Freedom in Christ 11-05-23

Overview: Pastor Williams talks about the concept of freedom and its importance. He uses the movie Braveheart as an example and discusses how different countries have different levels of freedom. He also mentions the freedom we have in Christ and how it goes beyond external freedom. Pastor Williams then dives into the first 13 verses of Romans 14, highlighting the three key areas of freedom in Christ: freedom of belief, freedom from judgment, and freedom from causing others to stumble. He emphasizes the importance of not compromising on primary issues while allowing freedom on secondary issues. He mentions the nature of God, the person and work of Christ, and the inspiration of Scripture as primary issues. He emphasizes the importance of following instructions and not treating the Bible as just an instruction manual. ----- Transcription: Romans chapter 14. Many of you know and I have shared with you on several occasions that I like movies. And I watch everything from westerns to war movies to samurai movies to fast car movies and explosions and actions and animated movies and all of that, but I'm reminded of a movie that I watched several times, probably at one point in my life, one of my favorite movies was called Braveheart. It's an old Mel Gibson movie where he portrayed William Wallace, who was a Scottish patriot that leads a revolt against the English. He is captured and executed towards the end of the movie, but as he is getting ready to be beheaded, he screams out, FREEDOM! And this was kind of the battle cry that would eventually lead to a free Scotland. I read a song, the lyrics to a song like this, Deep within the heart has always known that there is freedom. Somehow breathed into the very soul of life, the prisoner, the powerless, the slave, have always known it. There is something that keeps reaching for the sky and even life begins because a baby fights for freedom. And songs we love to sing have freedom's theme. Some have walked through fire and flood to find a place for freedom. And some have faced hell itself for freedom's dream. We may recognize this song and the chorus goes, Let freedom ring wherever minds know what it means to be in chains. Let freedom ring wherever hearts know pain. Let freedom echo through the lonely streets where prisons have no key. We can be free and we can sing. Let freedom ring. And then we read Scripture like John 8:32, You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. The Gospel of John 8 continues in verse 36, Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. And so there's a lot to be said about freedom. Even this great country that we live in is home of the free. We experience a lot of freedom here. We don't have to worry about anybody barging through these doors this morning and taking us in handcuffs. Taking us to be beaten. Taking us simply because we claim to be Christians. Because we proclaim the name of Christ. There are in some countries that if I were to preach certain Scriptures, certain texts that speak to sexual identity or exploits or sexual lifestyles that people choose to live. Or to preach the biblical standard that marriage is between one man and one woman for all of life. Anything outside of that is a sin in the eyes of God that I could be arrested and thrown in jail for hate speech. But we don't experience that here. Some may say, yet, I don't pretend to be a prophet to know the future events. I pray that we never get to that point, but we may. So the question is really for us is how far are we willing to go to live in and to fight for that freedom? We're coming up on a day where we celebrate many of those that have given their self over to fight for that freedom. They've made sacrifices and some have made the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I could sit and stand where we sit and stand today in freedom. But what I want to speak to this morning is something that goes beyond that freedom. A freedom that speaks to the very inner parts of who we are. A freedom that will help us to understand this external freedom a little bit more is when we experience the internal freedom in Christ. I've read those two Scriptures. We do have freedom in Christ. A freedom from a lot of things. And what I see in Romans 14 is there are three key areas that we are set free in in Christ. And so let's read the first 13 verses of Romans 14. Romans 14, verse 1, "...Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat. And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats. For God has received him. Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day above another. Another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord. And he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks. And he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord. And if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end, Christ died and rose and lived again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt to your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. So then, each of us shall give an account of himself to God. Therefore, let us not judge one another any more, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. Now, Paul says a mouthful in just those first 13 verses. And we'll dive into the second half of Romans chapter 14 next week as a caveat to this freedom that we have in Christ. What freedom do we have in Christ? First of all, we have the freedom of belief. We have the freedom of belief. The first eight verses, he goes through and explains it, that some of us believe