4th of July; Individual Responsibility Equals Freedom

4th of July, 2016

Live as a Christian Where You Are. 

If you have more Freedom in America as a Christian then more is required of you.

Individual responsibility = Freedom. 

The moment you hand your individual responsibility to a government you lose that freedom and become a slave to that government. 

Moral Laws are all you can enforce as a government.  

Murder,

Lying, con-artist 

Stealing:  embezzling 

Governments carry the sword for a reason. 

When a government creates laws to prevent a sin before it happens, that is when you lose your freedom and no government can manage what they create. 

Thought Laws:  “hate crimes”  “hate speech”  

God’s Plan for the Local Church

[Eph 4:11 ESV] And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,

[Eph 4:12 ESV] to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

To What End?  To Grow Up. 

[Eph 4:13 ESV] until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,

[Eph 4:14 ESV] so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

[Eph 4:15 ESV] Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

[Eph 4:16 ESV] from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Don’t do what the world is doing. 

[Eph 4:17 ESV] Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds.

[Eph 4:18 ESV] They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.

[Eph 4:19 ESV] They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

Heads Up Christian!

[Eph 4:20 ESV] But that is not the way you learned Christ!--

[Eph 4:21 ESV] assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,

[Eph 4:22 ESV] to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,

[Eph 4:23 ESV] and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,

[Eph 4:24 ESV] and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Your New Action Plan

[Eph 4:25 ESV] Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.

Anger is not Sin. 

[Eph 4:26 ESV] Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

[Eph 4:27 ESV] and give no opportunity to the devil.

Individual Responsibility . . . there it is. 

[Eph 4:28 ESV] Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

Watch your mouth.

[Eph 4:29 ESV] Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

rotten, putrefied 

For the Christian, the Holy Spirit is IN YOU. 

[Eph 4:30 ESV] And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Don’t carry dung in your heart and mind. The opposite of forgiving. 

[Eph 4:31 ESV] Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

[Eph 4:32 ESV] Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Your Christian work this week.  Read Ephesians 5 once a day, every day. 

Freedom's Cost

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