Freedom Isn’t Free
2Cor 3:17 PPB “Now the Lord is the Spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty for Gill.” Freedom is a thought process. Paul was one of the freest men to ever live yet he spent much of his adult life in prison. Only true freedom is in Christ. Romans 8:1 tells us there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. According to Romans 8:37 I am more than a conqueror. Romans 8:35 promises nothing can separate me from the love of God. To understand our freedom in Christ, read all of Romans 8.
Rom 8:21 tells me I have the glorious freedom of the children of God. Is that the freedom to party, get drunk, sleep around? 2Peter 2:19 warns I become a slave to whatever I surrender myself to. Paul in 1Cor 10:23 tells us, “All things are legal but not all are profitable.” Gen 25 demonstrates what is called the Esau syndrome. Esau comes in from a day of hunting to find Jacob preparing bean soup. He wants some so badly he trades his birthright as the firstborn son to Jacob. How often do we trade away God’s blessing in order to satisfy a short-term appetite?
1Pet 2:16 tells us to live as free men, but do not use our freedom as a cover-up for evil; instead we should live as servants of God. It is the paradox of the Gospel: to live free we must be slaves.
Col 2:14-15 promises my guilt was nailed to the cross. Freedom from guilt, fear, condemnation. Freedom to rejoice, laugh, dream. Freedom to face eternity with confidence. Freedom from bondage, freedom from my past. Recognize that hope is more important than faith. Heb 11:1: “Faith is substance of things hoped for.” Faith has nothing to work on without hope. The Bible is the book of hope. It gives us the picture of where we can go in life. Then faith can grab ahold of that and take us to our destiny.
Why do I think the way I think? 2Cor 5:17 tells me in Christ I am a new creation, but new comes from the inside. If I still think the same, I am still yoked up with old mind sets and listening to devil. His only power is deception. John10:3 tells us His sheep know the shepherd’s voice. John 8:32, 34-36 PPB: “Gill will know the truth, and the truth will make him free. Most assuredly I tell you, if Gill commits sin, he is the bondservant of sin. A bondservant doesn’t live in the house forever. A son remains forever. If therefore the Son makes Gill free, he will be free indeed.” Don’t lose that: Whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
Do we seek affirmation through sex, drugs, alcohol, food, money? James 1:14-15 PPB: “But Gill is tempted, when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed. Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death.” This is not physical death but spiritual death, death of freedom. 2Cor 4:4 warns that the devil wants to blind me to who I am. The devil is the accuser. No freedom in religion: Islam, Hinduism, Mormonism, even Christianity if it is religion. Freedom is based on relationship. For years and years I worked hard to earn God’s love, but that was empty religion. It wasn’t until I entered into relationship with the living God that I began to experience His love.
“Freedom isn’t free.” I must pay a price for freedom 2Cor 10: 3-5 PPB: “For though Gill walks in the flesh, he doesn’t wage war according to the flesh; for the weapons of Gill’s warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds, throwing down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” We are in a battle for our way of thinking, for our mind.
Essence of freedom is trust. Mat 6:25-33 PPB tells us:
25Therefore, Gill shouldn’t be anxious for his life: what he will eat, or what he will drink; nor for his body, what he will wear. Isn’t life more than food, and Gill’s body more than clothing? 26See the birds of the sky, they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Gill’s heavenly Father feeds them. Isn’t Gill of much more value than they? 27“Can Gill, by being anxious, add one hour to his life? 28Why is Gill anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin, 29yet I tell you that even Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like one of these. 30But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today exists, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, won’t He much more clothe Gill, despite his little faith? 31“Therefore Gill should not be anxious, saying, ‘What will I eat?’, ‘What will I drink?’ or, ‘With what will I be clothed?’ 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, but Gill’s heavenly Father knows that he needs all these things. 33But Gill is to seek first God’s kingdom, and His righteousness; and all these things will be given to Gill as well.
Trust principles:
- Who is number 1 in your life? That sounds worldly but #1 better be God. If it is God and I seek Him first then my trust is in the right place.
- Just do it. That is not just for Nike. Do it now. Act with what you have, where you are. If I wait to clean up my act in an area I’ll never move forward. Let’s put feet to our faith and live out the commitment to trust.
- I am in debt. To Jesus who paid the price for my sins, to those before me who brought the message of Jesus through the generations. Our trust is in Jesus who paid the price for our sin.
- Live like a river, not the Dead Sea. In Israel, you can travel down the lush green Jordan river valley but eventually you come the a desolate, dead body of water: the Dead Sea. The difference? The Jordan River gives and flows, the Dead Sea holds onto everything it receives and the result is stagnation, decay and death. Do I trust God enough to give my life away? Being a giver shows our trust in God. We make a living by what we work for, we make a life by what we give away.
