Who are you a slave to?

Who will you follow?
Slave or free?

In the time we have had together this weekend we have been challenged considerably. We started out Friday evening comparing and contrasting the leadership qualities of Jesus Christ versus the religious leaders of His day. We followed that up with a close look at the Holy Trinity and the unique relationship they had with each other. We discovered or were reminded, that while each member of the Trinity is equal in worth, both God the Son and God the Spirit have subjugated themselves to another authority namely that of God the Father.

With that foundation laid down we were able to better appreciate Nick’s topic yesterday afternoon, the topic of the Biblical Structure of the home. While each member of the family is equal in worth, some are called to lead with love, while others are commanded to submit with humility.

Nick did a wonderful job yesterday afternoon confronting us parents in a loving way to model the characteristics of servant leadership in our homes, and just in case you took issue with anything he had to say, for a couple of bucks I could give you his phone number.

But, seriously this is a tough subject to work through. It is difficult to ponder the truths of leadership by biblical standards versus what the world portrays to true leadership. We have all seen countless movies or other dramatizations of the “My way or the highway,” screaming and cursing football coach who leads his team to victory through nothing but spite, or some other character who shows what some call “true grit.”
Might makes right we are told.

Where as we are told that is “real” leadership, we are taught something completely different in the pages of scripture. I hope that we have made that abundantly clear this weekend, I hope that we have challenged you to model, that which Christ has modeled, namely servant leadership.

But, Chris, some of you might be saying. I don’t really believe the Bible. I am not constrained the same way that you are to its teaching. Sure it is a book calling us to morality and for that I am grateful, but I am free to make my own choices, and to be honest I feel I am a pretty good person. I am not a murderer; I don’t make a habit out of lying. I obey the laws, and pay my taxes. I’m a good o’ boy or girl.

If you haven’t listened to what anyone else had to say this weekend, I pray you listen to the message this morning. The message I have prepared took on a life of its own. It isn’t the message I planned on preparing, but as I began working on it I really felt the Lord drawing me in this direction. I have probably prayed and pondered over this message more than any other I have prepared before.

We are surrounded by a culture that tells us that we can be our own person. Even within the circles of so called evangelism we hear cries of be the best person, you can be. We can have what we want, when we want it, and there are really no consequences for a selfish lifestyle of me, me, me. The common cry of the salesman is “Don’t you think you deserve this, or finally get what you have always deserved.” Unfortunately, that cry is becoming more and more the cry from behind the pulpit. But, is that what scripture teaches? Does the Bible really say that you can have your cake and eat it too?

No, here is the dichotomy that scripture teaches; what we truly do deserve, no one really wants, and what we really want we don’t really deserve. What we want is for everyone to follow our rules. We want to be the moral compass; we want all the power with none of the responsibility. And what we do indeed deserve, is eternal pain and suffering. Not a very popular stance. God has a very high standard for us to live, a perfect standard actually and no one sitting in here this morning has met that standard. And if we miss this standard, which we all have, God says there are eternal consequences for disobedience.

Now play along with me if you would. Some of you may be asking yourself what are God’s standards? (Wait for response) Well, thank you for asking; let’s take a look at them:

(Read from Bible) Exodus chapter twenty verses 1-17, “Then God spoke all these words, saying, 2’I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3You shall have no other gods before Me.

4You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the firth and the forth generations of those who hate me, 6but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.

7You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.

8Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. 11For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

12Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

13You shall not murder.

14You shall not commit adultery.

15You shall not steal.

16You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

So let’s review quickly the Ten Commandments are what?

1) You shall have no other Gods before me.
2) You shall not make yourself an idol.
3) You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.
4) Remember the Sabbath.
5) Honor your father and mother.
6) You shall not murder.
7) You shall not commit adultery.
8) You shall not steal.
9) You shall not bear false witness (lie).
10) You shall not covet.

Look over them real quick. How do you fair? Well most of us would pass #6 I think. But, I know I have often in times coveted especially the latest and greatest of gadgets, like Tyler’s Blackberry. And much to my wife’s delight I am ok on #7. But, I know I have lied countless times, like if I were to say Tyler let me see that Blackberry, I promise I’ll give it back. This really would be breaking three of the commandments, coveting, lying and stealing.

