Vineyard Church of Knox County
Christian Freedom: An Introduction
Sermon Audio from Sunday, February 13, 2005 — Test yourself to see if you are an informed and responsible citizen of this country. Do you recognize these words? "We are led, by events and common sense, to one conclusion: The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world."
"There is only one force of history that can break the reign of hatred and resentment, and expose the pretensions of tyrants, and reward the hopes of the decent and tolerant, and that is the force of human freedom." Did you guess? Those are quotes from President Bush's 2nd Inaugural Address given just a few weeks ago. This powerful force - liberty, human freedom - has been in the news quite a bit lately, not only due to the Presidential Inaugural Address, but also with the recent Iraqi elections, of which President Bush said, "Today the people of Iraq have spoken to the world, and the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the center of the Middle East." Also, in the State of the Union Speech the President used the word "freedom" 21 times and the word "liberty" seven times. This country, as Bush and every other president has pointed out in their inaugural addresses, is founded on the conviction that men and women were created to live in freedom, freedom from tyranny, fear, oppressive governments. The Declaration of Independence reads, "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 [freedom] and the pursuit of Happiness." And thousands upon thousands of men and women have given their lives for this purpose over the course of this country's brief history - freedom. But what is human freedom? What does it mean to be truly free? Certainly we can talk about freedom from tyranny as Bush and other presidents have said - tyranny being oppressive rule of government. We can talk about democratic governments that allow the citizens the freedom to pursue life and happiness in career and family, whatever that means. But are these things - political and cultural freedoms - the true freedom that is at the heart of the Christian story?
