Presented to TSA Alberni Valley Ministries, 15 June 2025, by Major Michael Ramsay
Today is Fathers’ Day. I was blessed this week in that I was able to spend a lot of time with my daughters and my parents. On Monday, Susan, Heather and I went down to Victoria to spend time with family for Sarah-Grace’s 23rd birthday. On Wednesday I needed to be in Victoria for a conference, so I visited with Sarah-Grace and Rebecca and my parents some more. Thursday, I came home to get Susan and Heather and we all came back to Victoria again, this time for Sarah-Grace’s convocation. She graduated with distinction with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Honours English from UVIC. It was great to spend so much time with my kids and my folks.
I am so proud of Sarah-Grace (like I am of all my kids). The Grad ceremony was good too – some I have been to have been long and boring, but this was a very good one. The Chanceller of the University spoke about Hope. She mentioned hope as being the opposite of being stuck in fear and fatigue. Susan shared with me another story this week about being stuck. This one is from Metro News among other sources.
A little girl’s pet hamster was unmoving, apparently paralysed so she brought him to the veterinarian’s office because he hadn’t moved for three whole days and he just sat by the side of the cage and wouldn’t eat or drink. The vet asked the girl if anything had happened to the animal before this and she replied that he had escaped and was found under the fridge before he was caught and sat unmoving in the cage. When they took the hamster out of his cage at the vet’s office, however, he began walking around normally, which they didn’t understand at all. Then one of them noticed something in the hamster’s mouth. They looked and found… a fridge magnet. It turns out the only thing wrong with the hamster is that it had a fridge magnet in his cheek pouch that stuck him to his metal cage.
Today’s message builds on last week’s Message, Green Grenade. Last week we spoke about Galatians 5:15-21, Ephesians 4:26-5:2a, and Philippians 2:3-16. The Apostle Paul reminds us in these letters that hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, and the like, bring death to a church and the people who are consumed with them. Paul’s words are ‘they will not inherit the kingdom of God’. We compared these actions to live green grenades last week – they can destroy a congregation, a church, a family, people wherever they happen to land. This week we will compare these same actions and others Paul mentions in similar passages to a fridge magnet stuck in a hamster’s mouth, among other comparisons. We read today in Paul’s letter to the saints in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians, about things that can really get Christians stuck so that we can’t move any more than a hamster who has eaten a fridge magnet. 1 Corinthians 10:7-10: Paul is warning them by comparing Christians to the ancient Israelites, Paul writes:
7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
Paul in his letter speaks about these things that can really get us stuck so that we can’t grow, we can’t move in Christ: indulging in revelry, engaging in sexual immorality, grumbling. He then says, as he does elsewhere in this same letter, 1 Corinthians 10:23, “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.
This is a key argument that Paul makes about all these lists that show up to his letters to Christians in Corinth, Ephesus, Phillipi, Galatia, Rome and more. Paul speaks a lot about us now being free from the Law and different rules and cultural traditions, as we studied in our extensive look at Romans a few months ago. Paul is adamant that we are now free in Christ but he keeps coming back to lists and lists of behaviours that he warns us about. Which is it? Are we free from the law just to have new rules, such as those we have read this week and last week – and if we don’t follow those we go to hell? or are we free to do whatever we want and it doesn’t matter anymore? Or something else altogether?
When I was young and attending a Baptist church, this question was really important to my friends and I. When I was a teenager and younger, like well more that half of all Canadians at that point in history, but unlike most Baptists, I smoked cigarettes. I still read my Bible, prayed everyday, and went to church multiple times a week with my friends but people were really concerned about our smoking: some were concerned that we were just ‘bad people’ who disregarded the rules and deserved to get in trouble. Others were truly concerned about our souls. I remember one friend of mine, Heather Heal, she invited us to a different Baptist church youth group one week; at one point we all went out for a smoke break, as we often did, and she spoke to me in tears. She was genuinely concerned that we might all go to hell because we smoked cigarettes. After all the Bible does tell us a lot of behaviours that it extolls and a lot of behaviours that it condemns. She didn’t want any of us to be condemned.
