"TRUE FREEDOM" - Romans 7:15-25 & Matthew 11:28-30 (July 6, 2008)

This past Friday we celebrated our national independence. We remember that we live in a free nation: we can speak, think, travel, believe, and do as we please. Yes, Glory Hallelujah, we are free, free indeed!

As we ponder that freedom, however, I marvel that many people don’t seem to be free at all. We live in an age of anxiety. There are many things that hold us captive:

• Rising gas prices
• Our health
• The future
• Illegal immigration
• Money matters

When it comes to freedom, most of us would define it as “being able to do as I please.” Yet in the reading from Romans today, Paul confesses that even though he was a free man, a Roman citizen, none the less, he was anything but free. “I can decide what I want to do,” says Paul, “but I am powerless to do it.”

Here’s my Independence Day question for us:

• Are we really free?
• Are we free to do as you please?

I know what Paul meant when he said that he may know what he would like to do but seems powerless to complete it, do you? There is a great gulf between what we decide in our minds to do and what we actually do. “Who can deliver me from this slavery? Paul asks.

So, if we define freedom as being free to do what we want to do, how free are we? Furthermore, when we say we want to do this or that we may not be speaking truthfully. Sometimes when we decide on an appropriate action, we have excluded other alternative possibilities. IE: Numerous people come to me seeking counsel for a situation in their life. I will ask them to ponder possible solutions to their predicament, they respond with several, and I ask them if they would implement them and they will respond:

“Yes . . .but . . .I couldn’t do that”, nooo, I can’t do that
either, I could lose my job – friend – etc, if I did that.”

The conversation usually ends in great frustration as the possibilities are limited by their achieving a result that falls within their own parameters of what is easy, and risk free.

Others use their freedom to become self indulgent as they breathlessly attempt to fulfill their every desire, chasing after this and that, consuming, indulging, accumulating at the expense of their friends and families.

Yes, freedom is a big problem. Some of the problem might be that our democracy has given us the freedom to pursue what we want, but has given us so little guidance in wanting that which is worth having. Paul asks, “Who can deliver me from this slavery?”

So I ask you again, Are you truly free? I wonder if the answer can be found in the Gospel of Matthew 11:28-30?

Jesus has been busy proclaiming the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, he has told the audiences:

• Who they are
• What they are to be and do
• He has shown them who their neighbors are
• Jesus and his message are facing considerable resistance. Many are questioning his authority and identity. Some are open to his message; many openly oppose it.
• And in the midst of this criticism, in the midst of this controversy, Jesus tells those listening to “Come unto Him, all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens.” As we ponder the text we uncover several key points that help us to better understand what Jesus is actually telling us:
• Come . . . It is a voluntary act. Jesus does not:

• make us come,

coerce us to come,

condemn us or threaten us.

He invites us to come to Him.

• Rest . . .He tells us that there is rest, release from the burdens of our lives. Coming to him is rest-full.
• Easy . . .Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy the Greek word used here actually means “Kind”.

Let us examine the real meaning behind this yoking ourselves with Jesus.

• We must yoke ourselves with Christ

• This is not a promise of cheap grace as Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call it.

• This yoking, however, entails our surrender of our own free will.
  • Admit that all things come from God

• Pray/Listen to God

• Be in God’s word

• Don’t clutter our lives and push God out

Surrender all, not just part of our lives.

• Talk about the yoke. Christ was a “Tec ton”, a worker with wood and stone. He made yokes, among other things.

• Yokes were crafted/shaped so that there was a minimum of chafing. Jesus said that his yoke would be “Kind” to the shoulders of those who come to be yoked with him.

• The purpose of the yoke was to place two animals together so they could pull heavy loads, too heavy for just one.

• If one pulls in the wrong direction it won’t work. If one does not pull at all it doesn’t work, if one digs in their heels it doesn’t work
• But, if we surrender to our own will,

• and accept Jesus as Lord of our lives,

• Allow Christ into our hearts,

• Admit that we can’t continue on our own,

• Prayerfully surrender to God’s will for us

• And yoke ourselves with Him, He will help us carry the heavy loads of life.

• Jesus will not only heal our inner sickness, He makes us one of the agents of healing for the sickness that is destroying others

• When Jesus lifts our burdens, he makes us one of His agents. He gives us the power to help others around us lift their burdens.

• Who is more qualified to lift burdens than those who once carried them?

Therefore, at the heart of the Christian gospel there is a paradoxical claim that only as our lives are linked/yoked to Christ, only as our wills are bent toward His will, that we are truly free.

IE: St Augustine lived a rather carefree, sometimes wild existence. He fathered a child out of wedlock, then his life was caught up in Christ. He was converted. After his conversion, Augustine noted that freedom means:


not to do what we want to do, but rather to be free to be whom God intends us to be.


IE: Viktor Frankle survived the German concentration camps and lived to write about his experience in a book entitled: MAN’S SEARCH FOR MEANING. In it Frankle noted that amid the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp when all freedoms are taken away there were some who remained strangely, resolutely free. They were the ones that walked from hut to hut comforting others giving away their last piece of bread. Everything can be taken away from a person but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances – to choose ones own way.

It can truly be a great freedom to find our lives caught up in the plans and purposes of God. However, before that happens, our lives are often jerked around by other intentions, external and alien distractions that hinder us from being all that we ought to be. I believe that by taking up the cross of Christ, by placing His yoke around our necks we become free. It is a great freedom to know who owns you and to whom you are accountable. Therein is true freedom, therefore let us:

• Admit that you can’t make it on your own, only God has the power to lift you up and see you through, to free you from your burdens
• Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior
• Surrender your will to His
• Come unto Him
• Yoke yourself with Him/Surrender you will to Him
• Then we can experience
• His power,
• His Love,
• His Grace,

• His Forgiveness
• His Awesome love

And be truly FREE!

Submitted by Kristi Ribble on July 10, 2008 - 11:56am.Sermons