Good morning. My name is Kali and this morning's scripture reading will be coming from Romans 10 8 through 13. But what does it say? The word is near you.
It is in your mouth and in your heart. That is the message concerning the faith that we proclaim. If you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is in with your heart that you believe and are justified. That is with your mouth that you profess that you are faithful in our saved. As scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame. But there is no difference between you and Gentile.
The same Lord is Lord of all. Enrichly blessed who all call on him. For everyone who calls the name of the Lord will be saved. Well, good morning Foundry.
The time has arrived and now we get to officially meet. Even though I will admit it is hard to see you because I have lights all in my eyes. Now I kind of really do feel like Garth Brooks. They said I have the Garth Brooks headset.
I guess this is what he feels like when he's singing. He doesn't see people. He just sees lights and he just goes after it I guess. But don't worry, I'm not going to sing.
That's not my gift. I'm not going to do that. But I am going to preach. And that I believe is my gift.
And I thank God for that very much. So it's a long time to realize that though. We'll say that I thank God for him. But just about with me for a moment and let me just pray.
And then we're going to dive right in. We've got lots of time next Sunday to really meet each other. So I'm not going to do that this Sunday. I'm not going to tell you about me.
Instead I'm just going to preach the word. So just about with me. Father God, I thank you so very much that the Prophet Jeremiah reminds us that your word is a fire in our bones, Lord, that we cannot hold that in. So Lord, I thank you for the burning in my heart, the burning in my soul.
I thank you for the calling upon my life. I thank you that you have led me here to foundry to these great people and the great things that we're going to do together in your name. And that which will glorify you and love on your people. So Lord, it's an exciting time.
And so I just pray that your spirit will come and just rain fresh on each one of us here this morning. Lord, may your word not fall on deaf ears, but may it fall on those wanting and receiving hearts and minds. Lord, just renew us. Lord, ignite that fire within us.
Lord, do that which only you can do. And we will be quick to give you all honor and glory and praise. And my name is Jesus. Amen.
So, Callie, just read from Romans and I'm going to touch back on that for a few moments. But we know that tomorrow is 4th of July and with that comes a lot of celebration. We like to celebrate our independence. We like to acknowledge our freedom that we have here in the USA.
And so we will proudly don our flags that they're not already out in our homes and even in our communities. I love that sweet Harbor is, as Mallory said, we don't know whether to salute her or smile at her because she has this precious little star dress on in her red bow and she's so patriotic and precious. And I love that we see that all around us. There are reminders that we are going to be celebrating tomorrow.
And some of you may already be planning your meals. You're going to have hamburgers and hot dogs and baked beans and all of the trimmings and watermelon, all that good stuff that says July. But more importantly, it says 4th of July because there's no other meal that measures up to 4th of July. Am I wrong?
We plan these things. I mean, it's a big deal. We got checker table calls. We got dessert tables lined with homemade pies and cobblers, watermelon.
And one of my all-time favorites that we used to do when I was younger, and I'm really not that old. So, like some of you at least pretend you know this. But my grandfather had an ice cream maker and he would pull that thing out. And I think we actually had that.
We inherited it. And it's in the same box that's falling apart. The box he bought it from Walmart in. And he would put it out on this picnic table in the backyard.
And we'd all watch as it went round and round. Just eagerly awaiting the goodness that was inside. And I loved when he poured the rock salt in and you would watch it get colder and colder. Those are some of my favorite memories.
And it truly was just simple things. But it reminds me of those holidays. But I knew that goodness was there. I just had to wait and wait for it.
But also reminds me of another thing that I've learned the older I get that I'm not as fond of. And that's fireworks. And that sounds terrible because I know that kids love them. My kids I've already asked, can we pop fireworks in the city limits?
Are we buying fireworks? And every year I would look down and be like, I guess. Apparently it is because I'm like it's just money going up and smoke. I just see dollar bills.
It'd be easier if you just let me like a lot of fire in front of you and it would help my feelings. And the other side of the nail and you'll figure out, I'll talk about my girls quite a bit. I had these two doodles. I only suppose to get one, but my poor husband.
And that's all we're going to say. Because one became two. And so I had these two girls that I just love so much. I begged and begged for a doodle.
