of pack up lunches, and then we take those out to the different harbor workers. I got to be a part of that two Thursdays ago and take out some lunches to Crab Island, and it is so cool!
A lot of those guys, because it's conversation, it's just kind of like a deep breath moment for them in the middle of a chaotic day. A lot of them were saying, "Hey, we've moved our work days to Thursday just so that we can get a conversation and lunch." Like, it matters!
Our mission statement here for Shoreline Church is that we want to bring Jesus and His church to the front and center of everyday life. We believe that is such a cool part of that—no strings attached, no ulterior motive. We just say we want to love you well; we want to be an extension of God's love.
And so, the reason I mention that is because we want to finish the summer strong. If you've ever thought to yourself, "I'd love to be a part of giving to that church or to be a part of that space," right? How many days have we had to wait for a business to start? For what you are doing and what you're doing for our people, I think we've done a lot of crazy things, right? We had to get into the news really quickly. We had to spend many months trying to figure out what is real, what's real, what's fake. But we know what's real.
And so, it's kind of what's real to me is we have a very strong foundation when it comes to this. If you have a big company, or if you have a big company, you know that you have that big business. If you're talking about a big business, just want to get into it and make sure you're doing it.
So, that's one thing to remember about the pandemic. It's like having a little bit of time, you know? So, it's amazing. You know, if you’re using this in a pretty cool way.
So, a while ago, I was watching an interview with Charles Manson. Good way to start a sermon, right? I googled how to start a sermon, and they said, "Whatever you do, don't mention Charles Manson." I said, "I'm going for it."
Okay, so I was watching this interview, and Charles Manson is talking to the interlocutor, and he says, "I am freer than you are." That's what Manson said to this guy. Now, Charles Manson was in prison at the time, obviously, and so the guy goes, "Why do you think that?" And then Manson goes, and just like freaks out, and just like this long rambling, you know, incoherent kind of rant, and the guy was like, not getting it.
And then Manson said, "I'm freer than you because you are bound by social etiquette and expectation. You are bound by what people are expecting you to do." And so he said, essentially, "You have narrowed down your response to any scenario to about four or five possibilities that are in the realm of social etiquette or expectation. I am not bound to those. My palate is greater than yours in the freedom of speech. Therefore, I am freer than you are."
And in classic Graham form, I thought about that for about four days, wrote about three Microsoft Word documents on it, but I thought, okay, is he right? Is he right? Is he freer than we are because we have some sort of a social script that we are living according to?
And spoiler alert, he's not right, okay? Let me just put that out there. On the internet, not agreeing with Charles Manson here. Okay, sweet. But the reason is because the foundation of freedom of what he is talking about is rooted pretty much in the antonym of what God is calling us to.
His freedom is rooted in irresponsibility. His freedom is rooted in self-gratification. This is what feels right; therefore, this is what must be right. I'm free to chase after the truth. I'm free to chase after the truth. I'm free to chase after the things that make me feel good, that make me feel unhinged. In fact, that make me feel nonconformist.
And last week in Galatians 5, we explored the idea that discipline and responsibility are beautiful components of God-given freedom. That God has given you freedom for a specific reason, and it's not so that you can see how unhinged that you can be. It is for a purpose.
And specifically, here's the purpose. This is from last week from Galatians 5. Galatians 5, but listen to what he says. Verse 13: "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh." This is not self-gratifying. This is not about you and chasing after what you desire.
Rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." This means that your God-given freedom is the only thing that you can do. And this is what we're there to serve others.
Charles Manson's version of freedom is, "What does this mean for me and my feeling and what I'm getting out?" And there is a discipline and a responsibility in recognizing that God has given you a freedom for the sake of other people. That's a part of the role of the body of Christ. It's a part of the role of the church.
So this whole chapter, we're establishing what freedom is, that we have freedom in our identity of what God has declared over us, is true of how we define ourselves. And now chapter six is all about what does that practically look like played out in the church? You're free to serve other people humbly. How does that look?
And so we're going to walk through Galatians 6, which is a fantastic chapter, giving very applicable advice of what it looks like to humbly serve each other. So let's start. Galatians 6, verse 1: "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path and be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself."
All right, let me first say, when we're reading scripture, it is very important to get context to what we're reading. Not only just the social understanding of the time, but who it's being written to. That matters a lot, right? And so when he says "brothers and sisters," this is being written to Christians. This is being written to believers. That matters in this.
