INTRO
Video Braveheart (final Scene)
"My Country Tis of Thee
Sweet Land of Liberty
Of Thee I Sing
Land Where my Fathers Died
Land of the Pilgrim's Pride
From Every Mountain Side
Let Freedom Ring"
"Let Freedom Ring" is more
Than a patriotic song
ƒ{ Freedom is not only American's greatest theme
o But should be
„X Christians greatest theme
ƒ{ It's the message of Christ's
o Love
o Grace
o Mercy
ƒ{ Tragically, it's America's freedom
o That get us in bondage
ƒ{ America was established
o And a new government formed to bestow liberty
ƒ{ No other word so thrills the patriotic heart
ƒ{ It's what we've fought for
o Laid down our lives for!
ƒ{ Men have crossed sea and land
o To rest under this flag of freedom
ƒ{ Yet many live as prisoners
o Shackled by painful pasts
o Enslaved to present fears
o Tormented by an endless cycle of failure
ƒ{ Today I want to look again at....Freedom
ƒ{ I usually never use acrostics to preach...
ƒ{ But today
o I am going to break that rule!
F - Forgiveness
1John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
* Here is where true freedom begins
EXPLAIN: Salvation Plan
R - Relationship
* Religion brings bondage
* God never wanted bondage
o But friendship
* Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
* Our founding fathers came from a religiously expressive environment.
* These were men of different religious outlooks.
* But they had a burning desire to live where they were free to worship God as they saw fit.
* Many of our most important documents are framed around their love of God...
o One nation under God...
o Indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
* One nation, under God.
o Not above
o Not even alongside
o But under
* Separation of church and state.
* Our founding fathers wanted that.
* What a box of worms that has become in the last 30 years.
* Every day in the courts around this nation there is a case somewhere concerning the issue of separation of church and state.
* When I attended elementary school we started the day by reciting the 23rd Psalm.
* We also recited the pledge of allegiance.
* Church AND State.
* In School!
* What were we thinking?
* Today the Ten Commandments can NOT be displayed in public schools.
* Evolution is taught from early on...
* But Creation by a loving God cannot be mentioned.
* Prayer is rarely allowed.
* Separation of church and state.
* What that means today is that belief in God...
o In His Bible
o In the creation story
o In prayer
o In anything concerning love and worship of God
* Is being slowly stifled by the state in the name of separation.
* The irony in all of this is that our founders were not concerned about God being in the State.
* They firmly implanted Him there by the wording of our greatest and most loved documents.
* What they did not want was the State sticking its nose into their religion.
* They left religious repression behind.
* They wanted one Nation.
E - Emancipate
EMANCIPATE = To be free from bondage
To bring liberty
To be free from restraint
Isaiah 61:1
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
* We talk about Abraham Lincoln
o As the great emancipator
* But there was one before him...
o Jesus the original emancipator
1865 -- His second Inaugural address
(a few weeks before he was assassinated)
- Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained.
- Each looked for an easier triumph...both read from the same Bible and prayed to the same God
- And each invoked God's aid against the other
- And then our re-elected sixteenth president's voice began to break as he talked about this war
o and the price that was paid
o and the lives that were spent.
o So that slavery could be abolished
- As you know...in 1863...New Year's Day
- The Emancipation Proclamation was proclaimed
- Now just because it was proclaimed didn't mean it was going to be obeyed.
- Because a war was going on...a fierce war...
- Taking the lives of so many of ours
- But almost three years later on December the eighteenth, 1865
- The Thirteenth Amendment was entered into our Constitution and became the law that slavery was officially abolished.
- The war was over
- And slaves were free to decide their own fate
- Every headline on every newspaper in the United States of America
- That next day officially proclaimed in bold print that slavery was abolished.
- What a great day that it was for America
- But then something very strange happened
- Instead of slaves leaving their masters...
- And striking out on their own to claim their own destiny...
- The vast majority of slaves just kept on...
