Good morning. I'm glad to see you're awake after that neat comment on Psalm 1, which I appreciate very much. We should all be awake to the reality of our relationship to the Lord and to the matters of freedom in Christ. The topic I've been assigned is how to maintain your personal freedom. Let's look at that briefly. I'd like to have you turn with me, please, to Galatians 5, verse 1, the key exhortation in the book. You've heard the preachers say one is very much tempted to do this and this and this in the Scripture. I wrote my dissertation on Galatians, so I'm not going to go into that. I just want to point out the key exhortation. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Verse 13, For you were called to freedom, brethren, Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. With that ringing as a key exhortation in our ears, I think we have to ask ourselves, what is freedom? There's an old Negro spiritual that goes, everybody talking about heaven ain't going there. And everybody talking about freedom ain't knowing it, freedom, freedom. Well, maybe I should go see the cows. I'm not so sure they're interested in heaven or freedom, but we ought to be. Heaven means our secure position. Freedom means our walk. that is profitable for the Lord Jesus. Now, let's talk about freedom. Since everybody talking about freedom ain't knowing it, let's see if we know something about what freedom's about. And I'll just put some handles on it here. Let me see if I can give you a definition that might work here. I have a little overhead, and that just might work. Some people have a lot of overhead and they can't make any profit in their business. My business is using the overhead to profit. So let's take a look at what this is all about. Oh, your eyes are not too good this morning, right? It's all fuzzy. Take your glasses off, wipe them. Go ahead. Go ahead. And sure enough, it gets clearer, doesn't it? Oh, isn't that a relief? It always is a relief to focus clearly on something, right? Freedom. I take it that the ability to think, feel, choose, that's our personal properties of intellect, sensibility, will, the ability to think, feel and choose according to truth, without compulsion, in the realm of one's nature, might be a good starting point for what freedom is all about, as far as personal freedom is concerned. Now, there are other types of freedom involved in the universe. But this might just help us this morning, because I think there's some things we need to pick up on here. The ability to think, feel, and choose according to one's, according to nature, excuse me, according to truth, without compulsion in the realm of one's nature. Galatians chapter two tells us that the people that Paul writes to were once in the area of bondage, bondage to a legalistic system. When the law was given, it was not a legalistic system. It was a good guide for life for Israel between Mount Sinai and Mount Calvary. It was a rule of life. It was never meant to be a way construed to get life, but rather having gotten life through faith in God by His grace, they were to maintain a walk that was in accord with truth. And the Scripture through the revelation of the law of God was a form of revelation of truth. It was temporary, but it was good for the time. And he says here in 2.19, I through the law, that is in harmony with the law, died to the law, that I might live to God. Implication, as long as I live in the law, With its misconstrued, that is, one's own misconstrued legalistic system trying to gain favor with God by accomplishment, there is no possibility of living to Christ. Paul, how did you die to the law that you might live to God? Verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ. When the law pronounced its judgment upon Christ as a curse, The curse came upon Christ in our place. He bore the curse for us. We died in our substitute. Having died in our substitute, we also rose in our substitute. But he says, I have been crucified with Christ. It's not something he's going to attain. It's something that he has as a gift from God. The moment we trusted Christ, we died to the law. And it is no longer I who live, But Christ lives in me. He's not denying his personal existence. He's writing here. If you read the rest of the epistle, you see he's very upset in his own personal mind, and he says, I wish that Christ could settle down and be at home in your heart. I'm afraid. I wish I could be with you to let you hear my change of voice. Well, that's not Christ speaking. That's Paul speaking under Christ's command and concern, under his control as a pastor. But it's Christ who lives in me. He's the source and the regulation of my life. And the life which I now live, I live by faith, literally in faith, not in law. Faith which is in the Son of God who loved me and delivered himself up for me. In fact, if I try, he says, to gain favor by the law, I nullify the grace of God. For if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. The first thing we need to recognize here is that there is a new relationship. Let me turn you to also Galatians chapter 4. Before we look at 4, however, I want to finish what I was going to say here. The truth is that we are in Christ, and according to God's character and God's revelation, we have a relationship to him who is true. And freedom is found only in the truth. Jesus said, if you shall know the truth, the truth shall make you free. Truth is personal. I am the way, the truth, and the life. And truth is revelational in the word of God. If you abide in my word, Jesus said, you'll have freedom. So, the first thing we have to understand