FREEDOM
INTRODUCTION: Thank Mike
--Discuss Tacoma/Seattle Church of Christ
-----size of Tacoma Sector about same as West Cobb Sector
-----impacted by church family structure, apparent midweek and Sunday
-----vibrant, energetic , full of dreams
I want to try to help re-energize West Cobb sector to be more like Tacoma.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley will be exalted, that every hill and mountain will be made low, and rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of our Lord will be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the south. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the dangling discord of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, my country tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of the I sing. Land where our fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And if America is to be a great nation, then this must come true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire, let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York, let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado, let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California.
But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain in Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill in Mississippi.
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing the words of the old Negro spiritual,
Free at last, free at last. Thank God almighty, we are free at last.
FREEDOM! FREEDOM! To be FREE. You received FREEDOM the minute you were baptized. Freedom rang out from Mount Zion for you on that day.
On that day, you were set free from the world and all its enticements.
On that day, you were set free from Satan, and his hold on you.
Paul tells the Christians in Rome, in Romans 6, verse 18, that “you have been set free from sin”. And so have you.
I have 3 points today, and they all come from Dr. King’s speech, part of which you just heard:
Turn to Job, chapter 1. We are going to talk about a Mountain of Despair.
Before we begin, how many of you remember back to May of 1980?
On the 18th of May that year, a Beautiful Mountain in the state of Washington, became a Mountain of despair. On that day, Mt. St. Helens erupted.
I just returned from Washington and got to see that mountain close up. I saw the videos of the eruption. There was a LOT of despair that day, when 57 people died on that mountain.
But why I bring it up, is I want to compare the SIZE of this mountain, with what we call a Mountain in Atlanta. Mount St. Helens lost more off the top it, than the entire Stone Mountain. It was HUGE. It is still huge. Inside the crater, there is a lava dome that formed, and IT is larger than Stone Mountain.
And the mountain of despair we are going to read about: Job’s Mountain, was also HUGE in comparison to our own mountains.
Read verses 8 through 19 of chapter 1, and then verses 4 through 8 of chapter 2.
Here we see how Satan tested Job, not once, but twice. There was a WHOLE LOTTA despair there….a huge mountain of despair. In a little while, we are going to talk about hewing down that mountain to much smaller chunks. “Hewing” means to make it smaller, and reshape it. We will learn how Job did this. But first, lets talk about YOUR mountains. What are they? What do you consider to be your mountains? I want you to keep in mind how huge the mountain was that Job faced, in comparison to yours.
What are your mountains?
Are you always in debt? Is your greed keeping you from getting into the black? Are you Expending more than you are intaking? You need to hew it down. To make it smaller so that you can face it everyday, and then eliminate it. Make sure you can see a light at the end of the tunnel. In order to hew it down, to get it to be a stone of hope, you need to sit down and make a budget, and stick by it. And, you must make sure that you put God FIRST in your budget------if you don’t, Malachi says in chapter 3, verse 9, that you will remain cursed. You can’t have much hope when you remain cursed. Don’t let envy and greed control how you buy things. Don’t go to the grocery store hungry. Don’t use credit cards. Do, use self control. Just because Gene Dooley has a Lexus, doesn’t mean you need to. Live within your means. Take care of your children….eat moderately. When you do all these things, as well as some others, you are creating a stone of hope out of your big mountain of despair.
Is your mountain of despair being overweight? Are you ‘weight challenged’? Do you INTAKE more than you OUTPUT (just the opposite, by the way, with being in debt). How many calories in a donut? A glass of soda?. A leg of Kentucky Fried. Let’s just say that there are _____ calories in a finger-licking good piece of chicken. In order for a normal person to burn off those calories, he or she would have to exercise for _____ minutes. And some people have a different metabolic rate than others, so their burn rate may be worse. In order to hew off that fat, your caloric intake has to be less than what you burn ---simple as that. Exercise more, eat less, see a doctor. But, however you do it, get rid of that mountain off your backside, and the mountain of despair holding you back from having a stone of hope.
Is your mountain of despair your inability to manage your time? Do you get up late in the morning and then are late to everything you go to all day? No time for Bible study. Late to work (on time for lunch, tho)? late getting here? late to church in the evening? go to bed late? If so, you need to hew that day into manageable sections. Plan your next day and stick by it. Anybody in here use a daytimer? I didn’t say if you HAVE one, I said, do you USE one?
If not, and this is your mountain, get one, get advice on how to fill it out, and then follow it.