different than others. And he uses the two examples of eating meat that was offered to idols and thoughts on what is the Sabbath. And he says, look, some of you can eat this meat that's been offered to idols and you don't have a problem with that. And in James Williams' version, Paul's saying, some of you eat this meat and guess what? That's okay. Some of you choose not to eat this meat and guess what? That's okay. Some of you esteem one day greater than the other. You hold to the Sabbath. Now imagine the context here, right? He's writing to the Roman church that is full of Jewish believers and Gentile believers. The background of the Jewish believers is they have a Sabbath day. A day where they don't do anything. A day where they can't take so many steps out their front door that's considered work. And then they're unclean before God and have to go make sacrifice. And then there's the other group, the Gentile believers, that have no Sabbath. Every day is the same to them. They can go and do whatever it is that they want to do and there's no problem. And they're coming together to worship Christ. And so, you can understand, there might be, hey, wait a minute now, brother. You're not keeping the Sabbath. Well, now wait a minute. Why are you trying to put this rule on me? And there begins to be this infighting, this division over these two things. Can I eat meat and how do I keep the Sabbath? What is the Sabbath? Am I required to keep the Sabbath? And there begins to be this division. And what Paul is saying is this. You have the freedom to believe the way you want to believe on certain issues. The way we would put that today is this. There are certain things that we call primary issues. And there are certain things that we call secondary. And the fancy word is tertiary issues. Okay? Primary issues. Things that we absolutely cannot compromise on. Things that there is no shadow of turning on these. The nature of God. We can't compromise on the nature of God. God is holy. He is just. He is perfect. He is righteous. He is, above all things, sovereign. We can talk all day long about the sovereignty of God. And the minute you come to me and say, God is not all-powerful, I'm going to tell you, listen, my friend, you're wrong. I'm not willing to compromise. And the reason I'm not willing to compromise is because of what this says about the nature of God. God is who God is. That's why He says all the way back in the book of Genesis, I am. I will not change. I'm the same yesterday, today, and forever. My nature is my nature. It will not change. The nature of God. The Person of Christ. Who is Christ? He is the very Son of God. That doesn't change. There is no arguing over that. That is a primary issue. The minute you say, well, He was a good teacher, or He was a prophet, He is along the lines of Moses, you're wrong. Why? Because the Word of God says that He is the Son of God, the Messiah. He is Christ. He is Lord. The Person of Christ. The Work of Christ. What has He come to do? He has come to reconcile the world back to Himself through a substitutionary sacrifice on the cross. That's what He came to do. Well, no, He just came to give us a good moral standard. He did that, wow, so that the world through Him might be reconciled to God. Again, that's Scripture. That is a primary issue. The inspiration of Scripture. This is the very Word of God. It's not just another book. It's not just a collection of books. It's not just words on a page. This is the Word of God. This is a primary issue. The minute it becomes an instruction manual, here's the mindset. And I'm going to speak to the men here because I don't know how ladies build things, because I'm not a lady. But men, I want you to think about the last time you built something. You opened the box. You had all the pieces. Let me just speak first. This is how I build things, right? I take everything out of the box and I lay them out. And I look at my list. I've got that piece, got that piece, got that piece, that piece, that piece, that piece. Okay, got it. From that point on, it's about the pictures. I don't read nothing. Oh, I take the big piece and then that little piece. Alright, got it. Okay, is it this screw or that screw? Ah, this one looks like it'll fit. And you get to the end of building something and you're like, I've got some extra parts. I put that in the bucket in the house with all my other extra parts and everything that I've built, right? The instruction manual became optional once I understood what I had to do. So if we view this as an instruction manual for life, guess what it becomes? Optional. Beloved, this does give us instructions on how to live. But it is more than an instruction manual. Beloved, it's more than a history book. I've even heard some people, it's a history book. It's His story. Yes, but when's the last time you stopped and opened up your history book from school? Brother Aaron, we started that new Sunday school class this morning. He's got timelines of biblical history and just history in general. And you can go in there and see the timeline of who lived and what we call Roman Empire. The empires operated all this stuff. You can learn and see all of that, right? And I find that very interesting. But when I'm looking for something to read and enjoy, I don't go to my history book. So yeah, this does share the history of God and His interaction with mankind. And so it is a history book, but it's not just a history book. This right here is the very Word of God. Some say it's a love letter from God to His people. Because it