CELEBRATE FREEDOM: GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME...

It is easy to forget the power of freedom until it is lost. We are constantly struggling to have a clear image of freedom.  We continue our series, Celebrate Freedom, to clarify the spiritual foundation of freedom.  For some people, freedom begins as an idea or an inspiration, but for believers, it is found in God’s desire for all of humanity.  Since we are made in God’s image, we can imagine freedom.  Yet, we are so blind and lost that we confuse sacrifice with selfishness, common good with complete power, and righteousness with individual rights!  This week, our sermon is based on James 1:13-25 and its title is drawn from an electrifying moment in American history: Give me liberty or give me…. The great orator of the American Revolution, Patrick Henry, ended his speech to a Virginia Assembly with these powerful words.  They cut through the fog of the historical circumstance with the searing light of freedom.  These words are a declaration and a resolution.  Declarations without resolve are empty and meaningless.  We remember these words today because the declaration was followed by the resolve of the people in the Assembly and the resolve of our nation!  The Apostle James is writing to believers who are confused about declarations and resolve.  These believers were content to declare but not dedicate, proclaim but not persist, and self-elevate but not sacrifice.  They had forgotten the power of God’s liberty in their lives, and they were going deeper into the slavery of sin and death!   Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James writes these powerful and electrifying words to help them move from a declarative faith to a determined one.   These words cut through the spiritual fog with the realization that it is God’s liberty or we will be enslaved to death.  We pray that as you confront the confusion of your life, you will find the Holy Spirit setting you free from the ways of fear and death to the power of new life in Jesus Christ!   

James 1:13-25: When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; ¹⁴ but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. ¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ¹⁸ He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created. ¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry,  ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. ²¹ Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. ²² Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. ²³ Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror ²⁴ and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. ²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom and continues in it– not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it– they will be blessed in what they do.