Now let’s return to Job’s huge mountain.
What did Job do to hew HIS mountain into a stone of hope?
In verses 20 and 21 of chapter 1, he WORSHIPPED God.
Then in verse 22, Job refused to blame God.
In chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, he refused to CURSE God.
Now turn to chapter 42, and read verses 1 through 6. Here, Job simply got humble and repented.
We all need to follow in the footsteps of Job. HE had a mountain of despair the size of Mt. St. Helen (before it erupted). WE have mountains the size of Stone Mountain in comparison. If he can hew his down, then we can too.
What are the steps in hewing out your mountain?
1 Identify it as being from Satan
2 Don’t blame or curse God because of it
3 Pray to God for help
4 Get humble and confess it
5 Repent
If you want your freedom from the despair caused by your mountains, hew them into a stone of hope.
My SECOND POINT is: Transform the jangling discords of YOUR life into a beautiful symphony for God
What did MLK mean by jangling discords? Well, for example, take the word ‘chord’.
(c-h-o-r-d) Like a chord in music. Now take the prefix, ‘d-I-s’, and put them together to get DisChord. DIS means that things are not put together correctly, like DISJOINTED, DISLOCATED, DISCORD. When you put those two syllables together in music, what do you get? Some would say ‘Country”. Others would definitely say “RAP”. Others might even consider Reggae or Hard-rock to be discorded. I would have to agree to a certain point. SOME music in those genres ARE discorded….they simply don’t go together. NOW, compare the worse songs in of any of these types of music, to the works of people like Bach or Beethoven. They wrote symphonies—music where notes, when put together, belonged together. There are plenty of musical symphonies that have stood the test of time for many decades. A lot of times you don’t even realize some of what you hear are symphonies. Watch cartoons on Saturday morning—you will hear a symphony or two. Go to a Broadway show, or even a comedy at the Fox Theater. More than likely, the background music will be a symphony. It is soothing; it is pleasing. THAT is how your life is supposed to be with God—pleasing. Not in discord. Every sin you commit is an act of discord.
Turn to Galatians 5, and read verses 16 though 21 with me.
How many of these discords are you involved in right now? Debauchery? Jealousy? Envy, Hatred? Drunkenness? If you are involved in any of those listed, then you need to transform these into symphonies. How do you do that?
Let’s continue reading where we left off, verse 22 of chapter 5, and read through chapter 6, verse 10, and listen to what Paul is telling us. The ‘brotherhood’, the Church, needs us to be in sync (and I don’t mean the musical group N-SYNC). We need to be in unison making beautiful musical symphonies for God. Basically, STOP SINNING, and start doing good! SO, if you want to transform the junk in your life, the sins Paul talked about, you need to talk it about to other disciples. Confession to others is the very first step. James tells us that in his letter in chapter 5, verse 16. “Therefore, confess your sins to each other.” Once you have confessed to your brothers or sisters, heed the advice you receive. We are ALL in this race together. We need to rely on each other. The brotherhood that Paul spoke about 2000 years ago, is the same brotherhood of which we are a part. It is the church. When is the last time you recognized one of your sins and actually told another Disciple about it without being asked Did you go seek help, or did you wait until someone asked you? You won’t become free from that sin until you do. And when you DO start talking about it with others, we can help each other. We can change that discord into sweet music. If any of those sins apply to you, look at Jesus. Look Him directly in the face when you get up in the morning, and tell yourself you don’t feeling disjointed, just a little bit. Instead, send pleasing music to God’s ears by not sinning.
Do you want some examples of symphonies? Psalms is full of them. Psalm 1 starts off with a symphony by saying:
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
or stand in the way of sinners,
or sit in the seat of mockers,
but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on this law he meditates day and night.
The rest of Psalms talks about the delight of pleasing God in symphonies.
Psalm 30 is a great example of a symphony…turn to Psalm 30, and read with me verses 1 through 5.
Praise God every time you can. Praise Him for helping with your sin even before he DOES. If you have the faith that MLK had, God WILL help you with our sin.
Sing songs to God in the form of Prayer. The words may not rhyme, but they are soothing to God’s ears.
It was not easy for Beethoven to put together any of his symphonies. He spent years on some. And that may be how long some of us will take to change our discorded lives into a symphony for God. The MUSIC I want God to hear from my life, is not RAP, but a Symphony. Not sin, but righteousness. Do you want to be free from sin? Confess it, listen to the brotherhood, and transform your jangling discord of a life into a symphony for God.
