Freedom

Although I am primarily talking about our freedom as a culture, there is much more to freedom than independence and choice. There are times when we must choose not to be free. There are times when, although we may have the “freedom” to choose to behave in a certain way, we are more responsible when we choose to limit our freedom.

Think about it. We think we are “free” to do whatever we want. So, we drink and drink and drink. If we’re not careful, we become an alcoholic. We are now in bondage to alcohol. Are we enjoying our freedom now? Far too many lives have been ruined by people who have “chosen” to become alcoholics rather than choosing to live by God’s standards.

Or, what about the guy who is “free” to have sex with whomever he wants. Before he knows it, he has now contracted some STD or worse yet, he gets AIDS. Do you think he is enjoying his freedom now?

True freedom comes with responsibility. They are mutually inclusive. Men, we must determine who will define what is responsible. Do we define it for ourselves or is there someone greater than us?

To be truly free, submit to God, the one who is MUCH greater than us! You TAKE YOUR STONES BACK when you decide to live according to the rules of the one who designed and created you.

One of the greatest exercises of freedom in our country comes from our…Work

I’m sure it’s been said thousands of times, but men get a great deal of their sense of self from the work they do. But beyond just doing work, it is having a sense of purpose beyond themselves…greater than themselves. Again, an Almighty, Creator God is exactly that!

It is time to stop looking at your work simply as a J.O.B. It is time to start thinking of your work as fulfilling a larger purpose in your life. It is time to start looking at your work as a way to live out the powerful values of a God-fearing man.

Imagine what would happen if men started rising up against “diversity training.” Imagine what would happen if men started changing the workplace to reflect Godly values instead of passively sitting by while the culture dictates what they are supposed to believe and accept as “truth.”

What if the purpose of our work was greater than just earning a paycheck? What if it was bringing Godly values to a degenerating culture? Your work then becomes about much more than producing or selling “widgets.” It’s about changing the world!!

Through our work we have the capacity to influence countless numbers of people. And if men began to influence them toward the same God and His values…WOW! That would be a powerful movement.  It would also make our work much more purposeful.

What if we would perform our work as though we were working for God? That is exactly what the Bible suggests in Col 3:23-24: "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward."

Faith can change you and your perspective. If you believe very deeply in the God of the universe, the creator God, the Almighty God of the Bible and believe that you have a greater purpose on this earth than just bringing home a paycheck from your job; if you believe that God has a greater reward in store for you, you would have an entirely different motivation from which you worked.

So men, let’s work hard. But our work is not solely to meet our own personal needs. It is to advance the cause of our God. And when we are working not just to please ourselves or our boss, our work becomes much more meaningful.

The final area where men need to exercise their freedom is within the context of the…World

We are supposed to be good managers of this world. The truth of the matter is our management has produced mixed results. We have done some incredible things. We have also caused some serious damage.

Now, should we listen to every alarmist statement that comes out of the mouth of environmentalist wackos?  Absolutely not. Should we ignore the world in which we live and squeeze everything we can out of it with out restoring and replenishing? Again, absolutely not. The key word is balance.

Part of the problem we face is that even the so called “experts” disagree on what is happening to our world and what to do about it. But men, we need to act responsibly and actively. It is time to TAKE YOUR STONES BACK and stop allowing the radical environmentalists to set the agenda.

Men, it is also time to realize that the United States is part of a world in which many of its countries dislike us.  Does that mean we should do all we can to try and get them to like us. NO!! It does mean that we do not let the world define who we are. Why? Because most of the world has an entirely different spiritual perspective. And make no mistake about it; there is a spiritual battle raging for the control of this world.

Many people are under the misconception that we need to go back to the days when the world liked us. Those days never existed! Because we stand for a freedom which has its roots in a Judeo-Christian belief system, we have never really been liked by most of the world.

One idea the relativists are trying to convey is that every culture is equal. THAT’S WHACKED! The United States is, arguably, the greatest country that has ever existed in the world. We produce more; help more people, and provide more opportunity than any country in the world. The greatest single reason for that is the belief system on which it is founded. To abandon that belief system in order to be embraced by the world is suicidal. Men, you are the key: TAKE YOUR STONES BACK!

Although we are “global citizens” we still have the best system out there. Let’s learn what we need to do to cultivate and care for our world, but remember, it was designed to serve us, not the other way around. We were given sovereignty over the world. Let’s not abuse it. Let’s not worship it. Let’s not end up saving the trees, saving the whales, saving the spotted owls and killing our future. Let’s develop our world responsibly and remember…it’s not about just us. There are children and grandchildren coming after us. What do we want to leave them?

So men: