The Freedom-Grower: Connecting Through Service
Connecting
Wildwind Community Church
David Flowers
1/14/07
George Bernard Shaw said:
"This is the true joy in life - being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one. Being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It’s a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."
There’s nothing worse in this life than to be doomed to focus only on yourself. The more you do that, the more miserable you will be. The more you do that, the more you will become a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. Do you know what most people need more than anything else? They need to stop moaning about their problems and go out and help somebody else. That doesn’t sound very counselor-like does it? Counselors are supposed to say, “What you need is therapy. What you need is unconditional love. What you need is some me-time.”
Sometimes all those things are true. But in my work with people, and in talking to many other pastors and counselors, I have learned that what people need most of the time, for most of their problems, is a good kick in the pants. Now how un-therapeutic is that? Not as much as you might think. Sometimes we need to go over and over our problems. Sometimes we need to talk through our unhappiness. Sometimes we need to whine for a little while. But a time comes when we need to be finished whining. Isn’t that in the Bible? “A time to be born and a time to die. A time to whine, and a time to be done with whining. A time to complain about our lives, and a time to get a life.”
Honestly, after the whining is done, after the pastor or counselor has had his/her words and we have had ours and the talking is ended, it’s time to stop talking and start doing. Time to make something happen. Time to get a life. Our touchy-feely, therapeutic, blame it on the way you were raised society isn’t doing us any favors. We pursue peace and happiness, because we think they are something we can pursue. We don’t realize that peace and happiness, rather than being something we can pursue, are instead by-products that come when we get a life – when we step out of ourselves and embrace life that goes beyond our own. Let’s look at a few texts that will move us in this direction, because we have the weight of American society moving in the other direction. We live in a world that tells us to focus more on us – that the reason we’re unhappy is because we don’t pay enough attention to ourselves. Of course we often don’t notice that in telling us this, they then conveniently offer the solution for us, which just happens to be the use of one of their products, available until the end of this sermon for just $19.95.
No, my friends. Shaw had it right. Serving is the door to life. Serving is the door to real life. It’s the door to joy and lightheartedness. It’s the door to contentment and peace. It’s the door to abundant life. Let’s put together why this is true by looking at a few texts today.
John 10:10 (NKJV)
10 " …I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
More abundant life is what Jesus came to bring. In other words, life, but more life. Life on a level we could never imagine is possible.
John 8:36 (NIV)
36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
A life of freedom sounds like an abundant life to me. A life where we are free is certainly better than a life where we are enslaved, isn’t it? When we are free we get to experience more life, more vitality, more of all that life has to offer. Slavery means what? It means a life of being condemned to one environment. A life that serves only one interest. A life that relentlessly pours itself out upon interests that are not its own, and reaps the consequences in despair, in humiliation, in sorrow, in emptiness, in shame. Jesus here, essentially tells us that he will set us free to pursue our own best interests. “If the Sons sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Not that kind of freedom that leads to abuse of freedom, the kind of freedom that leads to increasing self-indulgence, which in turn destroys the freedom that gave birth to it. The consequence shows that what looked like freedom was never freedom in the first place. Jesus brings a kind of freedom that never doubles back and devours itself – a kind of freedom that leads to an abundance of life, an increase of life.
Jesus said he came to bring abundant life. Jesus said that he came to bring freedom. Without freedom, abundant life is not possible. So we have to think about what freedom really is.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (MSG)
12 Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean that it’s spiritually appropriate. If I went around doing whatever I thought I could get by with, I’d be a slave to my whims.
There is a kind of slavery that comes from incessant pursuing of our own interests. I’ll actually be showing you a text in a minute that will say almost exactly that. Ironically, as we exercise our freedom to seek more and more to meet our own needs, we become less and less free. And as we become less free, life becomes less abundant. Just because something is technically legal doesn’t mean it’s spiritually appropriate. In other words, we are not to use “because I can” as a way of justifying what we do. Bill Clinton in his autobiography wrote that he pursued his affair with Monica Lewinsky for the worst possible reason: because he could. “Because I can” is not a reason, it’s an excuse. The freedom we have in this country to pursue our own ends, to indulge our selfishness, to lose ourselves in the meeting of our own ever-increasing needs, is not an excuse to do so, if we are Christ-followers.
Romans 6:16 (MSG)
16 …there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits…
We’re getting there, aren’t we? Are you seeing what I’m saying about the difference between true and false freedom? You can tell the difference in their consequences. True freedom leads to increasing life and more freedom. More peace, more contentment, more connection, more joy. False freedom leads to decreasing life and less freedom. More depression, more guilt, more regret, more anxiety. “Offer yourselves to sin and it’s your last free act.”
