Live Free in Christ
Notes
Transcript
Good morning! Welcome to the Cannon Valley Fair. It is always such a joy to be here and to be a part of this wonderful community event. Every year as part of our community’s Independence Day Celebration we come together for this fair. In a world that so often isolates people, it is so great to have an event like this that this brings people together and creates opportunities for building relationships and serving one another -exactly the kind of community God desires for us!
And of course this Fair concludes with Independence Day on July 4th when we celebrate the common inheritance we have as Americans of a nation founded and built upon the ideal of freedom for all people; freedom to be able to have individual expression of beliefs/values even while we all work together for the common good.
Certainly not an easy ideal to achieve, but it is something worth striving for!
Our being here today as a church is part of that freedom we enjoy!
Freedom is such an important part of our lives not only as Americans but as Christians as well, that I want to take time this morning to explore the ideal of freedom that God desires for us…and really for all people.
I touched on this last Sunday when we considered what the Apostle Paul says about the difference between the Old Covenant (agreement with God) and the New
in 2 Cor 3:17, Paul mentions freedom, writing,
2 cor 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
…and want to explore this idea of freedom we find in the Bible a bit more today.
Begin with a bold declaration I read last week in Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia.
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
For FREEDOM Christ as set us FREE
2 important points Paul is making here about living the Christian life
Jesus has set us free.
He has give us freedom. This is not just some religious idea that we hold onto within the Christian church. This isn’t something the Bible claims to be only be true for a select group of people who have earned it in some way.
Jesus has set ALL people free
People of every age in every generation. People of every tribe, nation and tongue. All people - every human life - is loved and valued by God and Jesus has set them free!
We will explore that a little more in a moment.
But the historical fact of Jesus living, dying, and returning from the grave is a momumental act of God to set people free.
2. Jesus set us free to in order to give us freedom!
It sounds so obvious, right? If we’ve been set free of course we have freedom. Yes, but we actually have to embrace that freedom.
When Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians he was writing to people who had learned about their freedom in Christ, but were not living free.
Imagine someone lock in a cage - not free.
What happens if someone else comes along and unlocks the door. They have been set free haven’t they?
But what if they don’t open the door? What if they remain in the cage with the door unlocked. They have been set free, but they are not living free!
They will finally have freedom when they walk out the door and into a whole new life.
That is the point Paul is making when he says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Jesus made the same point in John 8:36 “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
This is a foundational point about the life God offers to all people through Jesus. He came to set you free so that you can life free.
We don’t often hear that in what people hear about the Christian faith. It is commonly thought in our culture that any kind of faith or religious practice is bound up in all kinds of rules/rituals. People often believe that the purpose of any kind of religion is centered on controlling how people behave…telling them they must live a certain way
So if Jesus has set people free, sometimes the thing that keeps them trapped in their open cage is the belief that they are already free, but going through the door will be the thing that traps them!
It really is not surprising to me that so many people believe this.
There are many belief systems and organizations that ARE centered on following rules/rituals. There are things your must do to show your devotion or your with
Even though the Bible declares freedom through Jesus, that message people hear is still one of rules/regulations
Here is a definition of Christian freedom I found as I was studying for this message:
“According to the Christian worldview, true freedom is not a matter of doing what you want without restraint, but cultivating the right wants and living in obedience to God's will. In other words, freedom results when our wants align with God's will.”
This statement highlights what a lot of people think about Christianity. That our message to the world is: you are doing the wrong things. Behaving badly. You need to correct your behaviors and do what God wants you to do instead. You need to be more like US Christians!
That doesn’t sound like freedom at all! It sounds condemning and divisive, and To many people it sounds like giving up freedom to live the way they want in order to let God (or the church ) control them.
when we talk about Jesus and what He has done, we need to communicate clearly that He has set people free!
Free from ?
We all need to understand that one of the fundamental truths the bible teaches about God is that he wants all of us to have the best life possible. He wants us to know the fullness of love and satisfaction and connection with Him and with our fellow human beings possible.
When we talk about God’s laws, God’s commands…really talking about those ways God has given us to have the fullness of life He wants for us.…to seek what is best not only for ourselves but for those around us.
that is why Jesus said all of god’s commands are summed up in <love god, love your neighbor>
But the reality is that none of us lives up to that. We all follow selfish desires instead.
AND our motivations are often not freely doing what would be best for ourselves and others, but rather trying to get for ourselves all the things we feel we are missing out on.
If we were truly free without Jesus, we could much more easily reject the kind of emotional, irrational choices we are all guilty of!
We are really not as free as we think. Instead we are driven by things like peer pressure (follow the crowd…take part in the trend-reckless, dangerous trends), addiction (scary to think about how much of our actions are driven by addiction..need to have more of something that makes us feel good for the moment); or need to feel as though we are important.
the bible describes this as being slaves to sin.
Jesus said, John 8:34 “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”
Not really making free choices, we are driven by selfish motivations that harm ourselves and our connection with other people.
That is what Jesus came to set us free from. The bible declares and we have reason to believe it is true- that Jesus is the son of God who came to live with us. And He gave up his life for our sake. Willingly died on a cross as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of ALL people. He gave his life in exchange for ours to pay the price for our sin.
Rather than rejecting us for our selfish/sinful actions, God chose to love…to seek us…to give grace/forgiveness…and to set us free from guilt/shame.
when we talk to people about Jesus, important to show them the freedom Jesus offers Rather than further shame
But then we also need to remember that Jesus set us free in order that we could live free!
It can be really easy for a Christian who believes in the fact that Jesus has set them free to still live as though they are not.
Like acknowleding that Jesus has unlocked our cage door…even thanking him for it; but still remaining there.
We can easily fall into thinking that now that Jesus has forgiven us; shown such grace, we now need to do better…to prove ourselves to god…prove to Him that we can live up to his desires now.
but we still fail. There are no perfect Christians. And as a Christian you now have the added desire of wanting to please God
If you feel as though you NEED to our OUGHT to show God how well you can obey Him…the shame when you fall short is worse than if you didn’t care what God thinks.
Might even add fear that He is going to reject you now.
We remain trapped in thinking that we must somehow free ourselves from the cage of sinful choices.
No Jesus set you free so that you may live free. We do fail/fall short…even when we sincerely WANT to please God…we don’t somehow need to make up for that or prove we can do better…Jesus has already set us free from that need to prove ourselves because God knows our weakness.
Life of faith is to embrace goodness of God not stay in the cage and some how prove you don’t need Jesus’ help.
Life of Freedom in Christ looks like:
thankfulness…every day…every moment is a gift from God
togetherness with God…never alone. Never have to fear rejection
grace..joy of knowing God’s grace.
AS you dwell in those things…you find a freedom you never new possible.
A freedom to truly enjoy life even when there are difficulties.
Hope…greater than circumstances because you know God is present.
New desires…find that your desires to be like everyone else…chase the crowd…fight to get what you want…addictions…all fade away. Replaced by a contentment-knowing that God - the creator - loves you- is present - will always go before you- willl always be availabel to you - will alswasy guide you.
And when those kinds of desires fade away, you become truly free to make choices about the kind of person you want to be…and choices that honor God.
Gal 5:16 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.”
True freedom found through Jesus.
Not matter who you are, Jesus has set you free. Freedom from guilt/shame/isolation, etc are yours for the taking.
Just trust Him…believe what He has done for you.
And then when you have out faith in Him…walk in the freedom He has given you, and you will discover a whole new life.