Slave or Free...You Choose
by Kevin Allen
July 5, 2020 · Centerpointe Apostolic Church (Murfreesboro, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Acts 22:24-28, Exodus 21:26, Jeremiah 34, John 8:31-36, Psalms 88:4-6, Galatians 3:13, Galatians 4:5, Ephesians 1:7, Colossians 1:14, Hebrews 9:12, Hebrews 9:15, 1 Corinthians 7:22, Philippians 2:5-8

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/kevin-allen--slave-or-free-you-choose
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Good to see everybody out on this holiday weekend. I also want to say hello to all those who are tuned in watching us online. Happy you're part of our service today. Fourth of July kind of kicks off really the summertime, and a lot of people going on vacation, a lot of companies are shut down for a few weeks, and many people are traveling, and we pray that God keeps them all safe during their travels. And missing mother away, but also know that several families are still sheltering in place at home, and we understand that there's a lot of scary stuff going on out there, but I don't want fear to rule the day. Amen. God has been good to us and merciful to us, and I'm so thankful for his provision and his protection and all that is going on.

We pray for all those that have been affected by kovin 19. It is real. I know there's a lot of stuff going on around it, and there's a lot of things to get involved, and we know that people will always try to take advantage anytime they can, but this is real. It goes on, so we are cautious in what we do, and I appreciate everyone's help and in keeping us safe around here. And I've seen, you know, bumping of elbows going on. That's okay. I get that. No handshake, and I appreciate your help and all this. It's not what we want. You've heard me say many times, the extrovert that I am wants to hug everybody, but I understand that not everybody's comfortable with that, nor is it the best practice right now. But we're gonna do our best, and God's gonna get us through this.

You know, sometimes I feel very confident and what I'm about to say, the God will take some unusual circumstances to try to do some unusual things, if we'll allow it. Now, we get caught up and everything that's going on and and oftentimes missed the point. What were you saying, Pastor Kevin's, are a point to Kovan 19? There's a point to everything that God does. I just want to be sure that I'm tuned into his spirit so that I can be aware of what he's trying to do in these times. Here's what I know is the truth: people still being filled with the spirit, people still being baptized in Jesus name, lives are coming back, being restored. He's still alive and on the throne, and, well, you know, the world may be burning down all around us, but I trust in my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Freedom — we talked about that a lot during the 4th of July. To me, this word means maybe a little bit more this year. It's interesting to me how sometimes when things are taken away, or maybe threatened to be taken away from us, that we learn to appreciate them more. Last night, as we were driving home for an event that we had been a part of, I don't know in my life if I've ever seen such a fireworks display that was going on across our city. I feel like there's a lot of people that are just saying, you know what, I just, with everything going on, I want to celebrate the fact that America is still the greatest country.

Now, we are flawed because we were full of humanity, and humanity is flawed. We are broken. We need a Savior. That's the reason he came. But I don't think there's anything wrong with still being proud of where you're from. I have been fortunate enough to travel different countries around the world, and I'll tell you what, I'm still thankful every time I do get to come home. Now, I know not everybody represents the country well, but it's ok. What's important is that we understand that 244 years ago, when they sign the dotted, the Declaration of Independence, in it was not a declaration for us to be stuck in the past. Instead, it gave us an opportunity for a bright future.

We must remember that we have to reflect on the past. We do. If you don't, you're destined to repeat it. Well, are all of us, even your own personal path, sometimes you need to reflect back on those things, so it's, you're mindful of the mistakes that you've made. A wise person pays attention, makes notes. As a country, we need to pay attention. We need to make notes. But we're no longer to depend on the past. Instead, were to look to the future, to continue to write the story that he has for us. So, brother Jeff Harlan says, God's never gonna consult your past and considering your future. I'm thankful for that. I'm thankful because there's some stuff in my past I wish wasn't there, but it was there, but I learned from it, and I move forward. We need to be thankful for the price that was paid for our freedoms, and I'm proud of all that has been done. I want to be sure that I do my part.

We're gonna go to Acts chapter 22 to read a portion of Scripture that I don't feel like it gets preached about that often, but I feel as though the Lord directed me there for this message today. Good to see everybody here. Appreciate all of our guests in the house. Families traveled in. We're so thankful that you're part of our service. Of the x-22, gonna be reading from the King James Version, because I like a couple of the words specifically in this. Says this, starting to verse number 24: The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle and bade that he should be examined. Alright, they're getting ready to take a whip and try to get some truth out of him. Now, I'm about you, but anybody ever seen a whip actually been used by someone who knows how to use it? That's some scary stuff. I mean, just the pop alone — I'll start confessing. I got nothing to hide. Whatever you need to know, I'm all-in right now, just don't hit me with that. Because I remember, and I know we grew up in a different time, but I remember getting a switching. Anybody in the room everyone got switched? Yeah, you know why those hands shot up, cuz you didn't forget it. There wasn't no, I think maybe I didn't know, you knew. There was no doubt when a switch was used on you.

