Freedom
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Prayer
Prayer
Freedom of Religion
Freedom of Religion
We just celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States of America’s declaration of independence from Great Britain.
We are blessed to live in such a nation, with such freedoms, including the ability to come together in places like this to publicly practice our faith in Jesus Christ.
I’d like to give a little background on some of the things that led to the declaration of independence.
In 1662 it was declared that the types of church services, rites, prayers and beliefs were mandated by parliament to be decided through the state organized Church of Englade under a law called the Act of Uniformity. As we all know the best to achieve unity is to pass a law demanding it, and I think Moses will agree.
Anyhow, many of the early colonists coming from Great Britain were protestants looking to escape persecution from the Church of England and they were unhappy with many of the Roman Catholic practices or parallels including that the King declared himself the head of the church like a pope.
The colonies were theoretically under the rule of the king, however, being a month away by boat, and about a 3-month round trip, with no quick communication, the colonies were pretty independent. A governor and governors council was appointed by the king and worked with a locally elected assembly.
As you can imagine, the opportunities for corruption and contention were endless. This led to lots of disagreements and abuses of power that resulted in localized rebellions, massacres, chaos and growing frustration from the colonists.
The chaos, war and tyranny grew and the king, George III, who took the throne in 1760 took a stance that the colonists needed to pay his exorbitant taxes and come into line with his demands and that he would make life miserable for them until they did.
There is a healthy list of the grievances in the declaration of independence that you can read if you’re so interested.
Ultimately, the protestant Christians moved to the colonies to try and find religious freedom and to worship Jesus in the way they felt was most God-honoring. However, it all quickly turned into a hot mess of chaos and corruption politically and judicially. They might have been religiously more free than in Great Britain but they now lived in a state of constant injustice perpetrated by the king and his appointees.
Freedom From Tyranny
Freedom From Tyranny
They attempted to document their concerns, request changes from the monarch appointed governors and all the way to king himself without success.
In 1775 they’d had enough and declared rebellion, and a year later signed the declaration of independence.
We’ll be done with the history lesson soon, but I want to call out a few things in the declaration itself. It starts with what it calls self-evident truths. How can they confidently declare that what they are writing is self-evident, or even truth? I believe it’s a biblical basis.
For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
So they seem to be appealing to their faith and the self-evident truth that God tells us in His word are clearly perceived by all.
The first truth they state is that All men are created equal. I think that’s widely present in the bible, but one example is
Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ
Next is says that Men are endowed by their Creator with rights that cannot be taken away and among them are
Life
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Liberty
“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.
Pursuit of Happiness
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
The declaration then transitions to say that governments among men should be at the consent of the governed and not be abusive, but protect the rights of the individual, which matches what Peter tells us about human leadership in
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good.
It also acknowledges that changing governments shouldn’t be done lightly, and that our tendency is to endure suffering evil, until it becomes tyranny and despotism, which is also a biblical principle
And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
Then, after a lengthy list of abuses, they explain that they tried to humbly have their concerns addressed through all possible means, but those pleas were only met with more tyranny. They basically clarify that they believe that the King was denying the fundamental truths they believed in and not fulfilling God’s purpose for human authority:
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
They then appeal to God to ensure their intentions are true and declare their independence from Great Britain.
They open and close with a focus on God. They start by declaring that they understand the rights that God wants man to have, and they close, appealing to God, praying to Him to ensure that their hearts are truly aligned with God’s will in exercising their decision.
I think this is a great example of how we should conduct ourselves, understanding what God wants, following God’s guidance, being patient and waiting upon God, and when action is necessary, asking God to guide the way.
I also think it’s the reason that the effort they set out on has been prosperous and blessed for 250 years.
However, aside from the general principles of the self-evident truths in the declaration of independence, it did not specify particular rights or freedoms.
6 years after the end of the war, the Constitution is made effective in 1789
The constitution defined the three part structure of the government, election procedures, states rights, and government limitations, but aside from Habeas Corpus (legal due process) and the protection of inheritance to the decedents of those convicted of treason, doesn’t really define any particular personal rights or freedoms.
