"No Longer Slaves"

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery" ~ Galatians 5:1

In one of my favorite movies of all-time, The Shawshank Redemption, there are two characters who get released from prison at different times in the movie who had each spent more than four decades behind bars. In each case, the now-free man struggles mightily with life outside the prison walls. They long to commit crimes that will send them back into their slavery to the state. It might be a miserable existence, but it's all they know! They've been declared legally justified and free, yet the constant fear of the unknown and the difficulty of just getting through each day has them craving for the prison bars. Sadly, one takes his life and the other only presses on because of the hope he has in finding his friend. It's a fantastic illustration of what happens to so many people spiritually. Christ sets them free, but they still long for the "comfortable misery" of the slavery they once despised. If Christ has set us free, it is so that we will never again return to our chains, so that we can walk in new life with Him. This week at Friendship, we'll dig into Romans 6 and see how Christ's death makes us "No Longer Slaves" to sin. He's a chain breaker and a way maker, and you can trust Him to guide you into your newfound freedom, even as you rid your life of all the things on which you used to depend. Join us to hear more about how to walk in this born-again life!