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Freedom! - Galatians 3:23-29 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 30, 2016 Americans do not truly understand what slavery is all about. Even those who decry it as a part of their family history have no idea what it means to be enslaved. You are not your own person, you cannot go where you want when you want, and you are a piece of property that can be disposed of, sold, or traded at the whim of your master. Those gained their freedom from slavery would never willingly go back to being enslaved, yet many who desire that others pay their way, give them something for nothing, or want a handout are just as enslaved as the slaves of Paul's day. When Jesus came he saw no racial, gender, societal, political, or financial barriers. For Jesus all lives mattered and in his statement "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16 NIV) proved this fact. God desired to set people free, not from

The law fulfilled! - Galatians 3:13-22 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 24, 2016 There are those in our day and age who would have you do a lot of things in order to please God. Eat certain foods, read certain books, do an undetermined amount of penance or rituals in order to gain God's grace. I have often stated that I believe it is often used to cement their own power or control over folks who allow their guilty conscious to dictate their faith instead of the facts of the gospel narrative. When we do this we begin to wonder if we have done enough in order for God to like us let alone love us. Paul wanted his fellow Galatians to fully understand that their holding onto an old way of life simply because it assuaged their guilt was foolish. In fact they were placing themselves back under a curse instead of being free in their faith in Jesus alone! The no longer meant anything for those who had placed their faith and trust in the one who meant all the requirements of the contract of Go

Submerged! - Psalm 139 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 17, 2016 How confident would you be to have someone follow you around for a month and write down everything you did and then publish it online for the entire world to read? Now I know some of you are thinking, "They would be really bored!" Some of you might say, "Who cares?" And then there are those of you who already do this, it is called Facebook and Twitter! Yet even these social media sites are not the same as having someone expose your every waking moment. And what if they included your private thoughts as well? Now that is a whole different matter, isn’t it? Yet the Psalmist David was willing to have God do this very thing. How in the world could he be that confident with his life? I mean if we read what has been written about David you would think he would have been a bit more circumspect about wanting God to search him and know him. David was not always a nice person nor did he always honor God so how in

Abraham our example! - Galatians 3:6-12 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 10, 2016 My Dad stood in the water of the pool and asked me to jump into his arms. I was scared to do so but I also knew that my father would catch me and nothing would harm me. So I took the leap and jumped into his waiting arms. Our faith walk is very similar in that we are asked to walk with Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We just have to take that first step and trust him to lift us up and carry us through life. We marvel at another's faith and wonder how in the world they can live so full throttle for God. What we fail to realize is the fact that these great men and women of faith were and are just like us. They have the same fears, the same doubts, and the same failures and yet have learned that the righteous will live by faith. Paul fully understood this and wanted the Galatians to understand it as well. Let's discover what this means for all of us this morning… READ: Galatians 3:6-12

Foolish or wise! - Galatians 3:1-5 By Pastor Lee Hemen July 3, 2016 Did you know that at the beginning of the Revolutionary War less than 20% of the population was supportive of our being a free nation no longer ruled by a king? It sounded foolish to many who saw themselves as loyal monarchists and supportive of their king in England who could not have cared less for their security. Yet as those who saw this as a means to throw off the tyranny of a king were able to present their case and as the results of heavy taxation, suppression of free speech, and the confiscation of private property in the name of the king the populace began to see what it meant if they lost their inalienable rights to be free people. Was it foolish or wise? There are those today who would use their political office to suppress the free speech of its citizens; perhaps we need another revolution? Not necessarily a violent one but a political one. There were those who were foolishly returning to the tyranny