Westland Free Methodist Church

Facing The Adventure:  Facing Our Slavery

Exodus 4:18-5:21; Romans 6 :16-23              

 

Slavery is a terrible thing.  It has plagued us for all our time.  It is even with us today.  According to Kevin Bales in his book Disposable People he says that there are 27 million people today are in slavery.  Some estimate up to 200 million.  By percentage, that’s less than at any other time in history.  A US Government report published in 2003, estimates that 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year.

q            Charles Ball, a slave from Maryland, was born in about 1780 . His grandfather was brought from Africa and sold as a slave. His mother was the slave of a tobacco planter. When the planter died when Ball was four years old, he family were sold separately. Ball stayed in Maryland but his mother went to Georgia and he never saw her again.

Ball was allowed to marry but in 1805 he was sold to a cotton plantation owner in South Carolina while his wife and children remained in Maryland. Ball made several attempts to escape but was captured and became another man's slave.

After a period in Georgia he escaped again and managed to get back to his previous home in Maryland. Unfortunately, his wife and children had been sold to a slave-owner in another state. He re-married and obtained a small farm until in about 1830 he was seized and returned to slavery in Georgia.

Ball managed to escape again and this time settled in Philadelphia. With the help of Isaac Fisher, a white lawyer, wrote his autobiography, The Life and Adventures of Charles Ball (1837). Afraid of being recaptured, Ball moved again and its is not known when and where he died.

I have a question.  Are there any slaves among us today?  At what point are we slaves in this life, and at what point might we be considered free?    Is there slavery among us today?  Maybe not literally, but are there other forms of spiritual slavery?  What do you really want out of life?  To be free. To have a perfect life?  To enjoy life the way you want to have it?  What if I told you that is exactly what God wants for you?

In one very graphic sense of the word, the Israelites were not free.  They were under the cruel rule of Pharoah and the Egyptians.  We have followed Moses and the Israelites from the moment Joseph rescued the Israelites in the famine 350 years earlier to a time now that the Egyptians saw how populated the people of God had become, so they enslaved them.  The Egyptians saw the opportunity to build great cities and a name for themselves.  God raised up Moses to free the Israelites from this oppression, and it was now time.  Moses was finally ready to lead the way God wanted him to lead.  The people of God would finally have their Exodus, as we have come to know it several mellenia later. 

Clip of song of Moses and Pharoah in conflict of the Israelites in bondage

But let’s come back to the Israelites in a while.  I want to talk to you today about what it’s like to be slaves in this day.  In this age.  In this place. 

Slavery can come in many ways.  Of course I want to talk to you about slavery in a spiritual sense.  The Apostle Paul talked about this in Romans 6.  Turn there with me.

Read Romans 6:16-23

How To Become A Slave

Doulos or Diakonos  serve in slavery vs. serve in ministry

 

"Servant" in our English New Testament usually represents the Greek doulos (bondslave). Sometimes it means diakonos (deacon or minister); this is strictly accurate, for doulos and diakonos are synonyms. Both words denote a man who is not at his own disposal, but is his master's purchased property. Bought to serve his master's needs, to be at his beck and call every moment, the slave's sole business is to do as he is told. Christian service therefore means, first and foremost, living out a slave relationship to one's Savior .

 

You are slaves to the one you obey.  This is consistent with any defined slavery we have talked about so far. 

 

            Paul says spiritually:

 

      a.  We find ourselves “slaves to sin” v. 16

“leads to death”

 

shackles of sin – imprisons us

 

In 6:23 it says, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

b.      We receive the offer in the mail to be “slaves to obedience” v. 16

            “leads to righteousness”

·        When a submarine goes under the sea, the further he goes down the more pressure there is.  Have you seen the subs that go way down to places like the Titanic.  The pressure is so severe it is not only dangerous but life crushing.  What if you were down there in a sub no bigger than a  phone booth, and you decided you can’t take it anymore, so you opened the hatch to get out where there is more space.  It would mean certain death.  They say you would instantly be crushed to death, before you would ever drown.  That’s why being slaves to obedience is so important.  This world will crush you outside of Christ.  It is that dangerous.  Being a slave to obedience is the very thing that will save you.

 

c.       We might react and say “I don’t want to be a slave to anything”        

-         What we do not understand is that only the one who is in charge can say that.  Do you really want to be in charge?  Do we really want to be responsible to everything that hangs in space?  Our lives, this planet, the rights and wrongs around the world?

-         What is it we really want?  Is it ease of life, or success or do we just want our own focused way of living our personal life?

