Are we having an amazing weekend? Our country’s 250^th birthday. What did you do? Kathy and I went to St. Augustine to experience the events there, including the grand fireworks display. Seemed fitting to celebrate the event in our oldest city. I got choked up watching the fireworks. I am so thankful to have been born in the country.

July 4^th has always been a day for parades, cookouts,and speeches. I grew up in a small town in the mountains of Western Maryland and we always had a Fouth of July parade that was well-attended with people lining the streets. Our July 4^th was pretty iconic for small town America. We were a patriotic people then. Over the years, patriotism has waned with polling showing that only approximately 25% of Democrats describe themselves as patriotic. How did that happen?

Celebrating the Fourth of July, and particularly this one, always focuses me on our freedom. I have never taken our freedom for granted. As a historian I know that freedom is a fragile thing that is easily lost. We currently have a growing movement of socialism is this country. Whenever socialism has been tried a loss of freedom always accompanies it. Our freedom becomes more fragile daily.

Thinking of our freedom inevitably brings me to the sacrifices that have been made to preserve it. My father and father-in-law both served on active duty in the Pacific durring World War II and that experience forever shaped their lives. My brother is a vetaran of the Vietnam War era. And our daughter currently serves as a Navy Commander. Our family is very familiar with sacrifices for freedom.

I fear that we are becoming a society that not only has waning patriotism, but also takes for granted the sacrifices made for our freedom. Moreover, I fear even more that many Christians have come to regard that the only proper service for Christians is in opposition to war, rather than the sacrifice of military service. But when we no longer see the goals of military service as honorable, it is difficult to honor those who sacrifice themselves in that service.

Our daughter is not exactly an active duty warrior in harm’s way. She has been in combat, but she currently serves as the air officer on a Marine amphibious vessel, but she reports in August to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterrey, CA to get a PHD and then teach there. Her days in harm’s way are over absent something very dramatic happening. Her mother and I have exhaled a sigh of relief.

Even when she was a midshipman in college, she understood sacrifice. Although she and the other midshipmen in her unit were just normal college kids, you could sense in them that they understood and had accepted the sacrifices that they might have had to make for our country. When they put on their uniforms they also put on a seriousness of purpose that you don’t see in others their age. They seemed to instantly mature. They understood sacrifice.

That was driven home to me when it came time for our daughter to sign the papers that inducted her into the Navy. At the Naval Academy that happens immediately upon admission. In ROTC, however, that happens at the beginning of their second year. I bought her an expensive pen to use as I wanted to impress upon her the gravity of the event. I told her that I knew she may have been dazzled by ideas of glory and honor, but the stark truth is that many who serve in the military die for foolish decisions by politicians. Was she ready for that? She responded. “Dad, if no one is willing to die for the foolish decisions there won’t be anyone to die for the right ones.” That single sentence told me that she understood at 18 years of age more about sacrifice than I did.

What is interesting is the perspective some people have had about our daughter’s service. Meredith is openly and unabashedly Christian. Yet she became an aviator and, if required, is perfectly at peace with dropping ordinance on terrorists. Some have directly questioned, however, how she could be a Christian, yet want to be a warrior. One of our neighbors in Maryland, for example, who is a person of faith, questioned me one evening as to how we could support her service. She indicated that she did not see how a person could be a Christian and in the military. I cannot grasp that position though, for to me it seems the consummate expression of devotion to God and country.

I know that in some circles it has become politically incorrect to make such a statement. To such people the concept of “for God and country” has become an anachronism if not an actually threatening statement. I cannot accept, however, that a Christian willing to sacrifice his or her life to preserve our freedom, or bring freedom to others, is a contradiction with our faith.

Even though some dispute it, this country was founded on faith in God and belief in Christ. Many of our founding fathers had actually studied religion and most were active in their local churches in one way or another. They made clear their foundational belief in what I believe is the most important sentence ever written outside the Bible: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The entire Declaration rested on rights endowed by the Creator God.

The founders believed that God made us free. And they sacrificed to assure that would be a truth, not just a sentence. Many ended the revolution impoverished. Some lost their lives. Of the 56 signers of the Declaration, few were long to survive. Five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes–from Rhode Island to Charleston–sacked and looted, occupied by the enemy or burned. Two of them lost their sons in the Army; one had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 died in the War from its hardships or from its more merciful bullets. They were Christians standing firm for their belief that God gives us freedom. They were just putting into practice in everyday life what they had experienced spiritually.

There are many types of freedom in this world. There is the political freedom embodied in our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights that we celebrate this weekend. There is freedom from ignorance that results from education. There is freedom from want that results from having sufficient food. And many more. The Great Emancipator for our lives, however, is Jesus Christ. The freedom he offers is so much more.

In Galations 5:1, Paul writes: “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdoned again by a yoke of slavery.” Jesus made very clear that it is sin that enslaves: In John 8: 34-36, Jesus says: “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

This undoubtedly is not something new to you. We have heard of sin enslaving us for much of our Christian lives. But how does it do that? In sin, aren’t we free to do what we want whenever we want? How is that slavery? Tom Landry, former Coach of the Dallas Cowboys and a man of faith in Christ, once said: “Most successful football players not only accept rules and limitations but, I believe, they need them. Players are free to perform at their best only when they know what the expectations are where the limits stand. I see this as a biblical principle that also applies to life, a principle our society as a whole has forgotten; you can’t enjoy true freedom without limits.” There is no true freedom in sin.

