Red, White, Blue & You

RED, WHITE, BLUE, AND YOU

FREEDOM EXPERIENCE

07/03/2022 – 9:30AM

ED YOUNG

Have you ever painted anything before? I'm sure you have. You've painted a house, a room. Maybe you like to paint acrylic, watercolor, whatever. As I spoke about last night, it's incredible how paint is transferred. We always wear these outfits, and we always say, "Okay, I'm not going to get any paint on me," but inevitably it's transferred. It's like it soaks into our skin. Then we have problems getting the paint off. Am I the only one? It'll end up in your hair, on your shoes, on some outfit, paint gets everywhere, around the house, paint. I'm not going to lie, my favorite color combination is red, white and blue. It really is. Whenever I see the American flag, and you're probably the same way, it's like, "Red, white, and blue." In one word, what does that celebrate? What does that mean? Freedom. It means freedom. There's nothing like the crisp colors of red, white, and blue.

Today, the title of my message is Red, White, Blue, And You. Say that with me, Red, White, Blue And You. Because during this 4th of July weekend, you're going to wear and wave the red, white and blue. Red, white, and blue will be everywhere. It's the ubiquitous colors of our country.

I remember my wife Lisa's address, we met when we were 14 years old, and celebrated our 40th anniversary this past Sunday, 40 years. It's really an amazing thing because I'm only 48, but we got married at eight years of age. No, not really. 40 years.

I traveled to her house a lot when we were, not talking, young people, it's when we were official. Right? We were boyfriend, girlfriend. I asked her to be my, see air quotes, "girlfriend." I would show up at her house, 519 Arrowwood Road, Columbia, South Carolina. Google it. It a ranch style house on three acres, towering Carolina pine trees. There was one thing though, that was always there, one thing that stuck out, one thing that I always saw, an American flag. Lisa's family, you want to talk about being patriotic, if you cut them, they would bleed red, white, and blue. They were that patriotic.

Every 4th of July weekend, they would sing happy birthday America, or as Lisa's dad pronounced it, happy birthday. That's another story. Lisa's dad would get teary. I just didn't grow up in a home where we sang happy birthday America. And in my naivete, in my stupidity, I didn't put two and two together. Lisa's father was a tank commander in World War II. He understood the sacrifice. He understood those bloody battlefields. He understood that he was a recipient, his family and friends were recipients of sacrifice. And I'm that way too. I mean, I've never fought in a war. I've never defended the U.S. of A. Some of you have and we salute you literally. We honor you. We thank you. But most of us we're like, "Okay, I'm just going to reap the benefits of freedom."

We often say, "Freedom began on July 4th, 1776, when the Declaration of Independence was signed." We see the first signature, that beautiful penmanship, John Hancock. Right? We say that is the beginning of freedom. On one hand for our nation, it is, but real freedom occurred 2000 years ago on a hill outside of Jerusalem. The reason we can experience freedom today in this country is because of what Jesus secured for us 2000 years ago, when he spilled his blood for the sins of the world, was buried for three days and rose again. Because our nation was and is founded on that. We say, "The red, white, and blue, one nation under God." And for many that's true, but more and more as we look at our culture, it's like, "No, we're alongside God." And if you go on social media, a lot of people say, "No, no, no, forget God. I am God." The land of the free and the home of the brave. That's true for a lot of people, but for some it's the land of the sheeple and the home of the woke. We don't understand freedom.

This sounds like a cliche. It is, but it's deep. Freedom isn't free. We think, "Okay. Freedom…" And I'm talking to young people, "freedom, I can do anything I want to do, say anything I want to say, be anybody I want to be," It's just going buck wild. That's not freedom. That's anarchy. That's chaos. Freedom always has fences.

When you watch a basketball game, football game, baseball game. What if there were no rules? No fences? Oh, that's great. I just want to watch football players just go crazy. I want to watch baseball players just go crazy; basketball players just go crazy. That's not freedom. Freedom always has fences. You were created, I'm created to experience ultimate freedom. You were made, I was made to experience ultimate freedom. The real freedom, I'm talking about is deep freedom. Freedom on a Holy Notha Level that comes through and from Jesus Christ.