Now there's a whip gonna be taking place. So II, there trying to get some stuff out. A verse number 25: As they bound him with tongs, Paul said in thus ensuring that stood by, is it lawful? I don't buddy, you got, I've been coming up with every excuse in the world, and I've seen that. Well, hey, hey, hey, let's talk about it. Let's come up with some kind of reason. Are you sure this is legal for you to be doing this? Now he's bringing in the legal. He's wanna know, because there was, there was lost put in place to protect Roman citizens. So he says, is it illegal for you to do this to a Roman uncondensed? When t6, when the Centurion heard that, he was told the chief captain, saying, take heed what thou doest, well, this man is a Roman. Then the chief captain came and said to him, tell me, art thou Roman? He said, yeh. And the chief captain answered, with a great sum I obtained this freedom. And all he's saying is, I became a Roman. I wasn't born into this, but I earned my citizenship. It cost me something. But pay attention to the response from Paul. He simply says, Paul said, but I was free born. Know for I would dare say, the vast majority of us in this room today, and probably the vast majority that are watching online, we were born free in this country, and I'm thankful for that freedom. And there's, there's no doubt, because I know I have, and I guarantee you have to, I've taken it for granted many times. But I want to preach on this subject today, that I feel that by god: slave or free, you choose. Slave or free, but it's your choice to make.

Jesus, I love you. You know, I thank you for your presence it's here, for what you're gonna do in among us today. God, I pray you anointest to receive your already anointed word. Move modely in this place, in Jesus name we pray, and amen.

The word free, the word freedom, to us just means that oftentimes I feel like, if you would ask anybody on the street the definition of that, they would simply say, well, it was the ability to do anything that you want to do. And there is some truth to that. However, there are, there are a few conditions that go along with it. For some, they, they think that it's a state of nobody telling them what to do. I feel like that seems to be the order of the day: to do whatever it is you feel like you want to do, whatever it is you think in the moment feels right, acts right, looks right, that's what you want to do. But actually, the word is a little bit more specific than that. It literally means not enslaved. Slavery — what an ugly spot in our nation's history. It was legal until the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

I want to read to you a portion of that proclamation. Goes this way: That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people we're up then being rebellion against the United States, shall been thence forward and forever free. And the executive government of the United States, including the military naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do not acts or acts that repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they make for their actual freedom. What an awful stain in our history. But slavery was not just a part of our nation's history. Slavery is a part of mankind's history. Throughout the entirety of history, that is, they're shocking stories of the cruelty and inhumane actions in ways they anger us, they sadness, they bring a lot of emotions to the table. We don't like it. We wish it was going away, but the truth is, it did take place.

But to me, the most offensive aspect of slavery is not the torture and abuse, and those things were offensive and unbelievable, but to me it's the simple loss of one's freedom. It was taken from them. Slavery strips the dignity of personhood from mankind. In antiquity, in biblical and ancient times, slaves might be acquired in the following ways. This is not an exhaustive list, but I felt like it's an appropriate list to give us a better understanding today in which I build the foundation of this sermon. First of all, they could be bought. Specifically talking about Hebrew slaves, because the Bible talks a lot about the Hebrews. They were sold in relationships. A father could sell his daughter into slavery if he needed the money. A Widow's child might be sold to pay a father's dead. A man could sell himself if he needed to. Slaves can be exchanged and bartered for other things. That could be surrendered. A man could surrender himself if he did not have the ability to pay the debt in which he occurred. It could be a gift that could be passed down through family.

Generations, they could be inherited. That could also be born in to slavery. Children of slaves born within a masters house became property of the master. They could be captured in war. Thousands of men and women and children were taken into captivity. We see the stories as they unfold in the Old Testament that were there. All of this stuff is bothersome to you and I, because it's not a world in which we live. It's not commonplace. It's not something that you and I have experienced. Ancient times were torturous for anyone, but especially for slaves. They were beaten, deprived, starved, raped, forced to work in the most deplorable of conditions. They were allowed to be and stayed illiterate, treated as beasts in the field. All of this in addition to being bought, bartered, sold, and traded. More modern times have not been much better.

