Forever Free

Sunday Sermon
November 22nd 2009
Rhema Community Church

Sermonic Skeleton

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

Sermonic Theme: Saved & Set Free (The Doctrine of Justification)

Sermonic Subject: Christian Liberty (The Doctrine of Faith alone)

Sermonic Tension: Freedom always entails danger. (W.E.B. Du Bois, 1868-1963 Intellectual & Activist)

Sermonic Sentence: To be saved is to be set free.

Sermonic Objective: The sermonic objective is to instruct against the dangers of religion for religion works to enslave Christians.

Sermonic Help: Liberty, Christian NLT Isaiah 61:1-2 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. 2 He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the LORD's favor has come, and with it, the day of God's anger against their enemies.

The NT clearly shows that God gives Christian’s liberty, a freedom to choose that grows out of a person’s own commitment to Christ and understanding of Scripture. Yet this freedom has obligations. Christians have a responsibility to learn of God from the Bible and to pattern their lives after His character, relating to others in a way that witnesses effectively to a lost world.
In 2 Corinthians 3:17 (Amplified Bible) Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

Colossians 1:13-14 (Amplified Bible) Col 13 [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, Col 14 In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.

1 Corinthians 6:12 (Amplified Bible) Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power.

1 Corinthians 10:23 (Amplified Bible) All things are legitimate [permissible—and we are free to do anything we please], but not all things are helpful (expedient, profitable, and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life].

Christian liberty is vast, yet it is not license. It recognizes that not everything is constructive, for when we engage in activities harmful to others or ourselves, we actually destroy the freedom God has given us.

Freedom of the Will: The freedom to act and to be responsible for our actions. In creating us in His own image, God made us rational creatures, which necessarily means that He has delegated sovereignty to us. Our very experience of life tells us we have free choice: We can consciously deny ourselves even to the extent that we can willfully starve to death. Human freedom places no restriction on God’s power. Exactly the opposite is true: We are free only because God chose to give us free will. A God who is truly sovereign must be able to create free creatures. It would be a greater threat to God’s power were He unable to delegate freedom.

Sermonic Title: “FOREVER FREE”

Sermonic Structure:

I. I AM SET FREE (Christ has set us free…)

II. I AM STANDING FIRM IN MY FREEDOM (Stand firm therefore…)

III. I AM BY FAITH STAYING FREE (do not submit again to a yoke of slavery…)