Freedom In Christ

Freedom IN Christ

If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.  John 8:36

Galatians is one of the feistiest books in the New Testament. Paul pulls no punches. He curses his opponents. He nails the apostle Peter in public for his foolishness. He questions his readers if they are in their right mind. He uses two very cutting images that allude to knives. In 5:12 he says, "As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves." Paul is downright mad! In 6:17 he says, "Finally  let no one cause trouble for me, for I bear on my body the marks (brand-marks) [scars] of Jesus." He means, "Where I have been cut, and where the stones have almost killed me, and the opposition has attacked me, those are Jesus' scars-and I’m proud to be branded!" This book is energetic and angry at times, and almost always passionate.

I want us all to experience a soul revolution, to become God pleasers  through the amazing Gospel!

V1Paul begins by laying claim to the unique authority of an apostle which is not dependent at all on other people, but comes from Christ and God the Father. The point he is making here is. "I didn't climb up the apostolic ladder so to speak.  I didn't grow into the position. I was made an apostle by God the Father and God the Son, working together. They appointed me their emissary, and like it or not, I will speak for them.

After establishing his authority, Paul will speak of the gospel as an amazing rescue, as amazing grace and as freedom from the expectations of others.  He then reiterates the fact that this has been revealed to him and he is called to preach it.

The Gospel is an Amazing Rescue! v3-5

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

First off, a rescue has taken place.  We have been rescued from everything and anything that has come to shipwreck our lives.  We were not meant to buy into our world’s system of success. Our Savior has come that we "might have life, and might have it abundantly" (John 10:10)  Life does not consist of all its possessions.

The second implication of the rescue is that we need to be on God’s search and rescue team.  We need to go against the flow. 

The Gospel Is Amazing Grace and freedom from addition v6-9

6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.

Unfortunately the message of the purity and the simplicity of the gospel gets attacked.

v6  The purity of the message – The gospel is a message of grace.  When you move away from grace, you move away from Christ and He has no effect in a person’s life.  Galatians

5:4 You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen from grace.

V6  Also states that is happened so quickly… Another warning sign is that this was a message that was accepted in haste.  It was a quick, snap decision to leave the simple message of the gospel which should stand as a warning to us. 

The Bible shows us the result of quick decisions that lacked discernment.  Often it goes hand in hand with a lack of patience.  The Bible shows us prime examples.

Moses barely gets up the mountain when the children of Israel turned back to idol worship, with the golden calf in Exodus 32:8

Wisdom warns us

Proverbs 19:2  It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.

v7-9 The perversion of the message – Perversion here means to change into an opposite character, to put into reverse. When we add works to grace, we destroy it.  The same way that we enter the Christian life is the same we carry it out.  Romans 11:6 And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.

If you turn from resting in grace to your own ability, you will always fall short and live in disappointment and failure.

A different gospel –

What is the lie that was being told, that is so fiercely condemned?

We don't have a lot of information this early in the book, but we do get clues farther on in Galatians.
In 3:1 Paul yells, "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by hearing with faith?"
In the question "Did you receive the Spirit?" Paul is gathering up all of the introductory truth of coming to Christ: Were you born again? Were your sins forgiven? Were you placed into Christ? Were you given hope for eternity? Did the reality of Christian identity, the knowledge of God, peace, joy, hope, enter your experience? If so, was it because of something you did? Or was it because you heard the extraordinary message that God loved you so much that Christ was crucified for you-a hearing that resulted in a transformed heart?
The answer to that is obvious. But an important question follows in 3:3: "Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" That is, having entered into life in Christ, are you now going to take the ball and try to attain your goal by human effort?

Let me give you a few examples of when the “simple gospel” is not enough

Let me give you examples.  The following are examples of where the simple gospel was not enough and Christians became wrapped up in the “issue of their day” and slowly and surely, the “issue of the day” became a substitute for the gospel.

The year was about 1743, to be exact. The burning issue was whether the earth was the  center of the universe and whether or not the earth was flat. That was the hot issue of the 1750s during the time of Galileo. Gradually, a Christian was to believe the gospel PLUS that the earth was flat and the earth was the center of the universe. The hot issue of that day, the earth being flat and being the center of the universe, slowly became more important than the Biblical gospel itself.

