– From the time Adam sinned by disobeying God and eating the forbidden fruits, mankind has been under the yoke of sins to nowadays.

– Because of His love for mankind, God took a human form and came into the world as Jesus to die on the cross so that mankind can be free from the bondage of sins.

– Therefore, when a person believes in Jesus and His suffering on the cross for human’s sins, he receives God’s forgiveness for his sins in the past and becomes free of the yoke of sins.

– Freedom is so precious in both physical and spiritual life so we should hold dear to our freedom all the time.

– But when we are free from the bondage of sins we face many difficulties right away.

– Firstly, because we are free from sins, Satan will certainly use many devious ways to attack or to tempt us coming back to be his slaves again.

– That’s why Christians always feel it’s so hard to follow God and to live by the standards God has set forth in the Bible for us.

– Satan is an evil spirit so he is more powerful than humans to attack Christians with many kinds of temptation.

– Therefore when Christians are not careful we are more than often falling into traps of temptation set up by Satan.

– That is also the second difficulty that we Christians have to pay attention to.

– This second difficulty that we face after becoming Christians comes from the freedom we have from God.

– Freedom is one of many precious gifts from God but Satan use it to tempt Christians to do improper things against Bible’ standards.

– That happens because Satan is so devious while human beings have not know how to use freedom properly.

– Humans use freedom according to circumstances, not according to set standards, that’s why people fail in exercising their freedom of choice all the time.

– For example, a person will certainly choose to eat when being hungry rather than doing something else.

– That way of choice can be applied in other circumstances like being thirsty, tired, sleepy or angry, when people rather drinking, resting, sleeping or being aggressive than acting differently.

– Because Satan knows how humans use their freedom of choice to react in certain circumstances so he usually tempt mankind in the same way.

– We can have another example from the Israelites that was recorded in Exodus 32: 1-6.

EXODUS 32: 1-6 – Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us [gods that shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him”. And Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand, and he fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made a molded calf. Then they said, “This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!” So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.” Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.

– In this case, what the Israelites lacked is eating, drinking and immoral way of dancing like the Egyptians.

– They had been slaves in Egypt for a very long time and certainly could not participate at Egyptians festivities. That’s why they yearned for once to experience what they saw as joy but never had a chance to join in.

– So now when they did not see Moses coming back from Mount Sinai, they were tempted by Satan to have an Egyptians idol festival right there in the boring desert to satisfy their longing for it.

– The Israelites had used their freedom to choose what their flesh want, but not good for their spiritual lives. They chose to worship idol to satisfy their immoral need while ignoring God’s commands relating to such sin.

– What they did on those days made Moses angry because they were risking God’s wrath on the whole people.

– Judging between benefits for more than one and half millions of Israelites and a group of idol worshippers, Moses decided to take action by punishing them with swords.

– In one day there were 3,000 of them died under the swords of the Levite tribe.

– He knew that if he did not act quickly enough, he was risking losing God’s blessing for the whole people during the perilous time in desert.

– That story is an example for Christians in later generations that we should be careful when exercising our freedom of choice.

– Even when our flesh is in need to be satisfied, Christians should always make a choice based on the Bible’s guidance.

– There are some reasons that we should follow Bible’s instructions when exercising our freedom and making a choice.

– Firstly, For God loves humans so much as sacrificed His life for us, every guidance in the form of commandments, rules and standards is for our benefit only.

– Secondly, because God is wise and full of eternal wisdom, every choice He wants us to make is not only good for us in this life but for eternal one, too.

– Thirdly, God is not limited by circumstances and chances, so He always suggests us a choice that is higher and better than human normal needs, and when we obey His instructions in the Bible to choose and follow through, we can win over Satan’s temptation and achieve a more fulfillment than usual.

– In Galatians 5: 1, when the Bible uses the word stand firm, it indicates that Christians should employ our strong will to exercise the freedom of choice properly in accordance with Bible’s standards.

– Therefore Christians should always seek God in prayers to strengthen our spiritual lives so that every time we make a choice. big or small, we make a right one all the time to benefit us for eternity.

– May God be with us all, give us strength, guide us to exercise our freedom of choice properly from now and forever. Amen.