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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.
Free to Love; Free to Serve
| Sermon ID | 74221441292336 |
| Duration | 05:50 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | Philippians 2:13; Romans 6:6-7 |
| Language | English |