June 29,2025
Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus
“Freedom For"
by Rev. Trip Porch
June 29, 2025 Based on Galatians 5:1, 13–25
It’s almost the Fourth of July, a time when we talk a lot about freedom. We’ll hear it in the songs we sing, the parades we watch, and the fireworks we set off. And it’s a beautiful thing, right? To live in a place that celebrates liberty. To have rights. To be able to speak freely, to gather freely, to worship freely. These are not small things.
But in the swirl of all that patriotic celebration, I think it’s easy for the idea of freedom to get reduced to something kind of shallow and ephemeral. In our culture, freedom often gets interpreted loosely without thinking. And when folks talk about freedom, what they are saying is freedom means the ability to do whatever I want, whenever I want, however I want. No one can tell me what to do. No one can stop me. This is a free country.
But is that really freedom?
Because that kind of "freedom" often leads not to joy or peace, but to isolation. To division. To loneliness and self-interest. That kind of freedom often takes advantage of or even abuses other people’s freedom.
Paul has something very different in mind when he talks about freedom in his letter to the Galatians.
“For freedom Christ has set us free,” Paul writes. But he doesn’t stop there. He immediately follows with a surprising turn: “Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another.”
What a phrase. "Become slaves to one another." That’s hard to hear in a country where freedom is often imagined as the opposite of servitude. And while the slavery imagery is hard to get past in a country stained with the sin of slavery, Paul’s point is clear: Christian freedom is not ever self-centered. It is always lived out in relationship.
Freedom doesn’t mean we think only of our own self-interest. Because freedom that ignores its impact on others isn’t freedom at all, it’s just another form of bondage. We are freed, not to go it alone, but to be bound in love to one another. Freedom exists always in the context of community. And your freedom cannot come at the cost of someone else’s.
Paul offers us a vision of what this kind of freedom looks like when it's lived out. He names it with a list we may have heard so many times that it has lost its power: The fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Now, I’ll be honest: these can sound kind of quaint. Like something cross-stitched on a pillow in your grandmother’s guest room or printed on a potpourri-scented greeting card. We can dismiss them as too sentimental, too soft. Or maybe they make us feel guilty, because we’re not exactly radiating joy and peace every day. We might hear these as another list of spiritual benchmarks we’re supposed to hit, and feel like we’re failing.
But what if these aren't moral checkboxes or personality traits you either have or you don't? What if instead they’re signs? What if the fruits of the Spirit are not about perfection, but about direction?
What if they are markers to tell yourself the path you’re on, of which way you’re living, of which lord you’re serving?
Because here’s the thing: we all serve somebody. Whether we like it or not, our lives are shaped by the forces we give our allegiance to. That could be the lords of money, ego, productivity, control, lords that don’t bear fruit, or it could be Christ.
Paul is saying that when you live under Christ’s reign, not under the tyranny of fear, comparison, or selfish ambition, something changes. Something new grows. A different kind of fruit begins to appear. Love. Joy. Peace. Not perfectly, not all at once. But you start to notice: I’m becoming more generous. I’m learning to wait without snapping. I’m learning to see others with gentleness.
We are freed from the bondage of corrupt and abusive lords that do not bear fruit, to serve another Lord who invites us to be freed in a way that cares for community and that cultivates patience, kindness, and goodness, not just for us to experience but for everyone.
And here’s something else to remember, something that is also easy for us to forget in a very individualized society: these fruits aren’t just for individuals. Paul wasn’t writing to a person; he was writing to a church, a community.
So maybe the question is not just "Am I growing kindness? Am I experiencing joy?" but "Are we? Is our community joyful? Do we practice peace together? Are people experiencing kindness in this neighborhood?"
Because fruit grows best in a healthy environment, in soil that’s nurtured, in a garden that’s tended.
So I think this passage asks us: What kind of garden are we cultivating together?
When our community starts bearing the fruit of the Spirit, when it becomes a place of gentleness, peace, and joy, then we’re on the right track. We’re walking in step with the Spirit, serving Christ our Lord. Then we are truly free.
So on this Sunday before the Fourth of July, we give thanks for our national freedoms, even though they may be more fragile and threatened than ever.
But even more, we give thanks for a deeper freedom:
Freedom for love and belonging.
Freedom that’s never solitary, but always communal.
Freedom that’s not about doing whatever we want, but about becoming who we were meant to be in Christ, with each other.
May we be a people who bear the fruit of that kind of freedom. Amen.
WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE
PRELUDE “ For the Healing of the Nations” arr. C.E. Walz
INTROIT “Freedom Is Coming” South African
WELCOME Rev. Trip Porch
One: This is the day that the Lord has made
All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.
*CALL T WORSHIP
One: For freedom Christ has set us free!
All: We will not return to chains of fear or selfishness.
One: The Spirit breathes love, joy, peace, and patience.
All: We open our lives to the fruit God longs to grow.
One: Come, let us worship the God who makes us truly free!
*HYMN 405 “Praise God for This Holy Ground” HEYMONYSTRAAT
*PRAYER OF CONFESSION Bob Concitis
Liberating God, we confess that we often mistake liberty for license. We chase our own comfort while ignoring our neighbor’s needs. We cling to grudges, stir up division, and overlook the hurt we cause. Forgive us. Set us free from self‑centered ways and release us for Spirit‑filled living—lives marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self‑control; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.
*ASSURANCE OF PARDON
*RESPONSE OF PRAISE 659 “Know That God Is Good” MUNGU NI MWEMA
*PASSING OF THE PEACE
One: The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,
All: And also with you.
WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD
ANTHEM “Praise the Lord” Cameroon Song
arr. Ralph Johnson
CHILDREN’S MESSAGE Dorothy Kyle
PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
SCRIPTURE Galatians 5:1; 13-18; 22-23; 25 MSG
Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out- in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are contrary to each other, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence?
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard —things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.
Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.
Holy Wisdom, Holy Word
Thanks be to God
SERMON Rev. Trip Porch
WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORLD
*HYMN INSERT “For the Healing of the Nations” PICARDY
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
TIME OF OFFERING online giving is available at www. indianolapres.org/give
OFFERTORY “Freedom” Fiona Joy Hawkins
*OFFERTORY RESPONSE 648 “Thankful Hearts and Voices Raise” THANKFUL HEARTS
*PRAYER OF DEDICATION
Generous God, we dedicate these gifts—money, time, and talent—to the work of your Spirit among us. Use them to cultivate love where there is hatred, joy where there is sorrow, and justice where there is oppression. Make us faithful stewards of the freedom we have in Christ. Amen.
*HYMN 36 “For the Fruit of all Creation” AY HYDY NOS
TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING
CHARGE & BENEDICTION
POSTLUDE “Wings to Fly” Lindy Kerby
Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452