day, a time where we as Americans
celebrate our freedom. Children who are here with us
today understand what freedom is, understand, children, what
freedom costs. It is not free, but it comes
at a price. And for we who are Americans,
that price is the blood of those who have died, that we might
have free lives to live. But understand that the freedom
of America is not the only freedom that matters. And I would suppose
to you today that it's really not freedom at all. Oh, how our hearts do bleed and
our souls rejoice over the greatness of a nation such as the United
States of America. A land of freedom, a land of
liberty and justice for all. A people whose hearts are set
on righteousness and the individual success of the lowly. A land
where all have the privilege and the opportunity to live and
to be alive. A place where truth reigns supreme
and democracy brings life to all who receive it. America, God shed his grace on
thee and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining
sea. This is the pulse of our patriotism and that we aspire
to be great and great we are. We hold to a time today where
people are dying as soldiers for a cause. An invisible reality
of hope an invisible reality of freedom, which can now be
won on a temporal scale. And like the great nations of
old, who no longer fly their colors, who no longer herald
their banners over any place but the history books, we too,
as America, will one day have to ask ourselves, what difference
does our freedom make? Let freedom ring. As a Southern
boy, there's a song that I don't know who sang it. Let freedom
ring. But it is exciting to hear. It's
a blood curling type, hair on the back of your neck type chill
bump song. Let freedom ring. That is a phrase
and a familiar quote of our era. And people flock to the front
lines of defense. an offense in an attempt to keep
the bell of freedom echoing for centuries to come. We are thankful
for those that give so selflessly and honorably. But again, what
difference does it make for America to be free? What difference does
it make to be free for something that is not eternal? What difference
does it make for something that never fails, dies or fades away.
Friends, a miracle one day will be a memory, just like Rome. A miracle one day will no longer
be the great giant of the world, Alexander the Great. He says,
I do not fear an army of lions if they are led by a lamb. But I do fear an army of sheep
if they are led by a lion. Little did Alexander realize
the theological implications of such a statement during his
day. Christ is the Lion of Judah. His bride, our gentle lambs,
is being led to the slaughter. But the victory is ours. Long
after America meets the fate of all nations, When her fire
is extinguished for the great and final exchange with the kingdoms
that cannot be shaken remains, what can we say of America? What
difference did she make? Is the bride of Christ, those
lambs being led by a lion, really lining up for the kingdom fight?
Or are we as American sheep lining up so that our children can play
in the park? Are we lining up so that we can say that our grandparents
enjoy their travels and their retirement? Are we lining up
to the front line so that our puppies can chase balls in fields? Why are we lining up to the fight?
Are we here today, friends, to receive something for our own
desire? Or are we truly here to celebrate
freedom? And I would suggest that you
celebrate eternal freedom. Freedom is not freedom if it
ends. Freedom is only freedom if it
is eternal. If freedom comes to an end, even
a thousand years from now, it was not freedom, but rather furlough
of slavery. As we see in the Old Testament,
where the nation of Israel for centuries went from slavery to
slavery, to freedom, to slavery. Such are the nations of this
world. Such is America. As a young nation, we are just
in furlough. And one day, we too will become
slaves. And although many men in many parts of the world today
are free, while others tarry under the brow of a master who
declares when they rise and when they rest, I suggest to you this
morning that all men are slaves. All men are slaves. All men are
bound by chains of deceit and depravity. There is no one listening
to my voice today that has freedom in life, despite what their eyes
might tell them. Freedom comes from only one source.