is what truth is. And truth is in accord with God's character and God's revelation. It's the opposite of the lie. Second thing we want to look at is according to one's nature. Now, cows don't feel very happy swimming in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Cows love the pasture, and they love to be secure. And I think because they're rather contented, not too many of them have ulcers. Is that right? They chew their food. They're selective in their food. They don't rush around according to clock. They're running according to their nature. And fish don't like to fly, and birds don't like to swim. Occasionally you find some divers among fish. I mean, among birds. I was out in... Yeah, you're right. Well, there are divers among what you might call the fish area. I think of the whale. He's not a fish, though. He's a mammal. But he's in the fish category. He can hold his breath for a whole hour. Of course, he has to spout off sometime. He has to come up for air. Don't you feel like that in this conference? Coming up for air? I know these people are spouting off all around you. But anyway, it says here that birds don't like to swim and fish don't like to fly. That's because their nature is not such. They are free in their own realm. I can't be here and in Carroll Stream, Illinois at the same time. Yesterday I thought I'd like to be out on the golf course, but I chose better things to do, to be here. But I can't be two places at once. I can't walk on the ceiling. Those would not be freedoms for me. I'd like not to walk out of a 17th floor window, because that's not freedom for me. Now, we are creatures, and so we have limitations. And we have comfortability. The cows are comfortable where Bill puts them. You have a horse that's comfortable where you're keeping it. Your wife is comfortable in your house, not in your pasture. Your horse, you wouldn't allow in the house. Those are no, no, you'd soon be without a wife. What I'm saying is, everybody has his own locale and his own comfortability realm. And as creatures, we are most comfortable when we're in the hands of a loving Heavenly Father and a good shepherd. We have an old nature that used to be ours, and we had old loves that used to be ours, and we were comfortable in those. Paul speaks about that in Galatians 4, 8 and following. He says, at that time, When you did not know God, you were slaves to those which were by nature no gods. In other words, they went along, they were being controlled, walking according to the God of this world, but they felt comfortable where they were because they didn't like righteousness, and they worshipped old, ridiculous no gods. But now we have a new nature. But now you've come to know God, says verse 9, rather to be known by God. So don't turn back to the weak and worthless elements and your desire in this to be enslaved all over again. Ritual and retreat to old-fashioned type life. Our nature is such now that we have a new nature in Christ Jesus. The new birth or regeneration creates within us a new moral base of our personality. It's not the injection of a spirit. That is, the Holy Spirit causes this birth. We're born by the Spirit. What's born is human. And that human new nature is a new capacity to think and feel and choose with God in the realm of righteousness. And we have that new nature. It cries out for expression. It wants to love and follow God. Paul speaks about that in Romans chapter 7, doesn't he? I have two laws within me, the law of my mind with which I concur, with the law of God, and the law of sin, which frustrates me and wants to do evil. And the only answer is to walk in the Spirit, which we'll talk about later. But our new nature is the nature we need to follow. And when we walk according to our new nature, we will know freedom in truth and in the new nature, which is created according to true righteousness and holiness, according to Ephesians 4.24. The last consideration of the definition is without compulsion. That means not as a result of threat or coercion, not necessarily because it's forced upon you. Satanists and people in the occult are forced to do what they want to do, either knowingly or unknowingly. Those who are victims of Satanism are forced to do horrible, horrible things which we do not think about right after breakfast and on Sunday morning. However, they mock everything that has to do with Christianity, eating real flesh, drinking real blood instead of the symbols thereof. They have no respect for human dignity, and the little ones are compelled to do horrible, horrible crimes, which are emblazoned upon their memories as guilt. I'm such a person I can't be loved. Many people come out of Satanism that way. But we can live in a sense of liberty. It is for liberty, freedom that Christ has set us free. In the context, freedom from the law. But, as he mentions, he's talking about the stoichia, or the ABCs, the rudimentary spirit world. He's talking about anything that compels the person. You see, wicked spirits promote legalism. I've talked to people who had the spirits of legalism, and some of them came in by the baptism of a legalistic church. Others were imposed upon them by the legalistic regulations in the home and in the church. Church is not necessarily a safe place. A safe place is the truth and love. And so, without compulsion, we're new creatures and we have a new conduct, and our compulsion ought to be taken away. And out of freedom, we ought to say, I decide to serve the Lord Jesus. Now, how can we maintain that freedom? We've talked about what freedom is. First of all, we must affirm our position. according to