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Freedom and Slavery

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Freedom and Slavery

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Freedom and Slavery

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This sermon will analyze, from a very serious perspective, what type or brand of freedom that we celebrate.

Transcript

 

July 4th, in America, is a day of celebration. It's called "Independence Day". Independence, you know, means freedom, you're not bound to anything - "I'm not tied, I'm not restricted".  Americans celebrate July 4th as a real "feel good" holiday.  It's complete with waving the flag, fireworks - noisy fireworks, parties - things that are a little "on the edge" tend to take place on July 4th, because, you know, it's Independence Day; it's a day of freedom.  It's about the residents rejoicing, and holiday making, in being slaves - did you hear what I said?  It's about the residents and citizens of this country rejoicing in their being slaves - that's what it's about.  Often times people don't put it together like that, but you have a Bible -  let's turn to Romans, Chapter 6, and Verse 16 and see something that runs a little below the radar from the human perspective, something that has to be revealed by God. 

In Romans, Chapter 6, and Verse 16 it says:

Romans 6:16   Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? 

Few humans realize it, but like we just read, the Bible says that all forms of freedom, actually, are also types of slavery.  Today in the sermon I'd like us to analyze, from a very serious perspective, what type or brand of freedom that you and I celebrate.  What is it that you and I say, "Yes, I'm so glad, I'm going to celebrate" - either a holiday, or a Holy Day, or in our own lives we say, "I'm so glad, I'm so thankful, I'm celebrating", as it were, the type of freedom.  What  freedom do you bind yourself to?  What freedom are you under?  And consequently, which form of slavery will you also be celebrating? 

The title of the sermon today is "Celebrate Your Freedom and Your Slavery" - Celebrate your Freedom and your Slavery.  Now I know nothing is more repugnant to an American than the concept of slavery.  And there's a long history in many countries to topple any type of regime that would enforce or subjugate one to doing things that are against their will.  July 4th, 1776, there's a deed, at least, that was demarked as the beginning of the fight, and that fight was among British, and it was a Civil War.  Among British across the pond from each other, as they say, across the Atlantic Ocean, and one group was not being treated fairly.  They had taxation, but they had no representation and parliament.  And under the King of England, they felt it a little bit unfair that they would have certain things imposed upon them without certain rights being afforded them at the same time.  The result was the founding of what we call the United States of America - proud to be Americans - proud to be an American.  You see that slogan, song, and printed all over the place.   July 4th, Independence Day, is a day of freedom - freedom for Americans.  Freedom from what?  Well, freedom from taxation without representation; freedom from obedience to the King of England.  There was also freedom from peace in North America for about the next hundred years.  Because July 4th was really just an arbitrary date, nothing really happened on that date, and the war would go on and on and on, and it would take the lives of many, many, many people, of which there were only few on the continent at that time. 

It would develop hard relationships and harsh relationships, not only between the people that were here, but countries that got into the fight and into the broil.  The fights would go on for decades before this country was ever truly out from under any form of control from the outside, and the fighting would go on all the way through the Civil War, in fact, before the citizens of this nation ever found themselves without struggle and turmoil.  So freedom from one thing causes a loss of freedom from something else.  Down through time America has become free of God,  and today they celebrate that freedom.  Free of children - the population of this country is declining because the citizens choose to kill their children before they're born.  Free of marriage; more people now will not marry than will marry in this country.  Free of marital happiness and family fulfillment.  We also have a new freedom that's coming along, we're beginning to experience freedom from employment; freedom from prosperity and success. 

Americans view the United States of America as a model nation for the world to copy.  Yet outside the United States, a different perspective is often held - not everybody in the world wants to be an American; not everybody in the world wants to be like America.  In fact, Americans are viewed as self-serving, greed-oriented people that tend to get a lot of things for themselves, using other people's resources, especially their oil, their labor, their natural resources.  Americans are seen as generating an anti-culture, and most other countries where you had a certain culture, a certain music, a certain way of life, a life-style, a structure within a culture that's worked down through the ages, suddenly is unseated by every imaginable youthful rebellious movie, music, soulful trends…clothing trends - just undoing the world.  Culinary trends - the Mac verses all the things that these other nations used to have.  And they're losing, they're losing those cultures and they're also losing control, of family structures, which are the fabric of city structures, which is the fabric of staid structures, and it all seems to be coming apart.  Because America, seen as a want-to-be country, they have the biggest slice of the greedy pie, and human nature would love a  piece of that. 

