Independence Day
Notes
Transcript
The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence begins with these words: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
I want to stop here and give you just bit of a lesson in civics that I hope will help you. These rights that we talk about are things that we state are endowed by our creator, and that is important. See, if your rights come from me, then I can decide at a later time that it no longer suits me for you to have those rights. I can change what rights I think you deserve. If you believe that your rights are derived from the government, hold on tight, because they can decide that your rights do not suit them because the times have changed or the situation has changed. We know that our rights are derive from God himself, the government cannot take away something that they were not in a position to give in the first place.
It also means that we as a nation can own the fact that we have progress to make.......God has inscribed upon all people these rights without regard to creed, race, sex, we have not always done the best job as humans in recognizing that fact, but we stated in the preamble to our constitution that our creation of a nation was in order to form a more perfect Union. and that is what we strive to be every day. We can recognize the inalienable rights provided by God, admit when we have fallen from recognizing them correctly, and dedicate ourselves to being better.
The closing words of their Declaration solemnly states: "With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes & our sacred Honor."
It is important that we remember this declaration of their dependence upon God, for in a time of world turmoil, the United States today is rapidly forgetting the God of our fathers, the God who gave this nation its birth & its greatness.
I trust that all of you recognize the name of Patrick Henry. But I’m afraid many of our school children know almost nothing of him at all. Patrick Henry was a famous statesman of colonial Virginia.
In 1764 he was elected to the Virginia 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 & 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. He was a member of the Second Continental Congress. He helped draw up the first constitution of the Commonwealth of Virginia, & was primarily responsible for drawing up the amendments to our Constitution known as the Bill of Rights.
He became Virginia's first governor, & was re-elected 3 more times. Then he retired from public life, but despite his strong objections the people went ahead & 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, & posts as ambassador to Spain & to France. Pres. George Washington asked him to join his cabinet & become Secretary of State, & later wanted to appoint him the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But he refused all such honors & recognitions.
Now why do I mention these things about Patrick Henry? It is because I want you to realize that he was an important & respected leader in those days when our nation came into being.
Now listen to his words. He said, "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. Read his Will & 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 & that is Christ. Because if they have everything I gave them & don't have Christ, they have nothing."
I love reading about Patrick Henry & George Washington & John Adams & Thomas Jefferson & John Jay & many of the other patriots who gave of themselves so valiantly that we might enjoy the freedoms that are ours.
At that time, these men were declaring their Independence from the dominion of Great Britain. And obviously as we were earlier singing God Bless America and not God save the queen, that declaration of our national independence was successful.
But today, I want to ask you a question……. Have you declared your personal independence?
This is YOUR Independence Day!
This is YOUR Independence Day!
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Our forefathers, who found themselves under the dominion of England, decided that it was time for them to declare their Independence!
For them, this decision led to a bloody war. Victory DID come, but not without great cost! It’s the same for us believers: Jesus has set us
free from the DOMINION of the devil,.. and the cost was: The very life of Jesus!
I used to believe that it was MY job to fight the devil,... to win the victory, through God’s power.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
But, the Bible clearly states that the devil is a defeated enemy! (I Peter 5:8) Jesus already defeated him at the cross! There is no NEED for ME to try to defeat an already defeated foe!
(Lions don’t "wander around roaring." Lions must depend on stealth! They sneak up on you! That is their main weapon! That’s how they get close enough to you,... close enough to pounce on you! If a lion is roaring,... you will hear him coming and run away! The devil’s a "roaring lion" because he was wounded at the cross!)
Although satan is still alive, and trying to lead you into sin, he does NOT need to be obeyed! He tries to convince me that little sins are o.k., and he tries to make me afraid of him, and, if I DO sin, he’s right there to accuse me before God!
But, his power to control you is gone!
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
Jesus has "condemned sin... (destroyed sin’s power) in the flesh" (Romans 8:3) The power of sin over you has been destroyed,.. and condemned! It’s no longer
your master! You are NO LONGER it’s slave! It no longer has control over you! You now have a NEW Master. You are now a slave to righteousness.
This is YOUR Independence Day! If you’ve never understood this before,... YOU don’t have to fight the devil,.. Jesus already fought him and won! You and I NO LONGER have to SERVE sin! We have been set free to serve the Savior,... not out of an obligation, not out of a duty, but, out of love! Although we are INDEPENDENT of sin,.. we are to be DEPENDENT on Jesus! We are to believe in HIS victory for us! We are to trust HIM to live His life through us! We’re to REST in His finished work!
Imagine a baby inside of its mother,.. if he could talk, he might say, "I am IN MOM!" He might say, "My Life is MOM!" That baby is totally dependent on his Mom! He depends on her for oxygen, for blood, for food,... for life! Apart from his Mom, he can do nothing!
That’s us! We are IN JESUS! HE is our very life!
We depend on Him for victory,.. for peace,.. for joy,.. without Him we can do nothing!
Look at John 15:5
I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
The duty of the baby is to DEPEND on the Mother! The duty of the believer is to DEPEND on the Savior! He told us, "Without Me you can do nothing!" (vs. 5)
Notice, He didn’t say "without My power, you can do nothing." No,.. He said "without ME you can do nothing!" Notice, He didn’t say "without prayer you can do nothing"... He didn’t say "without fasting you can do nothing".. He didn’t say a lot of things,.. but, he DID say, "without ME you can do nothing!"
Jesus wants to be OUR VERY LIFE! He was the ONLY One who has ever successfully lived a life totally pleasing to God! How can you or I be able to match that? WE CAN’T! Jesus must do it in us and through us! The Life of the Baby is the life of the Mom! The Life of the Branch is the Vine!
Return to the Garden of Eden, for a picture of how it was meant to be,... How God set it up to be, and how NOW, through Jesus, God brings us back to the Garden! Adam and Eve were free,.. there was no list of rules, no laws to govern their thoughts or actions,.. there was just God and them, and they would walk together in the cool of the day
Yes, there was ONE restriction,.. don’t eat of that one tree. That was it. For all they knew, that tree was poison! God did tell them, "the day you eat of it, you will die." (Gen. 2:16-17)
But, God intended for His two new creations to be in fellowship with Him,.. to enjoy their time together, to get to know each other,.. and to provide for their every need! God wanted them to be fully and totally dependent upon Him! He wanted to be everything to them,.. He wanted to be their very life!
You know the story,.. it all came to an end when Adam and Eve decided to "be independent" of God God,... to go their own way,... to try to make a life for themselves APART from God.
But, the story has a happy ending: We can now come back to God,.. He has cleared our debt,.. we can be returned to a place of fellowship with God, we can walk and talk with Him,... we can sit at His feet and learn from Him, we can get to know Him, and trust HIM, to meet our every need! HE can,.. once again,.. be our very Life!
If you have taken Jesus as your savior, and given your life to Him,... then HE IS INSIDE OF YOU. He’s not inside just to sit in there and watch what you do,... He is in there to LIVE AGAIN THROUGH YOU,... to be your life, to meet all of your needs, to be all that He can be, in and through you!