Well, it's good to see you guys today. let me have you turn in your Bibles, this morning to Galatians chapter, 5. Galatians chapter 5. And, Carlos, left off last week in verse 12 of Galatians 5, and, this morning we're going to pick up in verse 13 and try to cover verses 13 through 15, and, at the same time, we're going to cheat a little bit and we're going to lump verse 1 of chapter 5 into, our study, today.
So this will essentially be a study of Ephesians 5:1 and then 13 through 15, and the title of the message is what to do with your, freedom. We're going to see today. It's not enough to just give people freedom. You have to teach people what to do with their freedom.
I think the war in Iraq, whether you agree or disagree with the fact that we should even be there, as a country involved in military action. I think that serves as a standing illustration of the fact that you have to do more than just give people freedom. people need to be instructed in what to do, with that freedom, or you have a mess on your hands. And we have the same thing in Christ and Paul, beginning at this point of the letter is going to lay some of the polemics aside, Having, I think, effectively dispelled the false gospel and gotten the Galatians back to the true gospel, Paul now wants to practically begin to show them how to walk in the freedom that they have in Christ, and we're going to see him beginning to do that, today.
I want to begin by reading to you a fairly lengthy story by Charles Riri, just an incident that happened in his life that serves, I think, as an effective introduction to what we're going to be talking about, today. He says this, in seminary days, I had a job working with underprivileged junior high and high school kids at the downtown YMCA. On what was then the outskirts of the city was a camp we used every Friday when weather permitted. We would load a bus with 40 to 50 kids, head for the camp, and enjoy an evening cookout and games....
