“Turning the Corner Part 2”

“Giving God the Glory with Cheer”

Galatians 5:1, 13–16 ¹For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

¹³For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” ¹⁵But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

            It seems anymore that the generations of people in this country who claim our freedom to be great, confuse slavery to sin as freedom.  Sin is not something any of us can escape from on our own.  We might be able to abstain from some sinful acts, but we are unable to abstain from all sinful acts.  This inability to abstain from all sin makes us slaves to sin and therefore we do not have true freedom.  Well, I guess if we justify our sin and then we call it desire and under the name of desire we are slaves to desire, nothing changes.  So how one spells sin, does not change that it is still sin and we are still slaves to it. 

            Have you devoured anyone lately?  I saw on T.V. Paula Dean is being devoured for something she said and sounds like it was taken out of context to make it a hate crime.  If we take a close look at what is going on, everyone including the news, and her sponsors are committing a hate crime against Paula Dean.  They are doing everything they can to ruin her life, judging her saying she is only being sorry because of money, and making sure her name is dirtied in the ears of everyone.  Sounds like the news people should be charged with hate crimes, and our politicians too.  If mudslinging is not a hate crime then what is? This is not the example Christ showed us as He died for our sins so we could receive forgiveness.  Christ says love your neighbor and your enemy too.  Paul says we can fail through spending our time devouring our neighbor and then we are consumed by non-forgiveness.

When we disguise the name of sin we only fool ourselves and not the one God whom we pray to.  We act as if God is not looking, doesn’t care, or accepts any and all kinds of sin, unless we choose Him not to, based again on our desires.  We are that way with everything in our “me society.”  We only think of the other person when others are looking or we feel we have to.  It seems that we live on the auspice of “we’re only doing this because we feel we have to.”

Luke 9:51–62 ⁵⁹To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” ⁶⁰And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” ⁶¹Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” ⁶²Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

            “I’m doing it because I feel I have to”, this is working under the law.  “I’m doing it because of my love for God and His love for all people”, is letting the gospel work through us.

Galatians 5:16–18 ¹⁶But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

We are turning a corner and moving forward more and more towards giving God the glory for what He is doing through us, because Christ freed us from the slavery of sin.  Christ also freed us from the slavery of the law so that we can live in an eternal freedom of life with God and have an eternal relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

The law’s slavery demands payment for the sin it rules against, and the punishment is eternal death and separation from God.  Christ suffers, dies and pays in full the debt that the law requires and gives us the key to unlock the shackles we are bound in.  The key Christ gives us is belief in the forgiveness He paid for out of His love for us therefore freeing us from the clutches of sin and the demands of the law.

Galatians 5:21b–25 I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

²⁵If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.

            We live by the Spirit because the Spirit lives in us.  With the Spirit living in us we are able to realize the great gift we received from Christ Jesus.  As Christ the Son of God gives Glory to His Father in heaven, we too through the works of the Spirit can give glory to the same Father for we are now fully paid for by Christ to be His sons and daughters too.  It truly is something to cheer about, the grace, peace and mercy through the love from our Father above.  Amen.

Written by: Pastor Curtis A. May

Let us go forth in the Peace of our Lord and Serve the Lord who loved us first.