CELEBRATE FREEDOM: LIFE, LIBERTY, AND THE PURSUIT OF...

We begin our summer series, Celebrate Freedom.  Many of the founders of our nation were believers.  Even if they were not ardent believers, they were influenced and inspired by the Christian faith.  The First Great Awakening  (1730-1730) was a revival that had a tremendous impact on the American Colonies. Some people contend it inspired the ideas of freedom that would be expressed in the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution.  The freedom that we enjoy today was born out of a social, ideological, and theological context that was thoroughly Christian.  We are approaching the 250^th anniversary of the founding of our great nation, and it is a great time to celebrate our freedom.  Yet, the freedom of our nation is only a distant reflection of the freedom that God shares with us in Jesus Christ.  The title of the first sermon is a familiar phrase: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of…. Most everyone can fill in the last word because this is from our Declaration of Independence.  Our scripture is Romans 6:13-23.  This is the Apostle Paul’s declaration of freedom for every believer, and it gives us a powerful and enduring path to eternal freedom.  The Declaration of Independence cannot lead us to this reality; it is only a pale reflection of our human longing to find it.  If we are going to find life-giving liberty, if we are going to be empowered by new life, then it matters what we pursue.  These words inspire and empower us to pursue the narrow road, so that we will connect to the strength of new life, life-changing resurrection, and inexhaustible hope!  We pray that you will sense the power of God setting you free from the chains of the past, from the prison of your fears, and the shackles of your shame as you read Romans 6:13-23. 

Romans 6:13-23: Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. ¹⁴ For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. ¹⁵ What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! ¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey —whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? ¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)