So because of the DNA of our church and the role of our church, we've said, hopefully, this is a church that's easy to invite to. There are probably people that are here for the first time that go, "I'm just checking out God, and I'm not there yet. I'm just not, you know, I'm just checking out Jesus. I'm not there yet. If I told my friends I went to church, like I'd be ostracized."
If that is true, then I'm not there yet. I'm not there yet. The reason I don't want to be apologetic to what Paul has written to the body of believers, to Christians, is because I want you to know what God expects from His church. This is what you are invited into.
We are going to lay out in Galatians 6 the role of the church, a beautiful component of the church. And I believe when we get to the end of this chapter, if you are just checking this thing out, you're going to say, "I want to be a part of that." That is compelling.
The goodness of God leads men to turn towards Him. The goodness of God and the purpose of the church, the body of Christ, is to be an extension of the love and forgiveness and grace and goodness of God, so that when you have a run-in with the church, you have a run-in with God's goodness enough to turn yourself towards Him.
That's what happened to me. I had a moment where I recognized what a wretch I was. I recognized that I'm a disgusting person. And in that same breath, I recognized the goodness of God. I recognized the goodness of God. I recognized the goodness of God. Which is what made me turn towards Him.
If I would have recognized the anger of God in that moment, I probably wouldn't have turned toward Him. But it's for all of us to go, "Oh, oh, we serve a God who is so loving that His goodness is shown in our imperfection. He's willing to welcome us back." That is our role.
So let's continue. Galatians 6. Oh yeah, I'm going to read again. "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path."
The reason I read it again is because it says, "You who are believers, you who are believers." Let me just say this: stop trying to get non-Christians to stop sinning. That's not your role. That's not the role of the church. Actually, that doesn't do much good, to be totally honest.
And even if we have a good mindset, we think to ourselves, "Well, I want this person to do some good things so that they have at least some favor, so that God looks favorably on it." No. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Because the second we start to think that our actions are good, that's how we earn favor with God, we go back to that law of legalism where we say our actions determine our goodness or our not goodness. And so the freedom that we're talking about here is everything is born under surrender. If you're going to be free, you have to surrender.
How counterintuitive is that? But the original surrender that happens, that happened for me in that moment when I recognized the gap, was my surrender was of identity. I no longer want to identify myself. I don't want to define myself by what I've done, good or bad. So I'm going to surrender my identity, the forgiveness of Jesus.
And therefore, since I've surrendered, I am now defined by His goodness. Well, it doesn't stop at identity. It doesn't stop at identity. Everything that we do throughout the course of the day has to be born in the same surrender that we've done.
And so I'm going to surrender my identity, the forgiveness of Jesus. I'm going to surrender that same heart posture that we had in the moment when we surrendered identity. That's why it said, "Wake up in the morning and your first prayer should be, 'Holy Spirit, what do you have for me?'"
I forfeit my logic. I forfeit my understanding. I forfeit my desires. This is not Charles Manson self-gratifying freedom. I'm recognizing that you have something for me in the same way that my identity was defined in surrender. Every morning I wake up and I surrender every second of the day.
Proverbs 14:14 says, "The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways and the good rewarded for theirs." And again, that is not a checklist of what is you gratifying, what is God gratifying. It is born out of the foundation of surrender. What are you surrendering to? Are you surrendering to yourself, therefore identifying yourself?
Or are you surrendering to a good God and saying, "I want you to define me because I know darn well that if I'm defined by my actions, things don't work out well for me."
All right, let's read on. This next part is super important for what God desires for the church. Galatians 6, verse 2: "Share each other's burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ."
If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. I love that verse. I'm going to get a chest tattoo that just says, "You are not that important."
I'm joking, but actually, I've said before that if you had a doll of Graham and you pulled the string, it would say, "You are not that important." I'm going to look now. Joking, but actually, the word that would come out is humility because I am so good at it. Just kidding, I'm not, but I do care about it.
I do care a lot about it. I think that everything that is pure that we do is born out of humility, is born out of surrender. And I promise you, I promise you that my prayer for even speaking up here on stage is that I would have some sort of humility when I'm, because this is not about Graham's logic.