This then is a question as old as the early Christian church, as we have seen in Paul’s letters, and it is one that has often been brought up around me and has affected my life a lot as well – both as an Officer and as a child / teenager growing up. Are we free in Christ? And if so, what does that mean?
A few years agon now, when I was just new to Alberni, we brought a friend and mentor of mine, Major Stephen Court to the Valley here to speak at the Summer Rain Evangelism Festival. That is coming up again this summer, btw – I think it is July 19th Stephen has been a great help to me over the years and even helped me to get my two books published by The Salvation Army. The other day I read a story that he shared on his social media that I think sums up 1 Corinthians 10 very well- especially 1 Corinthians 10:23, “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive.
This story is from the periodical, “The Running Week”: it refers to athletes which is an analogy that the Apostle Paul himself uses to compare saints and our roles and responsibilities in life:
Athlete: Coach, I need to ask you something. Is it really so bad if I have a drink with my friends? Sometimes it feels like everyone else is having fun except me.
Coach: You can have a drink, if you choose. No one will stop you.
Athlete: And what about smoking, just every now and then? Just to feel free for a moment.
Coach: You can do that too. This is your life, not mine.
Athlete: Coach, sometimes I just want to be like everyone else. Go to parties, stay out all night, laugh, and not worry about tomorrow. Can I do that?
Coach: Absolutely. No one can take those moments away from you. The world is full of options.
Athlete: And if I want to go even further, to just escape get high, live wild, forget all the pressure for a night? Can I?
Coach: Yes. All of that is within your reach. You can choose any path you want.
Athlete: Then why does it feel like I can’t have both? Why do I feel this ache in my chest, like something has to give?
Coach: Because, deep down, you know the truth. You can have anything, but you can’t have everything. Every great dream demands something from you. You are free to enjoy every moment, every temptation, every thrill but you are not free from the cost. You cannot expect to show up on race day with the body, the mind, the spirit of a champion if you are not willing to sacrifice what others are not. Every late night, every shortcut, every easy decision chips away at your potential.
Everything is permitted, but not everything is worthwhile.
So you must choose. What means more to you? A fleeting night or a lifelong dream? The comfort of now, or the pride of forever? You cannot serve two masters.
Every runner stands at this crossroads. The easy road is wide, full of laughter and distractions. The hard road is narrow, but it leads to places most will never see. The finish line you dream of only you can decide if it’s worth the sacrifice.
You choose how far to go. You choose whether you will look back with pride, or with regret. Only you can decide what your dreams are worth.
That’s the cost. And only you can pay it.
And this my friends is the encouragement that the Apostle Paul is giving us in many of his letters. Paul probably has some different items on his lists than competitive athletes and I don’t know what behaviours our coach, the Spirit, is actively encouraging you towards and dissuading you from. But, as Paul says in1 Corinthians 10:23, “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. …
The choice is ours: today let us choose to be constructive; the choice is ours: today let us choose to be beneficial to God, the Kingdom, our neighbour and ourselves. The choice is ours: Today let us choose hope over fear and fatigue. And my friends, today the choice is ours: 1 Corinthians 9: 24-26a:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore… do not run like someone running aimlessly.
Philippians 3:14, “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called {us} heavenward in Christ Jesus”
My friends this is my encouragement to each of us here today. If there is anything holding us back from running the race well or living our life to the fullest; if there are any temptations or actions that are keeping us stuck like a magnet in a hamster’s mouth so much that we can’t even move in the freedom in Christ anymore, I invite us to set it aside.
Let us, as Philippians 2:3-4 encourages us:
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Ephesians 4:31-5:2a, let us:
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us…
And let us follow our coach, Galatians 5:16, 22-25:
…walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh… the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
I have every confidence that as we persevere in the faith in this way, Christ will remove the magnets of sin, fear, fatigue and anything else from our mouths that is holding us back. As we persevere and train in hope and love, I have every faith that we will all continue to, as Paul writes in Philippians 3:14, “press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called [us] heavenward in Christ Jesus”
Let us pray
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