Vineyard Church of Knox County
The Fight for Freedom
Sermon Audio from Sunday, April 24, 2005 — Remember we arrived last week to a turning point, a place of opportunity I called it. Paul had led us throughout Galatians with a lot of freedom talk: when we put our trust in Jesus, then our sin is forgiven and we are made heirs of God's kingdom. Our past debts are canceled and our future inheritance is sure. From that place of freedom, though, Paul says, Do not use your freedom as an opportunity to indulge the sinful nature [live for your selfish pleasure], rather become slaves to one another and serve one another in love. The whole of the Bible's commands are summed up in this "law": love one another.
But "walk in the Spirit" is a command to us as "Just say no" is to a teenager, isn't it. But it's just not that easy, is it? We know that we are to love one another but we fail so often. We know God invites us to a life in the Spirit, a life that does not live in sin and selfish pleasure, but we like our sin. So, if we're honest, we have to admit that we battle with actually using our freedom to love others rather than to serve our selfish pleasures. Well, our passage today takes that problem head on. Paul doesn't avoid the situation or ignore the truth that we Christians battle within knowing that "Just walk in the Spirit" just doesn't work, nor does he just throw up his hands and give in. We need more help. And, thankfully, it is available to us. So, let's honestly look at the situation with Paul and learn the right solution.