A typical response from abroad towards America is disrespect; it's often oddly coupled with envy.  You can have disrespect and disdain coupled with an envy.  What's the envy about?  The opulent life-style; having the stuff.  Having the food; having the cars; having the opportunity to do whatever you want to do - that's built on loans that other people get stuck with.  Contempt is also coupled with disrespect.  The USA still has the strongest economy in the world by far (China is catching up by leaps and bounds) but it also has the strongest military.  And even China and Russia are no match for that.  And so it has the economic might and it has the military might, and that's a bitter pill for a lot of people.  But there is a price for success and greediness, and that is, imitators are rising, and they would like to see the fall of the Unites States, and it is falling, in fact.  It's falling rather rapidly in some ways.

This model of the free world, as we've come to know ourselves from within, has "dissed", or disrespected, or just pushed away its children, its ethics, its faith, its marriages, and even its wealth.  We have no way of perpetuating wealth because we have no manufacturing anymore, and we've gone after the "god of cheap prices", which means somebody else has to make it all.  And all we can do pretty much anymore, is pay for it, as we've taught everyone else in the world how to make what we used to, and we've made it almost impossible to do it ourselves by the restrictions that we put on business and manufacturing in this country. 

We're now finding out that this country is a slave to foreign providers of products, and the interest that they charge us.  In Proverbs, Chapter 22 and Verse 7, it says:

Proverbs 22:7   The borrower is the servant to the lender.

All you have to do is stop and think, who owns the national debt, that's piling up so fast that we are rapidly becoming unable to even pay just the interest, let alone principle on that debt.  And the word of God says:  The borrower becomes servant to the lender.   So, notice, if you've noticed the…I don't know if you've noticed the news article that appeared a week and a half/two weeks ago, where China is planning to start buying up square miles of this country and importing Red Chinese, government-run (of state, Communist State-run) entities, within that China zone.   They can do it - they've got probably more money that we do.  It's our money that we paid them, and are paying them, or sold them, and the Governor of the State in which they wanted to build their first… I think it's a fifty square mile block of Red Chinese, Communist held territory…is, according to the article, welcoming that

You know, funny odd things begin to happen as this Scripture says that, "The borrower is servant to the lender."  So that only the people who have the money and want it exchanged start buying your land…they've already started buying the companies.  They're buying influence into the politics and into the laws.  Some want to blame the immigrants - we're all immigrants in this country, with more parlaying in for "more pie."  Some want to blame business.  The United States has come to exist for the promotion of corporations, and it's almost - I say almost - I think it is illegal for a corporation to be prevented from making a profit, because you see, our politicians are corporate:  Lawyers; Corporate chiefs; the wealthy; the influential who work for the corporations - they are the lawmakers, they are the judges, in many cases.  This is about money, and people say it's fine. Doesn't matter about the borders, it doesn't matter about the commerce, it doesn't matter about employment  here or there, as long as the tall-towers in the fifth…you know, the executive floors, are making money - doesn't matter if the citizens are suffering, you see - that's part of the greedy part.  

Some want to blame politicians.  Again, they exist for the corporations, and for themselves, and for the profit.  Some want to blame the banks and the lawyers and the supreme court, and the homebuilders, and the creditors.  And yet, all of these feed the citizen's quest for greed; they help us get what we want, and all we want.  What's the result?  Unfulfilled lives; no purpose; empty pleasures; broken relationships all around.

And this freedom is celebrated every July 4th with gusto by the slaves of sin.  And America is one of the world's biggest purveyors of sin of all kinds.  Whether it's morality, or immorality, ethics, lack of ethics - corruption, all dressed up nice with a bow, because corruption can be made legal, you see.  We really lead the way in selling sin, and encouraging sin, and encouraging people to be lawless around the world, as far as God's law is concernedAnd demanding that they are lawless, and sinning in sometimes troupes to encourage a certain type of lawlessness. 

In Romans, Chapter 6 continuing on in Verse 20 - it says:

Romans 6:20   For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 

Now that pretty well sums up the country that you and I know, except for some that are still religious, claim to be religious, even though their religion is a religion of the devil, a false religion, based on breaking the laws of God, and lawlessness, for which God is going to punish the descendants of Israel. 

Verse 21:   What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?   For the end of those things is death.