The year was about 1850. The missionaries from the United States and Europe were flooding into Africa by the thousands, and they knew the basic gospel. But to these missionaries, the gospel of God wasn’t enough it was PLUS so Africans started dressing and  becoming European and American in their culture and clothing as well.  Ties and dress shirts for the men for example…  and learning  Western music and hymnology…  

The year was about 1950, and the western world became strongly anti-communist. The world knew the gospel of Christ PLUS Christians were to be democratic capitalists and being a communist meant to be an materialistic atheist. In the 1950s, Christians knew and loved the gospel PLUS the hot and burning issue of the day was to be anti-communist. And as always, the hot issue of the day slowly became the gospel.

The year was 1985 and I was in Bible College and the burning issue was rock music, it was the gospel + burn your records + the KJV was the only real translation became the gospel.

How can we be guilty of adding to the gospel today? 

One of the current issues of our day is gender fluidity.  And the issue in some people minds became more important than the gospel.  Now hear me out, I am not saying that we don’t stand up for what we believe is right and honorable before God but when issues become the gospel, we have lost the way.  Why do we expect non-Christians to have our values?  Also, why would we expect people to change and become something they have no power to become?

It is only when the Holy Spirit convicts of truth, righteousness and judgment 

The Gospel Is Amazing Freedom from people pleasing v10

V10 Who persuades you?  Who was so convincing that they made you change your mind? The gospel is not to please men but to please God.  Live for an audience of one!  Do not compromise your beliefs.  We are not here to impress people.  Stick to your authority for your convictions – The Word of God, bring people back to the pure truth of God.

What are characteristics of someone who is a people-pleaser

The following is a partial list from Vicki Champion (vickichampion.com) on characteristics of a chronic people pleaser:

Automatically Says YES when they want to say NO.

Experiences exhaustion from trying to be “perfect.”

Thinks that if they “do” the right thing they will be “accepted” or “loved.”

Fear risk or that they might be wrong.

Bankrupts themselves because they feel undeserving.

Says “I’m sorry” when no apology is necessary.

Believe others’ happiness is their responsibility.

Chooses to be nice over being real.

Never has enough time.

Lives with irritability because of constant pressure.

Tries to control everything for everyone with no regard for his or her self

Is easily  taken advantage of.

Now what would characterize someone who is a God pleaser?

Uses the Bible as their  guide, not what is popular or politically correct.

Obeys God rather than men.

Knows that they answer to God and looks to Him  wholeheartedly.  

Makes it their aim to please God.

Makes the most of their time, gaining wisdom from God and guidance from the Holy Spirit. 

Puts God first. 

They understand grace, meaning that they don’t have to earn approval or work for their salvation.  What Jesus did was enough, so they walk in freedom. 

Doesn’t worry about being liked and is willing to suffer for the sake of the Gospel.

Two things are at stake when the gospel becomes watered down from its simplicity

One is the glory of Christ; the other is the salvation of sinners. If the gospel is twisted, the all-sufficiency of Christ's work is dishonored and the way to salvation for sinners is blocked.

The most thrilling implication of verse 10 is this: The absoluteness of Christ's Lordship is completely freeing. It frees me from having to worry about pleasing one person here and another person there. It brings unity and integrity to my life. When you live to please only one person, everything you do is integrated because it relates to that one person. Shall I go to this movie? Read this book? Make this purchase? Take this job? Go out on this date? Marry this person? What a freeing thing it is to know that there is one person who is to be pleased in every decision of life—Jesus. Sometimes pleasing him will please others. Sometimes it won't, and that will hurt. But the deep joy of a single-minded life is worth it all.

So, how did you get started? How did your life change? How did you become the home of the Holy Spirit? Was it because of something you did, or because you discovered news so good it was completely liberating? 

In summary: 

The underlying truth of this passage is that there is one and only one gospel. It is therefore astonishing to turn away from it—away from God who calls and away from grace in Christ. It is not only astonishing, it is tragic, because the person who rejects the gospel is accursed and cut off from God. But on the other hand, if you embrace the one true gospel, not only are all your sins forgiven by God, but a thrilling unity and integrity and freedom come into your life because there is only one person to please, Jesus Christ.

The same way that you started the Christian life is the same way you carry it out…

We live on a receiving system of His grace, not an achieving system of making ourselves more acceptable to Him.

