Christ Set Us Free

From Allen: Communicating the gospel story through our worship services might be the most important thing we can do while we sing. Music has an incredible way of getting stuck in your head doesn’t it? If anyone were to say “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas”, there is a good chance that Bing Crosby’s voice would begin singing in your mental ear. Is that because there is a profound message behind it? Probably not. It’s just plain catchy and the words stay with us! That is why worship is so incredibly important, and why we need to put so much emphasis on it. Even more so, that is why we need to communicate accurate gospel truth in it.

This week as we worship, we will be going through “Chain Breaker”, “Before The Throne of God Above”, “Psalm 46”, and “Come as You Are”. Let’s do a quick breakdown of these songs. “Chain Breaker” says that Jesus can break us free from the bondage of sin if we believe in Him. “Before The Throne of God Above” says that we have a great high priest whose name is love, and we sing “Hallelujah!” in worship to that truth. “Psalm 46” declares that the Lord of Hosts is with us through our battles and that He is Lord of all even through the chaos of this life. Lastly, we sing that we can lay down our burdens at the feet of Jesus and be free because of the sacrifice of Jesus in “Come as You Are”.

The general rule we try to follow in the worship office is that regardless of musical style or preference, the truth of the gospel will be presented through the flow of our songs. We are sinful people by default, but the precious blood of Christ has given us a path to freedom. That path to freedom is not something we earn, but rather something we must believe and accept in Jesus’ name. After that, we sing in the victory we have over death, and acknowledge that God is all powerful over all. Then we have a response time to lay down our burdens at the feet of Jesus where they belong. Burdens come in many shapes and sizes, but ultimately we need to get in the habit of humbling ourselves and letting go of things that are out of our control. God has given us incredible blessings and freedom. All we need to do is let go of our daily burdens, take hold of the blessings He has given us, and trust Him overall.

I want to challenge anyone who is reading this to take a moment and think about a burden you have been holding on to. It could be stress, it could be anger, it could honestly be anything. But I want you to take that burden and lay it down at the foot of the cross this Sunday because your burden has already been overcome by the power of Jesus Christ. The most dangerous thing we can do is stop laying our burdens down at the feet of Jesus because we think we have everything under our own control.

“It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.” -Galatians 5:1