As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Living Word, You are ever with us. Abide in us now, and stir in us the courage to live for you, so that we might experience all that you have offered to us in life. Speak Lord, your servants are listening. If these words are not Your Word, may they be forgotten and come to naught. But if they be Thy Word, may they adhere to our hearts, forever transforming us from glory into glory, into the creatures you would have us be, Thou who art our Rock and Redeemer, Amen.

“Like it or not, true freedom awaits us at the altar of self-giving.”ⁱⁱ It is far too human, and we are far too familiar with the calls to bondage that come with the desires for reputation, love of praise, status, ambition, and fear of failure. The call for any one of these is a tempting, seductive lie. We think they will bring us happiness, or fulfillment. But they don’t. And the worst part is the nature of the lie. The lie is that we can desire those things and follow God. We can’t.

For example. Hear now The Word of the Lord as it comes to us in Matthew. Listen. Matthew 6.24-33. The Grass withers, the Flower falls, but the Word of the Lord endures forever…Thanks be to God.

True freedom is not an abstract theoretical, but a substantive specific object. Freedom is not detachment, but involvement. Freedom is not from, freedom is to. Okay, you can obviously have freedom from. You can get free from prison, free from your parents, which may feel like the same thing, free from your job, free from someone or something that is oppressive, but unless you are free to something, it won’t do you any good to be free from whatever it is that binds you. Such as, you can get free from prison, but unless you have some better people to associate with, somewhere better to reside, something better to do, than you haven’t improved your situation at all. You can get free from your dull job, but unless you have something better to do than sit around and watch the idiot box all day, you haven’t done anything to alleviate your boredom, have you? Freedom from something is only half the deal. Unless you have freedom to something, you haven’t gained any purpose or significance.

We are free from the bondage of sin. Not that means that we don’t sin anymore. Confessional silence. Everybody sins. But we are no longer bound to it. We have been free from its bondage. We no longer have to make the same choices. Sin hurts. Do I need to tell you that? The consequences of sin hurt not only the person or persons that get sinned against, they also hurt the sinner. And we’re all sin-o-holics. But, through the power of the death of Christ, we are now recovering sin-o-holics, on the 12 steps. We have been freed from the bondage of sin, in the same way the recovering addict is free from the vice that hampers them. What are we free to, that is the important question.

You can tell what we are free to by the sermon title. We are free to obedience. By the grace of God, through the death of Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin. We are free to follow God. And that is wonderful. Following God, being who you are created to be, is one of the best things, one of the most rewarding life experiences that you can ever have. Living life as prescribed by the Creator is living the good life. Don’t you believe that God has your best interest in mind? And there is a reason that Jesus says, “I am the way, truth and the life.” God offers life, and obedience to God is the way of life. The author of life shows the way to the fullest life. It’s too obvious to say that we should take notice.

The interesting twist is this. Not only are we free to obedience. We are also free through obedience. The power of sin, the bondage to it, has been broken. But that doesn’t mean that we quit sin cold turkey. Sin certainly does not give up on us. Sin continues to try and bind us. Surely the power of Christ’s death has us eternally free from the bondage of sin. But that doesn’t mean that sin gives up on us. Just because you are a Christian does not mean that sin discontinues its pursuit of you. So, the way to continue to grow in freedom, the way to gain more freedom from sin, and freedom to living the life of obedience that is what’s best for humans, is through obedience. The way to grow in the freedom of obedience, a gift offered by the grace of God, is through obedience. If you want to come into contact with the wonderful feeling of freedom, to feel the shackles of bondage come off, then add more and more obedience to your life, and watch as the grasp of sin loosens and loosens.

Mahatma Ghandi said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.” I would agree. You want the world to change, then you change, and fascinatingly enough, your view of the world will change as well. I would also say, “You must be the change you wish to see in yourself.” Freedom is a reward, but it is also a call and a challenge. It is a responsibility. For his part, Nelson Mandela has said this, “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.” In other words, enjoy the freedom that comes, especially freedom that comes from the grace of God to the wonderful call of obedience, but don’t stop the obedience, for the freedom is also a responsibility.

It is for freedom that we have been set free. Obedience is neither easy nor painless nor comfortable, nor void of fear. I have no fallacies that this is as simple as, “Do what God says. Read this book.” It certainly isn’t as simple as that bumper sticker that was so popular, “God said it. I believe it. That settles it.” This is tough stuff folks. And the heroes of sainthood have dealt with it for ages. You are certainly allowed to have a tough time with it too. But you aren’t allowed to give up. This Christian life, this call from God to be in the world but not of it, as found in the first verses of Romans 12, to life above conformity and fear is hard. A league of their own.

Obedience is hard, but it is good. Amen.