I attend church every week as I am sure some of you do too. But, I have not always been honoring to my mom and dad, and neither have our ranch guys or they wouldn’t be here in the program.
But, I want you all to take a moment and look at these and really try to measure up. Still think you are a “good” person? (Pause for a moment)

I want you now to look at something Jesus said in Matthew 5:27, 28, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery’; 28but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’”

So just by looking at a guy or girl lustfully, I have already committed adultery? Yup! A radical statement, and let’s be honest guys, we all have done that. So according to Jesus, all of us men have committed adultery. How do you look according to the Ten Commandments now?

Let’s just say for argument’s sake that you have never made an idol, never took the Lord’s name in vain, always honored your parents, never coveted Tyler’s Blackberry or anything else, not murdered, or looked after someone lustfully. You have always honored God as God, always honored the Sabbath; never stole a thing. But, there was a time (and since it is a fictional story it was a very long time ago, you were still in diapers) where you told a little white lie, nothing major, but it was dishonest none the less. I don’t think there is anyone like that on the entire planet, let alone in this small room. But, what if?

Listen to what Jesus’ own brother said. James 2:10 tells us, “For who ever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point he has become guilty of all.” If you have ever miss stepped, now matter how small the offense, no matter how short the time, no matter how long ago, you have become guilty of all the law!

Listen to Romans. A lot of us know these passages, but they are an important reminder. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We see something similar in Romans 3:12, “All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one.” This is a quote from both Psalm 14 and Psalm 51.

So, what if God doesn’t think that I am a good person, I think I am a good person. It is easy to feel that way in our culture. We are told from our earliest age that we are a by product of either our nature (how we are made), or our nurture (how we were raised). Either way our faults are to be blamed on our parents, after all their DNA produced who we are, or the way they brought us up did, or some combination of the two.
It’s all their fault.

Which kind of makes me laugh; we don’t give our parents credit for our accomplishments. Shouldn’t the same rules apply? Either their DNA or how they raised us really made us achieve what we did. That is the same argument, and yet no one wants to give someone else credit for the accomplishments, why then do they try to blame someone else for their short comings? You can’t have it both ways it is one or the other.

Make no mistake, our choices have a much bigger impact on who we are than we will hear from the society that surrounds us. And we know that to be true. We understand right and wrong, we understand good and evil. We were created by a God who leaves His imprints around and within us.

If you have been around me enough you will have heard these verses before. Romans 1:19, “Because that which is known about God is evident with them; for God has made it evident to them.” How does God make Himself evident to us? The very next verse says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.”

We can see God in creation, but is that the only place He makes Himself evident to us? Well I am glad you asked, Romans 2:15, “They show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them.”

Ladies and Gentlemen: within each of us is enough of an understanding of God and His law for us to understand at any given time if what we are doing is right or wrong, honoring to God or honoring to ourselves, glorify God or serving our own selfish desires. Whether we have a relationship with Jesus Christ or not.

What does that mean? To surmise, we all understand that we are a sinful people. We all understand our need for a Savior. We all understand without it, we will suffer eternal consequences. Exodus 34:7b, “Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished.” Romans 6:23a, “For the wages of sin is death.”
This is great Chris, as if I didn’t have enough complexes in my life thank you for showing me how ugly person I really am. That is not really my intent, but we need to all start from the same place. Before we can build and grow in any sort of faith we need to start from the same foundation. Believe me, I do feel like the last person who should be teaching on a subject like this, and that statement is not some attempt at false humility. I truly feel the closer I get to and the better I understand God, the more dirty and ugly I am.

We are in the same boat here. The only difference might be in our response to the texts we have read this morning. We need to ask ourselves who we are going to follow.

We now all have a choice; we can be a slave to sin. We can choose to not follow Christ; we can try to fool ourselves into being our own person. But, the fact of the matter is, that there is no such thing as being your own person. This was actually a major contributor to original sin.