But I'll tell you this, and this is the truth: it has never been a good time to be a slave, ever. In the Bible times, slaves could possibly obtain their freedom in a few ways. Again, this is not a complete exhaustive list, but covering the most highlighted ones. First of all, by a simple lapse of time. A certain period could be in her end, that you were slave for a certain number of years, but usually by the seventh year service, you were bought your release through your work. You worked off your debt. It could be by the law Jubilee. Every 50 years, everything was reset back to normal. Property that had been, been put up for collateral always went back to the original owners and families that were there. Slaves would be returned back in. Freedom was bought in the year of Jubilee. You can be released from your slavery through injury. If you were injured on the job, or if your master somehow abused you in a way that causes you to lose eyesight or lose teeth, according to Exodus 21 verse 26, you can be released from the slavery. It could be done by indifference, where there was some kind of argument or dispute that was there. It could be because the master died. It could be a direct command of Yahweh God. The word that came unto Jeremiah in Jeremiah 34 was that every man and woman should be released from the slavery they were in. It could take place by escape. We could take place by redemption. Manumissions, which is just a fancy word for releasing a slave by Redemption, was common among the Hebrews. The slaves freedom might be bought, the price depending on how close it was to the jubilee and how much skill set that person actually had.

Now, I know this isn't popular preaching right off the bat. I know everybody's kind of sitting here, and some of you have already lost already. Maybe I can make it up in the next few minutes, because I felt it was important for me to explain a few things when it come to slavery, because slavery, though physically has been outlawed, the actual act that is there, it still takes place in the world in which you and I live today. Though it's not people who are actually being bought and sold on the, on the trading market, our souls are being enslaved every day.

John chapter 8 verse 31 says this: Jesus said unto the Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, then you are my disciples in you indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, we be Abraham's seed, and we were never in bondage to any man. House that sow, you shall be made free? Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is still going on in our world today. He may say, Pastor Kevin, I've never been a slave. I've never been sold or bartered in any way. I would beg to differ with you this morning, because these words I just read you are read Leonard worms. These are the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he simply said that if you commit sin, you become a slave to the sin you committed. The Jews knew the premise on which Jesus was talking and applied when he said, the truth shall make you free. However, they did not understand that the implications had to do with their own very soul. That's why they answered and said, we've never been in bondage to any man. Economic slaves, no, maybe not. Political slaves, I dare to say most of them were a slave to the, and trying to hang on to some power they had. But spiritual slaves, yes they were, and they didn't even know it. Jesus said, if you sin, you are a slave to sin.

Physical slavery is evil, but spiritual slavery is just as evil and damning at all the same time. You can call it addictions or abuse. You can call it compulsory behavior, or getting hooked, or some type of disorder, or strung out, or an ism we can put behind it. You can call it alcohol and cocaine, or crack or meth, or marijuana or heroin, or nicotine or opium, or inhalants or steroids, or tranquilizers. But you can also call it pornography and gambling and sexual perversion and self-indulgence. You can also call it pride and intellect and money and education and good looks and elitism, and I could go on and on and on. But here's the truth, ladies and gentlemen, today: there is something that is vying for your soul. There was a fight taking place each and every day, and it's important to understand that every morning you wake up, there's something that's trying to enslave your soul. Fact is, its clutches are always coming after you. Whoever is called in it becomes its slave. It tries it's best to burrow down into your mind, into your thoughts, into your emotions. Its desire is to always be there. First of all, very subtle, very soothing, very sly. It never reveals its whole hand to you. It always shows you fun, good times, and freedom. It reveals itself in the most subtle of ways, but it begins to spread throughout your body. It goes into every reaching, seeking its teeth into your very soul. It screams it's profane thoughts and words and your ears, and burns in images to your mind in your eyes. It makes you different, recreating you into its likeness, because that's what happens when you become enslaved.

Spiritual slaves try to obtain their freedom in many ways. By lapsing of time: someday it's gonna be better, someday I'll get past this, it's just a moment I'm going through, it's just a tough spot in my life, things aren't working out the way I want them to right now, I'm just a little bit down on my luck, it's not always going to be this way. Somehow we convince ourselves, they give it enough time, I'll push past this and get to a better spot in my life. Do I have one witness in the house today? Sometimes we think it's gonna pass by the law of Jubilee. God's gonna come and rescue me when he's ready and when the time is right. Sometimes by injured, by injury: whenever my addiction hurts me enough, I'll quit. Whenever it gets more than I can control, I'll know that's the time I'll stop. I know when it gets too far gone, at that moment I will be able to walk away. I won't allow it to completely kill me. It could be by indifference: whenever I no longer get pleasure from my addiction, that's when I'll quit. By restitution, I will by bargain or work my way into freedom. By the Masters debt one, these days the demons are just gonna leave me alone when they realize I'm no longer good for anything. Sometimes we think it's gonna happen by a direct command of God, because God's gonna end up working a miracle for me, or by escape itself.