You can have this freedom for lawlessness, but you will be free of righteousness.  You'll actually be a slave of sin, and the end result of being a slave to sin is death.  It's a slow process of dying and ultimately sin will not be in the kingdom of God.  Now some want to blame lack of religion, yet the United States of America has never in its history ever once followed God's religion.  So what would people return back to?  Babylonian mystery religion, based on a false messiah, based on a false god…Manasseh, if you associate it with this country, continues to violate the laws of God - that God laid down.  It continues to defend its turning its back on those laws and on the covenant that God made with them and their brothers. 

In Isaiah 24, Verses 1 through 6, we see an important prophecy about what's coming on this country, and what's coming on the fellow tribes of the ancient House of Israel.  We need to understand that it is a penalty that's being paid for certain freedoms that people celebrate right in the face of God.  In Isaiah 24, Verse 1, it says:

Isaiah 24:1    Behold, the Lord makes the earth empty, and makes it waste,…this hasn't happened before, not since the flood anyway.  But this hasn't happened since Isaiah's prophecy, when Israel was already mostly in the slavery with the Assyrians.  He's writing about after this period of time in which humanity has enjoyed some rebelliousness, but God's going to bring them into judgment - the coming Day of the Lord.  And the earth is going to be made empty, and waste…distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants. 

The time that Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24 - it's going to be the worst of times ever.  And Revelation marches through and talks about huge sections, actually names percentages of  humanity that dies in very short periods of time.

Verse 2:    And it shall be;  as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the creditor, so with the debtor. 

Verse 3:   The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered, for the Lord has spoken this word. 

And this is mainly about the time of Jacob's trouble, as I understand it.  This is a time of the punishment on Israel, where if you read in the early part of Revelation, the 144,000,  actually 12,000 of each tribe, are sealed, so that at least there's 12,000 of each tribe that aren't killed during this plundering.  The Lord has spoken this word.
Verse 4:   The earth mourns and fades away, the world languishes and fades away; and the haughty people of the earth languish.

Verse 5:  The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants, because (notice) they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.

God made a covenant that was everlasting, and they have broken it, and continue to break it.  Remember, Manasseh, Ephraim and the other ten tribes went off into slavery under Assyria.  They bought into the Babylonish system of Nimrod and Semiramis, and the degrading of that down through time of the Persian Empire, the Greeks and the Romans, and the mixing it up with the Hellenistic mysticisms.  And then adding in stories from the Bible about Jesus and Mary, and yet having Him be the Nimrodian type who was supposedly born in December; and you know, the mother earth and the fertility worship in the Spring at the Feast of Easter.  And the keeping of Sunday, and the absolute disobedience of all the laws of God, of His Holy Sabbath, of His Holy Days, and in fact claiming that their Jesus Christ that they have invented and remanufactured came to tell people to disobey God, to be lawless, not keep the law - the law's done away -  don't obey God , don't do anything that God said.

Now, where does that come from?  Well, you know, that comes right out of somewhere else, because in II Corinthians, Chapter 11, in Verse 13 through 15, Paul says:

II Corinthians 11:13    For such are false apostles.  Well, yeah, they're apostles, but they're false.  Deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of the true Christ. 

See how close it is?  Jesus said, many will come in My name - (Jesus, Jesus!)  Saying that I'm the Christ - Yes, you're the Lord; you're the Messiah!  They will deceive many.

Verse 14:    And no wonder!  For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 

This is a false Christ; a false Christianity; it's a false religion, invented by the devil himself. 

Verse 15:    Therefore it's no great  thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness,…

The point being…the United States of America and the other tribes of Israel have never kept God's law.  Ever since they went into slavery, they haven't kept God's law.  And they, banking on the promises that God gave Abraham, have used and turned that, and now parade in God's face even saying He doesn't exist, but are some of the biggest aggregates on earth of defying the laws of God.  The consequence is, as we read in Isaiah 24, God's going to make waste.  He's going to come back, the inhabitants have transgressed the laws, and therefore curses devour the earth.  Those who dwell in it are desolate.  Therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and very few men are left.  That's the prophecy there in Isaiah 24 and Verse 6 - very few people are left, especially among the descendants of Jacob. 