reveals how God loves us. It's getting closer. But it's the very Word of God. Which means God uses it to speak to you and to me. To draw us closer to Him. To instruct us. To encourage us. To challenge us. To mold us into the image of His Son. It does a lot more than a history book, a love letter, or an instruction manual can do. Why? Because it's the Word of God. That's a primary issue. The inspiration of Scripture. The inerrancy of Scripture. From front cover to back cover, there is no errors in this Word. Not one. You say, well, what about this? You can dive into it. You can nitpick. You can pick apart. But when you really get to the heart of what this says, and you look at the details from front to back, it has been proven over and over and over that this is the most accurate book to have ever been written, especially when you consider the time frame and the authors that it came to us from. And Aaron, I'm picking on you again. He's even got a poster thing in that it tells about how we got the Scriptures. Right? 1,500 years from the first letter to the last letter. Zero errors. It's infallible. There's nothing that's wrong in here. Science and archaeology continue to prove the accuracy of this. Well, this king didn't exist. Oh wait, all of a sudden, we found an inscription about that king. This town didn't exist. Oh wait, all of a sudden, we found archaeological evidence that this town existed over and over and over again. This is the inspired, inerrant, infallible Word of God. Listen, the minute we stop valuing this, we're in trouble. The minute it becomes something for me to carry into a building on Sunday mornings and then sit on a shelf for the rest of the week, my life will begin to fall apart. Why? Because that's the very Word of God. How do I raise my children? It tells us that. How do I love God? It tells me that. How does God love me? It tells me that. How am I to live as a Christian in a lost and dying culture? Guess what? It tells me that. It strengthens us. It encourages us. It builds us up. It gives us wisdom and insight. And it draws us closer to the holy God that we serve and love. Why are our churches and our families and our communities in the shape they're in? Because Christians have forgot what this is. This is a primary issue. Another primary issue would be the moral laws that Scripture gives us. When the New Testament tells us that we're no longer under the law, that doesn't mean we get to live any way we want to. That doesn't mean that, oh man, I've got freedom in Christ. I'm saved. I'll never face an eternal hell that Scripture talks about so I can just go and do whatever I want to because where sin abounds, grace does superabound. And we forget the very next verse. Does that mean that we should continue in our sin? Absolutely not. And I hear preachers all the time talk about the woman that they came and threw at the feet of Jesus who was caught in adultery and He didn't rebuke her. He didn't talk trash about her. He looked at the accusers instead. Yes, but what does He tell the woman at the end of the experience? Go and sin no more. There is a moral law that we are responsible to live by as His children. In the same way that you expect your children to live by your moral law. Just let one of your children step out of bounds. Let one of your children in the middle of that restaurant show out. Throw that fork across the restaurant. Let one of your children talk back to their teacher. I say that, but maybe not all of you like me. Let one of my children do that. And they're going to learn real quick that I don't play that. They know. They let it slip out every once in a while because they're in school just like your children are. Bro. Bro. I ain't your bro. Right? And that's a simple... They're stepping out a little bit on the disrespect. And yet, we think that we can treat our Heavenly Father any way we want to. Moral law is not a secondary issue. It's a primary issue. We have a responsibility as His children to live and bring Him glory in how we live. Those are not all of them. That's just some of the primary issues. There's secondary issues. And I have to hurry because I need to get through this full message this morning to kind of draw it all together. There's secondary issues. Things like worship style. Style of music, hymns, contemporary, organ, piano, guitars, drums, all of that. Everything's included in that. That's a secondary issue. Communion. When we take it. We take it here once a quarter. Usually the fifth Sunday. Some churches do it every week. Who's right? Who's wrong? Secondary issue. And there are certain areas of the communion that need to be done with respect. You need to examine yourself. All of those things. But when, how, whether you pass the plates or you have people come to you, that's a secondary issue. Church government. Deacons, elders, deaconesses. Secondary issue. Baptism. Believers' baptism. Infant baptism. Sprinkling or immersion. That's a secondary issue. You say, now wait a minute, preacher. There is no salvation found in baptism. That makes it a secondary issue. Now, our preference, our belief based on what we read here in Scripture in the Southern Baptist tradition and in Kings Grove tradition and me personally tradition, I believe immersion is the correct way because that's what I see Christ doing. But am I going to look at somebody who goes to a church that practices sprinkling and say, well, you're not right with God? Absolutely not. Well, you're not really saved because you don't do it the way we do it. I'm not doing that. As a matter of