9-13-09 Fundamentals Series: Shackles or Sunshine

9-13-09 Fundamentals Series: Shackles or Sunshine

 

What are the first words that enter your mind when I say the word slavery? What descriptive words enter your mind when I say the word slavery? (Write these on an Easel)

 

The slavery that I’m thinking of removes your value as a human being. It removes your identity. It removes your worth. It strips away your freedom and with it your ability to think and act in independent, creative ways. Slavery is abusive, oppressive, and destructive. A slave owns nothing, controls nothing. If you are a slave, you are, really, nothing. You are bought. You are owned. You become someone’s possession. Slavery removes your humanity. It removes all that you were created for.

 

We were not created for slavery . . . and yet we are. Listen to what Paul says about you and me.
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NRSV)

Slaves are not their own. Slaves are bought and sold for a price. The scriptures say that you and I were bought with a price? The scriptures say that we are not our own? What does that mean? It sounds like we’re not free, but slaves. Is that who God is? Is God a slave owner, and we’re his slaves? Is that why life seems so hard? Is that why life seems so much like a struggle?

Within Christianity there are these huge paradoxes. You and I were given free will, but we were bought with a price; we are not our own. That seems absurd doesn’t it? How can you be free and yet purchased?

 

The same man who wrote 1 Corinthians also wrote the book of Romans and he shed some light on this question when he said,

 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war – Paul’s choice of words here is critical to his meaning. Waging war was something that was very familiar to the Romans. They had waged war against the whole earth. They knew that the object of waging war was to overthrow a people and then take them prisoner, where they would then become slaves of Rome. Paul says, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner – making me a captive, making me a slave – of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Romans 7:21-24

In the ancient of days when this was written, if a warring king captured you and your countrymen, you would be a slave for life. The only way that you could gain your freedom again was if another king came in and waged war against the king that had captured you, and beat them. At that point you could either become a slave to the new king or if he were a compassionate king, he might release you.

Paul is talking about slavery, but he’s talking about a different kind of slavery then you and I are used to. Paul is talking about spiritual slavery. And he talks about this war that is being waged inside of his body and ours, a war that is being waged inside of his mind and ours.

Do you ever feel like there is a war raging inside of you? Do you ever feel like good and evil are waging war inside of you? The good angel sits on one shoulder and the devil with his pitchfork sits on the other.

I have this desire to eat well and exercise often, and spend money wisely, but I regularly crave and succumb to eating junk food, being lazy and squandering money on things that I want, but don’t truly need. And after a time of eating poorly and being lazy or spending money poorly, I get upset with myself – sometimes, literally calling myself names. Do you ever find yourself fighting against your self? Take a look.

Movie clip – Lord of the Rings – Goluum talking to himself

I want to do good, but there is evil right there too. I want to grow in Loving God and others, loving my wife and my children, loving my friend and a complete stranger, but I seem stuck and enslaved by something that I can’t see, by something that I don’t quit understand.

Paul talks about two laws in this passage. The first law is God’s law, and Paul says that he delights in that, because it is very, very good and it brings blessing on him and those around him. But then there’s a second law that is the law of sin, and these two wage war inside of us. I have goodness and evil inside of me and no matter how hard I try, I can’t get the evil out. I can’t.

And Paul ends his thoughts with this statement, What a wretched man I am! And he asks the question, “Who will rescue me from this body of death, because he knows that he is held captive by the sin that rages inside of him. The person that God created us to be will never be set free inside of us unless someone rescues us from the evil that’s inside of us. Evil holds us captive. We are it’s prisoner. We are it’s slave.

But then Paul ends with these words.

Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself, in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25 (NIV)

So the Apostle Paul suggests that there are two kinds of slavery and neither of them are the kind of slavery that you and I normally think of. Paul identifies two kinds of spiritual slavery. These two kinds of slavery are not physical slavery like we described earlier, but spiritual slavery. But physical and spiritual slavery does the same thing. One holds us captive on the outside. The other holds us captive on the inside.  It is a slavery that you can’t see, touch, taste or smell, but it, none-the-less has the ability to control us.

There are two kinds of spiritual slavery. The first is slavery to sin. The second is by choosing to be a slave to God’s law and his will.

Jesus has some insight into this war that is going on inside of us. John writes this in John 8

To the Jews who had believed him (these are really the first Christians), Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. John 8:31-34 (NIV)

So what does Jesus mean, “The truth will set you free”?