Now, what freedom do you celebrate, and do I celebrate?  What should we celebrate?  And what slavery do we wince under, and say, whew, I don't like that.  We ought to get it right, because we are free men and women, but we're also slaves.  But we could be other free men and women and also slaves.  If we're not careful, we'll mix it up and get it wrong.  It's very easy to do, because as Peter said in II Peter, Chapter 2, in Verse 18 and 19, we are subject to influence.  We are subject to being deluded into thinking black is white, white is black, and good is bad and bad is good.  II Peter, Chapter 2 and Verse 18 - when you talk about freedom, somebody offers you freedom -

II Peter 2:18    For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, - do they even know what freedom is?  Freedom sounds good:  "Oh yeah, let's go out and support our freedom.  Let's put our life on the line!"  Great swelling words of emptiness…they allure through the lusts of the flesh, - "yeah, I want to fight for what I want, see" - that's the lusts of the flesh - through lewdness - "yeah, we want to keep all this stuff that we do, all these freedoms we have, to just vomit what we want out on the radio, and in music, or have pornography, or kill our children, or you know, have relations with any and everything that we choose…"Oh yeah, that's free!"  They allure, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error,  - those who have gotten away from that, they've become a different type of slave.

Hopefully, we are a type of slave that doesn't hear that voice anymore - "Why, it doesn't really sound like fun."  And of going out and doing what people will die for, in order to have the freedom to do, doesn't add up with God's Holy Spirit.  Because:

Verse 19:  While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of rotting;  (corruption means to rot) - slaves of rotting; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. 

Now there's essentially two forms of freedom -  there's a freedom from love, joy, and peace.  This country has it, you know!  Love, joy…but you can be free of love, you can be free of joy, you can be free of peace - and the Greek word eirene, which means to stitch together relationships that are bonded tightly, growing, nurturing, stitching together - you can be free from that; this is known as Christianity, by the way!  A promoter called, supposedly Jesus Christ, who appears to be a Son of God.  But if you look a little closer you find that it's a twisted mix of Babylonian Mystery religion, and Greek and Roman and pagan - there's no real Jesus Christ in there; there's no real God in there. 

The tenets of Christianity, remember, are the symbol of the cross, one of the first things that popped up in Christianity; somebody looked up in the sky and saw a cross and heard a voice and said, "Under this banner, conquer" - war, fight, kill, murder.  Or the tenets of Christianity has a long history of warfare, of killing others, invading to get what you want, whether it's the acquisition of the Holy lands, or acquisition of other things - the cross comes out and people go off to war and kill.  What did Jesus Christ say to do with your enemies?   Two different religions there.  Another tenet of Christianity is the observing of Holidays, which are lies; so far we have murder and lies.  Lies and mystical origins of Jesus and Mary, which really throw back to Nimrod and Semiramis and Isis and Osiris, and Horus - a bunch of other twisted up deities that were formed and changed down through time.  

The next tenet of Christianity is the necessity to disobey God.  Every Christian religion has it:  You must disobey God.   If you don't believe that, you don't know Christianity.  Pick one - you must disobey God; you must work on the Sabbath; don't keep the Holy Days; you must worship with an "I, me, my" concept.  Grab a hymnal at any church…find out who you're singing to; you're singing to yourself. 

Another tenet of Christianity is distrust of God; can't trust what God says.  You pray to Mary in some cases; you believe in a closed trinity that bars you from access to the family of God you do not trust, that God even is what He says He is.  You assume you go to heaven when you die; not even by God's hands - by angels.  Or by some sort of automatic providence, you go up or down. 

There's another type of freedom - it's called the freedom from slavery to sin.  It's what the Bible talks about - freedom from slavery to sin.  In I Corinthians, Chapter 7, Verses 22 and 23 we read about that freedom.  This is a very serious topic…now this isn't all about, Oh, let's grab the flag, and jump up and down, and…you know, have a beer and celebrate that, you know, whatever country you're from that you're proud to be in your country.  This is a little more serious stuff, because this is reality.  This is reality from what is happening and what's going to happen.  And of all the people on earth, God has only opened the eyes of a few to see it; only opened the ears of a few to hear it.  In I Corinthians 7, Verse 22 it says:

I Corinthians 7:22    For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman.  Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave. 

You and I need to be a slave of Jesus Christ;  He did buy you with His blood, you know.  He did obligate you by the fact that He created you, and gave you everything, and then died and His blood cleanses you from your sins as you repent of them, and He does offer you eternal life.  You and I are, indeed, Christ's slaves. 

Verse 23:    You were bought at a price; (or for a price) do not become slaves of men.

Or the things of men.  Don't get involved in something other than being a slave of Christ.  Now what would a slave of Christ be?  Well, if He's the Master and you're the slave, when He says, a new commandment I give you, do that!  Because, if a servant doesn't serve, what is he?  As we've heard.  Jesus brings that out many times in His parables, doesn't He?  There were many who were called, and named, but many didn't do anything.  So we need to be slaves that are doers of what He says.  And if we do that, we are part of a different system that is so unique, it's so different, it's unlike anything in the world.  Now as humans, we can sort of get bamboozled by what's going on, by some of the piece. 

