Creekside Church Sermon of June 1, 1997 "Bound to Be Free" II Corinthians 4:5-12	Rev. David Bibbee
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Once Mom and Dad unload you and your stuff at the dorm, and you've had time to compose yourself after the emotional good-bye, which, by the way will really be tough on your parents, it will hit you. "I'm free. I'm finally free. No curfew." No calling in to say where you are. No one to ask, "Where have you been and what have you been doing?" No one asking, "Is your homework finished?" Mom and Dad won't be hollering, "If you don't hurry up you're gonna be late for school!" You won't be called on Sunday mornings and asked, "Are you up and dressed for church?" None of that anymore. You will be your own time keeper, your own boss, your own person--you will be independent, autonomous, and free. It took eighteen years, but you have finally made it. Freedom is just around the corner.

But before you are too far gone in your fantasies of freedom, I want to tell you about the other side of the freedom coin. Much of what people think of as freedom, isn't. In fact, freedom as a goal in itself doesn't exist. The only way you will ever really be free is by being bound to something. You're not going to like this, but if you want to be free, you will have to be a slave.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake." Paul was always fighting for credibility, but not for himself, not for his insights, or his credentials. The work he did was for Jesus. Any accomplishments were by Jesus. Paul was willingly bound to Him. For the well being of others, he was bound to them. There was a bigger purpose in Paul's life than Paul. To that purpose he was willingly enslaved.

I know, it doesn't sound very good. It's not what you hear on the radio, t.v., or at school. You've grown up in a culture that says you can decide what's right or wrong. You've been told that growing up means severing the ties from tradition, religion, the old man and lady. You shouldn't be a slave to anybody. Get yourself liberated. Follow your bliss. Cut the cord.

Last fall I went on a fishing trip with a guy who had just bought a very expensive fishing boat. After dark one evening, I looked out into the lake and I saw the faint outline of something way out in the water. Walking down to the shore, I discovered an empty boat stall. My friend had been in a hurry and had hastily tied his boat to the pier. After about three hours the motion of the water had pulled it loose and adrift. It was great fun to walk into the cabin and say, "Hey Ed, your boat is gone."

Adrift is what we are when we sever the ties that bind us. This is the key condition which the Bible addresses from cover to cover...the problems people encounter when they no longer want to be bound in relationship with God or other people.

A small church-related college hired a consultant to evaluate the pluses and minuses of the institution. The Board was told, "At small colleges like this you get lots of students who tend to be very dependent. They are not seeking maturity. They want to be Mommied and Daddied, so you need a faculty to help them grow up." Then an old minister on the Board spoke up. "Well, I guess it depends upon your definition of an adult. How do you define, 'grown-up?' " "You know," the consultant said. "an adult is someone who is independent, autonomous, not dependent on others, free." Then the preacher replied, "Well, I was thinking. Every adult I know who believes this is in big trouble right now."

The freedom to pursue nothing but our own desires and wants is not freedom. I was talking with a friend awhile back and inquired about a guy from high school named Joe. Joe went off to college and expressed his freedom by throwing restraint to the wind. He drank heavy, partied hard, and went through women like the wind. "What became of Joe?" I asked. "He's got a good job. Makes lots of money. Other than that nothing has changed. He still parties hard, drinks too much, has been divorced three times, and his children are on drugs." Joe's freedom became his burden. He is enslaved, but not to that which brings life.

It's not a question of whether you will be a slave. It's a question of what you will be a slave to. There is no question that you will bind yourself to someone or something. You and your friends are already talking about what it will be like at last to be on your own. But remember, you won't create a new twist on anything. Mom and Dad were eighteen once, too, you know. But when you are out from under Mom and Dad's wings, and you find yourselves jerked around by people and claims that conflict with what you have been taught, just remember--none are so bound as those who are slaves to their own desires, and none are as free as those who are slaves in the service of God. Only those who have learned to give their lives away; only those who lose their lives for a greater good; only those who lose their lives for Jesus' sake, will find their lives.

In Birchwood, Wisconsin, population 443, there is a little cafe where I love to eat while on vacation. Every time I go there I look at the corner table and think about Mary. Up until she died five years ago at age 88, she would be there at one-thirty every day. Year after year we would go for lunch, and there sat Mary--just like a permanent fixture. One day I asked the waitress about her. "Mary always stops here on her way back from Rice Lake. Her husband had a stroke eighteen years ago. He can't speak. He doesn't know who she is anymore, but she drives twenty-five miles one way every day to feed him his lunch and spend time with him. In eighteen years she hasn't missed one day. If the snow is too bad, she gets someone else to take her."

Was Mary free? She had made a promise to stand by and love her husband, no matter what. I wonder, would Mary say her life was burdened or would she say her life was made meaningful by her commitment?

If you take only one thing with you from this message, let it be this...choose your slavery well. What some call freedom is a form of personal imprisonment. But when we submit our lives to someone greater than ourselves; when we become obedient to a bigger purpose, our lives become infinitely richer. Jesus was obedient to the point of going to the cross and God raised him to life. The power that raised Jesus accompanied Paul to prison where he taught the jailers that they were the ones who were bound, while he, in fact, was free.

And I hope you will reach the conclusion that you must be bound to something. You became good students by being bound to your studies. You became musicians by being bound to rehearsal. You became athletes by being bound to practice. You are a Christian by obedience to Jesus and being a slave for others for His sake.

In addition to the book presented to you this morning, I am going to give you something else--a prayer to remind you of whose property you are. It was written by John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement. Put it where you can see it, pray it often because the culture we live in will keep telling you that what matters most is what you want. But just remember, you have been bought with a price, purchased for a purpose, and that is to be bound to God. Here is what it says:

We take upon ourselves with joy the yoke of obedience, and engage ourselves, out of love for you, to seek and to do your perfect will. We are no longer our own, but yours.

I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to do what you will. Rank me with whom you will. Put me to doing, or put me to suffering. Let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and whole- heartedly yield all things to your pleasure and disposal. O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, you are mine, and I am yours!

You are bound to be free. So go ahead and sing your song. Sing it often. Sing because it is so, because in God's service, is perfect freedom.

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