Let us look back at the scene in the Garden of Eden. God finished His greatest creation, that of man, He gave Adam a companion, recognizing that it is not good for man to be alone. And then who enters the scene next? (Wait for response) The serpent right? And what does he say to Eve? (Wait for response) Yeah, he says God didn’t really say what He actually said. He plants a seed of doubt in Eve. He prompts Adam and Eve to disregard God’s authority and instead make a claim at their own authority, which they had no right to make.

Play by your own rules he says. Do what you want, get that thing that you have always deserved. (Remember the salesman’s greatest pitch that is sounded more and more often from behind the pulpit?) What did Adam and Eve do? They by the pitch hook, line and sinker. That sounds great, they said. I am always wanted to be in control, I have always to make my own rules.

The original sin wasn’t just a direct disobedience of God, though it was that, the underlining and greater offense was Adam and Eve’s attempt to over throw the throne. And instantly they and in turn all of us became slaves to sins powerful and unrelenting grasp.

I am not a slave to any one or anything. You are being a little hyper-critical of people. Slavery is not an image I am comfortable with, after all aren’t you aware of our history in this country, it still has repercussions today.

Yes, of course I am aware of the history of this country and yes, I am too a bit uneasy with the language, but it is not a word I choose to use. The Bible uses it; the Bible teaches that you are either a slave to sin or a slave to Christ. I am just doing my best to teach what scripture teaches.

Listen to Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.” Now this might not be true of everyone in this room, but, if you know Christ as Lord and Savior of your life then he has freed you from the slavery of sin. If you don’t know Christ as Lord in your life then you are still a slave to sin. That what this verse is saying, they are not my words, but indeed the Word of God.

I wish I had time this morning to go through Romans chapter six in its entirety and all of its implications this morning but I do not. I would challenge all of you, however, to read it for yourself. It is a poetic song of joy for those of us who have Christ. It is a victorious march of His conquering of sin on our behalf. And it is a challenge to search your conscience for those who don’t know Christ as Lord and Savior. It is one of the most fantastic and one of my favorite chapters in the entire Bible.

I do, however, want to go to one more verse that I feel is the flip side of the coin to verse 6. Romans 6:22, says, “But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.”

Verse 22 says; that if Christ is Lord in our life, we are still slaves, but no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to Christ, God Himself. Verse six says that without Him we are slaves to sin. Verse 22 says that if we know Him, we are still slaves, but now we as slaves answer to a Master who cares for us.

We have seen clearly that the Word of God tells us that without following Christ, we are indeed being fooled by Satan and are slaves to sin. No matter what society would tell you, you are not your own person. If you choose to not follow Christ, you are choosing to be a slave to sin. You are not, nor can you be your own person.

How can a slave be his or her own person? A slave has a master he or she is to answer to. If you are sitting here this morning thinking you are your own man or woman, let me say you are a fool; you are actually a servant to a harsh master a master that goes by the name of sin.

There is a choice though; you can choose to follow a kind and gentle master, you can choose to follow a master who cares for you; Jesus Christ.

Let me ask you, what does a slave have to do? (Wait for an answer) Well, in short a slave does whatever the master asks of Him, especially if he wants to earn his masters favor. What does Christ our Master ask of us? Quite a lot actually, in John 14:15 Jesus says, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

Not just some of His commands, but all of them. Jesus asks a lot, He gave us a lot of commands. If any of you want a good read on this topic, I would encourage you to pick up a copy of John Piper’s book, What Jesus Demands from the World, it is a wonderful read.

But, in the context of this weekend, I would remind you that Christ, God the Son, led with love and He also submitted with humility. Even though He needn’t have submitted to anyone, He lived it out and He asks us to do the same.

If you are already following Christ, if He is already your Lord and Savior, how well are you emulating Him? Are you leading through servant-hood or are you brash and harsh with those He has entrusted to you?

If you do not know Him, let me ask, how does your master sin treat you? Does your master treat you with love and humility?

Today is the day to make a change. Change is never easy. No one likes change. We still though, are all called to be conformed into the image of Christ, and it is worth the struggle. The question now remains, to whom or what are you willing to follow? Or perhaps a better question is to whom or what are you a slave to?