22.Oct.2008 Freedom
Get caught up in serving and helping people. For too long, the church has been preaching something and doing another. It is time to embed ourselves in the community, serve, and do things that give Jesus a good name.
Galatians 5:13-15: “For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another.” (NLT)
I am talking about freedom this morning. I am not talking about political or religious freedom. I’m talking about the freedom that comes from who God is. Because, contrary to how you may have been raised or how you picture God–you perceive God through a grid forged by upbringing and the voices of authority in our lives. We take this baggage, this concept on, and it determines how we view God and life. It can be very tough to break out of these old thoughts of who God is. God is Freedom. The only real definition of “Freedom” is out of the Heart of God, Himself. He is the only free being in the universe.
Down here, we are becoming free-er, but we will never be fully free of the bondage of our flesh. Even though we are free from it, we live in the midst of violence, hatred, killing, and murder; as much as we are not of the world, we are in the world. The world tries to mess with our thinking. That is why you need the Word. It will lead you out of that thinking and lead you into the God Space. We are not called to be apart from the world. We are called to win the world. If the world does not respect us, we have no chance of winning. We don’t follow what we don’t respect. The world has to respect us, and there needs to be a level of relationship and connection in order to gain and develop respect. We are not cutting ties with the world. The world is caught in sin, the same as us, but we are covered by the Blood. The world is still trapped in its sin.
In all of this, we are journeying out of rules and fear and journeying into freedom.
The Book of Galatians deals with a very sensative subject. Paul was the champion of Freedom. We are dosconnecting with the law and attaching ourselves with God’s freedom; that is the theme of Galatians.
Anything you have to hide is not freedom. Example: When we came to America in ‘98, we struggled with the concept of alcohol being banned in Christian life. We encountered people who hid there beer in shame. I hate things that are hidden, so I would grab the beer and ask why it wasn’t in the fridge, and this fear would overtake their faces. It was like they were called out. Anything that is in the darkness gains power over us. We hide things because we are embarrassed or we think people won’t understand or because of tradition; that thing for which we hide gains 1000x more power over us. I don’t want anything to have power over me except for God.
Freedom starts with a foundation of being honest. We start in this platform of saying, “I’ve got an issue and I need to confront my issue.” That is why we strive to create an environment of family and no judgement so that people will feel comfortable in facing their issues here. Too often, Christian put on a facade and hide the truth inside in order to avoid the judgment. Your Sunday best may cover, for a period of a few hours, what you have going on for the rest of the week. I have this scoundrel part of me that wants to slap religion. I hate(that is a strong word, but I will use it anyway) religion. Religion keeps people in fear, which keeps them in bondage, which keeps them closed off, which leads to them to never discovering God’s freedom.
Galatians 5:13 says that “you have been called.” Now, we don’t talk about calling in this church. It is a very subjective thing, but there are a few things in the New Testament that you have been called into; meaning you have been called out of something else. You have been called to live in freedom. When you came out of darkness and into light, you came into a world where you didn’t have to hide anymore. Where you didn’t have to cover up; the only covering you need is the blood of Christ. Now, you can live openly. In the Garden of Eden, before they sinned, they lived uncovered. When they sinned, they felt guilt, and they covered themselves. The message is clear. When you’re in Christ, it is like you can live uncovered and free from trying to hide. “What if someone judges me?” They’ll hear my sermon on “Judge not least you be judged.” They’ll hear us talk about living a non-judgmental life. There is only one Judge, and He’s not judging right now. He will convene His court at the Day of Judgment, but that is not now. Right now, the only Judge is not sitting in judgment. He has released mercy and grace over the planet so that those who come to their senses and say “God I need you!” can come under the covering of the blood so then that we can be uncovered and live in freedom.
The Book of Psalms talks about the garment of heaviness. There is a heaviness you live under when you are bound by religious tradition, laws, and rules. Paul says, “Don;t live like you can’t eat this or touch that. Everything has become lawful in Christ.” This, to a Jewish mind, was confrontational and confounding. In Christ, all the things they couldn’t do, they could now do because of the covering of Christ. In Christ, you can make choices because you are free. We have a conscious in Christ, and we have the Holy Spirit. The more time you spend in God’s Kingdom, the more you understand when the Holy Spirit is talking to you. That’s why he says that you are not free to go live in sin. We adhere our lives to a higher standard because of the freedom that God has given us and because we feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Free people live in righteousness. People who live in rules, don’t. Every society that puts rules and laws on people breed an environment of rebellion. People will find any way to break the rules placed upon them. Example: If you parent out of fear and force rules, you will lose your children. If you try to bind your child, you will find that he or she will lose respect for you. They may nod in agreement, but, on the inside, they are refusing.
Outwards appearances and actions mean nothing to the intention of the heart. How do we get to a place where we thought we could fool God and fool ourselves? How do we think that if we had some outward demonstration of perfection that we could live righteously? It is a deception. It is a deception to think you can live and govern your life in such a way that in contrary to the Word of God. That’s why when you have a true encounter with God, you’ll find that God is trying to peal away the pride and layers and walls–He is trying to strip you back and get you back to the raw you. He’s trying to break stuff off because He loves us and He wants to shape us and He sees value in us and He sees what He’s gonna do with us and He says, “I can’t do that which I want to do with you right now so I want to break this stuff off of you, and I want to get you into true freedom. I want to get you so yielded, I want to get you so free that when I start to breath in you and give you a glimpse of where I want to take you, you will trust and go with me where I want to take you.”
Many Christians try to fake it. You don’t have to do that. We aren’t going to do that. We are not going to project to you something we are not. We are going to talk to you about our troubles sometimes, if only to give you permission to give you the same. You don’t have to do it in public like we do. It is part of the leadership calling. Yet, people come to us and thank us for how our honesty helps them find freedom. That is family. That is what we are doing. We are building a community of faith that respects and serves one another. God does not put an expectation on you, we do that to ourselves. Here, we love to dismantle that mindset and try to shake you up a bit. Sometimes, people are afraid of freedom, but they are more afraid to look within and see the truth. They prefer to keep the facade. The super-control freaks will manage the facade their whole life, but it won’t last. It always comes crashing down. The better thing to do is to let go and let God take a hold of you. Freedom in not having control and keeping a mask of perfection. That is the greatest bondage you can live in. Come to the other side where you don’t have to work for God’s love or His favor. On the other side, you just say, “God, I need You. I’m nothing without You.” And you serve one another in love.
Freedom begins in the heart. Freedom is a heart issue. The heart is the source of life; it is connected to the mouth. Luke 6: Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You can change and begin to get free of all that junk if you begin to speak. Find a little piece of freedom and begin to speak out of it. “I love you”; “I respect you”; “I want to serve you.” When you speak that, the change begins. It will attack your pride and your traditions and you will change. Your heart will fill with love and freedom and your desire to serve will come naturally and out of that abundance, you will live your life. That is Bible freedom. Words that build and encourage. Try not tearing someone down; build them up. Find freedom in serving one another in love. That will change your life and theirs.
Amen.