We all know it's not about Graham being smart. Us in this room, we are just humbly surrendered to what God would do, that He is speaking inside of this time, not just to me, but even in your hearts and directing you for the Holy Spirit.
When I was in basic training in the military, so if you're going into the military, just know this. At the beginning, you got basic training, and the whole desire of basic training is kind of to break you. And then once you're broken, you introduce core values, the same kind of foundational core values. Then you build everybody up again.
And now everybody has kind of the same operating system, right? So I knew that I wasn't above it. I just understood, okay, they're going to try to break me. So you're given a couple of things in basic training. You're given boots, which I didn't get till four weeks in because my feet are too big. And you're given a pack.
And I was in the basic training. I was in a band flight. By the way, so when other people do marching, we went to band practice. Shouldn't have shared that because you guys thought I was hardcore until I said that.
But we had to do all of our marching practice outside when other people got kind of extracurricular fun. We had to go do marching. Well, a lot of the stuff that they would do, they'd say, "Get your pack. We're going on a hike."
And one week specifically, there was a boot camp. And on boot camp, it's really kind of the "we're going to try to break you" moment. So we went on a 10-mile hike. And they said, "Pack two MREs," and there's like kind of pre-packaged meals. "Make sure your canteen is filled with water because you're going to need it."
And if anybody doesn't complete the hike, you're going to be punished in front of all the flights there at boot camp, right? So I was dorm chief, which means of all the people in the flight, they choose one person who's enlisted to kind of be in charge of the other people. They chose me probably because I'm tall.
And that was a responsibility that I took way too seriously, by the way. Like nobody wanted my leadership at all. I remember at one point I gave this speech about like the resilience of the Jews in Nazi Germany. And like halfway through this speech, I'm like, "What am I talking?" And I looked at and looked about like this, just everybody was confused and frustrated. And I was like, "Okay."
But what I did do well was anytime somebody screwed up in the flight, I would take the fall and I would take the punishment. And so I had a lot of leadership equity because they're like, "At least Graham will take the fall for the flight."
Okay, so we start this hike at the beginning of the day, 10 miles, and about five miles in, there's a guy in our flight. His name is Airman Tabor. One of the troublemakers, to be honest, hope he's not watching. And about five miles in, he goes, "I didn't pack my MREs." And he's like, "And I don't have water in my canteen."
So, he starts to look like real wobbly and he goes, "I don't know if I can keep going." And so I was like, "All right, come here, buddy." So I grabbed his pack, which is about this size. So I had one on this shoulder, one on that shoulder. And at least in that moment, I had the strength to carry two packs, and we kept going.
And I saw like, it wasn't a rebellion in his eyes. I don't know that it was fear, but he goes, "This is a vulnerable moment for me," right? So we kept going, we got to the very end. And even without a pack, he was like at the end of a marathon. Like this is him at the end of the hike.
So the TI there is like, "What the heck, dude?" And he, you know, got to the bottom of it, realized he forgot the MREs, didn't fill the canteen. And so he was going to be punished anyway in front of the flights. And the punishment was you had to hold an M16 straight out and couldn't let it dip at all. You had to hold it out there for over and if you let it dip, then you had to start over.
Well, Tabor couldn't hold chopsticks at that point, right? And so I was like, "I'll take it, dude. Can we, is there any way that I can be punished instead of Tabor?" They said, "Yep, no problem." And so I grabbed the M16, and I was tired. I'd been carrying two packs, but kind of viewed it at least as my role right then, held it up.
And at a minute and one second, I was like, "Forget this, man, I'm done." But made it through. So we had a flight meeting right after that, and I kind of gathered everybody in the flight. We had a little bit of debrief from the moment.
And here's what I said. I said, "Listen, guys, today I had strength that maybe I won't have tomorrow. I was able to do something today because for whatever reason I had extra strength. And I understand that the reason Tabor couldn't carry his pack is because he didn't pack his MREs and he didn't have water in his canteen. Guess what? Tomorrow, I may forget my MREs. Tomorrow, I may not fill my canteen. Tomorrow, I may need help the way that I was able to help Tabor today."
And probably in a speech that nobody cared about, I said, "We are at least somewhat a brotherhood in this moment. Our job is to look out for each other. It's not about who's better or who's worse. It's about who can step into a role in that moment, share each other's burdens, and in this way, obey the law of Christ."
