Blind To Barriers Of Bondage

Blind to Barriers of Bondage

Galatians 5:1

This week I saw and touched with my hands a small 10-ft section of the old Berlin wall, known infamously as the Iron curtain. It was built in 1961 in response to the millions of freedom seeking souls that had fled soviet domination.

On this small section, in defiance of oppression, an artist painted graffiti stating;

1. "A wall cannot enslave man, that there is freedom, and true freedom is of God.

2. Below painted on the bottom was Psalm 23

With the Lord as a shepherd we are led in paths of freedom

Man has always sought freedom, those seeking to realize & fulfilling their dreams cherish it.

Who would purposely imprison themselves? A Good example how this happens is this, for example.

Not long ago, in the wall of an old castle in Italy where some repairs were being made, the workmen found a relic that told a tale of ancient barbarity and crime. Some baron of the old days put an enemy in a little niche in the wall, just large enough to hold a man, and then set the masons at work building the wall around him. Slowly the masonry crept up, as stone was laid on stone, until at last it arose and left the man standing there in his living tomb.

A man starts out to build a structure, which he calls "Life." Slowly, as the years pass, he walls in his soul.

1. Life calls, and he answers, "I’m facing obstacles & hardships right now."

2. Setbacks come and he feels, I can’t go forward

3. Failure become a way of thinking

4. A man looks upon his resources, and thinks to himself, I really can-not afford to do anything.

5. Darkness surrounds and all he can see is defeat

6. Day by day, year by year, He pity’s himself and uses the same old excuse:

"Take care of yourself first!"

"Look out for number one!"

"Be just good enough to get by!"

So he builds his living tomb. So he suffocates his soul.

He can’t see, to break free to become

Being Blind to barriers of freedom

1. It is bad to be physically blind -

2. It is worse to be mentally blind - to see the glory of God in the universe

3. It is worse still to be morally blind - where we see;

a) Nothing shameful in vices,

b) Nothing revolting in obscenity and profanity,

c) Nothing repelling in selfishness; so that a man can see nothing noble in generosity,

d) Nothing beautiful in beneficence,

e) Nothing regal in righteousness and duty,

f) Nothing sacred in human love.

4. It is worst of all to be spiritually blind and walled in

Blind to our ability, what we are, and who we are

a) All we see is what we don’t have

b) Fear consumes our existence

c) We Harbor doubt and lack of faith

d) Satan is allowed to have Supremacy over our lives

e) At best we are Worried and frustrated

f) And held In bondage, by chains made by our imagination

THE CAUSE OF MORAL, AND SPIRITUAL FREEDOM, IS THE CAUSE OF GOD!

1. As children of God, we sometimes do not quite comprehend the fact that we have been set free by our Savior.

2. God, who gave us life, gives us liberty at the same time.

3. If you are living in a prison of your own making, you can walk through the doors of freedom today.

Gal. 5:1

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free"

We have been set free, beyond the prison walls of self.

I. Freedom to Love instead if hate

II. Freedom to be joyous in the midst of sorrow

III. Freedom to have peace in the midst of conflict

IV. Freedom to wait with God, when others moved by circumstance

V. Freedom to be kind when others hurt

VI. Freedom to do good, when others do evil

VII. Freedom to have Christ as your anchor, when others have nothing to trust in.

VIII. Freedom to let Christ lead you in steps of righteousness, and holi-ness

IX. Freedom from self, wrongful passions & desires

The power of God’s freedom

There are some people who are never free outside a prison.

The body can be bound with chains, the spirit never.

When Howard Rutledge’s plane was shot down over Vietnam, he parachuted into a little village and was immediately attacked, stripped naked, and imprisoned. For the next seven years he endured brutal treatment. His food was little more than a bowl of rotting soup with a glob of pig fat, skin, hair, and all. Rats the size of cats and spiders as big as fists scurried around him. He was frequently cold, alone, and tortured. He was sometimes shackled in excruciating positions and left for days in his own waste with carnivorous insects boring through his oozing sores. How did he keep his sanity?