Independance Day
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Freedom
Good morning and Happy 4thof July Weekend! I am so glad that you choose to worship here this morning. While many Americans are out celebrating on boats and having picnics or whatever, you choose to start your day by Worshiping the grantor of freedom. I believe that God will honor that.
Let’s begin with reading from God’s Word,
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:13–14 (ESV)
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Feelings of patriotism tend to flow rather freely at this time of the year. When we sing the "Star Spangled Banner," or hear a vocalist sing about America and the freedoms that we enjoy, we often want to stand up and salute or just do something to show that we’re proud of our nation.
Sometimes we hear patriotic speeches which contain that ringing phrase, "I’m proud to be an American!" And we echo those sentiments, too. But think about it for a moment. Maybe what we ought to be saying is, "I’m grateful that I’m an American!"
You see, we could have been born in Bosnia or China or Pakistan. We could have found ourselves on the streets of India this morning, wondering where our next meal is coming from, surrounded by squalor.
But here we are, surrounded by beautiful people, in a loving church, in one of the most beautiful states in the US.
I am deeply grateful to be a citizen of the United States. And I trust that you are grateful, as well.
A father was talking with his rather rebellious son one day and said, "Every person who lives in the United States is a privileged person." The boy answered, "I disagree." And the father replied, "That’s the privilege."
We have the privilege to disagree. We have the privilege to speak our mind. We have freedom of religion, of speech, of the press, and the right of petition. We have the freedom to hope and dream and to pursue our dreams. We are free in so many ways!
We have these rights because of what our forefathers have done. You and I didn’t earn the privileges that we enjoy as citizens of this land. But I am thankful for those who did earn them and passed them on to me, and that is what I celebrate on the 4th of July.
We have been given such an amazing gift, the people of America. I have already mentioned a few of the freedoms that we possess as inhabitants of this land. Freedom of Speech, the freedom to protect ourselves and our loved ones, the freedom to assemble and to worship, the promise of our right to life and the freedom to pursue happiness.
Each of these freedoms came at a tremendous cost. A moment ago, we sang a salute to the men and women of our armed forces. Each of the freedoms that we posses as Americans were given to us by the grace of God and purchased with the lives of American Veterans. The old saying is, “Freedom isn’t free.” It really isn’t. It takes great sacrifice to be free.
There is another quote by another great American patriot, Uncle Ben from Spiderman said, “With great Power comes great responsibility.” I want to change it up a bit, sorry Uncle Ben… For today’s purposes it is, “With Great Freedom comes great responsibility.”
We have been given such a great gift. This freedom we have has historically been envied by the world. This gift of God should be used for good.
What are our responsibilities you ask? I am glad you asked! There are many. I think perhaps the most important is prayer.
Responsibilities:
Prayer
I think we should spend a significant amount of time praying for our country. Praying for our leaders. Praying about current events and people and leaders of other nations. I think we should pray as Daniel did in Daniel chapter 9.
Daniel 9:3–6 (ESV)
3 Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
4 I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5 we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.
6 We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
3Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
4I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments,
5we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules.
6We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. 7To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, …
In that passage, Daniel and the rest of his people found themselves in exile in Babylon. They had been cast out of their nation because of the sin of the people and the sin of their leaders. Daniel understood his responsibility and turned the Lord in prayer. Nothing could stop Daniel from praying, not even the threat of being thrown to the lions!
Another responsibility is to simply live Godly lives, obeying the authorities over us as long as those authorities do not make laws contradicting Scripture.
Responsibilities:
Prayer
Obedience
Again, the book of Daniel has several illustrations of what that looks like! Paul spoke of this in his letter to the Romans
Romans 13:1–2 (ESV)
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
1Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
2Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
The last one that I want to mention this morning is voting.
Responsibilities:
Prayer
Obedience
Voting
Responsibilities of Freedom
Prayer
Obedience
Voting
This is a huge one. You will not find people voting in Scripture. The only vote in the new testament ended up with Paul and his captors shipwrecked!
But voting in our nations elections is perhaps the most important action outside of prayer that an American Christian can participate in.
We live in a Democratic Republic. Meaning “We the People” are the rulers! We decide who represents us. We decide who gets to go make the rules by which we will live by. We decide who sits on the bench and judges us by the laws we agree to live under. What an experiment America is! What a tremendous responsibility! We should go the voting booth with fear and trembling! We should be seeking God’s Will and studying His Word, asking Him who we should select as our leaders.
Our duty is to Vote. We have a sacred duty and responsibility to vote according to God’s Holy Word. We should never knowingly vote for a man or woman who will not represent the Godly values the Bible. We should spend the time to research each candidate and know what their positions are.
When given the opportunity to vote on a democratic issue, we should #1 makes sure we make it to the polls, it is out duty to do so, and #2 make sure we vote according to Scripture.
For example, this election that is coming up, not only do we get the chance to vote for the offices of those who will represent us, but we get to vote on issues as well. One of the issues on the ballot is the issue of adding the act of abortion, the murder of innocent unborn life, to the Vermont State Constitution. This is known as Prop 5. Obviously, as Christians, we should vote no to such a heinous addition to our State’s Constitution.
During the 1800’s, Alexis de Toqueville, a famous French political philosopher, visited our nation seeking to uncover the secret of our greatness. He traveled from town to town, asking questions, examining every facet of our society, and then wrote his conclusions in his famous work, “Democracy in America.”
Dr. John McDowell, a Presbyterian minister, attributed the following statement to Toqueville. While proof is lacking that he is the author, Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan, and Clinton have quoted it. And I believe the message is still relevant today.