If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Listen, the burdens that we are carrying for each other are when sin in our life becomes too much to handle. It's when sin in our life becomes too much to handle.
In fact, there's another translation that says, "When your brother becomes ensnared by sin." And you get the visual of somebody caught in a trap. If you are going to serve somebody else humbly, if you're going to get somebody out of a trap, recognize that that is a very delicate surgical procedure. You have to understand how they got in it. You have to be able to have some sort of perspective to see what needs to happen. And you have to be incredibly patient, right?
So I want to encourage you. Maybe it's not an encouragement, but it should be. There may be moments where you are caught in a cycle of self-destruction that is too much for you to get out by yourself. And it's probably because you prepped for that moment by being irresponsible.
It wasn't just in that moment; it was that at least in the sin world or spiritually, you didn't pack your MREs, you didn't put water in your canteen, and it led to a moment where you weren't strong enough to be able to carry your own pack. And it says, in that moment, humbly serve each other. Lean into the lives of everybody else.
Now, the next verse seems to contradict this, but let's read it carefully. Galatians 6, verse 4: "Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won't need to compare yourself to anyone else, for we are each responsible for our own conduct."
Here's what that means. Every one of us has been given a pack. We have been given something that is ours to carry. We have the responsibility. Remember we said that freedom comes with discipline? Freedom comes with responsibility.
There's another scripture that's called the parable of the talents, in which Jesus says that each one of you has been given a different responsibility. On purpose, by God. You are not responsible for the things that the person next to you has. You are not responsible for what Pastor Donnie has or Pastor Eric has. You're responsible for what God has given you. That is your pack.
So, boys, grow up and be men. Young ladies, grow up and be ladies, and recognize, man, if you're a dad, that is part of your pack. Pack your MREs. Put water in your canteen. Let's step up. Let's carry our own pack.
As husbands, as wives, as moms, as employees, as students, what has God given you? Your pack to carry. And at the same time, guess what? You will have moments where you forget to pack your MREs. And just so you know, that you are looked at in the body of Christ, not with condemnation, not with resentment, but our role is those times of weakness that we get to humbly serve each other.
I wrote, "Every burden is bearable when we share the big and shoulder the small." Every burden is bearable when we share the big and shoulder the small.
It is also interesting that this is what Paul chose to talk about. When he talks about carrying each other's burdens, I mean, he could have talked about financial hardship. You know, he could have talked about enduring the loss of a loved one, which of course are true, but he chose sin.
Like, he chose the snare of sin. He chose the snare of sin, and I think it's because we have a tendency in the body of Christ to cannibalize ourselves. It's to look around and say, "Well, if you really loved God, you would have packed your MREs and let that person just kind of die halfway."
And so if you're just here visiting, I want to invite you into this. This is a beautiful component of the body of Christ, is that we have a role to take up for the other person.
Now, who's supposed to do this? Who's supposed to do it? Galatians, back to the 6-1: "You who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path."
Now, you read that and you're like, "Godly, got it. That's Pastor Donnie. Okay, got it, right? That's a teacher. That's this professional." And actually, we read this last week in Galatians 5. What does spiritual mean? What does godly mean? It simply means that you are walking in line with the Spirit.
It's who are you surrendered to? Are you surrendered to yourself or are you surrendered to the Spirit? So if you're in here and you have been following the Spirit, open to the way the Spirit would be directing for one day or for 50 years, you are available to be used in the lives of other people in the body of Christ when they get in a self-destructive pattern that is too much for them to handle.
That word burden in the text literally means something that is too great for one man to handle. You are called upon. I wrote, "It takes spiritual guidance to help that person to determine what they need in that moment because we already established I'm not smart enough to know what you need."
But the good news is that humbly, we ask the Holy Spirit, "What does this person need right now?" Brooke is one of our prayer warriors, and Brooke does not go into a meeting of prayer by saying, "I know what I'm going to say to this person." She goes into prayer open-handed to say, "Holy Spirit, would you speak through me? Would you use me in the life of somebody else?"
I've used this example before, but if you see our attic up there, you'd go, "Pretty clean, pretty clean, pretty good. Could use some work, right? But pretty clean." And I would say, if you saw that attic eight months ago, you'd say, "This place looks fantastic," right? A lot of hard work has been done on that attic.