And finally he caved. Actually it's peer pressure. Marriage has peer pressure too. But I got these girls and they're terrified of loud noises.
So I kind of dread what that's going to be like when they're hiding under the bed. They can't fit under or clawing me up. So I'm like, oh fireworks. And so it kind of puts the spirit over me that yes, it's Fourth of July.
And yes, I'm excited and yay for good food and yes for independence and all the freedom. But it just leaves this law feeling. And I hate the feel that way. Okay, we'll get fireworks and we'll watch and we'll do all the things.
But it makes me a prisoner in my own mind. And my freedom is a little bit squandered by those thoughts. Like I just kind of squashed underneath this idea of boob fireworks. And so it makes me think about our scripture reading this morning.
And I've got some other scriptures also. Because what is it really needing to be free? Like why are we celebrating freedom? I mean, I get it.
And you get it. We understand that we are a free country and we have all of these freedoms that other people, other nations, other parts of the world are not free to receive. But when we pause and think about it, how free are we really? How free are we really?
Now I want you to think about this. Romans 10, 8-13 says that our sins are forgiven. There's no longer a death sentence. We're delivered out of danger into safety to be saved.
That's what these things mean. It means to be made well or whole. It means that we are free from trying to save ourselves. Now hang with me.
This is all going to come together. We really aren't as free as we would like until we admit that we are free in Christ. Okay, do you understand that our freedom comes from acknowledging that we are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ? Everything else in this world, it literally holds us in some type of bondage.
We have people in our communities, in our families, in our workplaces, who are bound by addiction. We have people who are bound by judgment. We have people who are not as free as they would like to be. We are bound by financial worries and we are bound by so many things of this world.
And so we truly are not as free as we would like to be until we acknowledge how free we can be in Jesus. Ephesians 2, 839 says that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus, not by our own efforts or works. Nothing we can do in this life is going to make us as free as that which Christ has already done. John 832 says, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
Verse 36 says, so if the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. So the word free does not mean the same thing for everyone in this room or even those who are watching online at home. While we like to think it does, it doesn't. You see, not on a physical level, not on a mental level, not financially or racially or sexually and especially spiritually.
We are not all free in the same way. And so we're going to camp there this morning. We're going to look at that. We're going to look at our spiritual freedom.
One of the greatest problems that I've experienced in my personal life is maybe, and maybe some of you will understand this. You'll be able to relate to the same thing. Is that of not understanding, not fully recognizing what it means to be free in Christ. You see, according to John, it is the truth and the acknowledgment of this truth that sets us free.
I have failed many times and I'm sure that you have failed many times in accepting certain truths. And these truths they can cause us, or the lack of understanding, these truths can cause us to be bound in fear and doubt and anxiety. So this morning, we're going to look at three truths that point to our freedom in Christ, not freedom that the world gives, and we're thankful for that. We're thankful for the men and the women who sacrifice their lives for our country, for our freedoms.
But we have to understand that freedom goes much, much deeper, especially for the Christian. So the first is this, through his suffering, death, and resurrection, Christ has set you free from guilt. There are many people who have acknowledged that they need a Savior. They've openly accepted Christ as Lord, and yet they are still bound by this guilt.
We are bound by things, and if you are bound by something, you are not fully free. Are you beginning to catch on now? You see, guilt has this crazy way of making us think that we don't deserve grace, that we don't deserve this immeasurable love from God. We don't deserve forgiveness.
We don't deserve love. I told this story before, so it may be familiar to some of you who know me. But whenever you enter into mid, you have to do, is you have to articulate your call story. You have to be able to recognize a moment in your life when you felt truly called, a moment that helped shaped who you are as a believer.
That would shape you as a future minister to others. It's one of those stories occurs whenever I was involved in youth ministry, I had to use ministry for six years. And whenever we would take the youth to do things, it was usually my husband, Jason, and I, and our youth leader, Brian. And we would go off and we'd love these kids up in the church bus, and it was the greatest times.
