a glimpse towards Sunday 6.05.15
This past Memorial Day I did something I’m ashamed to admit. Pastors are great at getting others to confess, but slow to get their own lips a movin’. Here’s my Friday morning confession.
On Memorial Day, I took my wife and two youngest kids to a memorial service at the Marietta National Cemetery. This is the FIRST time I’ve done this with my family. Sad.
But… the service was incredible. Emotions, tears, and chill bumps flooded my obviously parched sense of patriotism as a twenty-one-gun salute echoed through the tombstones. Stories were told of the dead, and what they sacrificed for my freedom. These were stories of ultimate sacrifice so I could go home and barbecue with great security. My freedom as an American is afforded at such a high price. It’s a deep freedom FROM the tyranny of rogue nations, and freedom TO a greater quality of life. Having both always comes at a great price.
After the moving ceremony, I turned to Sherry and said, “Why have we never done THAT before?”
Freedom seems to be on everyone’s lips these days. Do most seek a freedom FROM or a freedom TO?
Bruce Jenner says he’s now free as Caitlyn. Is this a freedom FROM or a freedom TO? We’re going to talk about this a bit come Sunday. As moral fortitude erodes in our free culture, we must talk. We also must have great compassion. But as John Piper says, “Compassion does not mean compromising Biblical truth.”
Has Caitlyn Jenner found freedom, or will she continue in a slavery unlocked only by the gospel?
How’s your depth of freedom these days? What is enslaving you?
On Sunday, our text is all about freedom. It’s a great passage of scripture, and I encourage you to bring a physical copy of the Bible to church so you can write, underline, and highlight Galatians 5:1-6. I’ll be doing something new this Sunday by diagramming the unique symmetry of these verses. You’ll want to be able to do the same within the pages of your own Bible.
While freedom in a thirsty relativistic society is being chased, few seem to be finding it. How about you? Are you free? Do you want to be? I’m betting you have a few friends or family members feeling too much like a slave as well. It could be a slave to an image, or status, or acceptance, or appeasing God to receive, or even to earning salvation from God because grace seems to easy.
At our Sunday gatherings, we’ll be pursuing freedom with the power of the gospel. You should come — and bring another slave with you. God has always intended the creation He loves to be set free. You and I have been set free. It’s time we stand firm in our freedom.
See you at 9 & 11 a.m. It’s gonna be good…
Blessings,
Weekly Giving | 5/31/15
$36,682.75
Weekly Need $33,000.00