the Spirit. Let's talk about that position for a moment. We've looked into this before, haven't we? We've talked about our identification with Christ. When you first trusted Christ, by the baptism of the Spirit, you were placed into Christ, so that you died with him. The little cross within the big cross is yours. You rose with him, the little arrow within the big arrow is yours. You're seated with him in heavenly places, according to Ephesians 1 and 2, and you're going to reign with him when he returns. He's made as a kingdom of priests unto our God. In both ages now and in the future, angels' principalities and powers are subject to Christ, and because we're in Christ, they're subject to us. Just yesterday, one wicked spirit said, you don't have authority to do that. I said, let's get this straight. Jesus Christ is your victor, I am in Christ, I am your victor, he has authority over you, he has delegated to me authority over you, and you are going to listen. Do you have that straight?" And he backed down. And basically he left the person in the authority of Jesus Christ. So that person is a lot freer today. We do have authority. The scripture says it, our experience says it. Here's another way to look at our position. Friends, when we trusted Christ, when we trusted Christ, We were baptized into Christ, and in Christ we have some marvelous grace works that are accomplished the very moment we trust Christ. First of all, the Father's work. He forgives us all our trespasses. He justifies us by faith. He adopts us. That means he places us as sons. Forgiveness is the erasure of guilt. Justification is the addition or the imputation of Christ's righteousness. Adoption is the placing as official sons and heirs of God. Adoption and new birth are not the same. Adoption is something that was done for a child that was in the family, making him legal heir. The Son, when he died for us, secured redemption, and when we trusted him, that redemption was put on our account, redeemed from the bondage of sin. He satisfied God by propitiation, and there is no legal claim against this whatsoever. Reconciliation. He took us from being alienated and brought us back to a completely changed position when we trusted Christ. Not only that, but the moment we trust Christ, the Spirit's work of regeneration occurs. We are born again. That's not the Holy Spirit. That's a human part of us that is born by the Spirit. The Spirit is the agent of the birth. Then we have Indwelling, he comes to indwell our bodies, a permanent guest, and then we are baptized into Christ, which gives us our legal position. Joined with him in death, burial, and resurrection, not in water baptism, but in actual baptism, legal baptism into Christ. and then we are sealed. Let's review those things that the Spirit does. Regeneration gives us a new nature. Indwelling gives us a new helper within. Baptizing gives us a new position. And sealing gives us a new destiny, sealed unto the day of redemption. And when we trust Christ, every one of those things come to be ours immediately. To be lost, you'd have to be unjustified, unadopted, unforgiven, unredeemed, unpropitiated, that is, unreconciled, unsealed, indwelt, unregenerated, unbaptized, and there ain't no such action, no how. Friends, we have a secure position, and the enemy will tell you something else. He'll put it right back on the basis of works. We have to stand in our position in Christ because that's secure by God's grace. Grace is not weak. Grace is strong. Last couple of times I've had to deal with people that they were inhabited by wicked spirits before they ever trusted Christ. And then the spirits had to leave because they had to confess that the grace of God was stronger than they. They couldn't stop the person from trusting Christ. Now, we know that the grace of God is strong, and the grace of God is right. Let's move on. We're talking about position. We have to move to something else here. We affirm our position, but we walk according to the Spirit. There are three things that are involved in walking in the Spirit. Dr. Lewis Barry Chaffer, I believe, is the one who put these together this way, but what he said was, you look through the Scripture and you find the exhortations that deal with the Spirit. And I think that's pretty good, because as you look at them, they pretty well cover the whole area. How do you get filled with the Spirit? Well, first of all, it's not the same as baptism, that's position. Filling has to do with control and characterization, cultivation of the life. 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 19. Quench not the spirit. In the context, don't despise prophesying. The Word of God used to have to come, bits and pieces, through prophets, until the New Testament, the complete, was accomplished. And through the New Testament, now, we have the complete Word of God. Both Old and New Testament, all scripture is God's Word, all inspired by God, down to the details, the jot, the tittle, and so forth. Quenching the spirit means to throw cold water on the spirit. I have to tell you a story about my wife. I don't know whether she'll allow this or not, but she's a long ways away. One time, a young man rather amorously engaged, tried to kiss her. This was before she married me, of course. Usually, I would have been dead. Otherwise, I may be small, but, you know, small fists penetrate quite a ways. You know, there is a godly jealousy, isn't there? I don't allow any other man to live in my house. God doesn't want it that way. But here this young man was amorously attracted to her and he was going to kiss her and she had a