And one year we discovered a thing called, Weekend of the Cross, and I really hope it's not too late for some of the youth to sign up and do that. There's one at the North Shore, there's one in Rustin coming up soon. But Weekend of the Cross was one of those moments that shaped me dramatically. And what happened is I have been going through some things in my personal life, and I was hung up on a lot of things.
But the biggest thing I was hung up was by my own guilt. And so this was a working ministry, Weekend of the Cross is a working ministry. So we go throughout the community, you have an assignment, and you may build a wheelchair ramp, or you may paint a house. There's all kinds of projects that you'll do.
And so after you finish your work side each day, then you shower, and you go back to the church and you have worship. And it's a lot like this, it's set up just like this. But across the stage, at this particular year, Weekend of the Cross, they had these wooden walls, I guess you could call it. And they had chicken wire all over them.
And so the chicken wire was there and I'm thinking, what a strange thing to decorate with. What is this? You know, did they run out of money? What happened?
And so they had this chicken wire up across. And it was empty, and I thought, okay, well, this is strange. Well, they began to worship, and the speaker comes up, and they began to tell you that they have been praying over each one of us. And this chicken wire is going to be a place where if you want to come and lay a burden down, just take a piece of paper, write your burdens down, and then come put them in the little holes in the chicken wire, and someone's going to take them and just get rid of them.
They're going to pray over them, but those things are just going to set you free a little bit. There's going to be some freedom in releasing those things. Now, I thought, oh, that's great. I love that.
Well, people came forward and they did that, and worship ended, and we went to the worksite the next day, and then the same thing occurred. But when we came back in for worship, this time, the pieces of paper were already in the chicken wire. So I thought, wait a minute. I thought you were getting rid of all these burdens.
Now, why are they all back here? And so I was kind of confused. I just kept watching, and I was listening, and we were worshiping, and it was just a powerful time, and the speaker gets up and begins to tell us now, tonight we have some other things in the holes. We have pieces of paper with one word on them, one word.
They've been prayed over. We don't know who's going to receive what word. We don't know if anybody will come forward, but we're going to offer that time. And so they began to lead and worship, and something began to come over me, and as my friend, Jill likes to say, I was white knuckle to my chair.
I wasn't going anywhere. No, sir. And I was white knuckle hanging on. But the Spirit kept moving, and I was just stirring within me.
And I was just like, fine, I'm going to go down there, and I'm going to sit in my chair, and I'm not even going to look at it. But I go down, and I go forward, and I get my piece of paper, and I come back up, and I can just feel the tears, just wailing my eyes. I'm like, what in the world? And I'm clenching.
It's so tight to this piece of paper, and the Spirit's still moving, because what good is the paper, and I'm going to open it and see what's inside. And I open it up, and there on this green piece of paper that I still have today was one word, the word that I needed more than anything at that time in my life, the word that set me free, and set me on this trajectory towards serving God, and serving others, and understanding the power of that one word, which was forgiveness. That's what I needed, and that's what I received. And so I was set free in that moment.
You see, it was threatening to wreck me, and the guilt was threatening to undo me. But Christ had something greater, and He said, I don't want you to be bailed by guilt and shame. But instead, I want to set you free. And through His grace and forgiveness, I have been set free.
So I rolled my piece of paper up, and I still have it to this day. And I realized that I have not shackled to my guilt, but I'm free through the blood of Jesus Christ. This doesn't mean that I'm free to continue sinning. It means that I'm free.
You are free to be forgiven, and that we can freely forgive others. That moment did. It changed my life. And there may be some of you here today that needs to hear that, that you are forgiven, and you are free to forgive others.
Our second truth is that ugly steps sister to guilt, and her name is shame. Because guilt and shame like to go hand in hand. You see, they're often used interchangeably, but the difference is that guilt is an awareness of doing something wrong, and shame is the emotion that arises from that experience. Author and professor, Bernay Brown, you haven't read or highly encouraged you to do so, absolutely love her.
But Bernay Brown says that shame is a focus on self, but guilt is a focus on behavior. Shame is I am bad. Guilt is I did something bad. Guilt says I'm sorry, I made a mistake, but shame says I'm sorry, I am the mistake.
