David’s Star Evangelical Lutheran Church Pastor Kurt Loescher
Jackson—Kirchhayn, Wisconsin July 5-7, 2007
The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
Galatians 5:1,13-25
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. 13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
16So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. 17For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.
19The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. 25Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
In the name of Jesus,
This Fourth of July weekend we thank our God and celebrate the freedoms that we have as a nation. It is said freedom is never free. In all of the wars of our nation’s history over 800,000 men and most recently women have been killed in action. And that’s not saying anything about the 100’s of thousands more whose lives were profoundly changed by the injuries and dismemberments they suffered in these wars. 20 year old youths casting their bright futures to the wind. Why? To paraphrase a line by former president, Ronald Reagan, it’s because they believed in the fundamental moral difference between fighting to conquer and fighting for liberty. They took a stand and paid with their lives for the liberties with which God has richly blessed this nation. In Lee Greenwood’s patriotic song God Bless the USA , he says about those who gave their lives to secure his liberty, “And I’d gladly stand up next to you and defend her still today.” That’s saying a lot. The freedom we have as Americans is worth taking a stand and even dying for.
If that’s true, what is our freedom in Christ worth? Our freedom in Christ is a whole lot more than the right to free speech, the right to bear arms, the right to vote, etc. All those rights end at the grave. Our freedom in Christ is the right to enter the gates of heaven. It is the freedom from the law that would condemn us and lock us out of heaven. It is freedom from the guilt that hounds us and wants to shackle us to our sin. It is our minds and hearts set free from a godless way of life. We don’t have to follow Satan anymore. Now we are free to follow Christ. What kind of a stand will we take to make sure we don’t lose that freedom? Where are the battles fought and how do we fight them? The battles for our freedom in Christ are not fought with technological weaponry. They don’t demand the blood of men in hand to hand conflict. They are fought in the hearts and minds of every Christian. That means it is a stand we all must make. We can’t send our young men and women to fight for us.
Take a Stand for Freedom
Fight the battles of the heart
St. Paul tells the Galatians not to use their freedom to indulge in the sinful nature. He’s talking about taking the glorious truth that all of our sins are forgiven and using that as a right then to sin all we want. Such thinking shows that the battle for freedom in the mind and heart is going very badly. We are actually in the name of our Christian freedom entertaining the godlessness that Christ freed us from. And if we are going to do that, we can expect those sins to bind us again to slavery. We would totally lose our faith and turn back to the bondage of sin that holds us out of heaven. Such a Christian who thinks that he can sin all he wants really doesn’t understand freedom in Christ or want it. That’s kind of like a free citizen of our country using his free speech and right to privacy to set up organizations for the undermining of freedom.
I don’t know that we would necessarily think that we have a right to sin all we want. But we get into the mode of not concerning ourselves with our sins because they are forgiven. “ No, it’s probably not a good thing to sin like that, but , Oh well.” What disrespect and lack of appreciation for the freedom we have in Christ! That’s like what happens in our country when we take our freedoms for granted and think very casually of the great sacrifice many have made to keep our freedoms secure. How much more despicable to take Jesus’ great sacrifice for granted and think lightly of our sins!
So, we need to secure our freedom in Christ. Fight the battles in our hearts and take a stand against sin. You want to identify sin and take it out? Do as St. Paul suggested. Use your freedom to love one another. Paul explains that the entire law is summed up in one command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If we do this we will see where we fall short—we will know our sins. I suppose a person can define love in a few different ways so as to avoid accepting our sin. We most commonly define love as the way I feel toward a person or a thing when I get what I want. I have love for my family because they provide me with food, shelter, warmth, affection, and the like. If I’m not getting those things from my family, I won’t love them anymore. I love my spouse because she’s pretty, she provides for my needs of affection and companionship. If she stops providing for those things, I will stop loving her. I love steak because it tastes so good. If it’s too well done or cold when it comes to my table, I send it back. You get the idea. Paul isn’t calling upon us to love our neighbor that way. Loving that way allows for us to sin. Paul very specifically tells us to love our neighbor the way God loves. God loves what can’t be loved. People who had nothing to offer him. Oh, that’s right they offered him their disgust, spite and scorn. They consistently turned their backs to him in disrespect. And he loved them. What was the reason for his love? Simply, his divine mercy. He wanted to.
With that kind of love, we can’t want to sin, and we can’t take it lightly when we do. So take a stand for freedom. Take a stand against the sin that wants to claim you once again as its slave. Maybe that doesn’t sound like an winnable battle to you? It really isn’t if we expect to stand alone. We might as well take our stand in front of a firing squad. Sin will own us. It will cut us down. We can’t match sin’s firepower, but God can and then some. The Holy Spirit’s firepower is unmatched by anyone. And the Holy Spirit fights in us and for us.
Fight with the power of the Holy Spirit
St. Paul said, “If you live by the Spirit, you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” He goes on to explain how impossible it is for the Spirit and the sinful nature to coexist. They are in direct conflict with one another. So, as we live in the Spirit we will be employing that armory that no enemy can withstand. Living in the Spirit my dear friends is simply taking the message of God’s grace to heart each day. God’s good message of love and forgiveness becomes a part of our everyday life.
We know for ourselves what that is like. When we are hearing God’s love every day, we know what sin is. We hate it, and when we fall to it, it hurts. But we are quickly consoled by the love of God again. When we are not particularly close to God’s Word daily, we may not even see the same sin we did before. And it doesn’t really hurt that much. “Oh well, I’m forgiven, so what?”
We are living in the Spirit. We are children of God baptized into his name and sanctified as his people through the Holy Spirit. We don’t want ot find ourselves hanging around in the enemies camp. In other words, the acts of the sinful nature cannot be allowed to continue in our lives. Paul gave an incomplete list as an example and even some of them looked all too familiar. Sexual immorality,…hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, and drunkenness. If we insist on living like this, we are not living in freedom. Our sins own us. We do not have the Spirit, because he won’t live like that. We cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Take a stand for freedom. Call out the sin, confess it. Stand with the Holy Spirit and enjoy the benefits—the freedoms of children of God, like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control. We are free. By God’s grace, we can live in the Spirit and enjoy his gifts.
It is good and right that we honor our God by honoring the nation he has provided for us. The sacrifices made that we might be free sober us. Honoring our liberties in the Spirit means we will honor this nation not by hateful rhetoric against those who dishonor us with their immorality, hatred, and baby killing legislation. We will not love only those who see things our way, and we will pray for them even the leaders we didn’t vote for. We will live by the Spirit and support our ministry so that others who are burdened in slavery to sin can know a freedom that far transcends what we celebrate this weekend. Take a stand for freedom. Each of us fighting for freedom in our own hearts. None of us standing alone but with the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives daily take a heroic stand. With the power of the Holy Spirit freedom will ring out in our hearts and from our lips. Amen.