by Pastor Ryan Cooper
This month my oldest daughter turned 15 years old. Let me just let that sink in for a minute…
With this birthday, she has one thing solidly in her mind.
Driving
Don’t get me wrong, I’m looking forward to my kids reaching important milestones in their lives. s much as it makes me feel old, we all know that our children need to reach certain maturation goals, move out and learn to be fully independent adults. Oh, but sometimes it’s hard.
(Quick tip: it’s time for your late-20’s adult son to move out of your home and be independent. Make a plan and execute. Stick to it! You’re welcome!)
As I think about our kids learning to drive, getting their permits, licenses, and purchasing their first car, it is actually pretty exciting!
As long as I don’t meet them on the road.
But seriously, what a wonderful time for them to begin to experience some freedom! They can go where they want, hang out with their friends, take an impulse trip to Softies, chill on the rims, go skiing, and enjoy driving without Mom and Dad. But at the same time, that vehicle costs money. So does the insurance, and gas, and maintenance, and tickets, and accidents.
I should know. My oldest son has had his fair share. Let’s just leave it at that.
You see, with every added freedom there are also many boundaries to go along with that freedom. We all know obtaining a driver’s license is not the complete freedom to drive however we’d like. Lord knows there are already plenty of those drivers on the roads and I’m thankful to our law enforcement officers who enforce those very helpful boundaries.
No, freedom does not mean chaos!! It does not mean freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want, however we want.
When we get our license, we agree that along with the freedom of operating a motor vehicle, we also must submit ourselves to the boundaries that come along with that freedom and if we don’t, those freedoms will be in jeopardy.
The same is true with our freedom in Christ. When we come to Christ, we give up our burdensome enslavement to sin, and He gives us a tremendous freedom. Satan would love us to believe that this freedom is not actually freedom. He says that when we give up sin, we are actually giving up freedom in exchange for a list of do’s and don’ts that are completely shackling and burdensome.
Lies.
The truth is when we give up our sin to Jesus, He gives us His freedom. This freedom includes willful submission to the person of Jesus Christ and control of the Holy Spirit. Just like getting your license gives you the freedom to operate a motor vehicle on the roads, it also comes with boundaries, guidelines, and rules to keep you safe. It is not freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want.
That is chaos.
The truth is when we submit to sin, it really feels like natural, unshackled freedom, but it’s not too long before our natural, unshackled freedom smashes up against another person’s natural, unshackled freedom and we are stuck in a James 4 situation, quarreling, fighting, coveting, and murdering.
Pastor Trey’s quote of A.W. Tozer in his 21-day study bears repeating: “We must of necessity be a slave to someone, either to God or to sin. The sinner prides himself on his independence, completely overlooking the fact that he is the weak slave of the sins that rule his members. The man who surrenders to Christ exchanges a cruel slave driver for a kind and gentle Master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.”
You see we are never truly free until we have submitted ourselves to Jesus whose promise says that his yoke is easy and burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
He bids you and me to come to Him.
In what ways have you discovered that Jesus’ yoke is so much better than the yoke of slavery?