July 2d, 2000, Sunday Morning

"Function of your Freedom"
Your freedom was paid in greater than man's blood

OPENING: Galatians 5:1,13, KJV

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• What are you using your freedom to do? We take for granted basic freedoms yet others are in the bondage of
  • Sin
  • Failing marriage
  • Restrictions in other countries
    
    
  • You can eat what you want. Yet some governments even limit that!
  
  
• YOUR TRUE FREEDOM IS BROKEN INTO THREE COMPONENTS:
  
  
  • #1 OF 3: PRINCIPLE OF FREEDOM
    
    
    • God made you with the intention of being a "free, moral agent." He gave you freedom of choice.
      
      
    • God could've made us robots so we couldn't have done other than His will. He could've given us broken records for a voice box where we went around all day saying, "praise the Lord--praise the Lord..."
      
      
    • But instead, God made man free by putting him in the Garden of Eden. Thus, giving us the power to do what we choose--to serve God, the devil, or ourselves.
      
      
    • Galatians 5:13: This verse tells us of the purpose of our freedom as Christians.
      
      
    • Romans 5:12,17-21: This passage describes the Law of Flesh/Sin. Whereas one man (Adam) brought sin (resulting in death) into the world, one man (Jesus Christ) was born sinless (because He was born of a virgin--a woman without the seed of the sinning man) to save the world. Just as sin is inherited by all, God's grace surrounds all in an even greater intensity.
      
      
    • Romans 6:13-15: Because we are now saved doesn't give us the right to sin regardless of the fact we're saved. Don't abuse the ultimate gift.
      
      
    • So when Adam sinned, we were all born into a "sin nature" or bondage. This nature manifests itself early in a child. That's why children are ornery, rebellious, and difficult to control at that early age--they can't help it.
      
      
    • Romans 7:13-25: This passage is the apostle Paul speaking of how hard it is to stay true to God. He admits doing what he's not supposed to and not doing what he is supposed to. Yet Paul points out it is his flesh that is causing him to do evil (Romans 7:20) while the good he does comes from his spirit (and evil is there with him at the same time). Sin has become our taskmaster. Paul understood sin well.
      
      
    • Yet, because of Jesus Christ, we are set free.
      
      
      • Romans 6:14
      • Galatians 5:1
      
      
    • God's original purpose of man is to glorify and have fellowship with God. The misconception is that God wants to zap us right when we sin. Instead, God gave us his Son Jesus Christ so we may be reconciled and yet glorify and have fellowship with God The root of all evil is the opposite of this verse--selfishness. Lying, stealing, adultery, fornication; it all points to the root of selfishness
    
    
  • #2 OF 3: PURPOSE OF OUR FREEDOM
    
    
    • The purpose is to make the choice to worship with Him. Some people in church choose to stay lost and not fellowship with God
      
      
    • Galatians 5:13: Is the function of freedom to serve God or ourselves? This verse answers that
      
      
    • If you're saved, you're saved to serve the Savior. The flesh is very demanding. It'll want to sleep when you should be serving others
      
      
    • The price of our freedom was and is (meaning every day from today on) not free
      
      
      • In some places of the world, a sword is held to your neck with the one question: "do you swear to acknowledge Mohammed as Allah's prophet?"
        
        
      • Or in Rome the question was "do you swear Christ is God's son--or die?"
      
      
    • Galatians 4:4-5: Jesus Christ was in heaven with God. He had it made. Yet God said to Jesus, "it is your time to be born of the flesh to die for the salvation of my creation." God allowed His creation to spit on him, strike him, and humiliate Him
      
      
      • In effect, Jesus Christ traded places with us so we may be set free. So the cost to Christ was to be stripped of his deity, made flesh, and separated from His Father so that he could be made into sin from us. In other words, what was really nailed to the cross was our sins so Jesus could enter us. Just as God cannot look upon sin (therefore forsaken His Son just before He died), God can now look upon us sinners because Jesus is in us
    
    
  • #3 OF 3: FUNCTION OF OUR FREEDOM
    
    
    • So how are you using your freedoms today?
      
      
    • Always remember our freedom was purchased
  
  CLOSER

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• Galatians 5:13
  
  
  • We should always thank God for our country
  • That we can serve and worship freely and not forcibly
  • Nobody makes you go to church, pay to the collection plate, or worship. You have the choice to WANT to do that.
  
  
• You can try all you want to stop sinning as a lost soul, but you will forever be in the bondage of sin until you become free by accepting Jesus Christ as your personal savior.