You and I were created to live a certain way – a way that was good – a way that would bless us – a way that would be heavenly – a way that would fill our insides with joy and peace and love – a way in which we could experience heaven on earth. God created us for that and Jesus calls that “Truth”. The truth, God’s will, what you and I were created for, will set us free.

And, if that’s the truth, then everything else that you and I do is a lie, and we do it because it looks good and it seems good, or it feels good, or it tastes good, but it isn’t good. Satan is the great deceiver. It’s like a child thinking that everything that tastes good is good for them. A child’s perspective is small. They don’t understand nutrition. They don’t understand that great volumes of candy are not good for their teeth or their health.

Our perspective and understanding of the world is small. We don’t understand what’s good and what’s bad. I’m amazed at the number of kids that watch hours and hours of TV even though there have been tons of studies done that say that watching too much TV leads to depression, a lack of purpose, a lack of drive, and obesity. Watching too much TV is a path and it takes us somewhere and that somewhere is not good.

Parents who let their kids or who allow themselves to watch too much TV are walking a path that will not lead to a blessed, good, joy filled life. They have become slaves to TV and it’s killing them. It’s taking them down a path that leads them away from who God created them to be. It leads them not towards heaven on earth, but hell on earth. Some TV programs themselves may not be bad, but too much of anything . . is.

So the question in my mind is how do I know what sin is? How do I know what will bring me abundant joy-filled life and what won’t? The answer is in the Bible. Sometimes we don’t read the Bible because it’s hard to read or difficult to understand, but the truth of the matter is that I’ve done lots of things in my life that have been hard, difficult, or not fun, and I did them to get ahead, to grow, or to become a better person. The Bible is what provides God’s perspective on life. It is important to struggle with it. It is important to grow in our understanding.

God is the one who created us. He is the one that knows us better than we know ourselves. God knows what path we are supposed to take. He knows what will give us life and what won’t, but so often we don’t ask. So often we don’t take the time to become familiar with him by reading his Word, so when God speaks to us, we don’t hear him. When God directs us toward a path we don’t understand what he’s saying, and so we take the wrong road, we choose the wrong path, we make the wrong decision, and we wonder why we’re so unhappy.

We think to ourselves, well, God must not be a good God because if he was, then all this bad stuff wouldn’t be happening to me. But that’s hogwash! That’s like enlisting in the army and then in the middle of the night, I wander out of camp, don’t know where I’m going and I inadvertently wander right into the enemies camp; they take me prisoner and begin torturing me in horrible ways and  then instead of admitting that I did something stupid and that the whole thing is my fault, I get angry with my commander and curse him for getting me into this horrible situation. Do you see how lame that would be?

Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. John 8:31-34 (NIV)

Jesus died on the cross so that you and I could be set free from our bad choices, and the destructive paths that we’ve chosen. That’s why it’s called Good News, because it sets us free from sin and destructive patterns in our lives. We are set free when we submit to God’s will being done in our lives.

So we started out with this verse. Let’s read it again. Paul says:

 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God–through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Romans 7:21-25 (NIV)

Paul says, “I am a slave to God’s law”. Is that a bad thing? Could I ever choose to be a slave? I thought slavery was a bad thing. I thought slavery meant that I belonged to someone and that someone else controlled me? Why would I ever choose that? That’s inhuman isn’t it? I tend to rebel against anything or anyone that wants to control me. So why would I want to become a slave to God?

In the Old Testament, there is this obscure passage in Exodus that I tripped over many years ago. I don’t like reading this kind of stuff in the Bible and quite frankly, I’m amazed that I didn’t skip this because it’s seemingly about stuff that doesn’t apply to us. God is speaking to Moses here:

“These are the laws that you are to place before them: “When you buy a Hebrew slave – Any of you buy a Hebrew slave recently? Plan to in the next year? No? – When you buy a Hebrew slave, he will serve six years. Did you get that? You buy him. You own him. He is yours. He is not his own. The seventh year he goes free, for nothing. If he came in single he leaves single. If he came in married he leaves with his wife . . . And this is the interesting part – But suppose the slave should say, ‘I love my master and my wife and children—I don’t want my freedom,’ ⁶ then his master is to bring him before God and to a door or doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl, a sign that he is a slave for life. Exodus 21:1-6 (MSG)

So this kind of thing happened, but my question is why? Why would a slave, who has served his time and is free to go, for some, seemingly crazy reason, why would he would say, I don’t ever want to go free, I want to stay here. Why would he say this? Why would he do this?