But a lot of times we have the tendency just to go see a snapshot and go, "Hey, we need to clean this up. We need to do this and that." And we rarely see the full scope, the full story of what somebody is going through.
I was watching a documentary, which I would not recommend. I think it was called The Bridge, something like that. It was a documentary of all the people who had jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge to end their life. It was like a social documentary. It was super, super intense.
But one of the moments, there was a guy who was on the other side of the railing. Just think about what had gone on in his mind to lead him to that point. And in this documentary, he is speaking the stuff over himself. And of course, it's laced with profanity.
But he's just saying how hopeless, how disgusting, how nobody loves him. The worst things you could possibly speak over yourself. "This world is better without me here." And I just thought, what if somebody was talking to you on the other side of the railing and said to that person, "Hey, I need you to clean up your language a little bit."
Just for perspective, just for perspective. The Holy Spirit knows exactly what that person who's going through something needs. And a lot of times, it is beyond our conviction for somebody else. The heart is not our jurisdiction. We are not able to convict somebody else.
But we can be used to untangle that person from the snare if we're guided by the Holy Spirit. But you have to get to the point where you see the person that you're dealing with the same way you would see that man on the other side of the railing of the bridge.
Where you would plead with him, "You are a masterpiece. God has created you for relationship. These things that you're speaking about yourself are lies. Here is what is true about you. And I need you to see that."
So ask yourself, do you want what's best for somebody? Do you want what's best for somebody? Or, I mean, think about that. Think about the person on the other side of you politically. Do you just want them to be embarrassed? Do you just want them to pay? Do you just want them to be shamed? Do you just want justice for them?
Because I'm going to tell you, if you're desiring justice, be very careful with that desire. Romans 3:23 says, "We've all screwed it up. We've all screwed it up. We've all fallen short of the glory of God."
The word that it actually talks about in the passage when it says, "Restore your brothers and sisters." The word restore in the original text is actually a medical term. And it's kind of like a mending of bones.
So if you think about that process, if you're going to be used in the life of somebody else with sin to restore them, to mend a bone, think about how painstaking and how long that is.
Here's another fun story. When I was in the military station, I was in Las Vegas. Not a good time in Graham's life. But I was out one night. I got jumped by about six guys. And they broke my nose. Concussion. Broke bones. It was not great.
But I went to the doctor. And my nose is all the way over here to the side. And the doctor goes, "All right. I can either set this right now or you can wear a mask, and we can kind of gradually fix it in the next three months."
And I go, "Well, let's get this thing over with. Like, let's do it." And he goes, "You're going to want to bite down on this." And he handed me like this wooden bit. And I was like, "Why?" And he's like, "Because this is really going to hurt."
And sure enough, he grabbed my nose and snapped it back in. And he was right. It hurt a lot. The reason I bring it up is because when we talk about restoration, whether it is a quick set or whether it is a three-month process, or a five-year process or a ten-year process, it is going to take a very sensitive disposition for you to walk with somebody through healing.
If somebody is truly ensnared in sin, then it is a lot more than just they've made a decision. There is an identity issue there. There are things that they are believing from the enemy that need to be replaced by truth from God. There is a process.
And so we have to be godly enough to be selfless in the process, to want what's best for that person. Because you're going to get them out of the snare, and they're going to fall right back in it. I know because I've done it.
And it's then that the body of Christ gets to go, "We're not giving up. This is our role. At least in this time, I am able to shoulder your burden. I'm able to come alongside of you and recognize what God has me doing in your life."
It is a beautiful benefit of the body of Christ. I wrote, "Every need is met when we invest in each other." You know, sometimes we think, "Don't need to come to church. I can just kind of stay at home. I can listen to worship music. And I can do my own thing. I can live my life with God. And I'm good."
And no, you can't. No, you can't. Want to know why? Because we need you. We need you. I need you. I'm going to have a day where I forget to pack my MRE. I need you. The person next to you needs you.
You can't carry somebody's burden if you're just locked in your room. You can't do it. You have an important role here. Through love, through wanting what's best for each other, we as the body of Christ get to uplift each other.
And actually, in this passage, did you hear when it said, "Especially for those who have faith?" Sometimes we get a rap of like, "Oh, you only care about each other." We don't only care about each other, but we do care about each other. That's a beautiful, compelling benefit of being part of the body of Christ.