fact, if a senior saint calls me this afternoon and says, preacher, I'm dying, but I never got baptized, but I can't leave this hospital room, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go over to that hospital room and I'm going to either immerse their hand or sprinkle their head. I'm going to give them some rest, some assurance, some bit of comfort knowing that they did what they could to follow through with baptism. And I'm not going to look at them and say, well, this is not the right way to do it. No, I'm going to say, beloved, I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Buried in the likeness of His death, raised a new life in Christ. That's what I'm going to do because it's a secondary issue. Baptism. Spiritual gifts. You have a couple of groups. You've got the cessationists who think the spiritual gifts ceased with the disciples, that the spiritual gifts were only a confirmation of who the disciples were and the Savior that they taught, and that since then, there are no more spiritual gifts. There's the continuationalists who think that every single spiritual gift still exists today, is still used and utilized by the church. And then there's a mix of them that believe that some of them are available, some of them are not available, some of them are used correctly, some are not used correctly. All that spiritual gifts, the action of spiritual gifts is a secondary issue. Views on social issues. Do you believe in capital punishment? How should we treat divorce? Should Christians be in favor of war? All of those things are secondary issues. Views on the rapture, the tribulation, the millennial reign of Christ. When's that going to happen? Pre-trib, mid-trib, post-trib. Secondary issue. It's going to happen. When it happens is only God knows. Secondary issue. I love it, and as hard as this may be to believe, Reformed theology is a secondary issue. And here's why. Because we've got brothers and sisters in Christ that are on the Reformed side that believe that salvation comes by Christ alone through His substitutionary death on the cross. That we are saved by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. We have some, on what I would say my side is, the unreformed theologists, who believe that same thing. Salvation comes by Christ alone through His substitutionary death on the cross by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. That's salvation. Now the problem that we have oftentimes with Reformed theology is how that plays out in their life, which then portrays into the moral and all that. But on the surface level, when it comes to salvation, Reformed theology is a secondary issue. You say, how do you know that? All you have to do is look at our Baptist faith and message to understand that. Our Baptist faith and message, the founding document as Southern Baptists is written in such a way that allows for diversity within that group. I am not going to look... As a matter of fact, I have some great friends and great influences in my life that are of the Reformed theology side. And they love Jesus. And they want the world to be reconciled to Him. And they see and understand their responsibility to evangelize the lost. The problem comes in when you get to the hyper that say, you know what? God's going to save those who say there's no need for me to evangelize because I don't know, only He knows. So I'm just going to keep my faith to myself. That's where the problem comes in. But that is no different than an Unreformed theology who sits in a pew, who sits in a chair, or sits in their recliner at home and keeps their faith to their self. They both have the will of God because God tells us to go and witness to a lost and dying world. That has nothing to do with Reformed theology. It has to do with obedience to the Word of God. The Reformed theology. I knew that one was going to be quiet. Listen, that's a very divisive issue within the Southern Baptists right now. But a lost and dying world is looking at us and laughing because we can't get along with our differences. We can't get along with a brother and sister of Christ who don't see the exact same way that we see them. And so they're out there saying, why in the world would I want to be a part of that? And what Paul is saying to this Roman church is you've got to move past the secondary issues, stand firm on the primary issues, and share the love of Christ with those that are around us. There's primary issues, secondary issues, but here's what it all comes down to, beloved. Biblical standard. What does the Bible say or teach on the issue? What we have to be very careful of, very careful of, is building our theology on what the Bible doesn't say. Well, the Bible's silent on that, so I'm just going to form my own... Well, you know what? The Bible doesn't say that I can't go out and eat 100,000 Snickers in one hour. So therefore, it must be okay. No. The Bible talks about gluttony. The Bible talks about everything in moderation. The Bible talks about all of this stuff that leads me to say, you know what? It's probably not smart for me to go out and eat 100,000 Snickers in an hour. Probably not going to be good for my health, right? And so we have to be careful of building our theology on what the Bible doesn't say. Let's go to what the Bible does say. And allow that to impact us. Our freedom in Christ. We have the freedom to believe. We have the freedom of conviction in verses 9 through 12. Conviction is biblical. And I'm going to run to the end with this, because like I said, I need to finish it to bring it all together, because right now some of y'all are mad at me. I understand that. That's okay. I get it. I can handle it. I'm a big boy. Because as I was studying that and praying for that, you know, there were some points like, I don't know if I can do that. I don't know if I can say that. Again, I'm just trying to teach you what Scripture says. There's secondary issues, primary issues. The biblical standard is what matters. Conviction. The freedom of conviction. Conviction is biblical. 