bobby pin in her lips. She put it there to prevent it. He felt quenched. Resisted it. The word actually means to put out a fire. You know, when you camp, you have to put out the fire. So you either throw dirt on it or you throw water on it. throwing cold water on the spirit. How do you do that? By not being submissive to him. We quench the spirit by not yielding to him. The opposite of quenching is yielding, allowing him to cultivate our lives. He can be trusted to do that. In Ephesians 4.30, we have, "...quench not the Spirit of God, whereby you have been sealed unto the day of redemption." He didn't say, quench not, lest you not be sealed. He said, you have been sealed, your destiny is secure, but you need to walk with him. So quench not and grieve not. Grieve not in the context of Ephesians chapter 4 has to do with unconfessed sins. Poor interpersonal relationships. Put away anger, bitterness, wrath, clamor from among you. Forgive one another, just like Christ has forgiven you. Don't grieve the Spirit by unconfessed sin. The answer to that is confession. Confession is not for salvation. Believe is the word for salvation. All the way through the Gospel of John, the one word is believe, receive. He never uses the word confession once, except if anyone confessed Christ, they would put him out of the synagogue. But it's not a condition for salvation, because confession is for the family of God, to maintain fellowship. To get into fellowship, believe. To maintain fellowship, confess. And we confess our sins, he is faithful, that takes care of the vertical relationship. He's faithful, that takes care of his responsibility. And just, that's his character behind the vertical relationship being restored, that's forgiveness. To forgive, the vertical relationship. And to cleanse, the internal defilement that comes from sin. You don't get lost when you sin. But you get out of fellowship. So how are you restored? By confessing it. Walking in the light is the norm. Confessing is for those who are not walking in the light. To be in the light is different from walking in the light. John uses two different verbs. Be means to be positionally in the light. To walk means to enjoy and to have fellowship with God in light. We grieve the spirit when we don't obey the word and when we don't have good interpersonal relationships. Jesus said it. Under the law, the man brought an offering to the gate, to the altar in the temple, to worship God, and he remembers that his brother had something against him. He had to go back and get it right with his brother, said Jesus, then come and worship We cannot worship God when we neglect or hurt and have not repaired our relationship with those who are made in the image of God. To disdain a person made in the image of God is not to honor God. So we need to confess our sins, and he is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and cleanse us. The last exhortation is walk by. Actually there are two verbs, they are in Galatians. Galatians 5.16, walk by the Spirit, you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. The word here is peripateo. You've probably heard of the peripatetic philosophy schools, they walked around. It's the word walk in general, and I think it refers to the idea of walking by the power of the Spirit, because in the context it says, walk by the Spirit, you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. The flesh is still whirring around inside, it needs to be kept off the throne, it's been put off the throne by baptism of the Spirit, it needs to be kept off the throne by the filling of the Spirit. And we walk by the Spirit when we depend upon His power. Now, there are two ways for me to get around the golf course. I really prefer the first one. I enjoy walking, pulling my cart behind me. And I've got leg power. But sometimes the old men I play with like to go by cart power. Well, that's too rushed, back and forth. I don't get to walk. I don't get the exercise. My heart doesn't get all pumped up and I don't get enough chance to think about the next shot or to count off the steps or to talk to the Lord on the way, whatever it might be. So what do I do? I either walk by the power of my legs or walk by the power of my cart. We can walk either in the power of the flesh or in the power of the spirit. By the flesh is failure, you won't enjoy it. By the spirit is success. Now there's another word here. The word is walk by, found in verse 25. In verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, and we do, let us go to walking by the Spirit. The word is here, stachel, which means to walk step by step. In fact, I think NIV has a pretty good translation there. I don't have one. You take a look at it. It has to do with walking in step by step, walking in step with the Spirit. Isn't that the translation? Keep in step. Ah, it's to be a habit of life to keep in step with the Spirit. Have you ever watched a military band? I don't mean those high school bands. They sometimes get out of line. Some of the college bands are really quite good, but the military bands, man, they've got to be in line. And so, the military band walks down the street, and they are right straight in line because they're looking at the man ahead of them, and they're guiding right, and the man who's up front right determines the step. They're guiding right. They're not running ahead, they're not falling behind, they're not straying aside. They're walking in line, step by step, with their leader. Got the idea? We don't rush ahead of the Spirit by going in our own flesh. We don't lag behind because we say, oh, I'm not sure I can do