Free Indeed! | Aaron Dunn | 25th October 2026

What a series, free indeed.

We're going to We're going to pray

quickly

as we get into this series a little bit

more.

The [clears throat] We're going to pray

for a vulnerability because,

you know, when God wants to challenge us

and tackle the hard issues in our life,

we need to be vulnerable.

We need to be prepared to be changed.

It's not the easiest thing as a human

being to to be changed. So, let's just

pray. Lord, we just thank you that you

did send your son to die on the cross

for us, Lord God. I pray that you would

open up our hearts, give us a

vulnerability in this time, in this

series, Lord God, to be willing to

change, to will to be willing to push

into you, to get to know you a little

bit more, to love you a little bit more,

to chase after you a little bit more, to

live in your grace a little bit more.

In Jesus' name.

Amen. You can turn in your Bibles if

you've got a paper one. We're in

Galatians. It's just after Ephesians.

No. Why is she shaking her head? Of

course it is.

If you're on the Bible app, hit

Galatians 1. We're going to get into the

book of Galatians. Paul is an awesome

awesome guy who wrote wrote a lot of

books in the Bible. And this one

doesn't pull any punches. It's awesome.

We're going to read from verse 6 to

start.

I am astonished that you are so quickly

deserting the one

who called you to living in the grace of

Christ and turning to a different

gospel,

which is really no gospel at all.

Evidently, some people

are throwing you into confusion and

trying to prevent the gospel of Christ.

But even if we or an angel from heaven

should preach a gospel other than the

one we preached you, let them be under

God's curse as we have already said.

So now I say again, if anybody is

preaching to you a gospel other than

what you accepted, let them be under

God's cursed.

Am I now trying to win the approval of

human beings or of God? Or am I trying

to please people?

If I was still trying to please people,

I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul loves it. He's straight into it.

We're going to get straight into it.

In here, Paul's talking about what are

our foundations?

What what gospel did we we hear? What

gospel when we accepted Christ did did

we accept into our life?

And and that new Christian feeling that

we have are we still pushing into God

like we were then?

And like our our relationship with God

it's

on Christ alone. You're like

are we willing to let Jesus challenge us

through this series and the parts of our

lives

that that we need to hand over to him?

Like in even verse 10 there it says

am I trying to win the approval of human

beings?

Like who are our influencers?

Who who are we letting

affect the decisions in our lives? Is it

our friendship groups? Is it the person

we're dating? Our work life? Our social

circles? Our even

you know,

people within the church that that um

are we letting them affect our

decisions?

We need to be clear on

what it means to live in grace

and how do we outwork that in our lives.

Me like Shawn,

Pastor Shawn, I grew up in a Baptist

church.

In Longford, put your hand up if you

know where Longford is, if you've been

to Longford. It's in Tasmania. It's

about a 2-hour drive from here.

It's rural.

You know, people driving around in Utes

with antennas that are reaching 10 m

into the sky.

Like we're you know,

first car was a Kingswood.

We're talking country. We're like in the

'80s, '90s, this is a country town that

was awesome. Grew up in a Baptist

church.

Got through high school

and

really fell in love with Jesus. Awesome.

What a place to do it.

Got

So, at the age of uh

six late probably 17, got into youth

ministry. Love youth ministry.

Uh Kel and I served in youth ministry

for a long period of time across a few

different churches for me, a couple for

Kel.

And

was loving that just a junior not a

junior leader, but like a young leader

on the team helping out.

And started to let a few things creep

into my life.

There was this other girl at church, bit

older than me, two kids, single.

Was known for a few things that you

know, you probably shouldn't be doing in

church.

And

I had a few people come to me and say,

"You know, you you need to just be

careful with this girl. She's got a

reputation."

Um

for for certain things that we can all

let's all think about what that is.

She's got two kids. She's not married.

And I started to become friendly with

this person and and and started to put

myself in situations

that

are probably not wise. Not doing the

wrong thing, just

not wise.

And one of these situations was well

we're going to all go out together and

just have a couple of drinks.

And a couple of drinks turned into a

couple too many and we ended up staying

at So, we took the big trip into

Launceston for this.

And

we couldn't get back out to Longford, so

we had to stay at friend's house.

With a limited amount of beds.

And so, what happened was we ended up

sleeping in the same bed, which again

you think, "Oh, well, this is stupid."

And then it went a little bit further

than that.

Which

it was not where I wanted to be at in my

life at that time.

And so, in the Baptist church, if you

did that before you were married

which we know is not the right thing to

do

I got told by the leaders that I had to

go around all the youth parents' house

and tell them this mistake that I'd

made.

And apologize.

That was a little bit tough.

You know,

late '90s country town.

Aaron's done the wrong thing.

This for me was a a pretty difficult

season.

So, I'd just become a tradesman,

electrician if you don't know, just

become a tradesman.

Spent maybe another two or three months

in Tasmania.

And then I thought, "I'm getting out of

here.

This is just a bit too tough.

Small town." So, I packed up the Falcon

at this stage. I moved from the Holden

to the Falcon.

Packed up the Falcon, jumped on the

Spirit, headed to [clears throat] New

South Wales. Poof, I'm out of there.

Got into a church up there where Kel

went in Picton, New South Wales. Got

into a church, just started to,