“The secret to freedom from enslaving patterns of sin is worship. You need worship. You need great worship. You need weeping worship. You need glorious worship. You need to sense God’s greatness and to be moved by it — moved to tears and moved to laughter — moved by who God is and what He has done for you.”
—Tim Keller
July 5, 2024 IIf you were to walk down the street in Morgantown and ask people what freedom is, you would most likely be met with a fairly wide variety of answers. For some, you might hear something along the lines of the freedom to express yourself and live as authentically as you can without fear. Others might have a vision of the lack of governmental or bureaucratic interference in their private lives or personal property. Either way, freedom is generally constituted as an individual’s ability to operate in their lives as they see fit without restraint from external forces–be that government, culture, family etc. These are not terrible definitions of freedom, and depending on your point of view and cultural persuasion you might be more sympathetic to one or the other. However, when we think about freedom in a specifically Christian sense we must be bound by God’s Word, not personal proclivities nor cultural climate. And in God’s Word we see a very robust but different notion of freedom than our prevailing cultural ethos: we see a vision of freedom FROM and freedom FOR. As Christians we have to begin with seeing freedom as being freed from the enslaving power and penalty of sin. Paul writes in Romans 6 that “one who has died has been set free from sin.” and if we are indeed in Christ we have died and been raised with him in faith. In that, we are no longer enslaved to sin but rather bound to our God in Christ by faith through the power of the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom (2 Cor. 3:17). Our sin, as we sing in It Is Well, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more. That sin has been taken away by the blood of Christ and we have been washed clean. In that same vein, God’s wrath and displeasure against our sin has been laid on Christ and not us. Christ became a “propitiation” for us as the Apostle John writes in 1 John. Meaning that Jesus, as our substitute savior, turns aside the wrath of God against sin. Therefore we as God’s people we know that we are free from his punitive wrath. We are still subject to his discipline as his children, and that can be painfully uncomfortable. But this is discipline and not punishment. God’s wrath was fully satisfied at the Cross and therefore we are free from the punishment of our sins. But freedom in the Christian sense is never simply from, it is always for something as well. Peter writes that we as God’s people should live as people who are free, as servants for the living God (1 Pet. 2:16). Which means that our freedom is not maximally expressed by doing what we want to do–our freedom as Christians is maximally expressed in living in submission to God’s will. The irony of the Christian life is that even though we are free, we are free servants bound to the God who made us and redeemed us at the cost of his own Son. Ergo, freedom is not doing whatever we want because we’ve escaped the penalty of sin. Rather freedom is living as God has designed us to live within his framework in order to glorify his name and love our neighbors. We can only truly love God and serve others if we are free in Christ. Because if we are enslaved to sin we are enslaved to our own selfish passions. So it stands to reason that we have been set free in order to fully live as God intended–as a people for his own possession, a royal priesthood loving and serving our God and neighbors. You are truly free in Christ. Excited to celebrate this most true and most free freedom as a church on Sunday! In Christ, John D |
Announcements
| —Congregational Meeting 7/28/24 Immediately following the conclusion of worship on Sunday, July 28 we will have a congregational meeting for the purpose of electing 3 men (Nathan Harlan, Brady Hillegas, and Dave Felton) to the office of deacon as well as electing trustees. It is your right as a congregation to have a 30 day notice for this, which the session of Mercy is giving you according to the outline of our Book of Church Order. If you have any questions, concerns, or complaints about the candidates or the process please don’t hesitate to let the session know. —New Website! Please note that we have a brand new website thanks to the yeoman’s effort put forth by Brian Riedel! He has worked tirelessly for a significant length of time to make sure that we have a functional and aesthetic presence on the internet. On our website you can continue to give, listen to past sermons, see our bulletins, see a calendar of events, and more. Please thank Brian the next time you see him! —Summer Study of Ecclesiastes We will continue our summer study through the book of Ecclesiastes this Sunday, July 7 at 5pm. This study will run for 10 consecutive weeks through the summer and will be located at the Downs’s home. We will eat a meal starting at 5 and begin our study promptly at 6pm. —Songs for Sunday Here’s what we’re singing this Sunday if you’d like to familiarize yourself with tunes + lyrics! Jesus Lives And So Shall I Be Thou My Vision From The Depths Of Woe Your Great Name The Power Of The Cross |
INTERESTING LINKS
These are some links that I have read recently that I enjoyed, found helpful, made me think, or otherwise did good for my soul/heart/mind.
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