“But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life."

Sermon Nuggets are divisions of former sermons I preached. Sometimes it takes a lot of editing to make things fit. I thought of rewriting this sermon because I preached it during Memorial Day weekend, 11 years ago, but I decided to keep the theme of remembering our nation and the sacrifices given for freedom and tie it into remembering Christ who set us free from our sin and bondage.

There’s a story about a city fellow who was visiting relatives on a farm and the farmer blew a whistle and his dog herded the cattle into the corral, then latched the gate with her paw.

"Wow, that’s some dog. What's her name?"

The forgetful farmer thought for a minute, then asked, "What do you call that red flower that smells good and has thorns on the stem?"

"A rose?"

"That’s it!" The farmer called to his wife. "Hey Rose, what do we call this dog?"     

Did you ever get in your car, reach for your keys and didn’t have them? Or you couldn’t remember your own phone number or house number? Or the street where you lived? Or even can't get the names of some of your children right?

I take comfort in the fact as you get older, some forgetfulness is quite normal. Everyone forgets things. It is only after you get 60 -years-old some people wonder if you are ready for the nursing home. I contend I have so much information stored in my mind that some memories spill out of my mind to make room for new stuff. (unscientific and unproven).         

On Memorial Day each year we take time to remember those who fought and died for our freedoms. If we stop remembering those who died for our freedom, we can take our freedoms forgranted. If we stop remembering those loved ones who have lived before us, we lose the richness of who we are and what also makes for a meaningful future. If we stop remembering the values we hold as a nation, we can soon lose those values that make us strong. How can raising the American flag in America become offensive? How can teaching English become racist? How can those who died in the service of our nation become dishonored? How can people make a mockery of Jesus and what He did for our freedom on the cross?

Let us also remember, as we see played out in Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran and much of the Middle East, that freedom is difficult to obtain and even more difficult to maintain. Once a dictator is overthrown and his government toppled, the newly liberated people often find they are not equipped to handle freedom nor the governing of themselves. All too often, one dictatorship may fall, followed by anarchy and later by yet another dictatorship.

When a person is justified by faith in Jesus Christ, they are loosed from the bondage of sin. Yet sin soon seems to creep in and becomes a habit that we cannot easily break. The Apostle Paul confronts the argument that it really doesn’t make any difference in how we live if all our sin is forgiven and forgotten.  Sin in the life of a Christian is something to be reckoned with.  Yes, we are free. Live in that freedom.

Paul's uses slavery as an illustration. We are slaves to sin before salvation. Now we are to be slaves of God but in a whole different way.

It’s always a good time to thank the Lord for our freedoms as a nation and especially our freedoms in Christ from sin and its consequences.

Prayer:  Thank you Father God for freeing me in Christ from both sin and death!  I rejoice that I am alive in Christ!

Dale