And friends, that source is the Lord Jesus Christ who sets the
captives free. Christ is the visible image of the invisible
God. He is the exact imprint of God's
nature who created the universe with His Word and holds it together
just the same. It is God's eternal power that
gives true freedom and gives the grace to see the reality
of bondage that all men are now living. As one man considers
his own way, another finds out that life often gives him another
way that he did not desire. each for his own and just as
the church during Galileo's trial, reviewed him for his notion that
the earth was not the center of the universe, I suppose today
that we still do the same in blindness, hoping that our life
is the center of all things. Not from a facial standpoint,
not from a scientific standpoint, that would be ludicrous, but
friends, the heart is the same as it always has been, and that
we live for ourselves and for our own pleasures, and for our
own focus and for our own lives. I would like to remind us all
that God gave freedom to America. God gave freedom to America so
that He might be glorified in Her people. That His gospel might
be preached and prepared in the hearts of men and women everywhere
to go into all nations and bring forth the reality of truth that
freedom comes only through grace alone by faith in Christ. But
just as Christ was not received in his own hometown during his
earthly ministry, he is not received in America today. True freedom
is rebuked for another so-called freedom. The freedom of bondage
to sin and self-desire. The freedom to be one's own God,
as the Roman Emperor said on his deathbed. Vespasian said,
Woe is me, I think I am becoming a God. Our liberties as Americans
are nothing more than another idol. Another means to an end
which leaves us as the gods of our own domains, as the gods
of our own lives. Another ring in the ladder of
the pulse to which most of us would stop as we personally climb
higher to the ranks of self-sufficiency and idolatry. As a church that
resides in this great land of freedom, we should not have eyes
that inwardly pant for liberty but pant for life in Christ.
The church in America should desire to be used up and extinguished
for the great glory of Christ, for the suffering and the loss
of our own freedoms, that Christ's suffering might be filled up
to the world. We as Christians in the United
States of America should long for the passionate and radical
extreme of truth to the point of death, and we should come
boldly to the place of the cross where Christ, who was King of
all kings, laid himself as the lamb and God of his own accord
to show the love of God. So often we've taken our own
ideals toward Christ, created another Jesus, if you will, that
gives us what we like. This Jesus that remains on our
right political side and this Jesus that stayed graciously
and grants us the same deserved liberties that our government
protects. We sometimes get the idea that
we deserve life, We get the idea that we deserve grace and that
as Americans, we are proud to offer Jesus a place in that line
of benefits. If he would just realize it is
our choice to bring him in. Might the Lord today give mercy
to the Church of Freedom. Might the Lord today give mercy
to the people who call themselves saints, who suffer for the glory
of God. May the Lord today give mercy
to the American church and give us another long-suffering season
to proclaim His greatness and the richness of His glory
and the glory of His mercy. God, forgive us as we have professed
one thing, but calmly put down ties to another love in the name
of the country. God, forgive us as we have failed to come
to faith and believe as we profess. God, give us mercy. And in your glorious grace, grant
us faith, love and passion for you. Give us boldness and devotion
to holiness. Give us true liberty that Christ
has to offer that makes freedom in this world as it really is
bondage. Let us have the mind of Christ
that we might see all things in relation to your kingdom and
know that you are using America to show your glory when you sit
her under your feet. So Jesus said to the Jews who
have believed in him, if you abide in my word, you are truly
my disciples and you will know the truth and the truth will
set you free. And they answered him, we are the offspring of
Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you
say we will become free? Jesus says to them, truly, truly,
I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave. The slave does
not remain in the house forever. The Son remains forever. So if
the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you
are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my
Word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with
my Father, and you do what you have heard from your Father.
God, give us a heart for you. God, give us a heart for your
Word beyond all things. Give us the grace that is needed
to stand under the pressure of living as your people and give
us your power, which is the gospel of peace. Make us your mouth
that the word might be heard and that your church might be
raised up for your glory. Make us your hands that we would
touch the lives of the hurting and regain the truth of temporal
and sufficiency of the flesh so that we might live in glorious
hope of your son, Jesus Christ. Make us your feet to go into
all the nations of the world, the nations of this city and
the nations of our neighborhoods and make disciples so that we
will finally be obedient to your commands, which are not a burden,
but are completely joy to your children. Please start with me
to Luke chapter four. Let's pray. Father, I pray that
as we contemplate the reality of our freedom as Americans,
we would seriously see the severity and the heaviness of that responsibility. And Father, would you forgive
us for having patriotism as our God? And you forgive us of putting
the flag above the cross. Father, would you forgive us
of even trying to put them on the same plane? Lord, help us to see your will
for our country, your will for your church, your will for your
people, is to be on mission on the front lines, to turn and
lay down our lives so that your kingdom might be furthered and
expanded, that you might be glorified in the saving of your church. Lord, open our hearts to hear
your word today. In Jesus' name. Amen. In chapter
4, there's one text. For those of you who don't know
me, it's hard for me to do little topical teachings and little
pulls out of text. I really bogged down. I bogged
down until about 2 o'clock this morning changing the text. I
changed this text at 2 o'clock this morning. I was going to
use the text that I read earlier. So I changed it. So. That's where we are today. Chapter four, verse 16, going
through verse 30. Jesus had just gotten. Out of
a temptation. And here he is in the synagogue
where 16 and he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up
And that was his custom. He went to the synagogue on the
Sabbath day. There's something to learn there,
friends. God of the universe worshiped in a synagogue on Saturday. And he stood up to read. Verse
17, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled
the scroll and found a place where it was written. The spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty
to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's
favor. And he rolled up the scroll and
he gave it back to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of
all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to
them, today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. And all spoke well of him and
marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth.