-         You see what we really want is freedom in finding meaning in life.  And God offers us that in a process called “holiness.”

 

d.      A slave to righteousness leads to holiness  v. 22 

                   “but now that you have been set free from sin and have become                                                slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness”

                  - Being made perfect

 

e.      Holiness results in  eternal life. v. 22

                        “and the result is eternal life.”

You see those who say they are on the outside of religion are only in denial.  Every person has a belief system.  When we say I am owned by no man, then they become god and are now totally responsible for their existence within this universe. 

 

But God who has always been in charge of the universe, simply waits on us to figure out that there is only one God who is judge above all. 

 

God illustrates this well in The Exodus story. 

 

The Israelites are too numerous and threatening to the Egyptians, so they enslaved them.  King of Egypt died, and the people continued in enslavement.  God has always heard our groaning and it says he heard the groaning of the enslaved Israelites.  God remembered his covenant, and always keeps his promises.  The Israelites struggled through plague after plague, not really knowing what was going on.  When they needed a word from the Lord God spoke.  Their human slavery ended the way it did for one reason, “that you(the Israelites) may know that I am the Lord”.  (10:2) 

 

q            God is constantly recasting the vision of his being among us as our Lord and our God.  So here it is.  The Israelites went on to struggle with God because it wasn’t about being free to do whatever they wanted in life.  You see God has this plan for his world.  And the evil one has a plan.  God is organizing our lives as we know it into a heavenly state, and Satan will do everything he can to undo this.  God is building a perfect heaven for all of eternity.  Satan is building nothing but a rebellion that even if he succeeded would produce nothing but chaos and eternal disappointment and destruction.  You and I are in middle, and we need to make one choice.  Are we going to be a part of a heavenly world in eternity, or are we going to be a part of a place called hell that gathers all those who desired separation from God into an eternal disappointment, getting exactly what they wanted, eternal separation from God. 

 

q            The Israelites struggled with this well into the desert.  After Moses led the Israelites through the red sea and into freedom, even there they sought after a 3^rd choice. 

 

Today we have talked about:

being a slave to sin or being a slave to righteousness

 

            but the 3^rd choice is this:

being a slave to yourself.

 

But this is no choice at all.  The Israelites were in the wilderness for 40 years before God led them into the promise land for one reason.  They thought that there was a 3^rd choice.  And until they resolved that there was never a 3^rd choice, they found themselves in a wilderness.  At one point in the wilderness the Israelites said, it would be better if we were back in Egypt where we got fed, and knew what the next day would bring.  The temptation after the exodus for the Israelites is that in freedom from oppression the people now have to opportunity to be whatever they want to be. 

 

And that’s the 3^rd choice we think we have to be in this neutral place where we control our destiny, our workplace, our family life, our cultural values.  A place where we get to define all that.

 

And if that is where you find yourself today, satan has deceived you.  Because there is no neutral place in this world or the next.  You are either under the rule of God or Satan. 

 

Oh, please understand, being a slave to righteousness is not oppressive as one might think of slavery.  Being “slaves to righteousness” is living life and eternal life in 3 things:

1.      Order – where everything takes it’s rightful place, and life is lived in harmony.

2.      Blessing – If you have ever gotten in the way of dominoes that fall because they are all in such an order that they fall one after the other, think of blessing that way.  The blessings of God’s kingdom is and will be amazing.

3.      Meaning – in this life we are called to trust God, and believe by faith.  This is God’s way of showing us who is really in charge, and that we must come to terms with that.  But if you ask the mature Christian today, they will tell you how things make more and more sense the more you trust God.  And one day in heaven things will make better sense than ever before. 

 

This is what it means to be a slave to righteousness – that the good donimos of God’s Kingdom will fall upon you for all eternity.  The Israelites understood this as they were liberated from a worldly slavery, but from a spiritual one too.  And isn’t that the same for us?

 

What are we enslaved to that keeps us from seeing God? 

            It’s really ourselves, isn’t it?  I doubt that anyone here would literally choose Satan as their god, to be eternally in hell as a conscious choice, but that 3^rd choice to be your own god, or in a neutral place where everyone leaves you alone, that is not an option, for it is then that you fall into the presence of the evil one who will own your soul forever. 

 

q            Is your freedom to sin or your freedom to “be yourself” really giving you the freedom you want?  What if I told you I know the one who can help you get everything you want out of life?  What if I told that person was Christ?

 

Being a slave of righteousness is a pretty incredible thing, if you really think about who it is that you allow to lead your life.