American Freedom
American Freedom
Two years after that, in 1791, a full 16 years after the rebellion began, the Bill of Rights is ratified and includes 10 amendments defining specific individual rights.
Interesting side note, there were originally twelve, the first was about the number of congressional seats which was never ratified and instead was alternatively defined in law in 1929. The second had to do with limitations on changes of congressional salaries, so of course it took 202 years for it to be ratified as the latest amendment, the 27th, in 1992.
Anyhow, the originally ratified ten rights, that were seemingly most important to these founding fathers who sought religious freedom, started a rebellion, declared independence, fought a war and created a new government with the declared purpose of protecting God given individual rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, basically Freedom from Tyranny, were:
No state established religion and personal freedom of speech, press, assembly and the ability to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The right of the people to keep and bear arms
No forced housing of soldiers in personal residences
Security in personal possessions, houses, papers, effects against unreasonable or unwarranted search or seizure.
A person can’t be tried for the same criminal accusation twice and can’t be compelled to witness against themselves.
Right to a speedy trial with an impartial jury, informed of the accusations and confronted with witnesses and assistance of counsel.
Cannot be tried for the same civil accusation twice
No excessive bail, excessive fines or cruel and unusual punishment
Things not specifically limited are assumed to be rights to the people
Powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved for the states or people
This is really the basis of what is commonly referred to as American Freedom, and is a combination of Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Tyranny.
These rights allow us to worship Jesus in the way we want, speak to others about Jesus, write about Jesus and petition the government if we are grieved.
Those are great freedoms, right? It’s hard to imagine not having those freedoms, right? Those freedoms are worth fighting for, right?
But why?
Is it deeply and truly because you want to use those rights to glorify Jesus? To realize here on earth the treatment of each other and freedoms that God would want to bless? To care for our fellow man, find unity in the church and bring others into faith? Basically, do you want those freedoms for God, or for something else?
Is it because you like your stuff? Your house, your land, your livestock, your money, your food, your truck, your van, your sport car, your guns, your T.V., your computer, your video games, your fishing poles, your boat, your sewing machine, your coffee machine, your heavy equipment, your comfy chair, your comfy bed, your smart phone and the idea of someone taking those things from you infuriates you?
Do all those blessings point us and others to God on a daily basis, or does it focus everyone on our stuff, our rights, our freedoms, our perspectives.....Us and not God?
As a quick thought exercise, is it, or has it, been easier for you to imagine shooting someone dead for threatening your stuff or transgressions against you or your family than imagining dying for Jesus Christ?
How many times in your life have you been a mama or papa bear for your family, or been vigilant over your things if you thought someone might steal them? How many times have you imagined dying for the glory of Christ?
This is not to say that we can’t or shouldn’t defend ourselves from evil, just to draw awareness to our real motives and potential fleshly drivers for them.
The freedoms we enjoy are important, the freedoms we enjoy are intended by God for our good, the freedoms we enjoy are worth fighting for, for the right reasons, in the right way. I think the founding fathers did their level best to ensure that they were not acting hastily or for their own selfish interest or to simply protect possessions. They were fighting for a Godly truth and leaned on God to try and fight with a heart for God. They thought it was so important to do so that they captured it in their declaration of independence to ensure that future generations would be able to see the reasons and perspectives they had.
The freedoms we enjoy are very dangerous, it’s all too easy to over focus on the gifts and not the giver. To substitute our stuff and our enjoyable lifestyle, under the name of freedom, for the surpassing value of Jesus Christ. To create false idols out of American Freedom and our luxury.
Enough poking ourselves in the eye for now, let’s take a moment to consider what freedom in Christ looks like
Freedom in Christ
Freedom in Christ
Let’s start with how Jesus describes it
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
Slaves of sin, slaves of the flesh, slaves of the world cannot hear the word of God, they cannot see Jesus. Spiritual Freedom only comes from Jesus.