You see, in chapter eight of the Gospel of John, we read that Jesus is confronted by the Pharisees. They want to interrupt His teaching, and they throw this woman in front of Him, and they accuse her of adultery. And they use the shame and the guilt of this woman as a prodding tool. They are more interested than want to bring Jesus down, so they don't care about this woman, and they don't care about her feelings.
And I can just, I can feel her shame. I can feel her shame. Bern, inside of her, verse six says that they said to Him, tempting Him that they might accuse Him, but Jesus stooped down, and with His finger, He rode in the ground as though He had heard them not. There's no fool proof of knowing what was written that day, but perhaps it was forgiven.
Perhaps it was loved. Perhaps it was, I see you. We don't know what was written that day in the sand, but we know that it wasn't written in stone. Her shame was not cemented like stone, or attached like a scarlet letter.
Her shame was undone in the presence of Jesus, and Jesus calmly states that the one without sin, they're the ones that get to pass the first stone, and no stones were thrown that day. And instead, He encouraged her to go and to sin no more. He took her shame, and your shame, and my shame, all the way to Calvary so that we could walk in the light of His grace and the freedom of His love. But sadly, it's not the guilt that would drive us to the edge, but it's our shame that can do the most damage.
It's our shame that leads to addiction and depression, violence, and sadly even suicide. You see, the enemy, Satan, the evil one, whatever you want to call him. He would do anything. He delights in nothing more than to have our shame debilitate us and bring us down, to bind us and shackle us and remind us that we are not free.
Imagine how Adam and Eve fell in the garden when they realized that they had sinned, and that they were now exposed. They tried to hide their guilt and their shame. Instead of hiding, though, God graciously covers them. Remember, they wrap up in fig leaves, they're hiding their guilt and they're hiding their shame.
But God graciously covers them, and the covering He provided was skin. It was skin that would keep them warm and protect their vulnerable bodies. In the same way, Jesus would deal with us, with our sin, head on at the cross. Through His death and resurrection, He would defeat our shame and conquer the chaos of our hearts.
God is the perfect covering for our sin, because His blood not only covers our sin, but it takes it away. It grants us freedom, not to sin anymore, but freedom to walk in the light of His love and His grace and His mercy to be like Christ. So maybe you're listening today and maybe you're watching at home. And maybe you feel that you've been buried under sin and shame and guilt.
Maybe you've felt publicly humiliated. Maybe you've been ashamed because of something you've been through, or because of something someone said about you. If you've ever felt the discomfort, the pain, the rejection, the torture of embarrassment and humiliation, I want you to know that Jesus has to. He has to.
He experienced all of these same things as He hung vulnerable naked, exposed upon the cross. And yet He still chose to bear our sin and our shame so that we would be set free. Christian artist Mandy sub had a song called Shame Off, and part of it goes like this. Don't worry, I'm not saying.
But shame's as I'm worthless, and loss hopeless, in case, shame tells me I've been forgotten by grace. But shame is defeated when I speak your name. I speak your name. I'm going to take this shame off, stop believing what I know ain't true.
I'm going to put your grace on and wear it proud like you want me to. You've taken all of this heaviness off of me. You have changed my old identity. So I'm going to take this shame off.
I'm going to take this shame off. In Christ we are free from accusations. One of my downfalls is you will come to know is that I am a people pleaser. I'm getting better about it.
But I love people. I love to see them happy and I love to see them well. But the downside is that I carry that oh so heavily when I'm not able to make it happen or if I feel that I failed in some way. So now imagine it would be like if someone were to accuse me of something, or perhaps label me with an accusation.
You see when the Pharisees brought that woman before Jesus to be judged, they automatically threw out that word, adultery. Therefore concluding she was an adulterous. A better example might be that someone lies once and only once, but they're still a liar. To accuse someone of something that needs to say that they are guilty of it.
Sometimes I hate Facebook because little things I've watched Christians say I hate a thief. I hate a liar. We don't like them but to do that is so harsh. And I have to remember that Jesus loved the thief and Jesus loved a liar.
Not because of what they were doing but because they were created in his image. And we put labels on people and it sticks. But if the Ephesians 612 it reminds us where we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. There is an accuser who delights in our heartache.