"I sought for America’s greatness. I found it not in her fields and forests. I found it not in her mines and factories. I found it not in her Congress and great tribunals. It was only when I entered her churches and heard her pulpits thundering against sin and preaching righteousness that I discovered her greatness. America is great because America is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." — Alexis de Toqueville
I think he got it right. The only way America can retain her Greatness is to remain true to that which is Good.
And that is the Problem! The Bible says that there are none that are Good. Paul wrote to the Roman’s saying,
Romans 3:10–12 (ESV)
10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11 no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
10as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;
11no one understands; no one seeks for God.
12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”
And this brings me to the most important thing I am going to say to you this morning.
All of our freedoms In the great country that we live in are worthless and in danger of disappearing forever with out the Freedom that is offered only through Jesus Christ.
We started the message this morning with a passage from Galatians.
Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
1For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
This freedom that Paul is writing the Galatians about is a freedom greater than all other freedoms that we have as American’s combined. As great as the US Constitution is as a document, it cannot ever grant you the freedom that Paul is talking about.
There is only one way to possess the freedom, this freedom from sin, from evil, from destruction. That way is Jesus. I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life, Jesus says.
If you are a Christian, if you know Jesus Christ as your personal savior. If you have asked him for forgiveness of sin, then you are free! Salvation is the ultimate freedom. The freedom of Salvation offers the freedom to know your sins are forgiven. It offers you the freedom to access the throne of God at any time, night, or day! It gives to the freedom to access the Power of the Holy Spirit, to illuminate Scripture so that you can understand it, to convict you when you are doing wrong, to grant you gifts to accomplish God’s Work. I could go on and on! The freedoms are endless!
Similarly, to the freedoms we discussed, the ones we have as Americans, the freedom that comes with Salvation also came at a great cost. In fact, the greatest cost possible. It the price was the life blood of the creator of the universe, God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ.
The price of our American freedom’s was blood of our soldiers. The price for our freedom from sin was the blood of our God. What a tremendous cost.
This cost demands accountability and responsibility. Just like we have responsibility to our nation because of the freedom we are given, we have responsibility to our God because of the freedom He gives. We don’t just owe Him; He has commanded us to responsible for a variety of things.
Galatians 5:13–14 (ESV)
13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
13For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Paul tells us that one of the responsibilities is to love and serve our fellow man.
I am going to meddle little bit here. I hope no one gets too mad at me, but I really believe what I am about to say.
I believe that the decay in our country can be blamed on America's Churches. As Toqueville stated, America has started down the road to losing her greatness because she has stopped being good. She is more concerned with pleasure and possessions than she is with what is righteous and pleasing to God. She is consumed with evil and with nearly every perversion that we read about in the ancient cultures that God obliterated in Scriptures.
For too long there have been churches who have felt that it’s all right for nice little people to get together and listen to pleasant music and little sermons that make them feel good about themselves and their homes and families and relationship to God.
"Just tell me how nice I am, how pretty I am, how righteous I am. Give me Christianity, but don’t talk to me about conversion. Don’t talk to me about Service. Don’t talk to me about repentance. Don’t talk to me about sacrifice. I don’t want to change. I want to remain exactly the way I am."
Somehow along the way, in our celebration of independence and freedom, we have forgotten the greatest freedom of all. Jesus Christ went to the cross and gave His life to gain our freedom from sin. And that is a message that our country needs to hear again and again today.
Chuck Swindoll, in his book, "Living Above the Level of Mediocrity," tells about a church in the Soviet Union a few years ago that was forced to meet secretly because the holding of house church services was illegal.
They tried to be as inconspicuous as possible as they gathered on Sunday to worship the Lord, so they came at different times and casually walked into the house until they had all arrived. Then they would close the doors, pull the curtains, and quietly worship the Lord.
But one Lord’s Day, right in the midst of their worship service, two soldiers broke into the room, and at gunpoint lined the Christians up against the wall. One shouted, "If you wish to renounce your faith in Jesus Christ, leave now!"
Two or three quickly left, then another, and then two more. Again the soldier spoke, "This is your last chance. Either leave now and renounce your faith in Christ, or stay and suffer the consequences." Another left, and then another, almost hiding their faces in shame as they went out.
But the rest stood their ground, children standing beside their parents, trembling, some even crying as their parents stood with their hands in the air, fully expecting to be gunned down or imprisoned.
After all had left who chose to flee, the other soldier closed the doors, looked back at those who stood against the wall and said, "Keep your hands up - but this time in praise to our Lord Jesus Christ. We, too, are Christians."
The two soldiers explained that some time earlier they had been sent to another house church to arrest the Christians there. But in the process, they had heard the gospel and had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, too. But they explained, "We have learned that unless people are willing to die for their faith, they cannot be fully trusted."
Folks, I hope that you are humbly thankful to be a part of this great land of ours, and that you’ll not take your citizenship lightly, but be determined to hold high the freedoms we enjoy so that the generations that follow us will experience and treasure them also.
And I pray that you, too, will be a real Christian who is hungry and thirsty for the truth of God, and that you will never compromise it, but share it with a world that desperately needs to hear the only truth that can guarantee our freedom for all eternity.
Choose Freedom In Jesus
This morning we offer to you the invitation of the greatest liberator of all, Jesus Christ who gained our freedom on the cross. We offer you His sacrifice, and we pray that you’ll respond to His call on your life by choosing this day to surrender to Him and make him the Lord of your Life.
I believe that God wants to heal our nation. We already know how He will do it if He chooses to do so. If He chooses to give us another chance. He will heal this land through His Church. Through the Love of Christ flowing through His servants in local churches just like this one. Though men and women just like you. Through the love that you show your neighbor.