L.I.F.E Series (Living In Freedom Everyday)

Matthew 19:16-26

By definition, freedom means: (the state of not being imprisoned or enslaved)

the power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity.

the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint:

Jesus said, in John 10:10“The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

-What does freedom look and sound like to you?

If you go back to the beginning and realize that what God gave man in the beginning was free will and dominion. Put the two together FREE..DOM, the two things the enemy perverts. Our free will given back to God is denying ourselves and instead of having dominion over the earth the enemy came in the form of pride and now men seek dominance over dominion. If we had dominion like the Lord intended we wouldn’t need medicines made of chemicals because we’d have the knowledge of how to use the earth, but pride distracted man and we began to seek dominance.

So true freedom can only be found in Jesus and not in the laws of the land.

I want you to think about this really hard and imagine if you were standing before the man Jesus and He asks you to give away your most prized possession. What would it be? Something vain like:

-Is it your bank account?

-Is it your vehicle?

-Is it a shoe collection?

-Is it that your opinions, or other’s opinions about you.

-Is it your hurts? We can hang onto hurts for so long to where we begin to place value in them and when God says, I want the hurt you’ve been hanging onto we can’t let it go because we’ve gotten used to the person we’ve become and found more comfort in the hard exterior than the forgiving grace of God.

Notice the dialogue between Jesus and the young man. He was worried about his eternal state. Notice how when Jesus gave Him the way to life, He said, I’ve kept that from my youth, but yet here he is standing before Jesus inquiring about something He should know He have.

-This is why having a religious mindset is dangerous. Because you can begin to look at your works/ ministries, or fulfilled duties as a way into eternal life. I can keep every commandment in the bible and still lose my soul. Don’t believe me? Who did Jesus call a brood of vipers and stiff necked and sons of satan? It was the religious pharisees. The ones that were in the temples and synagogues sacrificing and praying, but the intentions of their hearts weren’t pure.

-So he asks Jesus, what do I still lack? This is one of those turning point questions we ask God. When He answers it, it shifts our spiritual trajectory. It takes a turn for seemingly the worse, but God begins to take you through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.

You know that there are prayers in our hearts that this world doesn’t have the means to translate?

Check this out..Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words 27 Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified

Jesus’ answer deals with the very core of our issue. That issue that has no life, Jesus wants to shock it with a defibrillator to give it life, but that means I have to deal with the issue head on now.

-Funny thing about spiritual healing is that: Once something has grown root in our hearts the only way to stop the fruit is to get to the root, but this time the emotions that are attached to that trauma has lost its sting because its in God’s hands and not yours.

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

The New King James Version Chapter 15

50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.”

55 “O Death, where is your sting?

O Hades, where is your victory?”

56 The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.