which is her Independence Day. She's very much independent and free from sin. And as I was thinking about that, actually I had no intention today of having a random thought, but just last night and this morning thinking about that, that, you know, she's been released from the gravity of this earth and the pull of sin and all the trappings. She's free. She's free. The thought that came to mind this morning, and it's really just kind of pulling these thoughts together, is free to love and free to serve. That's really what it's about. And to put it into context, the freedoms that we enjoy today are rare and certainly should not be taken for granted. It's been 246 years since we declared our independence as a nation. But if you were to compress all the events of civilization into an hour's time frame, that the freedoms that we enjoy in this country today would be only about two minutes, two minutes, very short-lived. Because the struggle for freedom has been the natural course of human history, and it always will be. But most people, and I would include myself in this, we celebrate our liberties and our independence with more of a focus on our individual freedoms and our personal rights. And the freedom that we enjoy in our country is very similar to the salvation that we enjoy as believers in Jesus Christ. Both are a gift. None of us did anything to earn the freedom that we have today. The freedom that we have, the salvation we enjoy, came at the expense of someone else's life, not our own. And we're just the recipients of that gift. We're just recipients of it. And as Christians, we should always be focused on the truest and the greatest freedom that's ever been provided, and that is the freedom from sin. Those are the thoughts the Lord had in my heart. And as I thought about it, in reality, the Independence Day of the world is actually found in Genesis chapter three. And that's the Independence Day in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve said that we will decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil. And we will declare our independence and our right to make our own choices. And of course, we all know that that didn't work out too well for humankind. But we all stand in agreement, and we all declared our independence along with them from God. So there's a moral problem that's inherent in human freedom, is that freedom requires order, and order requires restraint. And the only kind of restraint that doesn't contradict freedom is self-restraint. And that's where we have a problem is that we will restrain ourselves, but it's almost always for our own convenience sake. So that the problem with human freedom is really the problem of a man's hearts, that our hearts are corrupt. And no matter what millennia you live in, no matter what century we live in, it always plays out the same. We are in pursuit of freedom from God and from his will in our lives. That's the thing that men pursue. But for those of us who profess Christ, we have to understand that Christ is our life. And he has set us free to live the life that we were created to live, and that is the life to love and to serve, to love our Lord and to serve our God, to love one another and to serve one another. I just want to read a couple of verses. Romans chapter 6 says, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is free from sin. In Philippians chapter 2, for it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. As we surrender our hearts to that will. Galatians 5, for brethren, we have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So we've been given the freedom we have today at great sacrifice, whether it was the lives of men who laid down their lives so that we can enjoy the freedom physically we have in this country, or if it's a sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the once for all sacrifice that we can have freedom from sin and the bondage And that's the freedom really that only matters. It's the only freedom that matters. All the others is just a subset of that. So let us make sure that as we enjoy our independence and our freedom in Jesus Christ, that we walk humbly before our God and that we seek to love and to serve one another. Amen. We're glad you joined us for our services here at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. We look forward to having you join us again online, but you are always welcome to personally attend any of our services at the Mission Boulevard Baptist Church here in Fayetteville, Arkansas.