Freedom in Christ

Recently a read a story about a pastor who was asked to provide some assistance from a Christian Counselor. Now, this is pretty odd, for multiple reasons. Most of the time it is the pastor who calls upon the Christian Counselor when he has reached his capacity in helping people through different problems that they face. But this counselor had done all he was trained to do and nothing seemed to be helping…so he finally decided that his client was in some type of spiritual bondage that he didn't know how to deal with.

During those early days of counseling. The girl that the counselor sent to the pastor wrote the following letter and then 10 minutes later attempted to take her own life by overdosing on a bottle of pills:

Dear God,

Where are you? How can you watch and not help me? I hurt so bad, and you dont even care. If you cared you'd make it stop or let me die. I love you, but you seem so far away. I cant hear you or feel you or see you, but I’m supposed to believe you’re here. I know you’re real, God, but they are more real to me right now. Please make someone believe me, Lord. Why won’t you make it stop? Please Lord, please! If you love me you’ll let me die.

—A Lost Sheep

Now…let me be clear…this is an extreme case…and as Baptist’s when we start talking about Demonic voices and the Spiritual World actually being real and tangible…we Baptist types start getting really squirmy and uncomfortable. We treat mysticism like how my son used to “hide” from me when he would close his eyes and think that I couldn't see him. We just turn a blind eye to the unseen Spiritual Realm and pretend as if it isn't real.

Nonetheless, when I talk to people, I dont hear about how they are hearing voices in their head. In fact, I think this has only happened one time in all of my years in ministry. However, I hear often of people who say things like,

“I just cant quite pull it all together.”

I talk to Christians all the time who, despite their greatest efforts, are stuck in the same old patterns of sin…year after year.

I talk to Christians who sit down to read the Bible, but cant concentrate long enough to actually digest God’s Word in any significant way.

I talk to Christians all the time, who come to church regularly, but can never seem to get on with practicing their faith outside of Sunday mornings and maybe Wednesday Nights. They leave church with great intentions…but by Monday morning they have fallen back into the same old rut...

I talk to Christians all the time who want to serve, they want to be strong and healthy disciples...but they are plagued with fear and doubts…they say to themselves,

“I dont know enough about the Bible...”

“Im not a strong enough of a Christian...”

“I still have the same sinful thoughts and actions...”

“I dont have any spiritual gifts…Im of no use to the church…someone else will be better at it than I am...”

I talk to Christians ALL the time who, instead of being joy-filled, Spirit Empowered, victorious, and productive citizens of God’s Kingdom…they are just barely hanging onto Jesus by a thread…stuck in the same old habits they had when they first decided to give their life to Jesus years ago...

I talk to Christians all the time…and this is the word that I would use to describe them… “STUCK”

Why do we get stuck?

There is apart of the story of Abraham in his early life that helps us understand why we get stuck...

Genesis 11:27–32 ESV

27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram’s wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran.

Stephen comments on this story in Acts 7:1-4

Acts 7:1–4 (ESV)

1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” 2 And Stephen said:

“Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.

So lets get the timeline of what happens here:

God calls Abram to go to to the land that He would show him...

Abram sets off…and goes to Haran...

Does anyone know why that is weird?

Why would Abram and Terah go way out of the way all the way up to Haran?

Answer: Because old habits die hard...

Paul understood this…speaking about his own problem of being stuck in sin, even though he loved the God...

Romans 7:15–25 ESV

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

We all get stuck in a rut from time to time

But the truth is: You dont have to be...

Just like Paul…we have been saved from the wretched man…we have been delivered from the body of death...

And like Paul we can say,