Oh, how you've tried to escape. How many times have you planned your exit strategy? How many ways have you dreamed up that you were gonna be better and move past this, saying that always pulls you down? You've run away. You've, you've pleaded, you've bargained, you've cried, you've screamed, you've lied to yourself. You can't escape. You end up running towards the very thing that you're supposed to be running away from. Satan's net catches you every time, and before you know it, you continue to serve Him year after year. He mocks you at the year of Jubilee. Then he uses you up, only to discard you and throw you on the waste side of life. Here he agrees to set you free, but he always goes back on his word. And he, remember that he's a liar from the very beginning. You've tortured yourself. You've deprived yourself, even prisoned yourself. You've done everything short of killing yourself, and you've debated about doing that. Why? Because you're enslaved to sin.

Your emancipation proclaimation, ladies and gentlemen, is the cross of Jesus Christ. David said in Psalms 88 verse 4, reading from the English Standard Version: I'm counted among those who go down to the pit. I'm a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie on the grave, like those whom remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions of the dark and the deep. Let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen: suicide does not make you free. It just makes you a dead slave. You may be dead, but you're still a slave. The only sure way out of slavery exists by redemption of blood. By the manumission, by redemption, was the only sure way that you could ever escape slavery in the ancient days. Slaves price of freedom depended on how close they were to the year of Jubilee, or how much benefit that person had to the master who was trying to buy it. But Jesus Christ redeemed us without regard to our abilities, without regard to what we could bring, without our IQ or wealth or credentials or education or number of degrees or AIDS or usefulness or pedigree or skin color. It didn't matter to him. He was worth dying for, because he seemed the value that was in you alone. You are his child.

Galatians 3 verse 13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Galatians 4 and 5: To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Jesus Christ was not concerned about how we could increase his wealth, or what benefit we might bring. He wanted to show us that he was rich enough and grace to afford us, even though it added nothing to his bottom line. The point was simply this: he loved you. He loved you. It didn't matter the condition you were in. It didn't matter your bank account or the degrees or what it was that was Leonard behind your name. He looked past all those things that didn't matter. The faults or the failures didn't matter. The disappointments and discouragements, it was there. It didn't matter what you would entangled yourself with. The truth of the matter, he knew from the very beginning that he was buying flawed, defective material, yet he still was willing to pay the ultimate price. It did discourage him because you were dirty. It didn't discourage him because you were broken. It didn't make him go away because you were less than what you really could be. Instead, he looked past all those things, because love sees the value at the end. His desire was to make you and I sons and daughters. The enemy only and traps and keeps, but God sees the ability to bring you in through adoption.

Ephesians 1 and 7: In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. In fact, redemption implies that Jesus Christ deliberately bought defective material. He understood. He had full disclosure on what he was getting into. We did not hoodwink him. You and I, flawed humanity, it's impossible for you and I to be good enough. He understood that, and he made a way. He knew there was no way we could do enough good deeds, have enough good thoughts, enough good actions to qualify for him. Instead, he said, you can't come to me, so I'll come to you. You can't span the gulf. You can't make it over. Instead, I will come to you. As I said earlier, God never consults your past when he's considering your future.

Colossians 1:14: In whom we have redemption through his — but even the forgiveness of sins. When Jesus redeemed us, he did not plan on giving us back. He just us forever. We belong to him. You do not go to the store and buy something to have value just to leave it on the counter. I know several times in my life where I'd saved up for something very special, whatever it was. I remember going in on many occasions and buy anything and being oh so very careful. Even being frustrated when the sales clerk or attendant who was waiting on me seemed to not appreciate the thing that I was trying to buy as much as I appreciated the thing I was trying to buy, being a little haphazard with it, kind of tossing it around the counter, making me a little mad. I haven't even paid for it yet, but it's going to be mine. Anybody else ever felt that way? He paid the price in full, with full intentions of you spending eternity with him. That has always been his plan.

