A Slave In Darkness

Posted this message as a blog on Myspace a little while ago and thought it fit just fine in this blog.

I was doing some studying in my bible and I found a piece of paper in it with a few verses written. Perhaps it was the rough for a sermon I planned to give, but God must have lead me in another direction. Any who, I found the paper and I feel I should complete the task I began with just a few verses long ago and apply them as a simple lesson. Isn't it amazing how God uses forgotten things to renew old ideas and dreams.
A SLAVE IN DARKNESS?

John 8:34 "Jesus answered them, "most assuredly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is a slave of sin."" This reminds me of common claches such as "once a liar/cheater/thief/ect. always one." If a person has ever lied which I am sure most have, they are a "liar." They are held captive by the sin committed, they have been labeled with a permanent marker. Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God." We are all dirty sinners. God does not accept excuses like "But that was a long time ago," or "It never happened again, did it!" Once we have sin we are sinners and destined to burn. We are held prisoner by this sin, it weighs us down, fills us with guilt, denial or darkness. "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23) Sin itself will eventually catch up to us, we can spend our time on earth running from past sin, denying sin, or in sin. What always happens in the end is Sin brings spiritual and physical death. All with sin are on death row in a cell called sin.

In the world today, we compromise eternity for fleshy ambitions, personal satisfaction, wealth, augmentation and glory. We legalize what our flesh wants and make it "good" and refuse to see any harm in it. The real sin resides in the root of the ambition. I have never heard of someone who wanted to build a mass of wealth so they could give it all away and glorify god. The motivation is personal and of the flesh, thus the actions taken in pursuit become motivated by sin, ie. a slave of sin. This may not be the case for all or even for many but the ultimate reality is that if we have sin we are separated from God and will spend our lives trying to find the missing element or content due to desensitization. All those with sin are slaves to sin.

John 3:20 "For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed." Get this.... Those who live in sin try to hide it!!! People know what is right and wrong, it is the thing wired in our system, a conscience. The shame of sin can make us captive, One lie is covered up by another and another and so on. Instead of admitting to sin and being discovered as a sinner in need of salvation, they hide it in order to appear content to others or for stature of men. They deny it to avoid the humiliation and embarrassment. They deny their need for Christ because they don't want others to find out they were not strong enough to make it without Him. There is this little thing called pride and it comes right before destruction. Guess what! Nobody is strong enough, We all are sinners, and you cannot hide your sin from God. But still they run from Jesus and cover up sin with sin. They are prisoners of sin.

Escaping sin and it's grasp is impossible with out Jesus. Sin holds us in a spiritual Alcatraz and we cannot escape it without the greatest super-hero of all time, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the answer. He died to free us from sin. To free us from Satan's hold and hell itself. Ephesians 2:8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the Gift of God." We must have faith in God. We must turn to him in humility, Be broken fully and discovered as dirty sinners to be made precious and white as snow. We live in a world held captive by sin but believing in freedom. Live in a world of freedom and seek the captive. Jesus is the only way, the only truth and the only life, everything else is meaningless. Let us turn to God as humble and meek servants and help set some captives free.

May God Bless you all.