“Relationship With God” By Parrish Lee July 4th,
2010 “When in
the Course of human
events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political
bands
which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers
of the
earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and
of
Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind
requires
that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that
among these are Life, Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments
are
instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of
the
governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of
these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute
new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing
its
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their
Safety
and Happiness.” –from the Declaration of Galatians
5:1 stand
fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…
On this great day that we
set aside to celebrate the birth of our nation, I would be wrong if I
didn’t
share just a little. God
brings
understanding. I
thank God in
humility. Maybe you
have felt like you
were graduating college, and then realized that you were really only
graduating
kindergarten; or only starting kindergarten.
I know that God has taken me back to kindergarten
many times since I
have been saved. God
orders a blessing
for His people in our lives.
It would be impossible to cover the
entire background of our Independence Day, but I would like to pose
just a few
interesting points: 1.
We
were once thirteen colonies, under the auspices of 2.
It is
estimated that only about one-third of the colonists were in favor of
rebelling
against 3.
4. Women fought in the Revolutionary War many times after their husbands were killed or wounded. 5.
6. Not all of the colonies voted for independence at first. 7. Between 1607 and the French and Indian War, the colonies were isolated by the mother country due to the policy of ‘salutary neglect.’ The king argued that the colonies should take care of their own affairs—akin to being orphaned but still taxed. We all in the course of our lives remember the lessons of our youth: Don’t put your hands on a hot stove (and you certainly won’t do that twice), look both ways before crossing the street (let’s hope you don’t have to learn that by experience), but we in our country have forgotten the lessons that history has taught us; why we have Independence Day in the first place. I just want to take a minute or so to pay homage to those who have paid (some with blood) that we might partake of so great a nation as we have here today. So here we are today, recipients of a liberty and freedom that others paid for that we might share. We all have one thing in common: We have all been the servants of sin. You might even say that we have depended on sin. Some people might challenge me on that, “Oh, well, I’ve never sinned.” The Bible says that all have sinned. “Oh, but I haven’t sinned the way that he sinned.” But when you appear before God, the Father of Lights, in who is no variableness, nor shadow of turning, every wrinkle, and every little spot stands out. If I can be a little plain about my next point: Sin doesn’t represent our best interests. Satan, and sin, are the ultimate in taxation without representation. The Bible says that the wages of sin are death, and that is the ultimate tax. My next point is the alienation that sin brings, the salutary neglect. When you get caught up in sin, you find yourself alone. Isaiah
59:1-2 …iniquities
have separated
between you and your God… So, on the one hand we have the ultimate taxation without representation, and on the other hand we have the alienation and neglect that sin brings.
Sidebar
point: So, this brings us to who would bring us liberty: Luke
4:18-19 …to
set at liberty then that are bruised. Along with the celebration of our independence of our nation, I present a celebration for our spiritual independence; not depending on sin and the vices of Satan, and the things that he uses to come after us, but to do as our Scripture thought for the day: Galatians
5:1 stand
fast therefore in the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…
Just as, in colonial times, one-third of the people wanted to remain yoked to King George, today there are many people that say, “I don’t want to be delivered from my sin; that’s part of my identity. That’s just what I do.” Psalms
103:12
As
far as the east is from the west, so far
hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Mark 10:46-52 …thy faith hath made thee whole…
They
didn’t have a lot of technology then.
What you did with your hands was how you lived. That’s why Bartimaeus was
a beggar; he was
blind, and dependent on others. You
know
that the things that you are dependent on are not necessarily your
friends. You notice
that when he first
started crying out to Jesus, the people that had been helping him
starting
telling him to shut up; they didn’t want him to gain his independence. And, in verse fifty, it
says that he cast
away his garment; he wasn’t bringing his old baggage to Jesus. He wanted to see all that
Jesus had for
him. You notice
that, in verse
fifty-two, when Jesus told him to go his way, he followed Jesus; in
other
words, Jesus’ way was his way. Some of us here today need
to ignore what
everybody else has to say and get what Jesus has for us. Matthew 9:20-22 …thy faith hath made thee whole… The crowd was thronging around, and this woman pushed her way through (which means that she pushed some people out of her way) to get to Jesus. Some of us have had something crippling us and our walk with God, and, like this woman, we would say that now is the time for us to press through and be healed; to be delivered from the binds of whatever has got a hold on us.
You
might say, Parrish Lee, what kind of a message is this?
You’re supposed to be talking about God and
His will, not all this patriotic stuff. 1 Peter 2:15-17 …Honour the king.
How
does this all sum up in our collective Christian life? John 8:31-36 …If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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