And they said, it's not this Joseph's son. And he said to
them, doubtless, you will quote to me this proverb, physician,
heal yourself. What we have heard you did at
Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well. And he said, truly,
I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. But in truth,
I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah
when the heavens were shut up three years and six months and
a great famine came over the land. And Elijah was sent to
none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman
who was a widow. And there were many lepers in
Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was
cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian. And when they heard these
things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. And they
rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the
brow of a hill on which their town was built, so they could
throw him down the cliff. But passing through their midst,
he went away. As I read this text, I thought,
let me pull a few things out. Let me just bargain with it a
little bit and roll some other things into it and get my point
across. But I believe this text speaks perfectly to the point
that I want to make today and that we as American Christians
have traded freedom for freedom. True freedom is rejected for
freedom. The freedom of our own lives to be our own gods, to
be our own boss, to be our own Lord, to seek and satisfy our
own flesh has been embraced and the true freedom that comes from
Christ alone has been rejected. Even in the so-called Church
of America. Now friends, I preach to you
not as condemning or condescending, but I preach to you as a brother.
And that I too have suffered and probably will suffer from
this same disease as a patriot over We suffer from the same disease
of materialism. We suffer from the same sin as
idolatry. We put many things in that place. Jesus says, the
spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to
proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty
to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty those who are oppressed. Jesus read this from the book
of Isaiah. Isaiah 61, Isaiah 58. But he
stops a little short, and I'll talk about that in a moment.
Remember that the Lord God himself was speaking the Word of God
Himself, that the people might hear the reality of freedom comes
only through Him. And He says, and today, this
text is being fulfilled in your hearing. There are three things I want
you to see today. Jesus fights for freedom. Jesus fulfills freedom. And Jesus fights defaith. Jesus
fights for freedom. Jesus fulfills freedom and Jesus
fights the faith. Verses 16 through 19, he came
to Nazareth. He'd been brought up there. He
had a heart for his hometown. He had a heart for his people.
He goes there and he goes to the synagogue. An important thing
that I tried to make clear as I read that text. Friends, you
call yourself a believer in Christ. But yet, how often is your shadow
in the doors of his church? Do you have passion to worship
together with the body of Christ? For it is the body of Christ
on Earth that actually fills up what is lacking in the suffering
of Christ to the nations and to the world. It is the body
of Christ called the church. that gives us the power and the
ability and the encouragement and the discipline and the review
to maintain our faith and to hold fast to our confession of
hope. If God himself went to worship
in the synagogue, why is it that so many so-called Christians
are able to walk away and just watch television or go to a game
or Why? Because the game and the TV are
more precious than Christ. More precious than His Word.
For they bring freedom from the world of work. And they give
me a mind to be able to relax and enjoy me and my stuff and
my life and my dream. And I don't care about the Bible
today. See how that sounds? But that's
what it is. Oh! What a fake faith we have. Jesus
goes and he stood up to read and the scroll was given to him
and he spoke the words of Isaiah. He fights for freedom. Jesus
proclaims the truth of his mission on this earth after 40 days of
just agonizing temptation and hunger and fashion in the wilderness.
