Jesus said to the people
who believed in him, “You are truly my
disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
“But
we are descendants of Abraham,” they said. “We have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean, ‘You will be set free’?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin. A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is
part of the family forever. So if the Son
sets you free, you are truly free. John 8:31 - 36 (NLT)
To ring a bell is to sound a clear note. Carl Sandburg captured a clear note about
America when he said,
I see America, not in the
setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see
America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative
hand of God. I see
great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.
The
Liberty Bell ought to sound out clear and strong. However, many people live as if deaf to the
sound, and blind to freedom's holy light. Freedom is not a thing to be
pursued. Rather, it is what men are! Ringing the bell of freedom means living a
life worthy of that freedom; it means living free; it means life in Christ.
This
morning, the word "freedom" becomes an acrostic for teaching us how
to live a genuine life of freedom intended by not only the founding fathers of
our great nation, but the Father Whose name is hallowed:
F is for FAITH.
'
Faith
and freedom are inseparable. When Columbus came to our
shores in 1492 it was with one goal in mind – by faith he determined to spread
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Pilgrims made a faith
covenant together to serve God in the new land, even before they landed at
Plymouth Rock. Most of the signers of the Declaration of
Independence expressed their deep faith in the framing of that great document,
and its brother, the Constitution.
John
Witherspoon, the only minister to sign the Declaration of Independence, was a
Scottish Presbyterian minister. So great
was his influence in the Continental Congress that the British blamed the
revolution on the Presbyterians ... Said Horace Walpole in England's
Parliament, Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson.
Samuel
Adams, cousin to John Adams who would later become president, has often been
referred to as the father of the American War for Independence. His house was known as a house of prayer. He was the organizer of the Boston Tea Party,
and led his countrymen in many other causes for liberty. [He] said,
The rights of the colonists may be best
understood by reading and carefully studying the institutes of the great Law
Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are to be found clearly written
and promulgated in the New Testament.
John
Adams was one of four signers who were assigned to the task of assisting Thomas
Jefferson in the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and it is said
that when he saw Jefferson's first draft without any mention of God, he
insisted that God be made a party to this momentous event, and then assisted
him in the proper wording.
Faith
and freedom are inseparable. The fact is
that we depended on God at the beginning; departing from Him will be our
ending.
R…stands for Responsibility
Privilege
demands responsibility. We have a ballot
box - that is a privilege. To fail to
exercise that privilege is a shirking of responsibility.
Bill
Vaughn has said, A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for
democracy, but 'won't cross the street to
vote in a national election.
When we
blame God or government for our woes and failures we are simply avoiding the
responsibility we don't want to
bear. A man called a pastor to say he
wanted to join his church. But, he went
on to explain that he didn't want to take on the added burdens of
responsibility of worshipping every week, studying the Bible, visiting the sick or
witnessing to the lost. He couldn't serve as a leader or teacher in any
way. The pastor thanked him for his
desire to join, but told him the church he was looking for was located in a
different section of town. The man took
the directions, and when he arrived at the other church, the man came face to
face with ignored responsibility – for there stood an abandoned church
building, boarded up and ready for demolition.
Ideals
never get anything done until the idealist does something. Living a life of freedom means taking
responsibility.
E... stands for EMPATHY.
Believers
care when people hurt. Much of our
culture teaches isolationism. We are so
afraid of each other these days it is like people find it impossible to
trust.
C.S.
Lewis wrote:
To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and
possibly broken. If you want to make
sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and
little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of
your selfishness. But in that casket,
safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become
unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The
Four Loves
Living a life of freedom means caring about others.
E.. . also stands for ENLIGHTENMENT.
Followers
of Jesus have always lived in the light. A lot of things that used to be done in the dark –
drugs, crime, hatred, prostitution, homosexuality – are done in the light of day
now. The acts aren't what postmodernism claims
as being
enlightened, it’s just more in view than in days gone by. It’s just brazen, pagan indifference to God.
Christians
are still bringing light to bear on society. Public education had its beginning in the
church. Women and children's rights
didn't begin with the feminist movement, or a benign government program. Gentleness and courtesy, peacemaking and honor
were not the brainstorm of a 60’s hippie philosopher. The kind of genuine light that makes society
bearable and workable came from the heart of a no-name Rabbi 2,000 years ago,
uttered from the slopes of a hillside in a no-name province called Galilee. They called him Jesus, and the principles of
life and freedom we still call "The Sermon On the Mount" ... the Beatitudes. Living a life of freedom means honoring the
teacher that still teaches honor .
D.. . means DEVOTION.
It is
hard to teach our children that the devotional life is important when we
legally bar corporate prayer and Bible reading from our schools. However, it is important to remember that
prayer and the Bible have not been banned from our homes. YET!
Jesus
said we need to work the works of righteousness while it is still day. The night is coming! That means, as much as possible we need to
teach our children the right life of devotion in the Word and prayer.
And when
the darkness does come –when and if we are barred from owning our copy of the
Bible, we must resist to the end.
A life
of freedom is a life of devotion, even if devotion means the end of that life .
O.. .is for OBLIGATION.
Unselfish
giving of ourselves, our resources, and – in some cases – our very
lives, is the price we pay to
continue the legacy of our heritage.
I love
the story of Johnny Appleseed. You
remember the man who walked across North America planting apple trees. Johnny knew he would never sit under the shade of any of those trees; he was
planting for a new generation.
All of
us here today had no part in the construction of the building in which we now worship. Not a single one of us had a thing to do with
the original foundation of this church body. This was accomplished by
saints who built for another generation. Their sacrifice met the obligation God places
upon all our lives
You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you
with a high price. So you must honor God
with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19b - 20 (NLT)
We
belong to God – a life of freedom means planting for the coming generation, not
living to please ourselves.
M...
stands for MORALITY.
Historian
Henry Jaffa quoted Abraham Lincoln: Democracy must not be based on 'mere opinion'
but a moral purpose.[1]
When
Jesus said we could be free, He was not talking about license to do what we want; Jesus pointed at being
freed to live as we ought.
Morality
is not a straight jacket to enslave us. It is a comforting suit of spiritual armor to protect us
from our own proclivities towards sin.
Epictetus said, No man is free who is not a master of himself.
Seven
letters in the word "freedom" teach us how to live a life worthy of
free men:
Faith –
Have faith in God. He died for you.
Responsibility
– Accept responsibility for liberty, commit to following Christ, loving your
family, and community.
Empathy –
Care and act like a Jesus person, full of compassion.
Enlightenment
– Honor the teacher who teaches honor.
Devotion
– Teach faith by faithful example.
Obligation
– Pluck up a weed today, plant a seed for tomorrow.
Morality
– A life of integrity – Doing right, no matter who's watching.
Beloved,
if you live a life like that, you won't have to worry about guilt and
conscience. You won't worry about what
others think. You won't worry about
eternity.
Now
that's being really free!
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