SMART MOVE: RELEASE

Happy Independence Day!  Despite the many problems that our nation may face and the blights upon our history, we should pause and praise God for giving us the freedom that we enjoy!  Our freedom has been costly and it remains at risk even after 247 years.  It is apparent that we have not always used our freedom wisely, but this should lead us to sing heartily the words of America, The Beautiful: O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, who more than self their country love, and mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine, till all success be nobleness, and every gain divine! Genuine freedom should refine, not only nation, but also our individual lives! In our series Smart Move, Finding Wisdom for our Lives we are focusing on Proverbs 6:1-11.  It is filled with the dangers of falling into a trap.  The problem with our freedom is that it is always subject to the whims, definitions, and desires of our broken humanity.  It is hard for us to avoid the trap of our sinfulness, but then, we are tempted to declare it to be genuine freedom!  In the sermon, Release we begin to understand that we can free ourselves from some traps, and if we listen to the examples that are offered, we can begin to forge a new path for our lives.  This is the power of God’s wisdom.  It can help us find a deep and abiding freedom that is not dependent upon any government or nation.  God wants us to find this incredible freedom that we glimpse in Proverbs 6.  These words help us to gain clarity that our smartest move is to follow God’s wisdom, especially as it leads us to the absolute freedom that can only be found in his Son, Jesus Christ!  We pray that you will know this truth and it will begin to set you free as you read Proverbs 6:1-11:

My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger– ² if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said– ³ follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased. ⁴ Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do. ⁵ Save yourself like a gazelle escaping from a hunter, like a bird fleeing from a net. ⁶ Take a lesson from the ants, you lazybones. Learn from their ways and become wise! ⁷ Though they have no prince or governor or ruler to make them work, ⁸ they labor hard all summer, gathering food for the winter. ⁹ But you, lazybones, how long will you sleep? When will you wake up? ¹⁰ A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest– ¹¹ then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.  (NLT)