Freedom's Blessing Series

Freedom’s Blessing (Galatians 3:6-14)

Tim Wilson, a pastor in Colorado, talks about his days at Fort Benning, attending the United States Army Airborne School. He and his buddies were sitting on hard wooden bleachers as they prepared for their first parachute jump. Soon they would soar hundreds of feet above the red Georgia clay and hear the jump-master bark out the orders, “Stand up! Hook up! Check equipment! Stand in the door! Go! Go! Go!” Understandably, the instructors had their undivided attention.

The Airborne sergeant’s voice rang out confidently as he explained what to do in case of a parachute malfunction. “If your main parachute should fail to deploy, don’t panic – pull the handle of your auxiliary parachute. Should your auxiliary parachute fail to fill with air, don’t panic – pull it in toward your body and then vigorously throw it away from yourself. Should your auxiliary chute again fail to deploy, don’t panic – vigorously repeat this process.”

He paused dramatically. Then with a slight mischievous grin he slowly stated, “Should this also fail, don’t panic. You’ll have the rest of your life to get your parachute to deploy.” (Tim Wilson, pastor of Indian Hills Christian Fellowship, Indian Hills, Colorado, from a sermon titled, Urgency; www.Preaching Today.com)

There are a lot of people who spend their entire lives trying to get it right, but they never succeed? They try one program after another. They attempt many different schemes. & Some even try religion, but life is a constant struggle for them. When they are not fighting the panic of failure, they are crashing on the rocks of guilt and shame.

That describes so many people in our churches. Maybe it describes some of you.

Well, I’ve got good news for you. There IS a better way to live our lives. There IS a better way than trying and failing, trying and failing, trying and failing, time and time again. And if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Galatians 3, Galatians 3, where the Bible shows us that better way.

Galatians 3:6 Consider Abraham: “He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” (NIV)

That better way is the way of faith. God says, “Stop trying and start trusting.” TRUST THE LORD AND BE BLESSED. LIKE ABRAHAM, BELIEVE GOD. PUT YOUR FAITH IN GOD’S PROMISES AND FIND TRUE VIRTUE.

God promised Abraham, an old man, that he would have many descendants, as many descendants as the stars in the sky.

Did Abraham doubt that promise? No! The Bible says, quoting Genesis 15, “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Literally, in the Hebrew, Abraham said “Amen” – it is true for me. And as a result, God declared him righteous. All it took was faith, simple faith in God’s promise, and Abraham found full and complete acceptance with God.

Do you want God to treat you as righteous and holy in His sight? Then, like Abraham, simply believe God’s promises to you. Say “Amen” to those promises. Consider them true for you, and trust the Lord to do what He said He would do.

God promised us His Holy Spirit. God promised us an inheritance in Heaven. God promised to make us like Christ. All we need to do is believe those promises in order to make it with God. All it takes is simple faith.

Nearly 20 years ago, the Promise Keepers movement swept the country, calling men to keep seven promises regarding their relationships with God, their families, their churches and the world. In an early message, Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, announced to these men, “Realize that you can’t keep your promises. That may seem like a strange first step toward the goal of keeping promises, but it’s true.

“Consider this question: If we could keep our promises, wouldn’t we have done it by now? How many times have we made the same promises? Let’s face it; rededication to keep promises won’t work. If it did, we wouldn’t find it necessary to keep rededicating ourselves. Many of us have struggled with promise-keeping for one reason: We have focused on our performance more than on Jesus Christ. We have tried to keep our promises, but the Bible teaches that effective Christian living doesn’t come by trying. It comes by trusting Christ to express his life through us. He is the only One who can successfully keep promises.

“Before we can be effective promise keepers, we must become promise receivers. The Bible is clear about God’s promise: the One who has given us his life will be the One who lives it for us. Only Jesus Christ can effectively live the perfect life. He lives inside believers today and wants to reveal His perfect life through us. (Steve McVey, president of Grace Walk Ministries, Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 2)