He uses the Word of God to defend himself against temptation. And
now he comes to the synagogue. After a really long season of
work, he comes to the synagogue to read the Word of God. Where is the church in America
when we long for Friday that we might escape the world that
God has given us to live in. We might escape the realities
of our pain and our emotions and fill it up, not with the
suffering of Christ, but fill it up with the glories of the
world. Jesus proclaims the truth of
his mission and in turn, the mission of his church, us, those
who are his. There are four objects of his
mission. The first one is he proclaimed good news to the poor. The second is that he proclaimed
liberty to the captives. Third, recovery of sight to the
blind. And fourth, set at liberty the
oppressed. And Jesus said, I am here on
the front lines of the fight and I am fighting for freedom. And I'm going to give freedom
to those who hear my word. proclaiming good news to the
poor. See, this good news is the fact that Jesus is God. This gospel is the fact that
Jesus is God with man who came to give those who have nothing,
everything. Hear that. He came to give those
whom He calls poor who have nothing. He came to give them everything.
Now, here's the problem. In America, we have taken that
message and we've deformed and retarded that gospel to mean
that if you need stuff, Jesus gives you stuff. Jesus says,
you will be poor and you will suffer for my namesake and you
will not live a life of prosperity for me. You will suffer and you
might die. Are you willing to follow me?
Every time Jesus had a crowd wanting to get what he had to
offer, he would turn to them. He would just have enough and
he would say, you've got to eat of my flesh and drink of my blood.
All you want is my food. You don't want me. And this poor. He will give everything to them.
Because he is everything, not the world's stuff and the world's
riches, but the riches of his glorious grace, the riches of
his mercy. This morning, as we look through
the second chapter of Ephesians in our study school class, we
saw the comparison between the world's riches and God's riches. God's riches are his mercy. The
heavy pockets of the world, is everything that contrasts with
the riches of mercy. The bank accounts of the world
conflict with the grace and the mercy of God. Jesus came to proclaim good news
to the poor. And His church proclaims good
news to the poor. That doesn't mean we don't feed
the poor and we don't help the poor. But friends, feeding and
helping is nothing without the truth of the true riches of glory. Don't mistake the reality of
what Jesus is saying here. Many churches and many pulpits
across the world have built theologies of the mission of the church
and that we are to be the benevolent arm of Christ, which in some
sense is a half truth. But what is benevolence? Benevolence
is taking care of the real need. When someone else cannot. The
real need of every one is Christ. Not stuff. Proclaim liberty to the captives.
People are captives and there were people in this time who
were exiles. There were captives. Captives are slaves. People who
were exiles and old, if you will, are controlled by other countries
or governments or leaders, those who are held prisoner. So there's
a reality of the nature of these exiles. However, Jesus' main
point is he will truly liberate the captives, the captivity of
sin, the captivity of death, the captivity of what this body
is bound to. What this world is bound to,
which is depravity and brokenness and sinfulness. What good is
freedom of the body when the soul is a slave? We are in bondage to sin. We
are in bondage to the flesh and to the desires of this world.
And friends, we can start naming them off. Entertainment. Secular philosophies. I know I bring that up a lot. I've got friends who are willing
to lay down the cross for a large retirement package. So it's a
little personal for me right now. Sex. Stunt. Greed. Anger. Malice. Disrespecting
parents. Envy. We could just sit here
all day. But Jesus came to set us free
from these things. To give us true liberty, for
we are captive to our sin nature. And there is nothing we can do.
Christ alone has the keys to let us out. Recovery of sight
to the blind. I had trouble with this. I had
to look at that for a moment. I looked through Jesus' ministry
as he and the apostles all gave sight to those who were blind.
