First of all, we confess that we can only be truly free in Christ. To be outside of Christ is to be in bondage. You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. God is truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Christ delivers us from the curse and bondage of sin. The Holy Spirit is given to us as a pledge to guarantee our place in Christ. We know that God is sovereign and that whatever happens to us is according to His providence and He loves us. All things work together for good for those who love God and who have been called according to His purpose.

Our Father, we thank you for the freedom that our Church enjoys. We are free to believe and live by the precepts of our own conscience. We are free to speak the truth. Protect the pulpits of the Church. Protect us from those who would limit what we can say. Protect us from being forced to be politically correct. We are free to preach the whole counsel of God. We are free to call the individual and the civil magistrate to repent. We are free to administer the Lord’s Supper. We are free to congregate together in public. Lord, protect our freedom.

Our Father, protect the freedom of the family. There are so many experts who think they know better how to raise our children than we do. Protect the God given rights of parents to raise their children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Protect their right to discipline their children according to the word of God. Let not intruders with badges come into our abodes and take our children from us. Protect our freedom to raise them in Church under the oversight of godly Christian elders.

Our Father, protect the freedom of our nation gained by our forefathers. We are seeing that freedom lost. We have become slaves to debt and spending. We have already put our children and grandchildren in financial debt. We have bills that we can never pay. We take from the rich and give to the poor. We take from the poor and give to the poor. The Civil Magistrate is playing god, when he is not god. The civil magistrate was feared by our forefathers. They knew the danger of men with power and money. Yet, we did not listen. The Church was silent and now we are becoming slaves.

Freedom is not derived from the civil magistrate. Neither can Libertarians cannot give us freedom. They too hate the law of God. They would legalize sodomy and fornication. They would legalize abortion. They are no more the friends of God than are statist tyrants. Tyranny comes from both sides. Freedom only comes from Christ.

Lord, we come to celebrate the death of Christ this morning in the Lord’s Supper. We are reminded that the wine of God’s wrath was poured out upon Christ instead of being poured out upon us. He was our substitute. He was our sacrifice. He was our atonement. Our sins were imputed to Him and He endured the death of the cross and the torment of the curse we deserve. Help us to hold fast to the doctrine of the gospel. It is good news. It is a gospel that forgives whosoever believes. There is no one who ever came to Jesus who was rejected. No matter how great the sin, no matter how long we lived in sin, no matter when the sin was committed, today or 50 years ago, the blood of Christ cleanses us of all of our sin. No matter how heinous or how small, we have been washed as white as snow.

Therefore, having so great a salvation, how then can we walk, but in the way of Christ? Those who love Christ follow after Him. Whatever He commands we will do, and wherever He goes we will go. He is our master. He is our King. He is our Leader. He is our teacher. He is the Light of the world. In Him dwells all knowledge and wisdom.

Lord, continue to grant us forgiveness for there is not a day that goes by without sin. We sin from the time we open our eyes in the morning until we close them at night. We sin even in our sleep. We sin in public and we sin in private. We sin with our hands and we sin with our hearts. We are bent toward sinning, even as we abhor sin. Temptation is ever before us, and we must be diligent and watchful. Give us Thy Holy Spirit and enable us to resist the Devil knowing that He will flee from us. The Devil is frightened by Christ. The Devil flees in the presence of Christ. Keep us in Christ, ever waking in His presence so that we might win the battle against temptation and sin.