ROMANS CHAPTER 8, Verses 14-17, CEB
All who are led by
God’s spirit are God’s sons and daughters. You didn’t receive a spirit of
slavery to lead you back again into fear, but you received a Spirit, that shows
you are adopted as his children. With this Spirit, we cry “Abba, Father” The
same spirit agrees with our spirit, that we are God’s children. But if we are
children, we are also heirs. We are God’s heirs and fellow heirs with Christ,
if we really suffer with him so that we can also be glorified with him.
This is the word of God for you the people of God.
I’ve got to
keep it short, so I am not going to dive too far into the theology of this morning’s
scripture. So instead let me ask you- what is the purpose of these?
To restrain
you. To hold you in bondage, to hold you hostage, to HOLD YOU AGAINST YOUR
WILL. As soon as they go on you are in realization that you are no longer your
own, but are held in submission and being held under another. You feel and in some ways become a slave to
them.
And how do
we know that we are being held as slaves, being held against our will? We can
feel them. We can feel the cuffs; we try to move, and we can’t. We are being
restricted, right? We are held in submission to the will of the one who
possesses the keys. And on our own we can
do nothing to break the chains.
We can worm
our way into a more comfortable position that allows a little more freedom. Maybe
we could even get a friend to help and even temporarily have a short term
escape, or release; only later to encounter the bounty hunter when we least
expect him. But we aren’t truly free. In this way we would never be truly free,
but are instead merely “on the run” so to speak.
We know we
are restricted because there is something holding us back. Something that is
keeping us from a full and freer life. But what about when we don’t feel it?
So many
people, even our brothers and sisters of faith, even some of us reading this very post are being cuffed right now. By sins of the flesh, by pride, by
discontentment, by anger, by complacency, by holding on to grudges that we were
built to give to God. Even though we know we shouldn’t, even though we have a
God who desires so much to set us free. But often times we don’t realize it
because we don’t feel the weight of the heavy, cold steel on our wrists. We don’t
realize just how much we are being held back from having a TRULY free life. One
filled with joy and purpose. Filled with an entirely new dimension of love.
We are
reflecting this Sunday, on the descending of the Holy Spirit. Where the power
and strength of our faith comes from. Brothers and sisters, this is no small
deal. The power that set 3000 people free in the first day of the birth of the
church is available to you. Is in your church. Is in your outreach ministries.
Has the power and the flexibility to move through any person and in any place.
Don’t take it lightly. You are never too young, too old, too under-educated or
too over-educated to be used by God. To be like his children. Learning and
growing. To be heirs! You didn’t receive a Spirit of slavery. You received the keys to remove the bondage of this life! Have courage!
You have already won the battle through Christ, accept the prize!
Paul’s
letter to the church in Rome was written to encourage spiritual growth. Both
theirs and ours. Reminding us that we are freed from the bondage of sin. That
we are to grow to be more like Christ. Let us take that example from the early
church in Rome, who had the boldness to claim faith in Jesus, even in the face
of torture and death.
Let us walk
in the power of the Holy Spirit, that can speak all tongues and even grow faith
in Jesus Christ in places where you could literally be thrown to the lions for
it.
Let us break
the chains of sins and worldly desires and claim the only true and worthwhile
prize, salvation and eternal life with Jesus Christ.
Amen.