 You were never meant to live the Christian life, because you were meant to let Him live His life through YOU!

The Gospel Is Amazing Freedom.

It is freedom from the chains that lock us up in our addictions.  It is freedom from all those things that we thought would satisfy us, but in the end left us hollow and empty.
Are you a fighter for freedom, or has religion gotten to the point in your life that it has you as much enslaved as you were before you knew Christ? Do you delight to seek out God, live for him, and enjoy his approval? Or has something else taken his place?
I really appreciated this teaching from Steven Furtick on the subject of chains that inspired this.

http://elevationchurch.org/sermons/choosing-your-chains/

Every decision begins with a
Choice -  It is that moment when a thought enters my mind and I choose to entertain it.  
Habit – choices become habits, you name it, whatever the addiction is, it takes a little more to get a hit or a reaction or fulfillment.
Automatic – habits eventually become automatic, there is no thought or refining process, we keep doing it because it’s all that we know.
Identity – We allow our choices, habits to define us…it’s just the way that I am
Nature – It is now just part of who we are, it’s just second nature.
The enemy wants to lock you up while you are wrong.  Sexual addiction is one of them and can certainly become a stranglehold especially when you believe the lie that God’s love can’t fill your tank, so you have to manufacture your own cheap version of intimacy, but it’s not intimacy at all.
However, once we make the choice to believe for example that God our Father’s love is the ‘unfailing love that is better than life itself’ something changes and who the Son sets free, is free indeed.
We then get chained to grace and discover a love that will not let me go! We are no longer a slave to fear, to people’s opinions of me.  God will even use my chains, my story, my chains to set others free.
Grace is a bigger chain than sin!  I am a child of God.
You made so many bad decisions, but you are here today.  You stand today in the presence of a chain breaking God!

God can enable you to build a new chain, a chain of love that will never let you go and it will become a habit as you soak in His presence so that it becomes automatic, it becomes your identity and your new nature. If anyone Is in Christ, He’s is a new creation!

The Healing Power and Presence of Jesus!

I love this song from Hillsong -  You Are Here (The Same Power)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2J9Ia0X6WE

It is a powerful reminder of the power that lives in us!  The same power that conquered the grave lives in me!  Man, Yes, Jesus, let it be!!

Ephesians 1:18-20. “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know … his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.”

Surely he took up our pain

    and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

    stricken by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

    he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

    and by his wounds we are healed.

It was prophesied of Jesus in Isaiah 53 and fulfilled in His perfect work that He completed on the cross and through His resurrection from the dead!

“Divine healing is another experience of resurrection life in the present.  The physical benefits of the resurrection are available although sickness and death are still active”

He does not promise you that you will never be sick, he does not promise you that you will never die, but He does promise you that, until your work is done, until His purpose is fulfilled concerning you, He is the strength of your life, your victory for bodily as well as spiritual infirmity and oppression.

AB Simpson, “How to Receive Divine Healing,” 1885

My Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.   Until now you have not asked for anything in my name.  Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. John 16:23

Unfortunately the predicament most people were in back then is still true today.  Matthew 13…

¹⁵For this people's heart has become calloused;
      they hardly hear with their ears,
      and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
      hear with their ears,
      understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.

But it doesn’t have to be this way…  we need to ask in confidence and rested assurance.

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

So, what keeps us from praying for healing?  Are we too worried that we might disappoint the person that we are praying for if nothing happens.  We need to trust the Lord and leave the results with Him.  Ultimately it is His Name that is on the line.

The practical… when praying for healing

When praying for healing, this is really important to understand.  The confidence that you pray with is not ‘commanding God’ as if He must act because you demand it.  Recognize that when you pray for healing, you are coming from a place of divine authority.  We have been given authority to pray, it is a “delegated authority”.  We pray from our heavenly position, from our identity in Christ.

"As you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:7-8).

Notice also Jesus' instructions as well.

"Heal the sick who are there and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you'" (Luke 10:9).

Once again, Jesus did not tell His disciples to pray for the sick. He authorized them to heal the sick.

The power is in the proclamation. Tell them what God will do. This takes boldness.

Bert M. Farias

What brings Jesus joy?

We know as we discover it in Luke 10:21.  It is when His followers take Him at His word and take risks for the kingdom of God.  They do what He asked them to do.

21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do.

What brings us joy?

