Happy Independence Day! We are celebrating the 4th of July on Sunday (and all weekend for that matter!), and I love that we can still enjoy the freedoms that have in this wonderful Nation!
Here is the set list for this week at Eagleville Bible Church and the Scriptures that go along with each song. Please take time to study these texts and songs in order to worship the Lord in an informed and truthful way.
- Sweetly Broken, (YouTube Link)
- Rom 5:8,
- Isa 53:3-11,
- John 10:10,
- 2 Cor 5:17-21,
- Open Up the Heavens, (YouTube Link)
- 2 Chron 7:2,
- Isa 60:2,
- 2 Chron 5:14,
- Ex 33:18,
- The Blessing, (YouTube Link)
- Num 6:24-26,
- Ps 103:8,
- Rom 8:31,
- Deut 1:30,
- Isa 58:8,
- Living Hope, (YouTube Link)
- 1 Pet 1:3,
- Heb 6:19,
- John 14:30,
- Gal 5:1,
- Holy Water, (YouTube Link)
- Ps 51:1-2,
- Titus 2:11-14,
- 1 John 1:9,
- John 3:1-5,
- Rom 6:1-14,
Devotional Thought
As a citizen of the United States of America I am always eager to celebrate our independence and am appreciative of the freedoms that we enjoy as a Nation! It never ceases to amaze me the price paid to ensure that we have these freedoms, and how quickly people are willing to give it up for their agenda’s (from my perspective anyway). May God bless our Country with many, many more years of freedom and peace!
As a Christ follower though, I have an allegiance to a higher and much greater Kingdom. My citizenship is first found in Heaven, and I will protect and stand for this Kingdom before any earthly one for sure! My King, Jesus, paid the ultimate price for the freedom of all who call upon His Name for Salvation by dying on the Cross meant for all of us. He did this so that those who come to Him might enjoy the freedoms that He purchased for them!
It was Jesus that said in John 10:10 that He came so that we might have life and life to the fullest! That is His heart for His followers. A life of freedom, forgiveness, hope, and eternality. He came to serve us with His life in order to bless His followers with love and grace, and to pull them out of the bondage that we were in.
You see, each of us have a problem called sin. This problem of ours is a really bad master, leading us into curses and pain, unhealthy habits and hopelessness, despair and ultimately death! In the same verse that Jesus says He came to give us a full life He says that the devil (thief) comes to steal our life, to kill us, and to destroy all hope that we have within us. Satan is the enemy of our souls, he hates us and God, and desires our worship. He wants nothing more than to hold us all in captivity to our fleshly and sinful ways. It is really sad that so many will keep him in control of our lives when we have the freedom that Christ has provided for us so readily available!
Galatians 5:1 tells us that it was for freedom that Christ has set us free! I take that to mean, why would we remain in bondage to anything if we have been set free by our Savior. He freed us in order to make sure that we choose a lifestyle that lead us to freedom, not to bondage. The rest of Gal 5:1 says, do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Why would we want to go back to a tyrannical master when we have One that is full of grace and truth, freedom and love, and who died to provide all of access to that life of freedom?
I also love the verse just a bit after verse 1, Gal 5:13 says to use our freedom to serve one another in love! Think of that for a moment. How do you use the freedom you have in your life? Is it to serve yourself and your desires or is it to serve Jesus Christ and the people around you? I want to submit to you that when we use our freedoms to server others we end up positioning ourselves for the greatest blessings of joy, happiness, purpose, value, etc.!
We take on the character of Jesus when we operate in this way. Phil 2:5 tells us that we need to have the same attitude as that of Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself to the point of death in order to give us all eternal life. Right before that it tells us that we are to look to the interests of others before ourselves, to seek the blessings of the people around us more than ourselves. O’ that we would see a culture of people that get this truth and apply it to our lives! What a world we would live in if all of us would actually use our freedoms to serve the people around us rather than being self-seeking and having an entitlement disposition.
Unfortunately, there are so many who just look to use their freedom to serve themselves and their agenda’s, and it is creating a culture of selfishness and sinful indulgences that are leading us away from the blessings of Christ. We need to get back to God! We need to go to Him and repent, seek His forgiveness, turn from our wicked ways, and live our lives in godly and morally upright ways! Freedom is useless if we don’t apply it to our lives, and living under the bondage of sin is not using the freedom that Christ purchased for us to bring us blessing! Please decide today to crucify your fleshly desires and to follow the Spirit of life into a full life of freedom! Remember, where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. So, walk in step with God’s Spirit and enjoy the blessings that come along with living holy lives!
God bless your holiday weekend! Thank God for the blessing of freedom and a Nation that still grants us the joy of living free!! Happy Independence Day!