Sin gives the appearance of life without guardrails. Sin, however, leads to death. Final, irrevocable, death. Christ offers life eternal. He offers us life in his eternal Kingdom. But you know, I don’t think that is the greatest freedom he offers. I think that is freedom from the fear of death. Fear of death can be crippling. But when we accept the gift of salvation from sin, we no longer need to fear death. We are freed from the consequences of sin – past, present, and future. And freed from the consquence of death that accompanies sin.  We now have nothing to fear. He not only offers us eternal life, but he offers us life in his Kingdom here and now. We can live life now  free of fear.

Another way that sin enslaves us is by separating us from God. Christ brings with him a restoration of our relationship with God. He does that by freeing us from the sin that blocks that relationship. Sin enslaves us by preventing us from living the relationship we were created to live. And that is life in his Kingdom. Think about when you were young and did something that you knew was not approved by your parents. When they forgave you there was a load lifted from your shoulders. You had been restored to the relationship with them you were supposed to have. That is exactly the freedom of the Kingdom. The burden of sin is lifted from you and your relationship with God returns to what it is supposed to be.

Sin also enslaves us by making us think that we can win favor with God by doing things that please him. The Jews believed that was by keeping the Old Testament Law. I think this may be one of the most pernicious aspects of sin. It makes us think we can be good enough for God. Practically every religion other than Christianity rests on this proposition. You can earn your way to heaven. It doesn’t even withstand logic. If God is holy how can we make ourselves as holy as him? Jesus frees us from the slavery of attempting to prove that we merit salvation. He affirms that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation except believe on him. He is the truth that sets us free.

The idea that we can merit salvation also leads to selfishness. Peter warned in 1 Peter 2:16 against using freedom as a covering for evil. As I said earlier, sin deceives by making us think we are free to do as we choose. Peter and Paul taught that the legitimate use of freedom is service to others. Focus on ourselves is not wrong, but when we do to the exclusion of service to another we run the risk of falling prey to sin. Focusing on trying to merit salvation is the ultimate selfishness.

The operative question is not whether Christ brings us freedom. He does. He repairs our relationship with God and frees us to live as we were created to live. No, the operative question is what do we do with this freedom. The first, and most important, is never stop praying. Paul encourages us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18: “Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ.” Prayer is not about God learning about our wants and needs. He already knows them. Prayer is about us learning who God is. Prayer is the vehicle through which we develop in our relationship with God. We are essentially saying to God, this is where I’m watching for you. Please reveal yourself. To be honest, I get discouraged in prayer. It seems that so many of my prayers, particularly for healings, go unanswered. I have been praying for something for over 30 years and God has yet to act. But I still raise it morning and evening. Because we are commanded to pray. So we must pray in response to Christ’s freedom. We must pray for our country, pray for our church, pray for our brothers and sisters, pray for our children, pray for our wives, pray for our husbands, pray for the lost, pray for our leaders, and pray for those who defend our freedoms. Pray constantly wherever and whenever you are. If you want to see God move, pray.

The next response to the freedom Christ provides is to live righteously. We are commanded to live peaceful and quiet lives of godliness and holiness. How do we do that? Through prayer. See a pattern? The power to live a holy life is not within us outside the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit transforms us to become the person we were created to be. The Holy Spirit casts out our sin and sets us apart for the Kingdom. That being set apart can be difficult. We become different people and do different things that may not be acceptable to our family and friends. Outside your brothers and sisters in Christ, being a Christian is not popular in the world today. When our country was founded being a Christian was acceptable. But that is not the case now.  We can hear almost daily someone condemning some aspect of Christian life. Christian nationalism, whatever that is, is constantly condemned. Around the world Christians are literally dying for their faith. Even Western governments are placing more and more restrictions on Christian wirness. Living a holy Christian life is becoming more diffcult by the day.

Christ places within us the Holy Spirt to free us from sin. Christians see sin and run from it. Before we found freedom in Christ we had no power to avoid sin. But now we do through the Holy Spirit. But we must listen. To live a holy life means submitting every aspect of your life to the Holy Spirit. It means asking in every decision will this bring glory to God or to me and seek the Spirit to guide you to seek God’s glory. Christ redeems us through grace. We must seek a righteous life in him.

The last response is to witness for Christ. That is really the tough one. We lack confidence in our understanding. We fear we will say the wrong thing. We do not want to be confrontational. And so on and so on. Our excuses are endless. Paul reminds us in Romans 10:14 of the obious: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?”

God’s overarching plan for humanity is that every person will be redeemed to life in the Kingdom. We are called to that plan. We are called to serve that plan. We may be called in many different ways, but our greatest purpose is to witness for Christ. Our first witness is to live holy lives as we have already discussed. Your words may not be heard if your life does not show their truth. But we are also called to witness through words. We are called to tell others about Jesus. The easiest way to do that is to tell our own stories. To tell how and why we came to follow Jesus. To tell how he has changed our lives. You don’t need to give a walk through the Bible. If you do, then ask the Holy Spirit to guide you. Indeed ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in everything you say when you witness. Some are called more frequently to witness in words. But at least once in our lives the Holy Spirit will bring someone to us to hear about Jesus. Remember to witness.

In this weekend when we celebrate 250 years of freedom in this country, let us remember that our freedoms must be protected. They are constantly under assault. More important, however, is our lives in the freedom of Christ. That freedom cannot be taken from us. That freedom is a constant. Live in it. Enjoy it. Celebrate it. For you are truly free.

© 2026 Thomas M. Trezise