The Bible again reminds us that it is when we live out His truth, take risks of faith and take Him at His Word!

17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

We get into the secret place and that is where we cry out to God, but then as Bill Johnson teaches, we get into the public place and we take risks.    All of our ministry is imparting the Spirit of Christ into the lives of others where He places us.  We let our peace be known to all.  It is the substance of heaven and it comes in the person of Jesus Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit.  The important realization in all of this is that we are carriers of His presence,  it flows through us.

So, when we pray, it’s also important to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us.  We need wisdom and discernment and we also need to get to root issues too.  A great question to ask always is, “Is there anything else you want me to know?” 

I know sometimes that I can rush into prayer and maybe pray through surface issues and miss the point.  I can remember clearly when a student came to speak with me when I was a youth pastor.  They spoke about the lack of intimacy in their quiet time with God and so we talked through strategies, distractions and how to be still in His presence.  However, as it turned out, the real issue that she was struggling with was that she was sleeping with her boyfriend and knew that it was really hurting her relationship with the Lord.

Also, when we pray for healing for the body when it’s physical, pray that the body will be restored to the beauty of the way that God originally designed it to be.

Also remember the obvious as one pastor said, “when we don’t pray for healing, no one gets healed. Now, we pray for lots of people to get healed and some get healed.

Our ultimate healing will come when Jesus fully establishes His kingdom, but now every healing is a foreshadow or foretaste of that very kingdom! We live in a now, but not yet kingdom, but let’s keep pressing in for more of it to be experienced now and for people to come to faith and trust in Jesus, the greatest miracle of all!

Healing  also comes through our joy-filled disposition.

A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.  Proverbs 15:30 

In life, an attitude of self preoccupation is lethal, but joy is life giving to us and to others.  Laughter and smiling are found in joy as well.  It is this type of joy that produces relief from stress by releasing pain-killing, endorphins which give us a natural God-given high! 

The kind of lift that we need in our spirits to move us from the valley of spiritual distress.  As believers we live in community and we have no reason to be joy challenged.  We can be the kind of people who infect others with joyful enthusiasm.  We have the best news of all, that Jesus is our ultimate healer in every way

Jesus said it best in verse 22  you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.  He has promised it to us if we would but ask him.  It comes as we recognize it as we identify ourselves with Jesus, as we listen and we are guided by the Spirit like the 72 were in Luke 10:17

They returned with joy…why?  Because they experienced being ministers in His name. Joy is multiplied in community as we all serve together.

How do you wake up??!!

What happens when you wake up in the morning?

For some of us, it’s a rude awakening right?  The alarm clock goes off and you are jolted out of your sleep.  You jump out of bed, hit the shower and crank the heat, clean up and then grab a cup of hot coffee and you are good to go!

Now, for others, it’s more gradual, it’s a slow process of semi-consciousness where you are maybe half- asleep and half awake and at some point without any shock, you are just happy to know another day has begun and you embrace it.

In many ways this is a picture that mirrors how we become part of the Church, God’s family.

For some it is a complete shock to the system and you have a Damascus Road experience where you were blinded by the light like Saul was or John Newton who  cried out to God as a violent storm battered his vessel off the coast of Ireland.

For others, it isn’t a story that hit the headlines, but God drew you by His love into His family through a process, a conversation with a friend, a life well lived for Jesus, something undeniable that you saw.

BUT you WOKE UP!

Paul writes in Ephesians 5:14, Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.

What does it mean to wake up to God’s new world?

It means we recognize that we are part of something that is greater than ourselves. 

It means we have believed the Good News of what God has accomplished through His Son, Jesus, that God has raised Him from the dead and in a moment launched the greatest, most powerful, most transformative community in the world, the Church ‘capital C’!

God has called me with His voice to an invitation of love and as well as summons to obedience!  We become part of God’s family, an equal footing with every other believer as we learn what it means to wake up and find ourselves in God’s new world.

The Church exists for three primary purposes.

1.        We are called to worship God

The Church is first and foremost a community, a collection of people who have been called out, set apart, to be a people who worship God with all of our heart, soul, strength and mind.

2.       We are called to be together.

Pastor Jim, Sharon and my personal pastor,  had a canvas and on it said.  Family, we may not have it all together, but together we have it all!