My THIRD POINT is Stand up for Freedom together, knowing that one day we will all be free.
How many of you had the opportunity to see the movie, Armistad?
Let me read to you a synopsis of that movie:
On June 30, 1839, the slaves aboard the Armistad rose up in a bloody battle to take control of the slave ship and to sail back home to Africa!
The slave leader, Cinquez (or more accurately Sengbe), was taken from his family by a rival tribe and later sold to a Spaniard slave trader. Of the 500 slaves making the trans-Atlantic crossing to Cuba, one-quarter died. In Cuba, men by the names of Ruiz and Montes bought 40 plantation slaves at $450 each. The slaves were loaded on a Baltimore-built and out-fitted schooner Amistad ("Friendship" in Spanish) to take the slaves to eastern Cuba by ship rather than by rough insecure Cuban roads.
The slaves were kept unchained down below. After three brutal and fearful nights at sea, Sengbe and his allies rose up in a violent battle against their captors. Ruiz and Montes were wounded in the fight but survived. Not having sailing experience, Sengbe relied on Montes to steer the boat back to Africa.
By day, they sailed toward the eastern sun. However, by night, Montes secretly turned course. They zig-zagged for weeks, finally landing at Culloden Point on Long Island, August 26, 1839.
The Spaniards claimed that the Africans were simply their "property" and that the "guilty" should be tried for murder. The President of the United States, Martin VanBuren, was content to avoid the embarrassing issue and sent for a ship to pick up the slaves in New Haven, CT. However, the abolitionists fought for a fair trial in the US to decide the slaves fate. The debate continued until January 1841 when the Connecticut federal court said that the international dimensions of the case required the review of the US Supreme Court.
John Quincy Adams and other leading abolitionists played a critical role in fighting for Senbe's and the slave's freedom in front of the US Supreme Court. The courts decided that they were not guilty and were free to return to Africa.
The main theme of the movie was evident during that Supreme Court Trial. “Give us Free. Give us Free.”, chanted Sengbe. We were slaves to Satan, and some of us may still be. I say, “Give Us Free” Give us Free!’. Let’s get out of this prison we are in, and be free. How can we do that?
Turn to 1st Timothy, chapter 4, and read, starting in verse 1, through 16. Although we are saved by grace (which is unmerited favor), we can lose that grace by not watching our life and doctrine closely. And if we do that, if we lose that grace, then we are not standing up for our freedom from Satan any longer. Even when we try to persevere in doing right, Satan is there tempting us. And we know we cannot fight Satan on our own. James 5:16, as I alluded to earlier, also tells us to confess to each other for healing.
Turn back to Galatians 5, and read verses 13 and 15. We were called to be free. Now turn to Ephesians 4, verse 11 starts off by talking about Jesus’ gifts to man—the most important being, unified. Read from verse 10 through 16. We need to stand up for freedom together. In Acts 2, verses 44 through 47, it states that:
“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their good and possessions they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people.”
The disciples acted as one body, all with a common goal. Our common goal is to get to Heaven and bring with us as many souls as we can. So first, let’s help each other out like the early disciples did, and second let’s reach out to others, because we also need to stand up for the freedom of non-Christians. Turn to 2nd Timothy, chapter 4, and read verses 1 through 5. WE are the ones with good news about freedom. We need to tell people. How many times did you tell someone about how your life was changed by Jesus? How many times did you PREACH the word? How many people did you at least invite to church last week?
Continue to read in verse 6, through 8. Are you fighting for your freedom, the crown of righteousness? Are you fighting for OTHERS as well? We need to be unified, tell others about our freedom, the good news that we know, and pray for that day when we can all be free together. Give Us Free!!!
Yes, I have a dream today.
I have a dream that every disciple will hew his mountains of despair into a stone of hope.
I have a dream that every disciple will transform the jangling discords of his life into a symphony.
I have a dream that every disciple will stand up for freedom together with other disciples, knowing that one day we will all be free.
So, let freedom ring from every street in Lithia Springs.
Let freedom ring from every block in Dallas.
Let freedom ring from every neighborhood in Douglasville.
Let freedom ring from every gym in Powder Springs.
Let freedom ring from every store in Austell.
But not only that, let freedom ring from the mouth of every disciple in the West Cobb sector of the Atlanta Church of Christ. From every disciple, let freedom ring.
And when we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from our hearts and our souls and our minds, then WE will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s disciples, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of that old Negro spiritual,
Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at last.
AMEN.