- Working for their masters
- Like there never was a law that freed them
- NOTHING CHANGED
- In fact if you'll study American History you will find that clear up the re-construction period of our land
- Basically those slaves just kept on doing what they had always been doing
- And you could walk up to them and say...
- "Don't you realize that you could walk away from this situation?"
- But I guess it would be best summed up...
- As Shelby Foote said in his book, "The Civil War", and I quote just one statement here;
- He said, "every slave could repeat with equal validity what an Alabama slave had said in 1864 when asked what he thought about the great emancipator...speaking of Abraham Lincoln...whose proclamation went into effect that year"
- "And here's what the slave said, "I don't know nothin' about Abraham Lincoln, except he say that he got us free, I don't know nothin' about that either."
E - Exterminate
EXTERMINATE = To Destroy and completely wipeout
Example: Bug Bombs
* Many great men and women lost their lives for this freedom we enjoy
* In the movie, "The Patriot"
o Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson)
o Depicts his family's struggle through the revolutionary war
o His sons who lost their lives
o Benjamin had fought in another war
„X With the French and Native Americans
„X And though he was a war hero
„X He was haunted by his own actions
„X When he felt he had crossed a line.
o The movie begins with Benjamin saying
„X "I have long feared that my sins would return and visit me!"
* There are those celebrating freedom today that are held in bondage to their past sins.
* But Galatians 5:1 lets us know that in Christ all sins are exterminated
Galatians 5:1
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
* Atop the hill in Washington, DC stands the Capitol Building of the United States of America.
* The cornerstone was laid in 1793, but the crowning touch...
* Is the statue on top of the rotunda known as the
* Freedom Lady that was placed there in 1863.
* The Freedom Lady stands nearly 20 feet tall (that's some lady)
* And stands proudly atop the dome.
* A crest of stars frames her face.
* A shield of Stars and Stripes is in her left hand.
* Sculpted in Rome, the "lady" was brought to America aboard a sailing ship.
o During the trip across the Atlantic Ocean...
o A fierce storm developed.
o The captain ordered cargo thrown overboard to lighten the load.
o The sailors wanted to throw the heavy statue overboard,
o But the captain refused, shouting over the wind,
"No! Never! We'll flounder before we throw 'Freedom' away."
* And so, "Freedom" was saved.
* And the statue stands above the dome today...
* Because one man stood for "Freedom".
D - Decision
* When we talk about freedom
* It's interesting to note that God even gives us the freedom to choose
Revelation 3:20
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.
* In 1829, a man named George Wilson robbed the U.S. mail
* And in the act, committed a murder.
* He was later --
o Arrested
o Tried
o Convicted
o And sentenced
„X To be hanged
* Some of his friends petitioned President Andrew Jackson for a pardon.
* Though that pardon was granted, Wilson refused to accept it.
* Well, this was a one-of-a-kind situation.
* Eventually, the matter went before the U.S. Supreme Court
* Justice Marshall explained that in order to be valid, a pardon must be accepted by the condemned person.
* While it is virtually inconceivable that a person would refuse a pardon
o That person had the right to do so.
* George Wilson was executed while his written pardon lay on the sheriff's desk.
* Many people will not make it to God's heaven.
O - Opportunity
* America is known as the land of opportunity
* Many miss opportunity for success and the American Dream
* But don't miss the opportunity to experience God's grace
* A prisoner in Sydney, Australia tried to escape from jail
o by climbing underneath the hood of a van delivering bread to the institution
o When the van made its next stop the prisoner sneaked out from under the hood
o Hot and dirty
o He found himself in the yard of another prison
o Just 4 miles from the first.
o Like that prisoner our own attempts at lasting freedom
o Often leave us in another prison 4 miles down the road of life.
o Often our attempts at freedom from our sins and with God
o Leave us dejected, dirty and in another prison.
o This shouldn't surprise us.
o We cannot save ourselves.
M - Mercy
MERCY = to be compassionate to one under your authority
* Mercy came running.
