The Snare of Freedom

THEME When the U.S. left Godly paths and principles starting in 1962 and began writing and legislating God out of existence from that time since, we merely gained prodigal freedom. If we are ever to regain Godly freedom, we must return to our beginning foundation: God! INTRODUCTION I want us to turn to our text in Luke 15:11-32. If you can and would, stand with me for the reading of God's Word. (Read the passage then say a prayer and have the people seated.) Let me share this passage of scripture now in a contemporary way. Don't worry, I'm not going to misquote any scripture or take anything out of context. "Once upon a time..." (Tell the narrative of the prodigal story with special emphasis on the highlighted sections of the passage.) This story reveals to us the heart of the dilemma that we find many individuals and much of our nation in today. We have abandoned real freedom for a phony imitation. The consequences of abandoning that real freedom is being played out in cities across our nation today. The prodigals are running loose, totally unaware that what they perceive as freedom will lead them into bondage. Look at a new $20 bill (US currency). We pay for things with money. The color of money used to be green, but this has some red and blue in it now. The moneymakers put some things in this bill so you would know it was genuine. [Describe each security feature.] One is this magnetic strip, another is the watermark of the person's face, and another is this two-tone ink on the number twenty. It is green at this angle, and gold at another angle. If you present this as payment, anyone who receives it can tell it is real. Some people try to cheat and make fake money. The money they make on their own is called a counterfeit. It's fake! It's phony! Why settle for something phony when you can have the real thing? "Phony" has extraordinarily little value. "Phony" has extraordinarily little substance. "Phony" has extraordinarily little worth. The story that Jesus tells us regarding the father and his two sons teaches us a great deal about FREEDOM and how to know if we are living lives that have only found phony, fake and counterfeit freedom or are we living lives that have found REAL freedom. This story's application can be made not only to your life and my life, personally, but also to the life of our nation. Allow me to share with you the preamble to a document that should always be held sacred and revered by men and women throughout this nation. I believe the only writings more sacred are the ones found in the Bible, the Word of God. IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776 THE UNANIMOUS DECLARATION OF THE THIRTEEN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect of the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." The framers of the Declaration of Independence as well as our U.S. Constitution knew and recognized that our freedom, "real" freedom is an endowment from God and no one else. True freedom comes from God and God alone." What the prodigal son teaches us is that there is a SNARE to freedom that we must watch for and be very mindful of. Because just like there is fake sugar, fake butter, fake milk, and fake hair, there is also "fake" freedom! Let's look at three valuable lessons we can learn from the story Jesus told, three lessons that the Prodigal son teaches us through his own life's experience. First: I. TO THE PRODIGAL SON, IT WAS FREEDOM TO BE ON HIS OWN. In his Gettysburg Address, President Abraham Lincoln spoke these words: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, given November 19, 1863 on the battlefield near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Citation: USAhttp://eserver.org/history/gettysburg-address.txt This nation, Under God! Under God! The founders and early leaders of this country, with all their hearts believed that in order for this country to last, in order for America to stand the test of time, in order for America to preserve freedom, she must live, govern and conduct her affairs under God. In 1776 Thomas Paine stirred the land with these words: "These are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands now deserves the love and thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheep, we esteem too lightly; "tis dearness only that gives everything its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price on its goods; and it would be strange indeed, if so celestial an article as Freedom should not be highly rated." SOURCE: 1776 Thomas Paine. Citation from http://www.trinitycathedral.org/Sermons/11111ser.htm President John F. Kennedy, in a speech that he was never able to deliver due to his assassination, wrote these words: "We in this country, in this generation, are by destiny rather than choice the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time the ancient vision of peace on earth, goodwill toward men." -- John F. Kennedy, SOURCE: Presidential Prayer Team Update for April 4, 2003. Throughout the historical documents of our nation we see a constant and consistent acknowledgement and recognition of God and our dependence on Him as a people and as a nation. The Bible says in (NLT) Luke 15:13 -- "A few days later this younger son packed all his belongings and took a trip to a distant land..." The prodigal son wanted his freedom more than anything! He was no different than any