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
When you hear Jesus call your name, and you repent and believe in him he sets you free from your sin.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
This doesn’t mean that we never sin again, it just means our eternity is secure with Him. After we believe in Him, he goes to work on us:
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It also doesn’t mean that we’ll be free of troubles, Jesus says:
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”
Paul says
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
Faith in Jesus also gives us freedom from concern over our possessions
For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
Faith in Jesus and Freedom in Christ results in POWER! Power over sin, power over our circumstances, power over our pain.
Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ
Paul counts ALL things garbage compared to Christ. He was snake-bitten, whipped, beaten, stoned, shipwrecked, adrift at sea, poor, imprisoned and abandoned by those he loved and he counts it all garbage compared to Christ. All those negative things had no power over him.
Don’t you want that freedom? Don’t you want that power? Isn’t that the freedom truly worth fighting for?
If you truly embrace that and believe in Christ’s promises, and you go home today and someone was there with the power and means to threaten to zero out your bank account, burn all your possessions and kill your family if you don’t deny Christ, you’d have peace in know that having Christ plus nothing is worth more than everything else minus Christ.
If we can really believe that, we’ll be an unstoppable force for Jesus!
Jesus says
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.
If you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Master and Savior this power is yours already! If you don’t believe yet, you can do that right now. Tell Jesus you’re sorry for the sinful life that you’ve led and that you need Him to save you and accept him as your Lord. All it takes is faith, it’s a free gift! It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, who you’ve hurt, how you’ve been hurt or how long you’ve hurt or been hurting, Jesus will meet you there. You just need to surrender to Him. There is no reason to wait, do it now!
Now... believing this doesn’t mean you won’t care about your family, or somehow would walk out of here today and have no concerns about anything, it just means trusting Jesus will give you the strength and words at the time you need them as he says:
And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.”
The bible tells us everyone should test their faith, to see if we’re walking with the Lord or not
...For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”
Test to see if you’re putting anything, including your American Freedom, above God.
That’s what our founding fathers were trying to do. Bookending the declaration of independence with God and prayer and aligning with His will is a clear demonstration of their intentions. Our intentions should be the same.
Freedom of Religion, Freedom from Tyranny, American Freedom are not the ends, they’re not even a means to Freedom in Christ. They’re simply blessings from God that are unearned and undeserved, but He hopes we see those gifts as a pointer to Him and His glory.
If we as a country don’t have God as the central point of our lives and our purpose and don’t see those blessing and gifts as from God and for the purpose of glorifying Him, he’ll do what he’s done through biblical history, he’ll take them away.
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves,
and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
He wouldn’t take these freedoms away because of His wrath, but because He loves us so much that He can’t leave us in disobedience and not seeing Him as the most valuable. He gave the ultimate sacrifice to redeem us, He gave His only Son to take away our sins and allow us to live with Him eternally, washed white as snow from our sins. Thank you Jesus!
If we get that right, we can see our American Freedom in the right light, can see how much of a gift from God it is, and see how it points to the glory or God and how to point others to Him. We’ll be able, like our founding fathers to protect it in the way that God wants us to protect it.
It also sets us free, that when the end times comes. And it will, God has said it will, and there will be a beast system and there will be no religious freedoms, no freedom from tyranny and no possessions, that we can count it all as garbage and declare the glory of God as they are martyring believers. That’s power, that’s freedom! Desire that perspective! Fight for that perspective!
Remember
Remember
Being able to do that comes from remembering. Remembering what Christ has done for us, that despite our trials and tribulations, or even what you’re going through right now, that Jesus is with you, and that he works ALL things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Remember Him, believe in Him, trust in Him, He will never let you down.
One of the ways that He told us to remember is through the Lord’s supper. This is not our table, it’s God’s table. We invite anyone who believes in Jesus as their savior to join us at this table. If you believe but you have something against your brother or sister or something between you and God that you reconcile that before you eat at the table. If you don’t believe in Jesus as your savior, we ask that you don’t eat from this table, and not by our rules, but because it’s what God tell us.
For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.
I’ll pray for us and the elements and then please take some time, do business with Christ, if you don’t believe, you can confess your belief in Him an pray to Him right now. Let Jesus reconcile you to God then you can join us at the Lord’s table if you feel you are led that you are ready.
Pray
