Freedom

INTRODUCTION

• VIDEO CLIP

• SLIDE #1

• We live in a great country. American citizens enjoy a level of freedom not found in too many places in the world or throughout history.

• We are closing in on celebrating our nation’s independence. We are blessed that the one life that we have to live, we get to live it in the United States!

• Our Founding Father’s had a vision of a country were freedom would reign supreme, and for this vision, they fought, and many died for the concept.

• Our Constitution guarantees all citizens things like the freedom of expression, the freedom of the press, the freedom to practice religion, the right to protect oneself, among many other freedoms.

• Christianity played a significant role in the establishment and foundation of this nation.

• John Adams as quoted in a letter to Thomas Jefferson dated June 28, 1813, concerning the role Christianity played in the formation of our nation.

• SLIDE #2

• The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.

• Today we are going to talk about freedom and what it means to be free.

• We will be in Galatians 5 today, we will derive our thoughts from verse 1, and we will use the rest of the chapter to build on what we see in verse 1.

• The overall context of the book of Galatians is Paul trying to convince the people not to sucked into following the Judaizers.

• These were Jews who became Christians who then would try to convince the gentiles who wanted to be or had already to become Christians that they needed to brace and follow the Law of Moses and as a part of that, to become circumcised.

• Paul fought hard against this false teaching.

• In Chapter 5, he equates falling for what the Judaizers were teaching to rejecting Jesus. He tells the readers that they will lose what they have in Christ by adopting the old ways.

• I am sure you are aware that in our war for Independence, not ALL who lived in the 13 colonies were for the fight, it is estimated that anywhere from 20% to 33% of the Colonists were Loyalists or Tories. These were folks who remained loyal to the British Crown and did not want freedom from England.

• Even after the war some of these Loyalists wanted things to go back the way they were.

• When Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt, they were many who wanted to go back to be a slave.

• So, Paul is fighting hard to get the folks to realize that going back is no way to live.

• SLIDE #3

• Galatians 5:1 (CSB) For freedom, Christ set us free. Stand firm then and don’t submit again to a yoke of slavery.

• SLIDE #4

SERMON

I. What is freedom?

• I us to focus on verse 1, one piece at a time.

• For the first observation, I want to concentrate on the first two words, FOR FREEDOM!

• What does that mean?

• FOR FREEDOM?

• When you think of the word FREEDOM, what comes to mind? I would image over time, how we define freedom changes a bit.

• When we were teens, we thought freedom was all about doing whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. Many of us had the impression that what being adult afforded you.

• The dictionary defines freedom as, the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

• IF that is the exact definition, then none of us are free in the United States because we are hindered and restrained to a level, just not to the degree that folks are in other countries.

• A more Biblical definition would be personal freedom from servitude, confinement or oppression.

• Within the Biblical definition of FREEDOM, you will find the word LIBERTY used a lot.

• We define Liberty as the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views.

• In the Biblical sense, FREEDOM is more like what we would define LIBERTY.

• The word in the original text can be defined either way.

• The phrase “for freedom” was extremely well known, found in numerous documents for the freeing of slaves.

• The procedure called for a slave to save up enough money, and then to have the local temple use that money to buy him from the owner.