The Pace of Freedom

I preached this message at the July 6 service at First Baptist Church

Text: Galatians 5:13-18

Introduction: Dear Christian, we have seen how that Jesus paid the price and set us free. And we see what a wonderful place that freedom is. We are free! But how many of us today are living as if we are still in slavery? We walk in bondage rather than walk in freedom. I want to walk in liberty, not in bondage. If you desire to walk in freedom with me today, then I encourage you to take the first step.

Step of Recognition: We must recognize freedom for what it is, and what it is not
Called to liberty - God is the one who is calling you to freedom! This freedom is not our natural, inalienable human right. God came searching for you and He is calling you for a purpose, that purpose is freedom! If you are enslaved today, I want you to understand something God is the one calling you!
What is Christian liberty? Freedom is not a license to sin! Not to be used for selfishness
Flesh is that fallen nature of humanity, the human pride and self-will, self-indulgence, self-assertion. Rudolf Bultmann said “the false assumption of receiving life not as a the gift of the Creator but procuring it by one’s own power, of living from one’s self rather from God.
-Romans 6:1-2,1: What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2: God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? -living by the flesh means to take the flesh as normal life - "to trust in one’s self as being able to procure life by the use of the earthly and through one’s own strength and accomplishment." - Bultmann

Step of Responsibility
With freedom we have a responsibility and that responsibility lies square on your shoulders and my shoulders. Freedom does not mean carefree!
Freedom to love and serve Romans 6:18 & 22:Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness
But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
-free from worrying about the law, free from the destructive nature of sin. Free to do good to obey God! you have been set free to love and serve others. Actually means you have been set free from sin, law, death to be the slave of loving others. When Paul said to serve others he means we should make ourselves slaves to one another. Freedom is only realized in the slavery of love to others!
-a debt we owe - to love others! Romans 13:8 Owe no man any thing, but to love one another:
-In my freedom I have a responsibility to love others. I am free from the law so that I don’t have to judge or condemn others. I am free from sin so that I don’t need to criticize others to make myself feel better. What a relief to be free of that slavery!

Step of Revolution
Walk in the spirit
-To experience victory we must live in obedience to the work of the Holy Spirit!
At war with the flesh (revolution - you were once under the master of the flesh, and you could not help but obey, but now that you have been set free there is a revolution against the flesh, and the flesh is not going to let you off easy, it is a lifelong constant battle!)
-There is nobody too strong that can disregard this warning!
Led by the Spirit ensures our continuing freedom
-victory over sin does not come by will power, it does not come by the law, it comes when we yield to the Holy Spirit!
Romans 6:12-16 12: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13: Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14: For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. 15: What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. 16: Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?