May 10, 20213 min read

Day 1 - You've Been Called

Updated: Jun 8, 2021

STEP 1 - Read Galatians 5:13-26

(13) You, my brothers and sisters,

were called
to be free.

But do not use your freedom
- to indulge the flesh;
- rather, serve one another
  - humbly
  - in love.

(14) For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (15) If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

(16) So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. (17) For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. (18) But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

(19) The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; (20) idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions (21) and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

(22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (24) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. (25) Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (26) Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

STEP 2 - Reflect

Two things should jump out at you as we begin this passage. First, you’ve been called by God. For reasons you’ll never fully understand, God knew you before anything else in this universe was created, and called you to be His own; but even more than that, it says that you’ve been called to be free.

But what have you been freed from? After all, as teenagers you have all sorts of pressures bearing down on you: school, sports, jobs, snapchat streaks. You have a ton of rules to abide by: curfew, due dates, speed limits and on and on. So what does it really mean that “you were called to be free?

You’ve been given freedom from ever having to worry about whether or not you’re good enough to please God, or about whether you’ve done enough good things to earn the blessings you need in life, or being afraid that some day God will simply abandon you.

You have this freedom because of what Jesus Christ already accomplished for you, which can never be taken from you because, after all, God Himself called you to this freedom, and God never changes.

The fact that you’re free means that you’re different from other people, which is something you’ve heard me tell you often!

Because you are free, you now have a choice. You can use your freedom to “indulge your flesh” (live selfishly), or you can follow the advice the Bible gives you here: use your freedom to serve one another.

As you prepare to go to Lincoln,, it’s important that you understand the proper reason why you’re doing this: to humbly serve others in love out of gratitude for the freedom you’ve been given.