The reason, of course, is that the master was so good to his slave that the slave understood that he would never feel so blessed as a free man as he is in the house of his master. The master, instead of beating him, cared for him, took care of their every need, and invited them to eat at his abundant and overflowing table with them and treated them, even though he owned them with respect and dignity and love.

The only way a slave would commit themselves to their master is if by their experience, they knew their life would never be as good outside of the master’s house as it was inside it. If your master clothed you and fed you and provided for you and your family so well and treated you all so well that you knew that you could never even come close to what your master provided for you, then you could decide to stay a slave forever.

The Bible is very clear about this. We, as human beings, are going to be a slave to something. Oh, you may think that you’re free, but you’re not. Sin is right there controlling you. You feel it. We can either be enslaved by sin, which will take away our goodness and our blessing; it will make us cynical and selfish; it’ll rob our joy and our peace; it will steal our ability to make a difference in this dark, broken world, or we can be a slave to God.

Why would we become a slave to God – to be controlled by God – to say “Not my will be done God but yours.” We say that knowing that God’s will and God’s kingdom are so much better than anything I could ever gain for myself. I pray not my will, but yours be done, because I’ve watched where my will has gotten me. I watched where my wisdom has gotten me, and then, as I’ve slowly released control of my own life and slowly have given it over to God, I’ve watched him bless us so much that finally in the last few years I’ve gain confidence in saying, “Not my will be done, but yours”.

The only reason we would do this is if we know that by being under the control of God is better than being under my own control. The only reason that we would ever choose this is because we know that we are so much more blessed by God and his will than we have ever been blessed by our own will.

There’s a mysterious quality about spiritual slavery. See what you think? Paul says this:

For whoever was called in the Lord as a slave is a freed person belonging to the Lord, just as whoever was free when called is a slave of Christ. 1 Corinthians 7:22 (NRSV)

You and I are owned by sin. It is our master, and it controls us. It oppresses us. It degrades us. It controls our heart. It removes our worth as human beings. It strips us of our value. That master is abusive, oppressive, and destructive.

But thanks be to God because we don’t have to be controlled by that master any more, because we have been bought from that master. We have been bought with Jesus’ love. We have been bought by his sacrifice on the cross. Jesus, God in the flesh, came down to set you and I free from sin, free from oppression, free from slavery that reduces our worth and chains us to ways that don’t bring life, and he loved us so much that he was willing to give up his life, so that you and I might have ours. He loved you and I so much that he was willing to die so that we could live. He was willing die in our place, so that we could be set free. That’s the kind of master that we have in Christ.

And his ways are so much bigger and higher than my ways. His way is always right, it is always good, it is always true.

I willingly say, Lord Jesus, you have set me free! You have given me free will to do as I so choose, but I willingly put my ear to the doorpost and allow you to put a hole through my ear, because I have seen how much you have changed my life and my family’s life under your care. And Lord Jesus, I can’t imagine going anywhere else. I want to serve you and stay in your care all the days of my life. Lord Jesus I want you to be my master and lord always

I have given my life to Jesus. I have willingly put my ear on the doorpost and allowed him to drive an awl through my ear to signify that I will serve him forever. I am his. My will is not my own. I have given it to Christ. I pray daily. Lord, not my will be done, not my kingdom come, but Lord, your kingdom come and your will be done. Take my will and form it and conform it unto yours.

And you know what’s weird? I’ve never felt so free. Somehow in submitting my will to God, he sets me free from so much of the world’s heaviness and has given me life beyond my wildest dreams. Do I still struggle, those of you who know me, know that’s true. I still struggle with all kinds of things, but somehow it’s different, it’s lighter, it’s better, it’s truer. There is peace and joy and love at my inner core that is so good despite the trials that come my way. As I submit my will to God’s, I find that heaven keeps coming into my life in small and glorious ways.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Life Link:

v     Name one good thing that you celebrate in your life.

v     Summarize the message. Was there anything that you disagreed with, confused you, or struck you?

v     How does sin internally enslave us? What are the similarities between external slavery and internal slavery?

v     Explain the following paradox: When we have freewill, but have not accepted Christ and been saved from our sin, we are enslaved; when we become God’s servant or slave, we are set free.

v     Can you be a Christian, but still be enslaved by sinful patterns within you?

v     What are some internal struggles that enslave you?

v     How do we get free from our internal bondage?

v     What are you going to do differently as a result of this message?