Freedom From Emotional Slavery

Introduction

“Freedom! We long for it and love it. Free to be and do what we want when we want!

1) Our first car (no more asking mom and dad for rides)

2) Our first job (no more asking mom and dad for money)

3) Our first date (fulfillment and happiness)

4) Our first road trip (make my own memories apart from my parents)

These are wonderful moments of increasing independence that we experience in our teen years as our parents gradually release us from their supervision.

Freedom is so amazing, isn’t it? We can’t get enough of it, and we can’t get it early enough.

But for some of us, our teen years are the opposite of freedom. They are years of increasing bondage.

It’s not that an outside force like our parents or teachers imprisons us.

No, it’s an inside force that restricts us.

Our own thoughts and feelings hold us captive, and we can’t break free from them.

Anxiety and depression lock us up and cast us down. Darkness and panic stalk us and steal our joy and peace.

To the point that our teen years feel more like solitary confinement than newfound freedom.

Which brings us to ask questions like “Why am I feeling like this?” “How do I get out of this?” “Am I ever going to be free?”

Friends, our society says- “Take more medication” “Stop being so tense, get rid of your restrictions and go wild” “Make more money, be successful” “Find the love of your life” “Be you, be happy!” That is how you stop feeling like that. That is how you become free.

However, that is not true! Do not buy into the lie!

Friends, we live in a society that is in deep bondage. We live in a society that gives the impression of being free, but in reality it is in bondage.

In our passage in Romans 6 we are taught 3 things

The Golden Chains of Slavery (Rom 6:16)

The Death of Slavery (Rom 6:1-6)

Walking in True Freedom (Rom 6:11-12, 17-22)

The Golden Chains of Slavery (Rom 6:16)

Why do I say that our society even though it gives the impression of being free is in reality in bondage? And Why do I call them golden chains?

1) They give the impression of being free because what it provides seems luxurious and seems like it satisfies, but only temporarily. The outcome is emptiness

So they are golden because they look valuable and enticing, but they are chains because they restrain us from true freedom!

Romans 6:16 (ESV)

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

Our text shows that anything that obediently serve is what we are enslaved to. So. Let’s go back to the things we mentioned earlier…

Fun and Entertainment

Money and Success

Fame and Popularity

Friends if your focus in life is any of these things you’re enslaved to a master that does not love you.

There is a story of a young girl that was digging for treasure in her backyard. As she digged she found what she described as an old Native American Arrow Head! Her dad looked at it and said Awesome! Go wash it and polish it up! That is so exciting! She spends 2 hours washing and polishing it up. She comes back frustrated and tells her dad “This is not an Arrow it is just a rock!”

Friends, that little girl wasted 2 hours of her day. But there are many of you here that are potentially going to waste your entire lives running after all of what the world offers!

BUT There is good news!

The Death of Slavery (Rom 6:1-6)

Romans 6:1–6 (ESV)

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

What does this mean?

If you believe in the Gospel (Explain it )

Your old self is gone! You are free, no longer enslaved!

If that is true why do we still live like we are still enslaved?

This how we tend to live our christian life

The was a man that spent 5 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. After 4 years, new evidence showed that he was not guilty. However, he spent so much time being influenced in jail and so much time behind bars that when he was set free he did not know how to live like someone who is free. Eventually, he went back because he began to hangout with people that were like him and brought him right back to the captivity that he loved most!

Friends, it seems like it is the same thing with us. We do not know what it means to be free!

BUT CHRIST has set us free! And now we can walk in true freedom!

Walking in True Freedom (Rom 6:11-12)

Romans 6:11–12 (ESV)

So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.

Do not let this culture dictate your freedom! You do not belong to this world, but to the kingdom of God! To the Celestial Kingdom!

Romans 6:17–22 (ESV)

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.

For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

What now?

Walk as Slaves of Righteousness

Present your bodies as living sacrifices