Free At Last!

Tomorrow we celebrate a very special holiday. Do you know what tomorrow is? Tomorrow is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Who was Martin Luther King, Jr.? Dr. King was a black preacher and civil rights leader who not only believed we needed to change the way people of different races were treated, but also insisted that we needed to solve these problems peacefully. Dr. King worked very hard to bring about changes that would ensure that people of every race would be treated equally.

Dr. King was a wonderful speaker and many of his speeches are still remembered and quoted today. You will be hearing many of them on television tomorrow. One of Dr. King's most famous speeches was called, "I Have a Dream." In this speech he said he had a dream that all people, regardless of race or religion, would live peacefully together and that we would be free of hatred and racial prejudice. The speech ended with these stirring words:

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, 'Free at last! free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"

That was the dream of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-- that all men would be free.

All of us want to be free, don't we? One day Jesus was talking to a group of people and he said, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. A slave has no place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." Jesus is God's Son and he came to set us free. If we put our trust in Jesus, he will free us from our sin, we will be a part of God's family. When that happens, we are "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, through Jesus Christ, His Son, we are free at last!"

Our Father, we thank you for men like Martin Luther King, Jr. who have dedicated their lives to the cause of freedom. Most of all, we thank you for Jesus who came to set us free from sin. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.