This week I flew the length of Iran, flew past Iran, and then the length south to north of Russia.  And around that time, on the airplane, it's a sixteen and a half hour flight, I found myself standing in the back of the airplane and  a lady came to me, wrapped up in some stuff, and stood by me as well.  And she was having a time with English; she was from Tehran, Iran.  And she was thankful to be able to talk with me in broken English, and just share some time.  Now, one of the things she said was:  "I'm so excited, I can't wait to land in America!"  I said, "Well, didn't you just come from Tehran?"  "Yes, yes."  "Don't you miss it there?"  "No - no".   "Well, why not?  Why would you want to come to some lands where you're not from?"  And she pointed to her garments and she says, "Because in America I don't have to wear this!"  In America I don't have to wear this!  "I can wear what I want to wear; I can say what I want to say; I can do what I want to do!" And we think - ah!  Now that's wonderful!  That's freedom! 

I grew up in the Los Angeles area…I know what sewer she's about to land in!  And I feel bad for the human nature that's in us all that wants to do what it wants, because most of earth's population lives under tyranny.  Citizens here feel free to do whatever their carnal human nature desires, with few restrictions. 

I'd like to give you an example of civilizations, cultures, peoples, industry of different countries, all living together, all in peace.  And let's see if this example meshes with your and my idea of God's kingdom; God's kingdom on earth - life here. There's a city that I was at last Sabbath and it's an interesting city because it's in one of those places on earth where things don't go well - they really don't go well.  Just to the North is Mogadishu, Somalia, with it's gangs, and armed drug and gang lords…right off the coast of the city is where the pirates take over ships.  Just up by the Northern border, violence is breaking out.  Little U.S. drones are flying around shooting people.  Within the city, just I think a month and a half before I first visited it, al-Qaeda  terrorists blew up an Israeli resort, and then flew over it with an airplane and dropped incendiary bombs on the roof and burned it, trying to kill as many Israelis as they could.  And then at the airport, they'd gotten a hold of a SAM-7 U.S. surface-to-air missile and shot it at the EL AL. Israeli plane that was just landing at the airport.   I'm telling you, this is an area where people don't get along. 

And yet, what was interesting this last week, as I rode through the city of Mombasa, Kenya, all of those cultures were there.  There were the Somalis, from Mogadishu, that back home have their lawless gangs, and violence, and pirates; there were people from India, where back home things are over-crowded, and there's poverty and famine, and riots; from East Africa, where the tribes in their own areas have tribal clashes, and they kill each other off, and they fight and they burn.  There were terrorists that are hunted that were in this town, that are killed in other areas, they're pursued, and they slip across the borders and they hang out in this town.  And there are Arabs, and Germans, and Jews - historical tensions and challenges…and within this one city, everything's fine.  Everybody gets along.  Everybody's happy to be away from wherever it was they came from, and nobody wants to make any waves, because everybody's got it good, in Mombasa, Kenya. 

So, it's interesting to go through.  I'd like to show you a very short video - just a composite of scenes that I took last Sabbath, or last Friday, leading up to the Sabbath.  Now I want you to look at how everybody's getting along, but in a self-preservation manner.  Notice how it's peaceful, but ask yourself, is this what God is promoting when Christ returns?  (Video shown)   Did you notice that nobody there really cares about anybody else?  Notice how, what's going on there isn't really what we would call happiness?  And yet, there was freedom.  Everybody there had freedom.  And they came there because they were free of things that they couldn't be free from back home. 

You might think I don't relish the United States of America…first time I spent a year out of this country and returned home, stepped off the airplane in Bangor, Maine, and I got down on the tarmac and kissed the ground - literally!  This is a fantastic country…it's clean, has abundant resources, prosperous economy, lawful citizens when they're lawful, and these things add up to things that are good.  But what is it founded on?  You may have seen a movie, ten/fifteen years ago, named "Wall Street."  There's a successor out now: "Wall Street" - and it exposes the carnal, selfish human nature, that is always looking for opportunity.  Carnal human nature pursues opportunities that enslaves it.  Galatians 5 and Verse 19:  The works of the flesh; these are opportunities.  These are things that enslave one to sin, and the result of those things, it says in Verse 21, are people who will not inherit the kingdom of God.   They can't inherit the kingdom of God.  There will be no sin or slavery to that, or Satan, in God's kingdom.

