November 5, 2006 Sermon

Deliverance at Sea
Exodus 14:10-25

God leads us to freedom. God leads us to freedom—not to safety, but to freedom. Praise God!

We have arrived at the first great climax of the great book of Exodus. The Pharaoh of Egypt has finally admitted defeat. God has proven His power by sending plague after plague to afflict all Egypt until Pharaoh has finally let the people of God go. But before they escape into the wilderness east of Egypt he changes his mind yet again. He sends warriors on chariots to chase down the Hebrews and drive them back into slavery.

Our passage opens with the Hebrews fleeing before their horse-drawn pursuers. “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness?” they demand of Moses. But Moses has seen too much of the power of God to lose hope. “The Lord will fight for you,” he tells his followers, “and you have only to keep still.”

How hard it is to keep still in the face of the troubles our freedom brings! We Westerners of the early 21st century may have more freedom than any group in history. We have economic, political, religious and physical freedom. We have freedom from the daily life-or-death challenges faced by the vast majority of people alive today and throughout history. But with our freedom come two tremendous threats: the hatred of radical non-Westerners, and our failure to use our freedom responsibly. We face threats from others and from ourselves.

Last summer young Muslims rioted throughout France . Unemployed and unable to deal any longer with the contempt the French have for them, they set fires and vandalized property. The riots lasted for weeks. In certain suburbs of Paris and Marseilles , the riots never really ended. When questioned why they his forces had not cleaned out these pockets of violence, the head of the French national police service replied that those districts were effectively under the control of radical Muslim clerics and their gangs. The police would not enter those neighborhoods without support from the army.

Radical Islamists have mustered a surprisingly long terrorist effort in Iraq . They have conducted a decades-long campaign in Israel and Lebanon . They have bombed people in France , Spain , England , Indonesia and the United States . They have broadcast their hateful messages on satellite television and the Internet. Yet despite this abundant evidence of their evil motives and behavior, most of the Western world has tried to them shrug off. We have our freedom. We would love for them to have theirs—as long as they don’t move in next door. Most of us cannot see the truth: a fanatical, well-funded band of people hates our freedom enough to kill us. But they do not hate freedom in the way we assume they might. They are not jealous. They do not want to liberate people. They want to kill freedom for everybody, except themselves. They want the power to control the religious, political, business and personal lives of all people they permit to live on Planet Earth.

But the misuse of our own freedom threatens us, too. I speak not of the common preacher’s lament against western culture. In truth, there is much to criticize. Our media have become saturated with violence and depravity. Drugs have wormed their way into our cities, suburbs and even rural outposts. We worship material goods, leading us to neglect our children and even the care of our own souls. But the specific freedom I accuse us of misusing is a theological, or spiritual, freedom. It is the freedom God has given us to accept or reject the freedom from the consequences of sin Jesus purchased for us on the cross. God has freed us from the power of death—and then left us free to decide whether to accept this great gift. Have you accepted your freedom?

God freed the Hebrews from Egypt with mighty acts of power. God prefaced this decisive moment of freedom with awesome plagues. God accomplished this event by holding back the sea. But before, during and after these miracles the Hebrews complained. They feared the Egyptians would recapture them. They feared death by starvation and/or dehydration in the desert. They were free from slavery, but they were still held captive by their lack of faith in the purposes of God.

Would we do any better? Have you accepted your freedom?

I mentioned drugs a few minutes ago. Drugs have gained a terrible hold over many in the West. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 6.2 percent of all Michigan high school seniors in 2005 had tried methamphetamine. Traverse City West high school has about 1,500 students. If that school matches the state average—and there is no reason to think it does not—this means that 93 students across the road from our church have tried meth. The Center for Disease Control labels meth one of the most addictive of all drugs. Using it once can create a life-long dependency. Meth supercharges brain function. It makes the addict incapable of sleep, but capable of extraordinary violence. Meth addicts become paranoid and psychotic. I have personally witnessed a husband and wife, both on meth, both as tall as and heavier than me, throw large pieces of furniture at each other as they screamed vile things. They drove 18-wheel trucks for a living and freely admitted to me they used meth to drive for a couple of days without stopping.

Addiction to methamphetamine, or to alcohol, or to anything else, is a modern form of slavery. Perhaps you have an addiction. Perhaps you love somebody who has an addiction. If so, you know what I mean. But other kinds of slavery exist, as well. Praise God, therefore, that God leads us to freedom. Yet we must follow God to freedom. We must accept our freedom—and the responsibility that comes with it. God does not lead us to safety. God leads us to freedom—and then waits for us to choose to live out our freedom responsibility.

Recovering addicts know a truth the rest of us probably would prefer to ignore: living responsibly is a daily, life-or-death challenge. The 12-step programs work as well as they do because they rely on two absolutely key moves for each one of us to make if we desire to meet the life-or-death challenge: being honest with ourselves about our weaknesses, and throwing ourselves on the mercy of God for deliverance.

Addicts cannot start their recovery from addiction unless and until they become brutally honest with themselves. The first of the twelve steps requires that addicts admit they have no power in the face of their addictions. Likewise, as Christians we must admit that we are powerless in the face of the temptation to sin. Or to use biblical language, we are slaves to sin. Unless and until we confess this—and mean it—to God and to ourselves, we cannot take one step toward healing and freedom.

Addicts cannot continue their recovery unless and until they turn to what Alcoholics Anonymous calls a “higher power” for spiritual help. Likewise, as Christians we must constantly return to God, seeking spiritual power to support us as we try to live responsibly. We must turn to God in daily prayer, asking for the power to life rightly. We must turn to God as we find Him in the fellowship of the church, seeking the support that helps us stay on the straight and narrow.

In a profound way we are all addicts. We are addicted to sin. Without turning to God we cannot become free. Take the two steps illustrated by the Exodus and the recovery from addiction movement:

1. Confess you have no power to escape from sin on your own.

2. Walk with God and the fellowship of God.

God gives us freedom. Freedom from sin. Praise God!