Don't ostracize your other believers. Recognize that they need you for a very distinct role. Galatians 6:9, "So let's not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to those in the family of faith."
The good that you are going to reap might not look the way that you think. It might not be that person getting perfectly out of the snare. In fact, I've invested years in people before that to my eyes look like it never worked out.
But if the Holy Spirit was leading me to be engaged and to pick up a burden, then I have to trust His plan over mine. I have to trust that something was happening spiritually or in the eternal world that I didn't understand. Or maybe it was just for me not to think I'm more important than that opportunity.
Maybe it was just for the state of my soul. Regardless, He is using you if we'd be surrendered to that. Now, this is how Paul ends the book. I love how he ends this.
Let me take a quick sip. I know I can just drink. I don't have to talk about it. I get it.
Okay, Galatians 6:11: "Notice what large letters I use as I write these closing words in my own handwriting." Pay attention to this, right?
Verse 12: "Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want... I always got to give a warning. I blew it... want to look good to others. They don't want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. And even those who advocate circumcision don't keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples."
Here's what it means. It means that the point of all of this is not so that you look great, so that Shoreline looks great, so that Pastor Eric looks great. That's not the point of this.
I actually had a conversation this past week with my kids. They're kiddos. And they're getting to the age where people go, "Oh, isn't your dad a pastor at Shoreline?" And they're like, "Yeah." So that's a thing. That's a part of the conversation.
And so I had this convo with the kids. I go, "Listen, you embarrassing me will never be a part of the conversation. That is not on the table. I don't care if the train goes completely off the tracks. You will never embarrass me, nor should that be a thought in your head."
Now, I did say you are a Cowgill, and I do want there to be words attributed to the last name Cowgill. When people think Cowgill, I want them to think kindness. I want them to think service. I want them to think love. I want that.
You will never embarrass me. You know, the reason that we don't have membership here, and I'm not vilifying membership. I think it can be absolutely beautiful. But the reason is, is because sometimes when there's church membership, sometimes there's a draw to have your loyalty to be towards a pastor or towards a church.
And your lower back tattoo is Shoreline, or your lower back tattoo is this pastor, right? It's like, "This is who I am." It's like, "No. No, that's not who you are." Do I believe that God has you here? Yes, strategically. Because we have to burden each other or share each other's burdens.
But your loyalty is to God. You don't need a mediator for your relationship. You don't need to have a relationship with God by any stretch.
And so, when we talk about embarrassment, man, it's not like, "Hey, let's all do the right things so we can go out there and people can say the right things about Shoreline." Or are we going to bring embarrassment to Shoreline? No.
The freedom is not to a legalism of our actions defining us good or bad. We have the freedom that we can step in knowing our identity and responding to carrying each other's burdens in a very unique way.
As for me, man, I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified and the world's interest in me has also died.
Doesn't matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God's peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle. They are the new people of God.
Let's pray.
Father, we are the best we can. Open-handed to how you would guide. It's not a reputation thing. It's not an embarrassment thing. We have the freedom with discipline and responsibility to share the burden of sin, not out of shame and condemnation, but out of wanting fulfillment and joy and peace and freedom for us who are following you.
You've given us such a beautiful, unique role. You allow us to play an eternal role in each other's lives. And so we're not going to isolate. This isn't about us. This isn't about a self-gratifying thing. This is about a self-gratifying freedom.
Instead, it's a freedom that is every morning respondent to the way that you would lead. And so we continue to trust you more and more. In your name, amen.
Hey, every week we have a prayer corner that's over here. And here's what I want to encourage today. If you feel like you have a burden right now, something that is too great for you to carry, if you're like, "I've been trying to shake this for a long time and it's very obvious that I can't do it by myself."
It doesn't mean that you aren't good enough. It doesn't mean that you're not worthy. It doesn't mean that you're not strong enough. It means that you get to lean into a beautiful role of the church.
And I want to tell you, if you have a burden that you can't carry, you are not an embarrassment to Shoreline Church. That is the purpose of the body of Christ.
So would you do yourself a favor and come over to the prayer corner here and just say, "Man, I got something that I need maybe some help with, some prayer, somebody to lean into."
Got a few empty seats here. A beautiful message next week by Pastor Eric. So let's be an inviting church. Have an awesome week, guys!
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on Aug 01, 2024
