Freedom From is Greater that Freedom to...

Prayer for Peace

Holy and Gracious God

We pray for the people of Ukraine and the people of Russia; for their countries and their leaders.

We pray for all those who are afraid; that your everlasting arms hold them in this time of great fear.

We pray for all those who have the power over life and death; that they will choose for all people life, and life in all its fullness.

We pray for those who choose war; that they will remember that you direct your people to turn our swords into ploughshares and seek for peace.

We pray for leaders on the world stage; that they are inspired by the wisdom and courage of Christ.

Above all, Lord, today we pray for peace for Ukraine.

And we ask this in the name of your blessed Son.

Lord have mercy.

Amen

It seems like we are living in an era where life altering events are happening on an almost daily basis. The last few years we have gone through a pandemic, political strife, racial strife, and now on top of all that we are all watching Europe explode into violence as Russia has invaded Ukraine.

Ukraine has done nothing to provoke such and action. In fact it seems fairly obvious that this invasion is not out of necessity but out of nationalistic desire to add territory, raw natural resources, power and wealth to the invading country.

The result of this evil and sinful act is that innocent people are suffering and dying with the guilty.

When these types of events occur pastors and Churches are often looking for ways to ways to help people feel like everything is going to be ok…even if we really do not know how it will work out.

While this is part of our role and I do believe that things will eventually be ok it is important to stress that ok does not mean life will be without challenges.

Ok may not mean that Russia packs up and goes home. Ok may not look like low gas prices. Ok may not look like low inflation....So the question is how can we experience Ok if we don’t even know what that will look like?

Or better yet how can we experience the joy of our salvation that everyone says is possible when it seems like everything around us is actively fighting against us?

People that are able to experience the Joy of salvation in uncertain times are those that choose to grow in faith when it would be easier to retreat into themselves.

When times are tough we must find the ability that only comes With the Help of Holy Spirit to choose to grow....

The people of Ukraine are showing us everyday in the conflict that one can choose to continue even in the face of overwhelming opposition. Everyone is saying Ukraine will fall…but the people of Ukraine continue to hold on to hope and they are choosing to do whatever they can to make this a reality.

If the People of Ukraine can muster up the strength in the face of a Russian invasion I think with God’s help we can grow spiritually in the face of any opposition we feel in this moment.

Paul has taken a lot of time prior to Chapter 6 pointing out the sinful condition of humanity and the failure of the law to bring about a right standing with God.

Paul has also focused on the importance of Faith in Jesus as the cure for our sinful condition. In other words following the law is no longer the way to righteousness…Faith in Jesus is the way to Righteousness.

While this takes the pressure off this does not mean we are free to live a sinful life…in fact intentional faith will actually free us from having to live that way....This where we pick up Pauls teaching today

Romans 6:12–14 NLT

12 Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires. 13 Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. 14 Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.

When I worked at Mailboxes Etc (Now the UPS store) in Seminary we not only packed and shipped packages but we helped people with their copy needs.

Like most business we greeted every single person that came in and offered help with whatever their need was sometimes people would gladly accept help, some would totally ignore you as if accepting help was somehow going to cost them more.

You Could always tell someone who really did not know what they were doing when the came in to get copies…They would walk strait to the least intimidating looking copier and then they would stare at the controls and then up at the instructions then they would shoot a look over at the employees to see if we were watching.

It was usually at that time where one of two things would happen…They would either give in and ask for help or they would take a chance and try it on their own. Sometimes they would get it right the first time and breeze through making copies with no problem.

However most of the time they would make dozens of bad copies until they finally figured it out. They they would come to the counter expecting to pay only for the good copies but they were responsible for the bad copies as well.

Time after time customers would get really upset that they had to pay for the bad copies as well…They would call our store a scam, yell at me, or whomever else was behind the counter thinking that they should not be held accountable for the bad copies that they made.

When that didn’t work they would try to tell us it was not their fault but the copiers.....When the truth was the copier only did what it was told to do.

Had they just accepted help when offered or even asked for help they would not have been responsible for any of the bad copies they had to pay for…

Their pride dictated their choice to ignore the help that was available to them. As a result they had to pay.

We all give control of our lives to something…the questions is what is it going to be? The choices we make will determine the outcome of our spiritual Growth.

Paul seems to be saying that if we want to live in the fullness of our Salvation we need to choose to be free from self instead settling for being slaves to self.

Freedom or Bondage…This is the choice we have.

Romans 6:15–18 NLT

15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

Freedom is not free to Sin...Freedom is free from having to sin

We always have the choice to relapse into bondage or live in the freedom of faith.

Romans 6:19–23 NLT

19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy. 20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. 21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

God is not calling us to be a slave to Him as to do so would remove our free will…Paul is using the illustration of slavery to help us understand what it is to live in a world where we feel like we have no control.

We do have control of our growth in faith…if we are slaves to sin we are not free…If we are slaves to selfishness we are not free…if we are slaves to pleasure we are not free…if we are slaves to pride we are not free.

We exercise freedom when we choose God over the world…this is where free will comes in. God is never going to force you or I to do the “right” thing. but when we willingly choose the right things the consequences will always be peace of mind, and heart.

We are actually giving up our freedom when we choose self over a Growing Faith.

Pleasure or comfort at the expence of others or our relationship with God leads to loneliness for us and resentment from those closest to us.

Choosing Spiritual growth over temporary pleasure is exercising freedom from the world and its expectations…

If we truly want to live in freedom it starts with dying to self.

Choosing Growth over Comfort…

Dealing with reality over self deception

Choosing to live in Christian Community instead of trying to do it ourselves.

Choose reconciliation over separation when challenged…Pride always leads to separation. Peace is achieved when we are open to change.

Not only does this lead to our personal freedom but as a body when we collectively act in these ways freedom is felt by everyone that walks into our doors....

A Church that chooses Freedom from the grip of sin inspires individuals and communities that have all but given up on being truly free. Let’s be this type of Church.

This is the Church that God has called us to be. In coming to the table for communion and remembering the death and ressurection and coming again of our Lord we are reminded of our freedom from the power of darkness.

Not becuase of what we have done but becuase of What Jesus has done…Jesus has given us a choice. Freedom or Bondage.

By coming to the table today we celebrate freedom.

Communion:

Benediction

Eternal God, you revealed to the disciples the everlasting glory of Jesus Christ. Grant us, who have not seen and yet believe, the gift of your Holy Spirit, that we may boldly live the gospel and shine with your transforming glory, as people changed and changing through the redeeming presence of our Savior. Amen.