Sermon Tone Analysis

*Since we believe that Christ died, his love compels us to live our lives for him.*

*People claim that Christianity takes away our freedom.*

*            Are we really “free” anyways?*

*Christianity gives us the freedom to give our lives away.*

*            We are all controlled by something.

What do you want to be controlled by?*

*Application*

*Christ*

As most of you know, we are engaged in a sermon series based on Tim Keller’s latest book called “The Reason for God.” Keller is the pastor of another Redeemer Presbyterian Church, located in the heart of Manhattan in New York City.

During his many years as pastor of the church, he has encountered many people who have raised just about every question imaginable in regards to Christianity.

This book is his attempt to answer these questions as well as helping Christians understand more clearly what they believe.

If you don’t have a copy, I highly recommend picking one up and reading it for yourself.

The past few weeks, Pastor Charlie has taken us through the questions of “Can Christianity honestly claim to be the only true religion?”

and “How could a good and all-powerful God allow suffering?”

Today we are going to explore the question “Is Christianity a straitjacket?”.

Does Christianity restrict our freedom?

Tim Keller has talked to a lot of people who think so.

The area of Manhattan that Keller ministers to is filled with young professionals who are skeptical towards Christianity.

Keller begins this chapter by writing about people who had raised this question to him.

He tells of one such person named Chloe who complained that “a ‘one-Truth-fits-all’ approach is just too confining.

The Christians I know don’t seem to have the freedom to think for themselves.

I believe each individual must determine truth for him- or herself.”

Chloe represents a large majority of our current culture.

What exactly is this freedom that people think is restricted by Christianity?

We live in a society that values personal freedom.

As a culture, we don’t like to have restrictions placed on us.

In a sense, we don’t like to be told what to do.

We want to think our own thoughts.

We want to do our own things.

We want to have our own beliefs.

If you are like me, you don’t like to hear “you can’t do that.”

Since my wife and I have family in different parts of the country, we often travel to see them.

My wife can attest that when I get out on the open road, I don’t like to have restrictions placed on me.

I don’t like speed limits or slow cars in the left hand passing lane.

I like to be free out on the open road.

Unfortunately, this desire for freedom led to a suspended license when I was in college.

I was caught speeding twice within two months of each other, and because I was under 21, my license was suspended for 3 months.

Instead of rolling up to campus in my car, I was rolling up to campus on my bike, or worse, the city bus.

Not following the restrictions of the speed limit lead to even great restrictions of a suspended license.

I would venture to say that I am not alone in my distaste for restrictions.

Not only do we not like to have restrictions on what we can do, but we also doesn’t like to be told what to believe.

We like to come up with our own standards.

We like to figure things out for ourselves and come to our own conclusions.

What we believe is our own business and we shouldn’t try to push our beliefs on others.

Pushing your opinion on others takes away a person’s individuality.

Persuading someone else to believe what you do takes away their freedom.

To notice how important individuality is in our culture, just look at the clothes that we wear, especially students.

Wearing the same shirt or dress as someone else is almost considered a sin.

Many students like to use the clothes that they wear to be different or to go against the grain.

So if our culture values personal freedom and individuality so much, does Christianity take that away?

You could say that it does.

You could definitely say that Christianity tells its followers what they ought to believe.

In order to become a Christian, you have to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he died on the cross and resurrected on the third day.

If you don’t believe that, you are not a Christian.

Not only does Christianity tell its believers what they should believe, it also tells its followers what it should and shouldn’t do.

When we read the Bible, there are all sorts of rules and regulations.

The 10 Commandments are just 10 among a ton of other things that Christians should and should not do.

In that sense, Christianity is restrictive.

You can’t believe whatever you want to and you can’t do whatever you want.

Christianity is pretty strict about that.

Our passage for this morning seems to support that.

Take a look at verse 14.

In the New International Version, it says that “the love of Christ compels us.”

In many other English versions of the Bible, the Greek word that is translated as “compel” is translated as “control.”

These versions say that “the love of Christ controls us.”

Is Christianity a religion that controls the people who believe in it?

Do people who become Christians have their individuality taken from them?

These are tough questions with not-so-easy answers.

To answer these questions, one of the things that you can look at is how Christianity is handled in different cultures around the world.

If every Christian around the world seems to be exactly the same, then you could say that Christianity is controlling and restrictive.

You could say that it takes each person and puts them into a mold so that they lose their individuality.

But this is actually not the case.

In fact, Christianity is actually fairly unique among all of the major religions in the world because Christianity adapts extremely well to very different cultures.

I have been to East Africa twice, once in college, and once with Stephanie about a year ago.

Christianity is thriving in East Africa, but it doesn’t look exactly the same as it does here in the US.

The liturgy is different, the songs are different, the language is different.

There is typically dancing.

Stephanie and I went to a service in Tanzania where it lasted about 3 hours and they actually had a marriage during the middle of the service.

If you go to South America or to China or to Europe, you would find differences as well.

The major beliefs of Christianity remain the same all over the world, but Christianity looks different in different culture

Even though Christianity is adaptable to various cultures, that doesn’t mean that a person who is Christian is necessarily free.

In fact, I would agree with the people who say that Christianity is restrictive.

Let’s take a closer look at the passage for this morning.

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul is writing to the church in the city of Corinth.

This is one of the many churches that Paul helped to start on one of his missionary journeys around the Roman Empire.

Paul loved the churches that he planted.

He loved them very deeply and he wanted to see them succeed.

When they ran into problems or start believing things that were not true, he was typically heartbroken for these churches.

The Corinthian church was no exception.

As we said earlier, Paul writes in verse 14 that he and other Christians are compelled by the love of Christ.

This word that the NIV translates as “compel” has a very rich deep meaning that can’t be fully expressed in one English word.

It has the sense of compelling someone to do something or controlling something or surrounding something to keep it in check.

Paul is saying here that the love of Christ surrounds us and keeps us.

It compels us to do things.

The love of Christ controls our actions, if we believe in him.

So if Paul is saying that he is controlled by the love of Christ--if the love of Christ surrounds him and directs his actions--then that means that Paul does not control his own actions.

That doesn’t sound freeing at all, now does it?

That actually sounds pretty restrictive if you ask me.

So why does Paul say this?

Why does Paul say that he is controlled by the love of Christ?