of us here today. We want to be free! We want our nation to be free! We want freedom! But what does that really mean? Well, let's get a little personal here. What does being free mean to you? Does it mean free to do as you please? Or does it mean free to do as God pleases? Does it mean free to live by your standards? Or does it mean free to live by God's standards? Does it mean free to fulfill your pleasures? Or does it mean free to fulfill God's pleasures? The prodigal thought freedom meant getting away from the authority and limits of his father's house. He got Dad to give him his portion of what was to be his inheritance and he no sooner got it then he took off for someplace far, far away from his father's home, his father's boundaries, his father's rules. But when he left his father's home, boundaries, and rules He failed to realize that it meant that he was leaving his father's provision, his father's protection, and his father's security. Just like the prodigal son, far too many Americans today are convinced that FREEDOM means being on your own, free of boundaries, free of rules. Somewhere between 1776 and 2020 America redefined and reinterpreted FREEDOM UNDER GOD to mean FREEDOM FROM GOD. In an April 14th, 2004 presidential news conference, George W. Bush spoke these powerful words: "I (also) have this belief, strong belief, that freedom is not this country's gift to the world; freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world." A seemingly increasing number of people deride our former president for his openness toward his personal faith in God and his references to God in his speeches. And yet where was all the derision when our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln spoke these words? OUR DEPENDENCE ON GOD "It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord. We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us." SOURCE: Abraham Lincoln, Oct 1863. Contributed by Daniel Becker THE MOST IMPORTANT FREEDOM In 1863 those words inspired a nation to repentance and humility. Today they would be met with apathetic silence from the church and cries for impeachment or resignation from the secular humanists. WHY? Because just like the prodigal son, many Americans today think that "freedom under God" really means "freedom from God". And that's not REAL Freedom! The second lesson we learn from the prodigal son is: II. TO THE PRODIGAL SON IT WAS FASHIONABLE TO LIVE AS HE PLEASED. When I think of fashionable, I automatically think of clothing. I am amazed at the cycle that fashion trends seem to take over the course of our lives. For a while there you couldn't walk through a mall without seeing dozens of pairs of boxer shorts and they weren't on the racks. They were about three inches higher on the waist than the pants of many young boys. Now I'm 63 years old and I try not to be too prudish, but I must admit that I did want to offer a bit of advice, "gain weight" or "buy a belt". Ten years ago, you were making fun of the refrigerator repairman for letting his bottom show and now it's fashionable. 1. In America today it is fashionable to rewrite history that it may suit our desires of the day. 2. In America today it is fashionable to give new meaning to our constitution beyond the originators spirit and intent. Simply consider the first Amendment to our Constitution, adopted on (December 15, 1791) It reads: 1. "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Nowhere in this amendment or any other portion of our Constitution do we see ANY mention of "separation of church and state". It was never the intent of the founding fathers to keep the church out of government, but rather to keep the government out of the church. Today in America it is fashionable to bully God out of existence Today in America it is fashionable to be promiscuous. It's fashionable to live together. It's fashionable to be homosexual. It's fashionable to kill unborn children. It's fashionable to label as homophobic, bigoted, hatemongering, self-righteous, narrow-minded elitists anyone who shows the slightest inkling of character or morality. The church of Jesus Christ is allowing our nation to slide headlong into a quagmire of moral relativism where the only "truth" embraced is that there is no truth. Our hands-off approach to the decay of morality and truth jeopardizes our "real" freedom everyday we apathetically sit idly by. While freedom "from" God may sound appealing on the surface it offers only a devastating destination for all. FREEDOM During the 1960's there was a significant cultural shift in America. The rules began to be challenged. People thought that if there were any rules at all then there is no freedom. True Freedom meant no rules at all. No laws, no morals, no community standards -- just true freedom. This led to Free Love, Free Drugs, Free Sex -- Free Everything! If it feels good -- do it, became the war cry of the times. Where would this philosophy lead us? Imagine if everybody did whatever he or she wanted to. No limits, no laws, no regulation. Everyone just did as they pleased. We're seeing an example of that mindset being poured out on the streets of our nation today. Suppose that we go into partnership to buy a rowboat, with each of us paying half of the cost. Then we draw a line right down the middle to divide it up evenly. We get in and start rowing out to sea. Just as we get out