The Lasting Freedom (11/4/18 John #43)
ATTN: When I was in elementary school, my mother used to say to me, “I would give anything to be your age again because you are so free!” But in my mind I disagreed. I have to go to school everyday and then I have to do homework afterwards. Contrary to what my mother said, I couldn’t wait to get out of school and be free. But now that I’m my mother’s age when she said it, I understand what she meant. Not only do I have to go to work everyday, but I have to take care of my family and my church. When I was young, even though I was busy, I only had to worry about myself. But now, so many more responsibilities. So, what I thought would bring me freedom when I was younger would not. Actually, I was a lot freer when I was younger, but didn’t realize it.
And I realized that our sense of freedom is not as much dependent upon our circumstance as it is on our mindset. Disney song – Little Ariel: Up where they walk, Up where they run, Up where they stay all day in the sun, Wandering free, Wish I could be, Part of that world. What would I give if I could live out of these waters. What would I pay to spend a day warm on the sand…
– She feels trapped under the sea and longs to be on land. That’s freedom for her. But if you took earth science, the ocean is much bigger than the land. ⅔ vs. ⅓. And on earth, we can only move 2-dimensionally, but under the sea, they are able to move about 3 dimensionally. So you are actually far more free under the sea than on the land. Ariel should feel far more free where she was than where she wasn’t.
How true it is that even though we live in the Land of the free and home of the brave, and yet we don’t feel free. We feel trapped in our work, family, and bills that we long for freedom. Yet Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” So today, I want to go further into this concept of freedom that pastor Eldie expounded upon last week. I. What is freedom? II. How do we get it? III. What was done for it?
- What is freedom?
I will define freedom this way: Freedom is doing what we want forever. Now, I know that sounds worldly and sounds like a contradiction to what Pastor Eldie said last week, but it is not. And it is a carefully thought-through definition. You are free when you can make a choice to do something that will bring you pleasure and happiness. If somebody is forcing you or you feel you have to act a certain way, then you are not free. Now, you have noticed that I have added the word “forever” to the definition and that is critical. Freedom is not simply doing what we want. But it’s doing what we want forever. There are things that we want to do but we can’t do them forever because something will put a stop to it due to the very nature of that thing. For example, let’s say I ate whatever I wanted and however much I wanted every meal – the Puyallup Fair kind of food – butterball, deep fried pork belly, scones and ice cream – easily 2000 calories every meal. I won’t have that freedom very long, will I? I will soon be 500 lbs, and die of heart attack before 50. I may enjoy freedom for a little while but ironically exercising that freedom will prohibit my future freedom.
This shows us that there are limiting factors to our freedom in this world. These hinder us from having our freedom forever. And they are: sin, the law, and death.
- Sin ultimately robs us of our freedom.
How many of the good things that God gave us to enjoy freely have been messed up by our sin? Such as marriage, church fellowship, healthy body and mind, financial stability, friendship, racial harmony, even healthy and refreshing forms of entertainment all have been tainted and poisoned by sin! Romans 6:18 “You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
The enticement of sin is that it promises happiness and comfort and pleasure. But when we bite into it, the poison is release and we lose our happiness and comfort, and also the freedom to get out of it. ILL: I keep telling the young people that the most dangerous time to try anything harmful – such as drugs, smoking, or alcohol is not the final time that will kill you, but the first time. Because once you break the barrier, the second time is so much easier especially because usually nothing bad happens the first time you do it. But you have opened the floodgate and made it possible for it to deluge you over a lifetime. And this is the deceptive nature of sin. Sin makes you feel like you are in control and you can get out anytime you want but like a bear trap, it gets a death-grip on you. And you can’t get out, or more like, you don’t want to get out and you keep justifying yourself why it’s okay… You have freely come into it, now you are not free to get out on your own. Adam and eve enjoyed their almost limitless freedom in the garden of eden. There was only one small limitation – you can do anything you’d like; just don’t eat from one tree. But when they did, it had a death grip on them and they were kicked out of eden and now they lost their freedom even to be in the garden. So, sin constricts our freedom.
- The law also hinders our freedom.
The law is there to state God’s absolute standard and it lets us know how far we fall short of it. Romans 7:7 if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. So the law reminds us that we are sinful, and there is guilt and shame that are produced in us. And that robs us of our freedom. The law says that we are supposed to love our neighbor as ourselves, but do we? A person who is feeling regret, guilt, and shame is not a free person. Frankly, this is why some people leave the church. They don’t want to feel guilt and shame anymore. But Christianity stands for holiness and certain expectations of conduct for God’s people, and they don’t like that. But even if we were to stay away from God, we can’t stay away from our conscience, can we? Our past, regrets, guilty conscience condemn us and take away our freedom. So the law, or what the law reminds us of takes away our freedom.
- Finally, death hinders our freedom.
