Posted January 10, 1999
"WHAT IS FREEDOM?"
Luke 15:18-21
HOW FREE IS FREEDOM? Why do you want to be free? There is no particular virtue in wanting freedom. Every bird that flies in the air wants to be free. Every fish in the lake wants to be free. Every animal in the wild will fight you to the death to maintain its freedom. So there's no virtue in wanting freedom. What are you going to do with freedom when you get it?
The whole world is screeming freedom. The Berlin wall has come down. People in Europe are standing in the streets chanting freedom. And they are weeping over something called freedom. Mention the word freedom and Americans stand tall. Mandella is free, after all those years in prison. WHAT IS FREEDOM? HOW FREE IS FREEDOM? WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH FREEDOM AND WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH FREEDOM WHEN YOU GET IT?
That's the story of the Prodigal Son. Here is a boy who got his freedom and he didn't rise to a new level of excellance. He took all of his new found freedom and went straight to the Pig's Pen with it.
He left home a son and he came home begging to be a slave--he left home saying GIVE ME and he came home saying MAKE ME---he left home saying Daddy-O, and he came home saying O-daddy. He went into the far country looking for pleasure and profits and power, and he came home with poverty and the stinch of a Pig's Pen on him. He went into the far country looking for success and he came home covered with the stinch of shame and sorrow.
He went into the far country with all of his new found freedom, looking for the good life and he came home saying, "With all of my new found freedom, I found hell on earth." Many of you have taken all the freedom you have found, either from your parents or this great nation and you have destroyed yourself. You've gone straight to a Pig's Pen.
Maybe the Pig's Pen is alcohol, or tobaco, or drugs. Maybe it is the Pig's Pen of divorce, or of financal ruin. Whatever it happens to be, I want you to know that the only way you are ever going to come to a new level of life, is to TURN AROUND AND GO BACK TO THE FATHER AND SAY WHAT THE PRODIGAL SAID, in Luke 15:18-21. (read)
WHAT IS FREEDOM? How free is freedom? Why do you want freedom? Let's begin with this thought. That you are never free enough to escape community! (repeat) What does that mean? That means that our lives are linked together. I cannot do something that will hurt you, without that something hurting me.
Our lives are very definately link together and we have an a tremendous responsibility to each other.
Let us get rid of this mad thought that there is absolute freedom. There is no such thing as absolute freedom. Say that with me. (repeat) The stars do not have it, they are hemmed in by the hand of God. The oceans do not have it, they are hemmed in by the shore. Man does not have it, because we are hemmed in by each other.
I think that I saw that in a story that I read several months ago of a man in a modern city who decided that he was going to build a wooden tool shed on the back of his property. And the city said, "you can't build a wooden tool shed here, the fire code says it has to be brick." He said, it's my lot, I'm free, I'll build it like I want. They said, "No you won't."
He back down and decided, "I will build brick." Then they said, "You've got to have a permit." He said, "No way, this is America, I'm free, I can do what I want. I will not buy a permit." They said, "You will buy a permit or you'll go to jail."
He didn't buy a permit, they arrested him, threw him in jail and now he is really mad. He hired a lawyer to get out, paid his fee. Drove off from city hall mad as a hornet, ran a stop sign, cop arrested him threw him back in jail--paid another fine. He said, "I'm not going to live in a town that doesn't have anymore freedom than this." He went home packed his clothes, threw them all in the car and started driving for the city limits. Got to the city limits, there was a blockade. The health inspector said, "This city has been quarantined because of small pox, go home you cannot leave town."
Now there is a story for you. How free is freedom? IT IS NEVER FREE ENOUGH TO DO YOUR OWN THING. I want you to hear this---Freedom is not responsibility to do your own thing, it is the responsibility to do as YOU OUGHT! I want you to hear that. It is the responsibility to do as YOU OUGHT. Freedom comes in a combined package. It is the responsibility of life and the conscequences of life.
We have come to a point in time in America where individualism that we use to experience, no longer is productive. Understand that when America was young and you were living in a valley with 2 or 3 hundred people and there was an argument, you just simply went over the hill and started your own little town. And you called it Smithsville. And when there was an argument with you in Smithsville you went over the hill and started a town and you called it Jonesville and when there was an argument in Jonesville you went over the next hill and you started another town and you called it Whose- everville that was.
There's a problem. We reached the ocean. And now we are hemmed in and we are forced to live with each other. What hurts you, hurts me. We have to understand that there is no such thing as being free from each other. We must learn to live together. Whites and blacks, Christians and Jews, poor and rich, illeterate and intellegent. We have to learn to live together.
The Bible says, "Love you neighbor as yourself." Say that with me. (repeat) Quite honestly the Church is not doing a very good job of that today. The church is segregated both by race and economics. And if you don't think so, you are living a dream. When you open the Bible you don't find a white church, a black church, a rich church, a poor church. You find THE church of Jesus Christ. That's all you'll find there.
I want you to understand that the New Winchester Baptist Church is a people's church. And if you come in here and you are wearing your $500 suit and you set down and the person next to you has on blue jeans, you treat that person like he is a prince. Because he is a prince in the kingdom of God. God loves him as much as He loves you.
The story is told of a black man in the south who tried to join a very proper white church -- he tried 4 or 5 times to join and finally, after many times of being turned down he just forgot it, and dropped out of the church. Several months later he bumped in the preacher in the grocery store and the preacher said, "Why did you quit trying for membership in our church?"