Blind Bartimaeus was blind from birth and then he had his sight
restored. I heard last night late as I
tried to stay awake to reevaluate this sermon, I went and got me
some coffee and on the radio I heard an interview with a man
who had been born deaf who had a cochlear implant. And he used
it for a few months and took it out. There was a lot of noise. He could hear things but he didn't
know what they were. So it was confusing. Not knowing
what a toilet flush was. Thinking it might have been the
sound of a bird. Different things. And I thought
about that last night as I heard this young man try to share his
story. And I thought about what it would
be like to actually be blind from birth and then for the first
time see. And I saw how Jesus went and
he did that and then in the same breath, he said, and your sins
are forgiven. When he healed someone of their sickness, it
was always so that they might find faith in him. And even As
the paralytic, John 5 and Bethesda at the pool there was for 38
years unable to walk. And Jesus goes in the midst of
thousands of paralytics and he finds one man, he healed the
one man. And he goes to the synagogue
and he shows the priests, I'm healed after 38 years, this man
gave my legs back to me. And the Jews were furious because
he had told him to pick up his bed on the Sabbath. And it was
a violation of the law. Who told you to pick up your
bed? I don't know. I don't know who he was. So Jesus
appears to the synagogue and he tells the man, I'm Jesus.
Go tell them. And they were furious. Later, as Jesus is dialoguing
with the Jews once more, he reminds them of the fact they wanted
to kill him because of that miracle, because he violated the Sabbath,
which was a death sentence, a sentence of stoning. He reminds them of the very law
that they don't even follow. And that Jesus, what the law
shadowed and what circumcision shadowed and other temporal shadows
of the Old Testament law, showed the full redemption of the soul,
of true liberty, of true freedom in Christ. Jesus says that you're
blind to see it. The God of this world has blinded
their eyes. So I think even when someone
is sick, I believe Jesus came so that there might be healing.
And I believe it is biblical to pray for healing and it's
biblical to call on the elders of the church to gather and pray
for healing. But healing of the body is useless
if the healing of the soul never happens. Jesus is proclaiming
the need to tend to those who are sick and hurting. The mission
of the Church of America is fulfilled with passionate ministry to those
who are sick in many ways, mentally, physically. However, Jesus' main
sight to the blind is the sight of faith. Seeing and savoring
Jesus is the greatest treasure and all satisfying King. Jesus
is the light that shines so that we might see him. As Paul says
in 2 Corinthians, and even if a gospel is veiled, it is veiled
only to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this
world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them
from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God for what we proclaim. See, Paul took Jesus
ministry and just kept doing it. For what we proclaim is not
of ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord. For God, who said, let
light shine out of darkness, has shown in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Did you hear that? And it is
only that way that Jesus can truly state the fourth object
of his Liberation, as that is said at Liberty, the oppressed. Those who are oppressed, oppressed
by sin, oppressed by this world, friends, that's why America must
be about liberating people who are under sovereign rule of dictators. Whether we're a Christian nation
or not is. Not a debate. God gives us freedom
so that we might give freedom to others. Where our brothers
and sisters die every day because they get caught with a sticker
of a cross or a page of the scripture, or they get caught with their
head bowed at dinner and they die for the gospel. And we have the power as a nation
to liberate those peoples so that the church might go into
those nations and more freely proclaim the gospel. It's not
about economy. It's not about democracy. It's about the kingdom of God. And that is why America is free.
That the church of America might be about the mission of Christ. Jesus fights for freedom. He
gives us the power behind this proclamation. He's just come
out of the wilderness, being tempted by Satan, using the Word
of God, as I've already said, and the power of the Holy Spirit
to defend Himself against His temptation. But now Jesus is
on the front line of attack and the offensive, heading straight
to the temple to proclaim the Word of God fulfilled in Himself. So Jesus fulfills the freedom.
He wrote up the scroll and he gave it back to the attendant
who sat down and the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed
on him. That means that the writer wants you to see that what he's
about to say is important. He wants you to see that everyone
was paying attention because what is about to come out of
Jesus' mouth is important to see. That's why that is written
the way it is. And Jesus began to say to them,
today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. You
see the scripture fulfilled right now. in front of your face. I
have come to set the captives free, to give sight to the blind. I have come to set at liberty
the oppressed and to proclaim freedom to the poor. I'll be straight with you, friend.
