Freedom In Christ
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
While sitting around the table a few weeks ago with some friends, we began discussing our favorite movies. Whenever the question is posed to me, “What is your favorite movie?” the answer is always the same, Shawshank Redemption. If you aren’t familiar with this film Andy Dufresne, the main character is sentenced to life in prison after being charged and found guilty of killing his wife and her mistress. The whole film is about Andy’s attempt to get out of prison. His main goal, in the relationships he makes, in the job that he obtained and the conversations that he had, his whole goal was to get out of the bondage that he was in at The Shawshank Penitentiary . At the end of the movie the warden of the prison goes into Andy’s cell and finds that Andy has been digging is way out of prison. There is a tunnel that leads miles away, and Andy is gone.
This is a great movie because of the great escape. Now there is no sequel to my knowledge but if there were I would assume that it would not include Andy walking back in to that State Prison in Maine and say “Take me back. Freedom is not all that it was cracked up to be. I want to be back in the place were I am confined by bars and walls.”
Andy wanted to be free at all cost, he would never have gone back into bondage. But yet, when we exam the Galatian church, which we are going to today they have done just that.
The Galatian church was a mix of jews and gentiles. They had come to faith in Jesus Christ. They have believed the message of Christ and were following him closely when all of the sudden someone came in and redirected their thinking, redirector their faith BACK INTO believing that they were bonded to the mosaic law.
We see today that Paul tells them nothing is further from that they have freedom in Christ and that is the ultimate freedom! So, I pose the question to you today, are in bondage? Are you tied to things of the past? Are you hanging on to merely ritual or are you living in the freedom of Christ. Are you living in his mercy and in his grace. And most importantly are you allowing his spirit to dictate your actions?
Let’s read Galatians 5 beginning in verse 1.