it. And the Lord's called you to do it. And you don't stray aside to distractors. You keep in touch with the Lord and his word. And that's what it means to walk in the Spirit. Depend upon his power. and follow his particulars. Depend upon his power, verse 16, and follow his particulars. As he said in his work, I don't believe in voices from heaven. I really do think God can work in me to willing to do his good pleasure without voices. Some people get so addicted to voices which aren't God's. There are lots of voices out there. There's a battle for the mind. You open your mind to whatever comes in, and garbage will come in. Christian has a screen of truth. It's a filter. We are not to be gullible people. We're not to belong to the cult of the open mind. We are to test the spirits, whether they be of God. We are to walk according to truth. The scripture is adequate to make the man of God mature, thoroughly outfitted unto every good work. What else could you ask? sufficient for maturity, personal maturity, sufficient for profitable ministry. And so we need to walk by the Spirit. And then we'll have the fruit, the love, joy, and peace toward God, the long-suffering, gentleness, goodness toward others, and the meekness, self-control, among ourselves. I got a little distracted there. What are the last three? Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, gentleness, and self-control. The Lord Jesus was gentle. As God in the flesh, he didn't have to be careful how he shook hands with people, let his omnipotent hand crush them. He was a human, and he was gentle, too. Gentle in his spirit. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for I am meek. I am gentle and lowly in heart. Well, the fruit of the Spirit. Now, what special considerations stand in submission? Friends, the Bible says, submit to God, resist the devil, he will flee. The order is important. We can't resist the devil when we don't submit to God. Friends, there's no problem with submitting to God. It's in our minds. God's not the problem. The submission is not the problem. It's the mind problem. There's a battle going on for your mind. God's not an ogre. He's not going to ask for your hand and crush it. He's not going to ask for your life and ruin it. He said, present your body as a living sacrifice. You might prove what's the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. Good, acceptable, and perfect. G-A-P, the gap that's been missing in your life, right? The good, acceptable, and perfect will of God, and be not pressed down into the mold of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. He's interested in cultivation, not deprivation. He's interested in cultivation. not denigration. He's interested in cultivation, not putting you down. The safest place to be is in safe hands. And I don't mean all state. I mean all powerful. All right? He is powerful and he's loving and kind and gracious. Submission. You can't Resist the devil when you don't submit to God. Submit comes first, then resist is possible. Then the flee would come. No submission, no resistance. No resistance, no fleeing. You can't be a little rebel and be on God's side. You're rather participating with your enemy's characteristics and conduct. The big rebel. Alertness. Be on the alert. 1 Peter says, Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We need to be aware of his schemes. We've talked about that in this conference. There are all sorts of schemes. He sneaks up on our blind side. If he can't get you through lust, he'll get you through pride. If he can't get you through hardness, he'll get you through softness. You can be too soft. Watch over loving. There is such a thing as tough love, there is such a thing as holy love. You don't need to hug and kiss everybody, you see. Husbands, love your wives. Wives, love your own husbands, or submit to your own husbands. I think there's a personal property there. So we need to do that. But that doesn't mean we can't be loving and kind with others. So we can do that. But we are to be alert to the schemes of the enemy, because he sneaks up on our blind side. Predators sneak up, then they attack. Alertness. Then separation. Sometimes people who come out of the occult background need to separate from their families. You don't really send people who've been involved in witchcraft back to a family that's been involved in witchcraft. They become entangled again. Jesus said something about that. He didn't say go back home and make everything alright. They won't accept that. They'll hate you. So what you do is you follow the Lord Jesus' statement. You can't come after me and be my disciple except you forsake father and mother, houses and lands. I don't believe in staying with parents until everything's settled and you're married. Especially when the parents are involved in ritual abuse and witchcraft and Satanism and occultism. You don't, after you've escaped being torn by a lion, go back into the den. They're not going to become pillows for you. God's not going to send an angel like he did for Daniel. He wants you to use your head. He says, basically, stop having fellowship with works of darkness. Rather, expose them. He says, come out from among them, my people, and be separate. And so, he wants us to come out of the false religious cults and the aberrant forms of Christianity that aren't teaching the Word of God He wants us to come out of the occult expressions and the cultic type of controls. And he wants us to walk in freedom. So there's a separation from the company. There's a separation of concerns. What are you concerned about? Your possessions? Your pride? Your comfortability? Or are you concerned about the things that God's concerned about? Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou savest not the things that be of God, but of Satan." Who did he say that to? The chief apostle. There was a lot that Christ had to do in Peter's life. He said to him, Satan hath desired thee to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not. Peter failed, but his faith didn't. When the Lord looked at him, he turned back to the Lord, didn't And he was a pillar, and it wasn't until after the resurrection that he was called Peter the Rock. Friends, that kind of rock music is good. How would you like to be called a rock for the Lord Jesus? Well, don't take it upon yourself. Just be stable. Be firm. Really stand for the Lord, and people will consider you that, perhaps. But that's not why you're in it, to have people consider you that way. So, basically, what we're talking about here is separation from the Comfortability zones, the possessions. Could you live without what you have in your house? Those heirlooms? Those things you think are so comfortable and helpful? If a fire destroyed your house, would you be devastated? What do you consider most important? If your relationship to your friends was broken because you stood for Christ, would you be able to handle it? Your choices. Where am I going with my life? What am I going to do to develop it? Can I help people who are in bondage? If I assume the position of these men in this conference, that there is such a thing as spiritual warfare, it's real and impinges upon our everyday life, If it's true that Ephesians chapter 6 is part of the normal Christian life, like walking in holiness and righteousness and warfare, what's going to happen to my reputation in the Christian community, in my church? Am I willing to stand for the ridicule, the separation? the funny looks, the abuse. Am I willing to stand for righteousness? Our concerns. That brings us to choices. What are you going to do with your life? Friends, that's very important. You can choose to have comfort by following magical, mystical means, or you can try shortcuts to whatever you think God should have for you. But I think separation is very important. It almost goes back to alertness again, doesn't it? There's a young lady who went on a mission, that is, she went on a, you could call it a mission to Florida. It was during springtime, it was wonderful, called Beach Evangelism. She was one of our Advanced Study Program girls, lovely girl. She came from a Lutheran background and she really knew the Lord and loved the Lord, very sharp. One of the best research papers I ever had came from her. And she went down to the beach, and she was witnessing to people. At the end of the day, she came up to this good-looking young man. She witnessed to him about Christ. He listened very carefully, and at the end of the conversation, though there was no decision for Christ, he was sort of enamored with her, and he gave her a friendship bracelet. She came back to Moody, and she started having dreams. sexually oriented dreams. And I said, when did this start? When I came back from evangelism, she told me this story. I said, what's that on your wrist? She says, all that came from this young man, and she told me that story. I said, do you realize it could be a love charm? If it's so, I don't want it. So she took it and ripped it off, and it's sitting in my desk drawer in an envelope along with some bent keys from a magician. But it's there as a token of the fact that this was a magic charm. And wicked spirits, because she owned this, wicked spirits were given permission to try to attack her at night. Choices. What do you want to keep in your house? Do you want to keep those books from the occult? Do you want to keep those what you call lucky charms? The hex signs? Do you have to have them over your barn? They are really designed to keep spirits away. That's superstition. You don't need the letter tacked to your rafters to keep Satan away from your house. You think I've been prying into the community? My friends, we need to make some choices. Submit to God. Resist the devil. He will flee from you. That's special considerations, our stand, our separation, finally our devotion. Friends, in all of warfare, the most important thing is not to overcome the enemy, it's to obey the commander. We show our devotion to Christ by obeying him. If you love me, keep my commandments. This is my commandment, that you love one another. Love to Christ and love to one another. The true demonstration of our family relationship. The one who is born of God loves those who are born of God. We love him, and we love those who are born of him, because he first loved us. We're in a family of love, not wishy-washy, no-sideboards love. This is a love that carries the load without dumping it. This is a love that constrains us, channels us like the banks of a creek, channels us in the direction of serving Christ with all of our lives. What's freedom? It's the ability to think and feel and choose according to truth as it is in Christ, without compulsion, but with a sense of liberty. In the realm of one's nature, you have been born again. You have been introduced into Christ. Your freedom is in Christ, not in religion, not in reliance upon the flesh. but in dependence upon the Savior and enjoying his relationship to you. Have you ever thought that he wants to do that? He wants to enjoy a relationship to you. He bought you because he loved you. That's not his only demonstration of love. He loves you every day. Why don't you satisfy his heart? Walk with him.