We aren’t going to be young forever, eventually we will get sick, become immobile, lose our sense of taste, sight, and hearing. We will be trapped in our own body, if our mind doesn’t leave the body first… This is a reality for us all. Even if we are able to do away with sin by denying its existence, and the law by changing it, we can’t do away with death. You will die and your freedom with it.
Romans 6:21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
So, freedom is doing what we want forever. But there are things in this world that limit our freedom: Sin, the law, and death. With these limiting factors, how can we be free forever?
- How do we get it?
There are two possible ways to get it. Change the world so that I can have everything I want or be changed myself so that I can be truly free. First, let’s consider changing the world so that we can have unlimited freedom – in other words, remove those things that are hindering our freedom – sin, the law and death. And if you look at the political climate of America, that’s exactly what we are trying to do, isn’t it? We don’t talk of sin anymore. Even in churches. They are “personality flaws,” or “mistakes,” but not something that goes against an absolute standard because there is no such thing as absolute standard. What about the law? We try to change our law so that it will allow us to have everything we want, don’t we? Why were we so divided over Judge Kavanagh’s appointment? Because we have differing ideas of what the world should be to afford us the maximum freedom. And of course, our enemy death, we are trying our greatest effort to combat. Anti-aging drugs are a billion dollar industry. So, the world’s attempt at freedom is to change the world: Mold it and shape it so that it will fit us so that we can do whatever we want without any cumbrance. How are we doing? Here’s why it won’t work. The world that we want with unlimited freedom is a contradiction that cannot happen. We want to eat whatever we want and yet be skinny. We want a respectable job that earns a good salary but we also want it to be easy. This is the classic we want cake and eat it too. It can’t never happen in this world.
The other way is for us to be changed so that we would desire the right things. The reason why we can’t be free is because we desire contradictory things as I just stated. But what if our desire was changed such that we would only want good and holy things that would be good for us as well. In other words, true freedom of doing what I want forever is gained by having my desire changed such that I will desire things that are not only pleasurable to me but also good for me.
For example, what if I truly liked and found greater pleasure in eating vegetables, fruits, and lean meat and intensely disliked junk food? I am eating what I want freely and yet it is good for me. I’m not forcing myself to eat health food even though I really want junk food, but I’m eating it because I want to. Wouldn’t I be free in regards to food if that were so?
I believe that is how we believers will be in heaven. Will we be able to sin in heaven? Yes. But we won’t because we won’t want to. We will do only what we want to do in heaven and it will be god-honoring and good for us. Not dutifully or against our desire, but in sync with our good desire.
And this is precisely what Jesus does for us. How do we get true freedom that will last forever? Jesus gets it for us by making us into new men and new women with new desires. You’ve heard me say, “Jesus not only changes what we do, but also what we want to do.” That is what Christians are. They are the ones whose hearts have been changed that they truly love God with all their heart, soul, and mind. They love God from the heart – their desire has changed so that they freely and willingly do things that will please God.
ILL: I married rather late at age 34. One reason why I delayed was because I saw getting married as being tied down. And especially having children would make me a slave. I wanted to hold off as long as I could.
I’m now married and have two girls. My only regret is that I did not marry earlier and had more children. Last 13 years I’ve taken more trips than the previous 34 years combined. Why? Because these were family trips and I love being with my babies. Do I feel like, “Oh this is necessary evil that I have to perform my duty as a husband and father and show a good example to the church so that I can keep collecting my paycheck?” No. If that were true, then I would feel trapped. But I am with them because I love to be with them and therefore, I am free! I freely and willingly spend time with them on those trips. I know this is hard to understand for single people perhaps because they’ve heard from married people how they can’t wait to have their kids grow and get out of the house so that they can be free again. But know that not everyone feels that way.
True freedom comes when our desire is changed such that what we desire is good and right and god-honoring and can last forever. And Jesus is the one who changes our hearts.
III. What it took to get it?
Freedom isn’t free. Jesus snapped his finger to create the world but earning our freedom was much more costly. Jesus made himself bound so that we may be free. In other words, Jesus voluntarily gave up His freedom so that you and I might have complete freedom. Charles Wesley’s Hymn, And Can It Be,
He left His Father’s throne above,
So free, so infinite His grace;
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race:
’Tis mercy all, immense and free;
For, O my God, it found out me.
“He left His Father’s throne above so free, so infinite…” Would you do that for a homeless guy in the street corner begging for money? Would you leave your home, your family and your job to take his place so that he can take your place? That is what Jesus has done. With all the anti-semitic sentiment rising up again these days, the latest being the shooting at the synagogue in Pittsburg, I want to shout it wasn’t the Jews who killed Jesus. It was Jesus who volunteered!
28 So Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me.
Jesus directed, guided, and orchestrated His own death from the beginning so that you and I would have eternal life. He bound Himself so that we would be free! And when He frees us, we shall be free indeed. Free from sin. Free from the law or even the need of the law. And free from death eventually and finally. Do you believe? Do you trust this Jesus? Do you want this kind of freedom? Would you like to have your desire changed so that you will desire God more than anything else?
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