Freedom In the Savior

Someone we can trust, someone who knows us.

Dave Ramsey built an empire telling people how to get out of debt.

His radio show reached up to 18million listeners

10 million people have gone through FPU

At the end of the show he has listeners call in, a lot of times they cut up their last credit card and they all say the same thing: I’m debt free!

The Journey begins, debt snowball.. then sequentially they pay off higher interest loans and finally low interest loans. It’s a journey. No matter who you are, if you went from indebtedness to freedom, or if you built wealth it is a journey. The deeper down the path of indebtedness you go, the longer the journey out. It takes a moment to get into debt and it takes a season to get out.

It takes a moment to allow sin to carry you down a path that it will take a season to return. When Jesus came, he came to seek and to save, and to lead us to increasing levels or experiences of freedom.

What reads like a historical narrative with simple confirmations that this was predicted or prophecied, helps us to understand a Savior who knows the way.

As you trust and follow Jesus (obey Him), He leads you in the way that leads to life.

Matthew 2:13–23 ESV

Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, “Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who sought the child’s life are dead.” And he rose and took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there, and being warned in a dream he withdrew to the district of Galilee. And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled, that he would be called a Nazarene.

Jesus frees us from captivity

Jesus walks with us out of enslavement towards increasing experiences of freedom

An angel appears to Joseph a third time, not every dream is an angel, but it tells Joseph to flee to Egypt, another place under the control of Rome. It is more like crossing a state line at this point. Historically, there have always been Jews who lived in Egypt. They found safety for a season. There is no record of this particular atrocity in secular history, but there are similar records of Herod and his son carrying out these types of genocides. The scale of Herods command wouldn’t fit genocide… but rather an act of terror intended to kill the future king of Israel and to scare the people of Bethlehem into servitude. Some think based upon the size of the town, there may have only been about a couple dozen boys in that age range. But Joseph, Mary, and Jesus fled the terror and escaped the danger - the Bible says to fulfill a prophecy found in Hosea 11:1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.”

Hosea is looking back to the days when Israel was held captive in Egypt and God sent 9 plagues to free them and finally on the tenth, the angel passed over and killed the firstborn of those without the blood on the mantle. He called them out of Egypt.

Who was Jesus identifying with - those in captivity.

HANDLE:

Throughout history, slavery has been a horrible part of the human experience. The Bible says that we were all slaves of sin:

Romans 6:16–17 “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,”

Though sin is powerless through faith in Christ, the struggle with sin is lasting.

There are people who feel the struggle, and some who want to give in and believe that you are doomed to defeat. Listen Jesus came all the way down the path to find you, He isn’t going to abandon you. He is a Savior.

How long did it take for the children of Israel to get to the promised land?

Even the ones that died before experiencing it were still free from enslavement.

The faith of their children in the faithfulness of God led them across the river and gave them victory over their enemies.

Jesus frees us from scattered effects of sin

Jesus gathers us from what has separated us

The passage continues to speak of a prophecy in Jeremiah 31 where he speaks of the anguish of those who were scattered into captivity.

The Babylonians gathered the exiles in Ramah 5 miles north of Jerusalem before splitting up families. Remember Daniel, Shadrach…

Imagine the Cries….

HANDLE

Jeremiah 31:16–17 “Thus says the Lord: “Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own country.”

The savior understand the scattered brokenness of our sin.

Joel 2:25 “I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter, my great army, which I sent among you.”

The Savior does not remove, but He will restore you… and the years lost.

Jesus frees us from obscurity

Jesus gives us identity, power, inheritance

Finally the third prophetic reference is not to a particular verse, but to plural prophets…

Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Remember John 1:46 “Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.””

Jesus came from weakness, powerlessness, poverty to the weak, the powerless, the poor, those incapable in themselves.

We see in the parable of the rich young ruler someone who trusts in his riches so he refuses the forgiveness who fails to admit that he needs. Why to the poor and the downtrodden come to Christ in droves while the elite and powerful refuse grace, they don’t think they need it.

In Revelation 3:17 “For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.”

He tells the banking center of the area they were poor, pitiable, naked.

In Christ you become part of His royal family. Even in those from status strive to maintain status fearing you might lose it… might lose wealth, might lose your status as a successful person… You find your salvation in your status not knowing you are at best lukewarm… needing a Savior and Jesus, the man from Nazareth came to turn the world upside down and bring salvation to enslaved heart.

The inspiration for 

"All the Way My Savior Leads Me"

 came from a personal experience of God’s provision. As the story goes, Fanny was in desperate financial need one day. She prayed about it, and soon after, a stranger knocked on her door and handed her 

exactly five dollars

—the amount she had just asked God for in prayer. Moved by this direct answer, she immediately penned the words:

1. All the way my Savior leads me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt his tender mercy, Who thru' life has been my Guide? Heav'nly peace, divinest comfort, Here by faith in him to dwell! For I know, whate’er befall me, Jesus fashions all things well.

2. All the way my Savior leads me, Cheers each winding path I tread; Gives me grace for ev’ry trial, Feeds me with the living Bread. Tho' my weary steps may falter, And my soul athirst may be, Gushing from the Rock before me, Lo! A spring of joy I see.

3. All the way my Savior leads me; Oh, the fullness of His love! Perfect rest to me is promised In my Father’s house above. When my spirit, cloth'd immortal, Wings its flight to realms of day This my song thru' endless ages: Jesus led me all the way.

Application. You didn’t just need to get saved, you needed and you need a Savior. He came down to earth to reach us and His Spirit is working now to complete what he started.

You don’t get saved again, you grow in your faith in your Savior. The more you mature as a believer the more you realize you need him and you still need him. Savior then, the savior now.