3.       We are being sent on mission.

We are called to be those who carry His presence, His love, His beauty, His grace to the world around us

Let’s flesh these points out.

1.       We are called to worship God

1 Peter 2:9  But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

The Bible uses imagery to describe the Church

A River-  John in Revelation sees a huge throng of people from every nation, tribe and tongue coming together in a great chorus of praise.  Like a river they all started in very different places but they have now been brought into a single powerful, beautiful flow.  The church brings people together from the widest and most varied backgrounds together.  There is beautiful diversity in unity.

Revelation 7:9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

Revelation 22: 1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him.

A Tree- The single seed Jesus was sown into the ground and produced the most amazing tree with branches in every direction

John 15  I am the vine, you are the branches.

2.       We are called to be together

Hebrews 10:25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

We are called to encourage one another, to build one another up in the faith, to pray with and for each other, to learn from one another, to teach one another.

It’s called ‘koinonia’  and we see it happening from the very inception of the Church in Acts 2:42-47  fellowship, everything in common, a deep sense of sharing with one another.

The story of God’s people has always been through the water to freedom!  It started with a little boy being rescued from the edge of the Nile River and then the nation going through the Red Sea to be delivered from Egypt, to the nation once again crossing the Jordan River to the Promised Land.  It then would be Jesus, baptized in the Jordan River, to launch His public ministry and the unfolding of God’s perfect plan for His life and our’s!

Jesus’ own baptism and carefully planned Last Supper both point back to the original Exodus, the coming through the water moment all pointed to the death and resurrection of Jesus to begin the new covenant, new creation

From early on, the mark or recognition as being part of the family of God was baptism.  It was associated with the idea of being ‘born again’.  It  involves being plunged into the water in the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The point is that the story which baptism tells is God’s own story, from creation and covenant to new covenant and new creation, with Jesus, in the middle of it and the the Spirit brooding over it.  In baptism you are brought into that story, to be an actor in the play which God is writing and producing.

N.T. Wright in  Simply Christian

       3.   We are being sent on mission.

I will build My Church.  Jesus

Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it. Matthew 16:18

The truth of this statement was that Peter rightly understood and identified that Jesus was the Son of God.  Jesus is the foundation and the rock of stability for us, His church, we are His chosen possession, we are His bride, we are being made beautiful for Him.

The Church was never to have a defensive mentality, a bunker down, this world is going to hell in a handbasket type of mindset. The church was always meant to lead the charge, to go forward, to take new ground.

We are built to break the darkness!

John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. NASB   I will never forget Purlacio, the  first graduate from Bracelet of Hope’s foster homes as she shouted out,  “I was born to fight the darkness!”

We are called to be missional.

The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.  John 1:14 The Message

Jesus became flesh and blood to all those around Him.  He was real and went to where the people were.  He lived among them, He cried with them, He prayed for them, He brought healing to their lives.

We are called to the same thing.

We are called to be real with all those around us, to cry, to laugh, to pray for them and with them as the Spirit leads.  We are called to bring healing to the lives around us .

We are called to be agents of God’s healing love and at the same time allow our lives to be transformed by the same healing love.

An action plan for this summer!  Pray for three friends or people that are part of your everyday, normal path.

•             Open your homes and backyards and be hospitable  - It can be really simple.

The power of invitation is an amazing thing.  Go to your street party and if there isn’t one, make one up!  We were part of a street party at our last neighbourhood for 7 years!  It was a rich delicacy of foods from every continent from samosas to noodles to vegetarian, deep fried from Africa!  We brought pulled pork!

•             Open your hearts and make new friends (name some new ones by end of summer)

     It is because of opportunities like this that I not only know their names, but I now know a number of the names of their children as well.  It’s after midnight and Sharon is still out there having great conversations!

•             Open your hands and do good to people around you

•             Open your mouth (if an opportunity arises) and speak of your faith in Christ

A lady from my previous ministry shared with us how she spoke to the man renovating a meeting area doing renovations at her home.  She said I could just let them do their job or choose to reach out.  So she does and over a meal or a coffee and God is giving her great opportunities to share her faith.

Live your life in such a way that it demands an explanation.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

And for most people, the memorizing of this passage ends here.  However, there is something very important and not to be missed….

 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.

We really need to be asking God what are your plans for me today?  Why? Because He already has laid the blueprint out for your day.  

Check it out in Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.