2 Corinthians 7, 9 through 10. Now I'll rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. That's conviction. For you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death. John 16:8, and when He has come, He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Luke 5, 8, when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees saying, depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. Over and over in Scripture, we see this idea that conviction will happen. Conviction is biblical. Conviction will come. But listen, beloved, it's not our job. It's not my job or your job to convict somebody over their sin. That's the Spirit of God's job. John 16, 8 again, and when He has come, when He has come, who is that? The Spirit. The Holy Spirit. He will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. This should be a great relief to us that I don't have to confront everybody about their sin. That I don't have to go to somebody. Brother Tim, I'm just telling you, you know what? And then I have to have this horrible conversation with him. No. All I've got to do is share the truth of God's Word and trust the Holy Spirit of God to do His job in Tim's life. Listen, in my life and in your lives. Listen, I need you as much as you need me. And I would dare say more so. I need people in my life to be able to come to me and speak into my life and say, hey, James, I just want you to show me where Scripture talks about that. Don't take what I'm telling you just because I'm telling you it. Check it with the Word of God. Because I am just as prone to misinterpreting something as you are. Now, prayerfully do my due diligence before I bring it to you to make sure that I'm trying not to do that, but I'm just human. And so it may happen. Conviction is not our job. Conviction will come by truth in love. Acts 2.37 When they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? That's right there when the Spirit of God comes down at the day of Pentecost and Peter begins to preach the truth of God's Word. They're convicted to the heart and then they come. What shall we do? 2 Timothy 3.16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. What will convict hearts? The Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Romans 10.17 So then, faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Conviction is not our job. It comes by truth in love. And conviction is experiential. Conviction is based on salvation. The first conviction that we will experience is the need for a Savior. That's the first conviction that we experience. That there's something wrong in my life and it needs to be fixed. And the only way to fix that is faith in Christ. And once that conviction over salvation comes in, conviction is often based on maturity. And that's what Paul is getting to here. There's some that are on this level and there's some on this level. And the one on this level may have a little bit more freedom because they understand things a little bit more, a little bit deeper, and a little bit longer than this new Christian. And we can't expect somebody who just puts their faith in Christ today to know all the ins and outs about being a Christian tomorrow. It's just not going to happen. Listen, I've been saved over 20 years and you know what? I still struggle with cuss words. Preacher. Honest. Now, thanks be unto God, I haven't let one come out of my mouth in quite a while. But it still goes on up here. And I rebuke myself. Again, full honesty right here. I rebuke myself. What's that language about? Why is that there? Conviction comes in. Based on maturity. It's also based on the individual. There are certain things that I'm convicted about because of what I experienced in my life before. Let me tell you this. Again, full honesty. This may not go anywhere. This may be a dud, but there are some thoughts and ideas that I have on alcohol because of what I experienced in my childhood. Being molested because of it. Getting in fights with my dad because of it. Hanging out every weekend because that's where my childhood took me to be. And I have very strong convictions about alcohol because of my experience. Whereas somebody else on the other side who maybe it was used with moderation. Maybe it was used for health concerns. Maybe it was used for all of these other things. And they have no strong convictions over alcohol because of that. I'm not going to look at someone and say you can't be saved. You can't be right with God. You can't live a holy life because you take that sip of wine with your meal. What I'm going to say is here's why I think it's wise for a Christian to stay away from it. Because what you can handle, your child may not be able to. Because what you have the freedom to have, your brother and sister in Christ may not have the freedom to have. And this is where the second half of Romans comes in with the law of love. That our love for our brothers and sisters in Christ should trump our freedom. That's next week. I'm going to get to that. But conviction is based on individual. And lastly, I'll end with this in verse 13. Freedom