Free At Last! Series

FREE AT LAST!

Galatians 5:1-12

S: Freedom

Th: Grace-Full Living

Pr: WE ARE FREE.

?: What? What are you doing with your freedom?

KW: Responses

TS: We will find in Galatians 5:1-12 four responses that demonstrate what we can with our freedom.

The ____ response to our freedom can be…

I. REJECTION (2-4)

II. EXPECTATION (5)

III. COMPASSION (6)

IV. CORRUPTION (7-12)

RMBC 8/6/00 AM

INTRODUCTION:

What do you have trouble resisting?

Is there anything that holds you in its sway?

It has power over you?

It holds you under its control?

I had this trouble the other night when I came home from camp.

I was so tired and I was falling asleep, and then Dondra told me, “Grace made you something in the kitchen.”

Now there’s only one thing that is really made for me.

It is chocolate chip cookies.

But I fell asleep anyway, but about three hours later, I was wide awake.

And they were calling me, “Come…come and eat us!”

It was terribly hard to resist.

TRANSITION:

Though this is tongue-in-cheek (so to speak), those that have real addictions become powerless to break them.

When we think of addictions, we typically think of drugs and alcohol.

And those who have dealt with the problem first-hand, or with a close relative or friend, can testify of the great difficulty of breaking away.

But though we think of drugs and alcohol first, the story of addiction can be true of things that in and of themselves seem harmless enough, or are good when within the proper realm.

Ordinary matters…like eating, watching TV, sleep, shopping, ministry, work, sports…can become addictions.

We can eat too much.

We can sleep too much.

We can work too much

We can play sports too much…etc.

And as a result, we can live in bondage.

But this is not what God has intended for us.

1. God has not designed us to live in bondage.

God has not designed you to live in oppression.

You are not designed to live a lifestyle that keeps you from enjoying life.

For…

2. God’s will for you is that you enjoy freedom.

This is God’s will for you…uncompromising, unrelenting, unconquerable freedom.

It is a freedom that allows you to enjoy life to its absolute fullest.

Since May of this year, we have been studying the letter Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia.

And here is the basic context for the writing…

3. CONTEXT: The Galatians had been “fooled” by the Judaizers.

Now…Paul is attempting to correct the teaching of the Judaizers who had misled the Galatians.

The Judaizers had been teaching a kind of perfectionism that called for a strict adherence to the Mosaic ceremonial law, including circumcision and dietary restrictions.

It was their contention that one needs to go beyond the beginnings of faith and be perfected in righteousness by keeping the law.

But Paul sees it very differently.

They were being led away from freedom into bondage.

The Judaizers were taking then backwards into aspects of the law that Jesus had completed.

Paul’s simple message to them was, “You Galatians are free!”

And the same message is true for us today.

4. WE ARE FREE.

Note the first verse of our text today:

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

We are told to stand firm.

This command indicates diligence and commitment.

For unless we diligently guard our liberty, we will be drawn back into bondage.

We are not to let this happen, for the freedom that we have desired has come.

We are truly free at last!

So, in our study this morning…

5. We will find in Galatians 5:2-12 four responses that demonstrate what we can do with our freedom.

These responses divide into two categories.

The first and the last are negative in nature.

The middle two are positive.

OUR STUDY:

I. The first response to our freedom can be REJECTION (2-4).

(2) Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. (3) Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. (4) You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

1. We can not bribe God for our blessings.

We should not misunderstand what Paul is saying here, for the point of the verses is not that circumcision is wrong.

What is wrong is any act that we do to bribe God for blessings.

If we think we have found some formula for making God happy, we are wrong.

We can not bribe God into blessing us.