And the man said, "I want you to know that it hurt my feelings when you wouldn't let me in that church. And I talked to Jesus about it. And he said, when I was talking to Jesus about it, He said, don't worry, I've been trying to get in that church 30 years and they won't let me in there either."
So I ask you again, What good is freedom? If we are not free to love each other, of what good is it? What good is freedom, of speech, if all you are going to do is lie. You say, the constitution of the United States says I can say anything I want to. Let me read from the constitution of Jesus Christ. From Rev. 21 it says, "All liers shall have their part in the lake of fire that burns forever."
What good is the freedom of speech if all you are going to do is slander someone. What good is the freedom of speech if all you are going to do is curse. God's last name does not begin with "D". People need to hear that. FREEDOM is not the right to do as you please, it is the responsibility to do as YOU OUGHT. And there is a lot of difference in that.
What good is the freedom of worship if you do not choose to worship? When Russia went thru the purge and barred people from the church, America was up in arms "My, My, all the churches in Russia are empty." All the church in America are near empty and it is by choice, because we choose not to go. So what's the difference? Communism and Capitalism have delivered the same thing. And look at it now. The Churches in Russia are full, because the people now know that God is the answer.
Churches all over America are shutting down on Sunday night because no one will go. I want to tell you something, we are going to have church here on Sunday night until Jesus comes or I die, if I am the only one that shows up.
Of what benefit is freedom. America has taken our freedom and we have marched into the far country. It is time to quit calling this madness progress. We have taken our freedom and thrown the Word of God out of the school house and satanism has come into the school house.
We have thrown alway the moral standard of the Word of God, of our faith, we have thrown it away and the new morality has brought in homosexuality, it has brought in AIDS, it has brought in child abuse. That's not panacia, that's a Pig's trough.
We have thrown away that which is tried and true to accept a humanistic gospel that is destroying the fabric of this country. We are a nation that is driven into the Pig's Pen of drugs, delinquency and devorse and drunkeness simply because we are free. It is time that we quit talking about this freedom we have and start talking about responsibility and integrity and truth and character and righteousness and holiness, without which no man shall see God.
You have to choose. There is no such thing as indecision. You either decide or you decide not to decide. And some are masters at deciding not to decide. It is called procrastination. But there is no such thing as indecision.
An employer ask an employee, "Do you have difficulty making up your mind?" The employee answered, "Yes and no." You have got to make up your mind.
Your attitude is a matter of your choice. Some of you walk around as mad as a junk yard dog all the time, because you like it. You like the bitter approach to life. Some of you enjoy the worst of hell. You enjoy it. If Jesus would come by and heal you, 90% of your personality would be down the tubes.
You enjoy the worst of hell. You enjoy the worse of circumstances. Every carreer in this building is a matter of choice. You have the job you have because you chose it. And I want to tell you, you need to get excited about your job, you need to get enthrused about your job.
When you go to work in the morning, go in like your shirt tail is on fire. Don't go in like molasses creeping up hill in the winter time. There is a word for people who are not inspired about their job. It's called "unemployed".
America has taken freedom and systimatically destroyed themselves. It's time to quit talking about freedom and start talking about responsibility.
Freedom is never free at the expense of your conscience. I want you to hear this.
A clear conscience with some people is no more than a poor memory. When a man won't listen to his conscience, it's usually because he doesn't want advice from a stranger. What is conscience? What is conscience? The Word of God says that conscience is the instrument of discernment within my inner soul, that I can determine right from wrong in a spiritual matter." That's what conscience is. Is that too complicated?
Conscience is that inner voice that tells you that the IRS might check your returns. Now you've got it.
A man sent a letter to the IRS and said, "Here's $5000 that I owe you and if I can't sleep any better this week, I'll send you another 5000." He's trying to find out where the limit is.
Here is a Jewish boy who had violated his conscience. He knew to honor his father, he dishonored his father. He knew not to waste his substance, but he wasted it. He knew not to go from prostitute to prostitute, but he did. He knew not to feed pigs. A Jewish boy feeding pigs is the end of the world. But he trampled on his conscience and he did it.
He found out what some need to learn, reason will justify what conscience condemns. (repeat) Reason is intellect. The Bible says, "the carnal mind is an imity with God." Now follow this. How does that work in your life? Reason (intellect) will justify what conscience condemns.
Hear it again. Reason will justify what conscience condemns.
Now this story and I will close. Bob Bartlett, an explorer had been sent to Africa to retreave some beautiful birds by the zoos of America. And on the return voyage, in mid-ocean, one little bird that had been trying to get out of its cage finally managed to unlock its cage. And Bob Bartlett said he flew out of his cage and he said as I watched him in the binoculars as he flew across the boundless ocean, he said that bird looked over his wing and grinned at me and said, "Bye". And he said I watched him fly into the distance.
He said several hours passed, but I continued to watch with my binoculars and he said, here he came back. His wings were heavy, he was looking for that ship.
He found out that the thing that he hated was the only way to get across that ocean. What was a prison was now a haven of rest. He said that little bird flew over the ship and collapsed on the deck. And he said, as I picked him up he grinned and said, I'm glad to be back.
And there's the story. We bash and bruise ourselves trying to get away from the will of God---only to come back in the final anylises that it is the only way across the ocean of life, when we surrender to the Father. If the Son shall set you free, you shall be free indeed. You can't be free with anything else. You are only free when the Son sets you free. And that begins when you say "Father, I have sinned and I want a new life."
Do you want that? You can have it right now, in Jesus name. can we stand.
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