Everyone in the sound of my voice, whether you hear this message
today live or whether you listen to it 60 years from now, everyone
hearing these words, is blind, poor, oppressed, and captive. And you cannot escape it on your
own. You will not escape it on your own. Jesus fulfills this
freedom. And finally, I want you to see
today, Jesus fights the faith. Not for the faith. He fights
the faith. He fights the faith of the religious.
He fights the faith of those who have for years and centuries
fallen in line with righteousness and the righteous standard and
follow the law and done the precepts and follow the order of liturgy
which they've been given. He stands and fights this faith. For their faith was in the stuff
that were just shadows of him. I would suggest to you that today
in the United States of America, we put our hope and our freedom
And we put our hope in our religion, and we put our hope in our military,
and we put our hope in our government, but we don't put our hope in
Christ. And friends, as the people of
God, we should repent from that. And we should understand that
we should be fighting for freedom and proclaiming that Jesus fulfills
freedom and fighting the faith, or the so-called faith, of this
free country. which includes churches, which
includes cults, which includes atheism and agnosticism and everything
else that you want to put in there. Here we see the engagement
of Jesus with the spiritually righteous of the day in verse
22 through 30. And they were astonished that
he would be so gracious to proclaim the fulfilling of God's Word,
but then he didn't stop there. They knew the story that he had
done in Capernaum where he fed the 5,000 They knew the story
where he had done all of these great miracles, healing people. And Jesus knew divinely, supernaturally,
their heart. And he knew they wanted to see
some magic. He knew they wanted to see some power. He knew they
wanted to see a display of miracle so that they could be impressed
and overwhelmed and maybe believe. that he could give them some
more. So he says, doubtless you will
quote me this proverb, kill yourself. But we have heard you did a Capernaum
here in your hometown as well. But Jesus was rejected in his
hometown and Jesus is rejected in America today. And he says
that a prophet is not no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
And he proves that by showing Elijah and Elisha were also rejected,
not only in their hometowns, but by their very people. And
that Jesus is showing that God sent the prophet to other people,
to pagan nations. He said the word of God, not
to the righteous of Israel, but to the pagan, debauchery living,
idol worshipping, demonically controlled people and set them
free. So they were angry that such
a common man would dare declare himself a fulfillment of God's
promise and then rebuke them for such a direct, in such a
direct way. Jesus continues to remind them
what happens to those who reject the promise of God. They will
be broken and the promises will go to those who will hear and
heed. Friends, America exists so that
the nations of the world might hear the gospel, might see the
gospel and be saved by the gospel of Christ. But Christ is being
rejected by the very people who call themselves his followers.
The church must hear and heed his words. Did you realize that
today in the United States of America, in our boundaries, in
our borders, there are more missionaries sharing the gospel with us from
other countries than there ever have been in the history of this
country? That's a tragedy. That people are coming here to
preach one nation under God to a godless nation. God's great mercy and grace has
equipped all of us and called us to proclaim the truth to the
captives, to the poor, to the blind, to the dead. And in turn, they will be made
whole Jesus in this text supernaturally escaped death that day. Most
people around the world are not so fortunate. They are dying
as we speak. While we contemplate our dinner
plans for this afternoon. Whether or not it will be too
hot for fireworks tonight. I really pray the church that
we would wake up and see what freedom is Christ and Christ
is all about. and what is really the cost of that freedom. Megan, your words were just...
Would you step out? Her words were perfect this morning.
And that the grace of God comes with a price and that it will
cost you your life. Your family, your friends, your
job. And when you come to follow Christ
and trust in Him, it may very well cost you your physical life. Are you truly free in Christ?
Are you one who has truly come to faith by the power of God?
Can you see Jesus as the real liberator, as the real liberty,
as the truth, the way and the life? Is Christ the object of
your pursuit of happiness? Familiar words? Our Constitution
has those words. It grants to all men living in
this country the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
But it leaves out one crucial element, the object of that happiness,
the object of that liberty, and the true object of that life,
which is Christ, our King. Jesus says, today, this scripture
is being fulfilled in your hearing. Friends, that has been done,
and that Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing today, that Christ
has come to give life to the Church. Have you embraced Christ
as Lord and Savior? By faith, see the beauty of His
glory and the riches of His mercy. So what difference does that
make? I love that question. I ask it every day. Everything. I ask that question a lot. We
are to be about Christ's mission. That's what difference it makes.
