Independance Day
On the 4th of July, my family went to a drive in movie theater. We saw the movie "Finding Nemo". The movie was about a little fish named Nemo who swam too close to a boat. He was captured by a scuba diver and put in a fish tank in the office of a dentist. The whole movie was about Nemo’s father Marlin, crossing the ocean seeking and trying to save his Son.
God has done the same for us. Satan wants to capture us and enslave us. His goal is our destruction. But God would do anything, cross the ocean, the universe, time and even send His only Son to die for us, just to save us.
While Satan’s goal for us is enslavement and death, God’s will for us is freedom and life. So how do we acheive that?
Jesus gives us the key to freedom in Matthew 22:37
Matthew 22:37
37Jesus replied: " ’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
We can experience true freedom:
Mentally
Our minds
Satan knows the battle for our souls begins in
the mind.
The book of James clearly tells us that we sin
when we are enticed and dragged away by
our sinful desires which start in the mind.
Satan is very good at making sure evil things
have a chance to get in our minds.
He puts things in front us, books, television,
movies, internet and so often we allow those
things access to our mind.
Satan would love nothing more than to enslave
us to our thoughts and desires, so that we
cannot love the Lord with our mind.
God wants us to be free mentally. His word
says to "take captive every thought."
(2 Cor. 10:5)
The Christian is instructed to think on
whatever is lovely, whatever is noble,
whatever is admirable.
We can only experience freedom in Christ
mentally when we fully give our minds to God.
Our Emotions
Satan also tries to enslave us to our emotions.
Anger- he loves for us to be
filled with anger and hatred toward
others.
Jealousy- he loves for us to envy and
lust after other things.
Guilt- he loves for us to dwell on our
sins even after God forgives us.
God can free us, His Holy Spirit can
help us live a controlled life. When
we love him with all our heart (the
seat of the emotions.)
Physically
Physical consequences of sin
The first consequence for Adam and Eve was
physical. They looked at each other and
realized they were naked. Sin always has
physical consequences.
Addiction- Satan has used alcohol, drugs, sex,
to addict God’s people.
Health- As a result of our sin, our health is
often affected.
Broken Relationships-Sin messes up our
relationship with him and others.
Spiritually
Legalism- Jesus condemned the Pharisees for
their legalistic ways of doing things just
for appearances sake. Paul told new Gentile
Christians not to be enslaved by othes after
Christ had made them free. Jews wanted
Gentiles to become Jews before they could
become Christians. Paul told them they were free in Christ, and not a slave to any man.
Spiritual Apathy- another area of attack by
satan is apathy. He doesnt care if we are
Christians so long as we aren’t effective
Christians. He doesn’t want us reading
our Bible, praying, witnessing, worshipping.
He wants us to be Christian in name only.
God wants to be free spiritually in Him. He
gives us the Holy Spirit to guide us, to
encourage us, to rebuke us, to help us grow
spiritually.
Eternally
Satan’s ultimate goal is to take as many
people to hell with him as he can.
He knows that there is no escape for him. He
will spend eternity in hell. He also knows the
pain he can bring God, if he can take people
with him. Hell was created for Satan and his
demons, not people. But Satan’s goal is to enslave people and drag them to hell with him.
God’s goal is to make us free in heaven with
Him for eternity. God tells us how we can
become free:
Believe in Jesus
Confess Christ
Repent of our sins
Be baptized into him.
God also tells us how we can stay free:
Jesus replied: " ’Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