of following. Look at verse 13. I want to read this one because this one's good. Now, may the God... Nope, that's 15. Hold on. 14. Therefore, let us not judge one another anymore. But listen, but rather resolve this not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. Our mindset changes from look what they're doing, look what they're doing, look what they're doing, look what they're doing, to, oh, I've got to make sure I'm not causing them to fall. I need to make sure. Look at what I'm doing. He says stop judging people, but rather do this. Resolve. Resolve. Make a decision. Put your mind to this truth. Not to put a stumbling block or anything that might cause a brother to fall. We have the freedom of following without judgment. Why? Because we're all imperfect. We're all imperfect. Would I look at somebody else and say, no, no, no, here's their problem. Here's where they mess up. Here's where they go wrong. At the same time, they could be looking at me and saying, well, here's your problem. Here's where you mess up. Here's where you go wrong. And they're probably correct. We're all imperfect. You have the freedom of following without judgment. We are all being made perfect. We're in a process. Philippians 3:12, not that I've already attained it, or that I'm already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. I press on, Philippians 1.6, being confident in this very thing that He who had begun a good work in you will complete it or will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Beloved, we are in the middle of a process. Some of us may be further along than the others, but we're still in a process. We're still imperfect. We're still moving towards that perfection. The freedom of following with resolve to follow together. That's why we're here. We're not here to judge one another. We're not here to pick out the discrepancies in each other's eyes or lifestyle, but we're here to follow Jesus together. To move towards Him as a church family. So that you and I are stronger as individuals, stronger as a church, but so that this community is stronger because we're here. Because we're following Jesus together and to help one another. Because there are certain things in my life that I need some wise counsel on. There are certain things in your life that you need some wise counsel on. Where should we be able to find wise, godly counsel? Right here. Not judgment, but help. Freedom of following with resolve. Lastly, feeling of following with encouragement. Of encouragement. To grow in your faith. Beloved, I don't want you to come in here, hear me preach a sermon like this, leave angry or upset, or maybe even a little more enlightened than you were. What I want you to do is to leave here hungry for more. Desiring. He said this. What does the Bible really say about this? And press into and grow in your faith so that maybe at some point during the week, you can shoot me a text or a phone call or email saying, Preacher, I just want you to know, you said this and I found this Scripture. And I went this. And all of a sudden, you become excited about God's Word, about your faith, about following Him together. To encourage. To grow. To go. Our faith is not just for us in this room. Our faith is for us to take out into the community. To our friends, to our family, to our neighbors. Let's take what we learn, what we dive into, what we press into here, and take it out there with us to grow, to go, and to join. Get plugged in to what God's doing in this community. I realize this. Kings Grove is not the place for everybody because of the preferences, right? Because of secondary issues. People like to worship different ways. And you know what? You're going to come in here and we're going to have a blended style of worship and that may not be your cup of tea. That's fine. Find somewhere that is. Get plugged in and grow and go and join the mission of God there. Some of you may find that Kings Grove is the place for you. And I'd love to talk with you more about that. About what it means to be a member and how to become a member of this church family. Of this mission to grow and go together. Let's stand together. Ms. Patsy is going to come. She's going to play for a time of invitation. And we're going to make this very brief because I know I've kept you too long. So I don't want to drag this out. But where are you at in your relationship with Christ this morning? Are you growing? Are you going? Are you experiencing conviction of a need for a Savior? Because of what Christ did. Because of who He is. That primary issue of the Person and work of Christ. Are you wanting to plug in and join the work of Christ somewhere? Here? Not here? You just need help. You need instruction. You need some insight. I'd love to share with you about that. To meet with you. To talk with you about that. Have you been living your life in any way that you wanted to? And taking the freedom of Christ for granted? I can do whatever I want because I'm saved. I will not face hell, so I can live any way that I want to. And you're under the conviction now saying, you know what? I didn't realize that I had a responsibility as a child of God to honor Him and glorify Him and how I lived according to the moral law found in God's Word. You simply need to come and repent. Ask for forgiveness. Turn from that sinful way and turn to God. This altar's open. You come. Any way that you need to deal with God, you come. I'd love to pray with you. Pray for you. Like I said, we're not going to draw it out. You come now as Ms. Patchy plays and pray.