Hebrews 9 verse 12: Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered into once into the holy place, having attained eternal Redemption. Eternal — say that with me: eternal. It wasn't just a moment. It wasn't just a temporary pass. It wasn't just a one-day pass or our three-day pass. This is eternal redemption that he purchased. Why? Because he wants to spend eternity with you. Verse 15: And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

As I bring this to a close today, because I feel Oh, God's wanting to do something in this service, I feel like I'm reaching for an individual who is struggling with self-worth, thinking that you are always going to be hooked into that very thing that is clutching you in this moment. Huh, I'm fixing to bring this to close. I'm not gonna preach long today, because I just feel deep in me that God's desires to make a restoration take place today. How blonde were the Jews? They were slaves, saying there were not slaves. They didn't understand all that was taking place in and around them. They were so wrapped up in the chains of being right that they were living wrong. They were so concerned with keeping the letter of the law that they missed the underlying premise of the law. They didn't get. In fact, they didn't even see it when the physical law was standing in front of them. They missed the point. Why? Because they became slaves to sin. Pride was eating them up.

And I wonder how many of us are unaware of that thing that is keeping us back. Maybe this moment there's a time for you to wake up just a little bit and understand that God's desire is to do great things with you. If you're not doing great things, I would stop right now and pay attention, because his desire is for every one of us to do great things. Not just one, not just Pastor Kevin, not just bishop the priest, but that each and every one of you have been gifted with talents and abilities to do great things for the kingdom of God. And if you're not doing great things for the kingdom of God, there's something in me that feels like you're being held back. You're being enslaved by something today. Pay attention, because he's called all of us to greatness. It's you, look at your neighbors, so he's talking about you. Greatness.

The Jews are blind. They were bound. They were protesting that they were free all the time, Missy their enslavement. But Jesus reminded them that slaves don't have the same privileges as the Sun. Slaves are only there for a little while, but the Sun is there always. And if you are sons and daughters, you are free. He's conferring this status of Freeman, freedom upon you. But give me just 60 more seconds of your time, for the crux than the message is here in the next few words that I say to you, because there is a tremendous difference between a free man and slavery, and a slavery and freedom.

That's why the Emancipation Proclamation was so important all those years ago. I read it to you again: That on the first day of January and the Lord 1863, all persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then this Ford and forever free. And the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority there have, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts to make for them their actual freedom.

The moment that Proclamation was signed into law, the moment Abraham Lincoln finished pinning it and put his pin down, something profound happened. In that moment, that instant made thousands of slaveholders criminals, and it made thousands, hundreds of thousands of slaves free people. In that moment, the tables turned. Things were no longer the same in that moment. And I want to draw two final line here, but I want you to think about this for just a minute with me. If a slave who is a slave breaks free, is illegal at most, he's just a free slave. And his state of freedom that is there, but he's still a slave in status. He's still owned by a master, even though he's run away. But if, on the other hand, a slave has been set free, that very moment he is a free man. If his master continues to try to hang on to him, he does so illegally, because his status is free.

First Corinthians 7 22: For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord's free man. Likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ servant. I know there's some individuals in this room right now, and you are being held captive by sin, but sin does not own you, ladies and gentlemen. There was a price that was paid at Calvary long ago, and it was paid in full for you. Then even though you may be living in slavery for a moment, I'm here to tell you, you are a free man. You are a free woman. You have been paid for. So here's the deal: slavery or freedom, it's your choice. The devil has no power in this moment, for he knows he has been defeated. The only ploy, the only tact he has, is trying to convince you in your mind that that, that holds you back will always hold you back. But in the name of Jesus Christ, and the authority that is in that name, I declare this is a freedom state, and that that has held you must fall loose, because in this place the price has already been paid for you. He willingly went to a cross and died to purchase your freedom.

So I'm wondering, is there anybody they will say, act like a free man or a free woman? I don't care what you did last night. I don't care what you thought about this morning. In this moment, you're free.

Last scripture, Philippians 2 verse 5: Let this mind be in you, which is also in Christ Jesus, who had be made in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal to God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in the appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of a cross. Why? To buy your freedom. To buy your freedom. So here's the deal: you don't have to come up with any excuse, because they don't work anyway. You don't have to come up with any reason why you continue to fall back in those things. It doesn't matter. You are on either one can rewind the next minute we just lost. I can't go back in time 60 seconds; neither can you. So what's in the past is in the past. That's all it is, is past. But you and I have right now, in this moment, is this moment alone. And what I have just preached to you is this truth: you're free. You're free. Maybe you don't feel like you're free. Maybe you still have those chains holding you down. Maybe you can't even barely stand up in this moment. But I'm here to declare, your freedom has been paid for. So slavery or freedom, you choose. But I'm just asking, is there anybody who wants to choose freedom today? This altar is open. I invite you to come down. I invite you to come down and let the God of all, the one who purchased you, do a work in your life, because I know there are individuals here who are living under condemnation, but he does not put that on you. There is therefore now no condemnation. So if you need to touch