There is no other legacy, just garbage to be forgotten that
we leave behind if we are not living and leaving a legacy of
the gospel. Not, oh, daddy was saved at 30,
aren't we glad. That's not a legacy. That's a laziness. Be like the teenagers today,
that's not a legacy, that's an illusion. It really is. Plain and simple,
a life without Christ is a wasted life. And the truth is, for those of
you who have been tracking with us in 1 John, a life with Christ
is a life of fruitful suffering for Christ. See and believe. Today is the
day of salvation. Because there's a part two to
this Isaiah 61 that Jesus did not read that day. He closed
it early and he gave it back to the attendant. You know what
that says? Let's look at it. Turn to Isaiah 61. Verse two, to proclaim the year
of the Lord's favor is where he stops. And the day of vengeance
of our God. To comfort all who mourn. To grant to those who mourn Zion,
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes. Jesus came. So that he might be the liberator
and he will come again that he might be the judge. And actually,
he says in the word of God, he will judge all men by the word.
Those who are in him, he pardons because of his death on the cross.
Jesus earthly ministry was constantly a run for his life, ultimately
and purposefully culminating at the cross on Calvary. He is
now exalted. on his throne to one day return,
recreate and establish his holy rule over all creation. Those
in him will be with him, who is the mercy seat of God. Those
who reject him will be with his judgment forever. Beloved, we
might be Americans by birth, but we are all aliens by rebirth. We are those who are not of this
world, much less of this land. Understand your calling, church.
Know your true kingdom. Know your king. While we are
in this world, in this country, let us live out these lives for
the glory of God. Colossians 4, I'll leave you
with this and then we're done. Masters, treat your slaves justly
and fairly, knowing that you also have a master in heaven.
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
At the same time, pray for us that God may, listen, open to
us a door for the Word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account
of which I'm in prison, Paul speaking, that I may make it
clear which is how I ought to speak. Here's an exhortation
for us all. Walk in wisdom toward outsiders,
seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer
each person. Friends, we've been given a huge
door for the Word of God. It's called liberty. The United
States of America is the largest door for the gospel in the universe. Are we just looking through it,
wondering what's out there, or are we walking through it? See,
the mystery of Christ is perfect. The mystery of Christ is that
he came to die for the sins of the church. God is glorified
and able to justify the cause of Christ's sacrifice. And this
is an amazing love, a love that overcomes doubt, that overcomes
unbelief, that overcomes sin, a love that loves without measure,
a love that truly liberates the captives and sets the prisoners
free. My call for you today is to believe
in Jesus Christ as your savior. To find him as the greatest treasure
of your life. And know that the freedom that
you think you see today is nothing but furloughed slavery. Be slaves to righteousness, not
sin. Let's pray. Father, I thank you
for your word. I thank you for the glory of
the cross. And I pray that as we segue into
the Lord's table, that we have something to look
at, something to comprehend, something to understand about
the truth. You came that your body might be broken and that
your blood might be shed so that the church might be free, truly
free. And although we suffer for a
little while and we grieve with various kinds of trials and pains,
Our hope is set on an eternal inheritance that is kept in heaven
by you. Steal it away from Peter's words
continually in that in your great mercy, you caused us to be born
again to that living hope. So, Father, help us to prepare
our hearts to see the reality of examining our hearts right
now to see if we are truly in the faith. Are we really your
children or do we just have a profession of something other than truth? Show us the idols of our lives.
Show us the calling of our hearts, of your will and your heart to
us. And encourage us with your word
that we might have the power to be obedient to that call.
God bless America as the Church of America proclaims the gospel. No other reason. Even if we fall,
and we will, we are still blessed as your children. Not as Americans,
but as Christians. Who were once children of wrath,
who have been saved from the domain of darkness and brought
into your marvelous life. May we truly reflect on that
right now. As we remember the body and the blood of Jesus Christ.
And it's in His name we pray. Amen.