of sight of land, I take out a drill and start making what I call "freedom" holes in the bottom of my end of the boat. When you scream that my "freedom" is sinking the boat, I respond by saying, "But I have a right to express myself on my end of the boat and you have no right to censor my creative expressions." The question is: When does my freedom become our funeral? (NKJV) Proverbs 16:25 -- "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death." Fortunately, before it was too late, the Bible says, the prodigal son came to his senses. It is my solemn prayer that our country will be as fortunate. It was that transformation in the prodigal's life that now offers us the third and final lesson that we learn from this story Jesus told. III. TO THE PRODIGAL SON IT WAS FUTILE TO BE ANYWHERE BUT HOME. (NLT) Luke 15:17-18 -- "When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, `At home even the hired men have food enough to spare, and here I am, dying of hunger! I will go home to my father (NLT) Luke 15:20 -- "So he returned home to his father. He came to his senses! He realized that real freedom wasn't to be found in the pigpen. Real freedom was to be at home with a loving provider and protector. Real freedom was to be with his Father. Christian apologist and author, Francis Schaffer once said: "Here's the great evangelical disaster - the failure of the evangelical world to stand for truth as truth. There is only one word for them - namely, accommodation." If the church in America accommodates the moral anarchy that is gripping the nation, we only have the snare of prodigal freedom. And to quote Abraham Lincoln once again: "Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and, under a just God cannot long retain it." (Abraham Lincoln: Letter to H. L. Pierce) Let's return to the document I quoted at the beginning of this message: The Declaration of Independence. "We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive for these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it..." "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government." Our own Declaration of Independence dictates that a revolution is in order. But this revolution will not be fought with guns, cannons, tanks or any other human weapon of war. It is a revolution that will be fought and won by repentant people who have come to their senses and are humble enough to cry out to a Holy and Righteous God and ask forgiveness. We must come to realize that a Holy and Just God cannot and will not submit to such hostile rebellion against His Holy Name. Prodigal freedom is freedom from God. True freedom is freedom under God. (NAB) John 8:36 -- "So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. True Freedom is found ONLY in God through his Son Jesus Christ. Patrick Henry was a famous statesman and orator of colonial Virginia. In 1764 he was elected to the House of Burgesses where he became a champion of the frontier people, supporting their rights against the arrogant exercise of power by the aristocracy. In 1774 he was a delegate to the First Continental Congress. In 1775, before the Virginia Provincial Convention, which was deeply divided between those who supported England and those who desired freedom, he uttered his most famous words, "Give me liberty or give me death!" During the Revolutionary War he became commander-in-chief of Virginia's military forces, a member of the Second Continental Congress, helped draw up the first constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and was largely responsible for drawing up the amendments to our Constitution known as the Bill of Rights. He became Virginia's first governor and was re-elected four times. Then he retired from public life, but despite his strong objections the people went ahead and re-elected him Governor for the 5th time. But he meant what he said, so he refused to take the office. He was offered a seat in the U.S. Senate, and posts as ambassador to Spain and to France. President George Washington asked him to join his cabinet and become Secretary of State, and later wanted to appoint him the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But he refused all such honors and recognitions. Listen to these words from him: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians -- not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ." His Last Will & Testament was filed in the Brookneal County courthouse in Virginia. You read his will and you'll see that he bequeathed everything to his children, just as most people do. But the last paragraph in his will is especially interesting. He wrote, "I have now given everything I own to my children. There is one more thing I wish I could give them and that is Christ. Because if they have everything I gave them and don't have Christ, they have nothing." SOURCE: Melvin Newland, Central Christian Church, Brownsville, Texas. If you leave here today and you possess all that this world has to offer you and yet, you don't have Jesus Christ, you don't have anything. Don't leave here today empty-handed. Jesus Christ came to this earth, born of a virgin, lived a life without sin, and was crucified, buried and dead. On the third day He raised from the dead and lives eternally to offer you and me a life of hope, a life of purpose...a life of freedom. The Snare of Freedom Damon Deaton Page 9 7/5/2020 Credit David Holderman