free
I had the awesome opportunity to speak at my church yesterday, for the 4th of July devotional. I figured I'd post my notes here in paragraph form, just because.
LIES
Introduction: I bet you think that since it’s the 4th of July, we’ll be talking about something super unoriginal, like freedom or something. When Rick asked me to talk I looked at myself in the mirror and said: “mason, you have to be more original than talking about freedom On the 4th. Come on. Think."
So tonight we’re talking about the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.
But being free implies that we once weren’t free, right? In America we’re free from too powerful a government, overtaxation, the British. We appreciate freedom because we once weren’t free. Just to kind of ground ourselves tonight
We’ll talk about 3 things we’re free from: Lies, religion, and death.
First up is lies.
I’ll start with a couple obvious questions here. First up, what is a lie? It’s obviously something that’s not true, right? Does Satan tell us lies? Well yeah, he’s the inventor of the lie, he’s pretty good at it. Does he tell us we’re unworthy all the time? Yes, he does, all the time. Is that a lie? Y…well.. no.
But the lie goes deeper than just a little fun fact like that about ourselves.
So then. Where’s the lie in “you are unworthy?”
The lie is not that we’re unworthy, the lie is what Satan sneaks in there, a little whisper that we can never be worthy. The lie is that we’re far from the only one who can make us worthy. The lie here is that Jesus is not powerful enough to break through our shortcomings. The lie is that God doesn’t accept the sacrifice of a broken spirit, accept us where we are RIGHT NOW. But wise men from the Bible say otherwise. David in Psalm 51:17 says “my sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” So we found that lie that we’re free from there.
Haven’t you noticed that it’s human nature to want to be clean before we present ourselves in a Godly manner? It’s like deep down we believe that for someone to be worthy of God’s love, they have to clean up their lives and stop sinning, THEN it’s okay to go to church.
That’s not how it works. Jesus is for the broken. And if I can look in the mirror and say I’m not a broken person in some way, I’m lying to myself.
We’ve heard it said a million times that the truth sets us free… Jesus says if we abide in his word and follow him as his disciples, it’s true. We’re free from those lies.
And His truth is UNSTOPPABLE. We are FREE from the lie that we can’t be CLOSE to God. And whom the Son sets free……..is free indeed.
I challenge you to think about what lies you're free from.
RELIGION
Galatians 5:1—it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. It is for FREEDOM. That Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened AGAIN by the yoke of slavery.
The next thing I want to talk about that we’re free from is religion. Rick talked about this a couple weeks ago, but here’s a recap for if you missed. Also I don’t think he went into Galatians 5 so you get some new content here.
The rest of the chapter is about circumcision, which is an uncomfortable topic, but the point Paul is trying to make here is that there are people in the Galatian church who are focusing on my definition of what religion has become, which is a work that they feel they had to do to earn salvation, or earn “a place” in the church here on earth. There’s so much in these next few verses that are SO important. So I’m going to read verses 2-12 real quick. Verse 12 is an insanely uncomfortable read, so prepare yourselves.
What we can see from this section of verses, if we’re reading deep into it is this: First, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. The end goal of our freedom is just that, freedom. Freedom to make the choice between being held in the bondage of slavery and standing firm. Second, Jesus loses value in our eyes when we put him in the box of religion. I heard someone say about Galatians 5 that “it’s easier to follow the law than have true faith.” And that’s because the law is tangible. We can see it, and most of all we know when we’re doing better at it than other people. But that’s like Tom saying “Amanda, I love you because we’re married.” That’s kind of backwards isn’t it? Shouldn’t they be married because they love each other?
Next, did you catch that it said the ONLY THING that counts is faith expressing itself in love? The only thing that gives us “points” is our faith, which MAKES us love people. If we have faith in this Jesus we can’t help but to love. And then that last verse hammers home how passionate paul is about this. Which is fair, if we try to force faith we miss the whole point.
Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 that he came to FULFIL the law, not abolish it. Let’s break up that word. Fulfil. Full. Fill. It’s like the law is a bucket with a bunch of holes in it that we could never dream of having enough righteousness to fill. But then our faith allows Jesus to come along with some Mighty Putty and clog those holes so we can be filled.
All that’s well and good, but how do we know if we’re really free from the law and living by faith? That’s simple, because Jesus says it. John 13:35: By this they will know you are my disciples. If you love one another. The fruit of our faith is love.
We’re not burdened by the law, we’re free. And whom the son has set free is free indeed.
DEATH
I’ve been saying “who the Son sets free is free indeed” at the end of every section, which is from John 8:36. What does that mean? The verses before this say (8:34-35), and that’s where Jesus tells us that if he’s set us free, we. Are. Free.
That’s important to realize when we talk about death. Death is the ultimate problem that is the root of every problem we have. 1 corinthians 15:26 says “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.” That means death is the ultimate, most difficult, highest level master that holds us the tightest. It will linger the longest, and it won’t let us go easily. Death is the most tangible chunk of darkness, and it’s always there. We’ve all been touched by it. We know how it feels. That feeling of death is both a panic and a slow dread, but ultimately one we feel we can’t escape. We talk about it so much that we become numb to the word “death.” We all will die, we all have to. Sometimes I think about the things that Christ had to go through to defeat death, and how difficult that had to be. 2 negatives happened that we can’t ignore, and it seems we focus on every time we take communion: Jesus died for our sins. 2 negatives.
But the important part, the part that makes it all worth it. What we’re focusing on today. Is that sure, Jesus had to die for our sins. But what makes every day worth living for him, every morning worth getting out of bed for, and every person worth giving a second chance, is that He was RAISED for our FREEDOM.
There’s no darkness that can surpass death, no lie, no selfishness. So if our savior gave us the keys to the death chains, we have nothing but our own choice to follow him standing in the way between us and eternal life with the father.
When’s the last time you sat down and thought about that? And how thankful were you when you did? Was it obvious you were thankful? We have a day to celebrate the freedom of our nation, where we shoot rockets in the air and brag about our freedom to everyone who has eyes or ears. Most of us fall victim to being surprised by a loud firework blast at least once a year. When’s the last time we fell victim to being surprised by someone celebrating their life in Jesus, and the freedom from clutches far worse than overtaxation? Our forever lives have been saved, this is something we should be celebrating.
So please join me in celebrating our freedom from those chains. Because who the Son has set free… is free indeed.
~mason