Free To Be Slaves Series

FREE TO BE SLAVES

TITUS 1:1

A couple had two little boys, ages 8 and 10, were excessively mischievous. The two were always getting into trouble and their parents could be assured that if any mischief occurred in their town their two young sons were in some way involved. The parents were at their wits end as to what to do about their sons’ behavior.

The mother had heard that a clergyman in town had been successful in disciplining children in the past, so she asked her husband if he thought they should send the boys to speak with the clergyman. The husband said, "We might as well. We need to do something before I really lose my temper!"

The clergyman agreed to speak with the boys, but asked to see them individually. The 8-year-old went to meet with him first. The clergyman sat the boy down and asked him sternly, "Where is God?"

The boy made no response, so the clergyman repeated the question in an even sterner tone, "Where is God?" Again the boy made no attempt to answer, so the clergyman raised his voice even more and shook his finger in the boy’s face, "WHERE IS GOD?"

At that the boy bolted from the room and ran directly home slamming himself in his closet. His older brother followed him into the closet and said, "What happened?"

The younger brother replied, "We are in BIG trouble this time. God is missing and they think we did it!"

Now that I have everybody attention.

One of the central theme of the founders of this country was freedom. It was the very reason which those brave souls traveled over here on the Mayflower, freedom to worship as they saw fit. Over the years many wars have been fought in the name of freedom. One especially that comes to mind is the civil war, which was basically fought over slavery. Was it right for one man to own another, or should all men be free. Slavery of course lost out and now every man, and women in this country is said to be free, but are they??

We live in a country the places a great deal of emphasis on freedom. But what is freedom?

In our country we have the common misconception that freedom means I can do anything I want to as long as it does not hurt somebody else. Many women would use this reasoning to kill their unborn children, “It’s my body and I am free to do whatever I want with it”.

But is that what freedom really is? Prostitution is illegal, suicide in most states is illegal, it is illegal to do drugs. What many people confuse freedom for is lawlessness!!

In our country freedom mean we have certain rights, to vote, of religion, where to live and work, those are guaranteed under the law of the land. What is not guaranteed is the right to live immorally, although with the current situation in our country and with our president, freedom from morality seems to becoming the norm.

But as we will see today, none of use our truly free. God created man, He set forth certain tasks for man to carry out, therefore God is every mans master whether they acknowledge Him as such has no bearing on the fact He is Lord and Master over all in the ultimate sense.

Men like to think of themselves as being in charge of their destination, but deep down every man knows that there are forces far greater then us at work in our lives. And if you think about it we have little control over our lives. A storm could come by and take all we have away like that (SNAP!). We are not the masters of our fate or the captains of our soul, we are not free man as much as we like to think we are, we are all in the end slaves to something.

Why all this talk of freedom and slavery, let’s take a look at our passage today. Pleas turn with me to Titus chapter one verse one.

“Paul, a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect and the acknowledgment of the truth which accords with godliness,”

Here we have the opening of Paul’s letter to Titus. Paul begins by tell Titus who the letter is from, as standard practice in ancient times. He then states what He is “a bondservant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ”. Paul boldly proclaims that He is a slave to God, not a freeman, but a bondservant to God.

The Greek word here is “DOULOS”. This word basically means to “be in bondage” a “servant” a “slave”. Paul is saying in so many words that he is a slave to God, he is in bondage to God, owned by God, bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus Christ.