Jesus taught us to pray:  Our father which is in heaven, Holy is Your name; Your kingdom come, and Your will be done.  We're about slavery, as it were, to a different set of laws, a different ruler.  One who has absolute control, or direction at least - we are to submit to that.  And in doing so, we are free of the machinations of Satan and carnal human nature. And the kingdom is founded on the fruits of the Holy Spirit, of love, and joy, and peace and harmony, and those things which are slavery to Christ and to God, but they're free from another type of slavery, to sin and its deathly results.  And this country, freedom from being under tyranny is fleeting.  The U.S. was once under the thumb of King George of England; it was almost under the thumb of Hitler, and it will be under the thumb and crushed by a ten nation alliance of a beast power that's yet coming.  And many will pay the ultimate price for that freedom - freedom from God; freedom from God's law, which as we read in Isaiah, He's coming to make the world desolate because of a breaching of the covenant  that he gave, that's a holy, everlasting covenant. 

But meanwhile, you and I whose eyes are open…are we willing to pay the ultimate price for true Godly freedom and true Godly slavery?  See, there is a price for freedom, whichever kind you want, and it's always death…it's always giving your life.  Are you willing to pay the ultimate price for the kind of freedom that God is offering us?  Well, let's look at Romans, Chapter 6, and Verse 6, and realize that the ultimate price doesn't have to be all that bad, if we don't make it bad! 

Romans 6:6    knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.   

It can be as simple a death as getting baptized, after true repentance:  Repentance of self-promotion; repentance of conflict; repentance of slander; repentance of breaking our relationship with God and each other.  One comes to a heart-felt repentance - God will wash away past sins and begin us in a process of no longer being a slave to sin.  That's the easy way. 

Verse 7:   For he who has died has been freed from sin. (Spiritually speaking)

For the ultimate price is death of the self, if you want to be a slave of Jesus Christ, and that includes our will: me, my way.  Replacing it with loving others, putting others before ourselves, considering them more important and more valuable than "I am."  Serving, sacrificing, doing God's will, doing God's way, becoming a slave of God, slave of righteousness, and all the wonderful rewards that come from that. 

Verse 20:   For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 

Do you want to be free?  What do you want to be free of?  You and I need to have a serious meditation about freedom, and slavery.  And really come down solidly on the side of freedom from slavery to sin, but deep, devoted slavery to God, and God's family, and God's kingdom, and have a Master and a Ruler that we submit to - to do His will on earth as it is in heaven. 

Today's message isn't about us, or them, or group verses group.  Being in God's church means nothing if you don't live it.  Having the truth means zero, other than having greater responsibility, if you don't live the truth.  Jesus Christ's many parables about and to the church, and His statements to the church in Revelation, warn us about that very thing.  In Luke, Chapter 6, and Verse 46, let's conclude by hearing Jesus saying this:

Luke 6:46   "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do the things which I say?"

What's the point?  What's the point of having your eyes open; what's the point of having the truth, the knowledge; what about the blood of Christ?  The forgiveness of sin, and the promise of eternal life, if you don't do what He says, which is:  Love your neighbor as yourself; love God with all your heart, soul and might; become a slave to God in every fine detail, with every commandment, from the Sabbath through the Holy Days; tithing; clean and unclean meats; really submit yourself to every ordinance of the Lord, plus, put away sin, and put on righteousness.  If you have eyes to see, and ears to hear, then celebrate being a slave of Christ, who bought you with His blood - you celebrate that; He's excited about that!  Verse 47 -  Here's the good part:

Verse 47:    "Whoever comes to Me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you whom he is like:  

Verse 48:   "He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock.  And when the flood arose, (and tribulation came, and challenges and trials and persecution), the stream beat vehemently against that house,  (I mean beat it hard) and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. 

That individual, hopefully, is you, and that individual is a slave of God, and he's free from the penalty of sin and will live forever in God's kingdom.  The worst storms in history are closing in on mankind; the Bible says that.  Don't go down fighting some cause for freedom with the dark side - celebrate freedom from slavery to sin.  Celebrate it by being a fighter of your carnal human nature, on a daily basis - fight that battle, win that war, be founded on the rock.  Those who do this will assist Jesus Christ in bringing a thousand years of independence from Satan for all humanity, and I sure hope that you and I will be among them.