There is a voice that whispers to us in the darkness of the night, a voice that wants nothing more than to remind us of all we are and all that will never be. But that's not the voice that gives us freedom. That's not the voice that we should listen to and be worried about. We need to be listening to the voice of God that says we are forgiven because there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
We need to listen to the voice that says we are valuable because He created us in our innermost being and knit us together in our mother's womb. And we were crafted in His image. We need to listen to the voice that says we are loved unconditionally, not only because Christ died for us, but because we are also called children of God. We are free knowledge who we are in Christ.
Listen to that again. We are free from accusation. We are free from shame. We are free from guilt.
We are free when we Steve ourselves in the truth of Scripture and acknowledge who we are in Christ Jesus. We are free people. But we must share this freedom. As Romans said earlier, Romans chapter 10 that Cali read, all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
Oh, there is no box that we can put people in that says not you and you and maybe you but all people. But some people do not have that freedom yet and because we are free, we should share that. Share the freedom that we are experiencing with those who are still suffering and bound by the things of this world. And that's why I say we don't fully understand our freedom because we haven't shared it.
When we look at the people who have come before us, those who have fighted, those who have fought, I get a little pumped up. I warn you all. I try telling you all. I'm a little excited.
I love to preach and sometimes I can't remember if I'm bad. I'm just going to call a methodist. I don't know. It's like a hodgepodge.
But there are people who fought for freedom. They fought for us to have a right to vote. They fought against oppression. They fought against people being marginalized and disenfranchised.
And we still see it happening today. And the reason they fought is because they had a taste of some sort of freedom. And they wanted someone else, the people they loved, the people they cared about to have that same type of freedom. If we are free in Christ, then we need to care enough about those in our communities, those in our schools, those in our workplace to give them that same freedom.
Because what it means in the end is that we will not be bound to the things of this world, but we have an eternity in heaven with Christ Jesus because we have called upon him, confessed him as Lord and Savior. That is what sets us free folks. So as we get out there and we celebrate, as we celebrate our forefathers, as we celebrate the signing of documents, as we celebrate soldiers going into battle and lives lost, let us pause and remember the greatest life that was ever lost. But let us not be so arrogant to think that all people are free, just because we live here in the grand USA.
Because there are still people who are suffering. We see it on the news and we see it all over Facebook. But because Christ has so richly set us free, maybe we are the ones. Maybe we are the soldiers, remember we are the Lord's army.
Maybe we are the soldiers who now mount up and go into this world as freedom fighters for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, so that other people can experience the freedom, the joy of the salvation of the Lord. Because people are hurting, people are hurting, they are suffering. And if we want to be the church, then it has to be boots to the ground. A fire in our souls.
The Word of God is our weapon of choice, not to condemn others, but to love them. I may have it wrong, I will say this in closing. I may have it wrong, but I think the commandment was to go into all the world, making disciples, making my name known, but don't forget to love them first. Love people and make disciples.
That is really all that we were charged with. And we make it so hard. So I am pumped up about what we are going to do at Foundry. Y'all may never come back again if so.
Look, she is leaving. It is easy. But I am pumped up because I believe the Lord is calling us into something great. What it looks like, I don't know.
But I believe when we are praying, when we are begging the Spirit to come and fall upon us, and to speak to us, to strap those boots on our feet and lace them up, we don't even know if they are going to fit. But to guide us into this new season of loving God's people, because that is what the world needs right now, as cheesy and as cliché as it sounds, we make it hard. But Jesus made it simple. Love people.
And let's show them what it is like to be free in Christ. Amen. I am going to pray with us and pray. And then I am going to invite my communion stewards to come forward.
And we are going to have communion. And communion is one of my favorite things. Absolutely favorite things. But let us pray.
Father, God, I thank you. I thank you for each and every heart that is here this morning. Lord, I pray that we don't steer them away. But that would be just simply communicate the calling, the desire, the fire that you put on my heart.
And I know it has to be on someone else's. Lord, let those fires unite and be a flame for your glory, not one that burns and wounds, but one that ignites and is a light in this dark world. Lord, just have your spirit come and melt into our souls in such a way that we couldn't dare refuse to walk into work. As you have called us.
Lord, we thank you so very much for this moment. We thank you for Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.