The message of the gospel IS freedom, and the gospel should free us not only from a past life of sin, but into increasing freedom.
We come now to the scriptural capstone of today’s message. The text where I hope the clouds will part, the sun will shine through, and you will hear the angelic choirs singing.
Galatians 5:13-15 (MSG)
13 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows.
14 For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom.
15 If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?
How does freedom grow? Well, first of all, it does not grow through doing whatever we want. Paul said this in our Romans passage, and merely repeats the same idea here in Galatians. He says, “Yeah, you have freedom to be mean to each other, but eventually that will destroy all of you, so what kind of freedom is that?” And then Paul says something extraordinary.
Use your freedom to serve one another – that’s how freedom grows. Oh my gosh, really? True freedom brings not slavery, but more freedom, right? Anything that looks like freedom, but ends up enslaving us, must not have actually been freedom, right? True freedom brings more freedom. And Paul says, serve one another in love because that’s how freedom grows, in other words, that is an exercise of your freedom that will lead to more freedom.
Serving others, Paul says, always leads to more freedom. So if you want your freedom to increase this morning, get going with serving! Get into a place of service. Depression isn’t freedom, it’s constriction. Anxiety isn’t freedom, it’s constriction. Guilt isn’t freedom, it’s constriction. Anger isn’t freedom, it’s constriction. Bitterness and criticalness aren’t freedom, they are constriction. They all have negative consequences, don’t they? Yes, it seems you are free to have a tantrum, but you will reap the guilt and regret. That wasn’t freedom. Yes, it appears you are free to have an affair, but you will reap the divorce. What appeared to be freedom was not freedom! Yes, you think you are free to get drunk tonight, but you will reap the hangover. So this is not true freedom. Yes, you are free to criticize and complain, but you will reap a soul that shrinks and hardens. That’s not freedom, because true freedom leads to increasing freedom.
My friends, if you want to be more in this life than a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy, then you must serve! Serving is the freedom-grower. Serving is what gets you off of the Me-Mill, that just goes endlessly around and around and around but never takes you anyplace. It leaves you spent and wasted and guilty and isolated and frustrated, but other than that, exactly where you were when you started – just as empty, just as lonely, just as depressed. Serving is the freedom-grower. Serving is the path off of the Me-Mill.
Speaking of serving, I have said it before, and I’ll say it again, there’s no place like the local church. Do you make a ton of money? Until you are plugged into the local church with the same energy as you plug into your job, you are missing the best life has to offer. Do you do social good at your job? Until you are plugged into the local church with the same energy as you plug into your job, you are missing the best life has to offer. Do you feel personally rewarded in your work? Until you are plugged into the local church and serving with the same energy as you plug into your job, you are missing the best life has to offer. I’m not talking about hours, I’m talking about energy, and there’s a big difference. There are some who never punch a clock late at the office, but hardly ever arrive on time to do their work at the church. That’s not about hours, that’s about energy. And please do not leave here today saying, “Pastor Dave guilt-tripped me big-time this morning.” Don’t lay that at my door. This is time for you to ask yourself questions. If you decide this doesn’t apply to you, great – you’re off the hook. If it does apply, don’t say I guilt-tripped you, just ask what you’re gonna do about it.
Make no mistake about it. The world is full – absolutely overflowing – with people who will complain to me that our standards are too high, that we ask too much, that we should expect less of people. Why do you have membership requirements? Why do you ask us to take classes? Why do you ask us to join small groups? Why do you want to see us learning to invest financially in the church? There are people who have never heard a thing the church asks them to do that they haven’t complained about. There are people who never met a church commitment that they didn’t hate. Many of those same people will get up the next morning and commit 90 hours in a place where they’re making little more than money. Meanwhile their local church needs them for the most important work being done anywhere on planet Earth. It’s a cause that transcends money, transcends feeling good, transcends any personal agenda, transcends merely having something good to do with your time. It requires your life, asks you to spend yourself, to fall into bed tired at the end of the day knowing you might have worked your job 9-5, but you pursued your life’s calling during that time too, and after that time as well. THAT’S serving. I’m not referring to simply putting in an hour at Kids’ Street every few weeks, although that’s definitely part of it, serving in the church. I’m talking about selling out to what the church is called to be. I’m talking about giving of your time, your money, your talents and whatever else it takes to be part of this incredible place called the local church. I’m talking about realizing at some point that all of your reasons why we don’t have a right to ask this and that of you pale in comparison to the opportunity you have to make a difference, if you’ll stop making excuses long enough to get involved. There are people who want to sit around debating why I ask this or that of them in the church and are under the mistaken impression that I’m open to that discussion. The truth? I decided four years ago what our church needs in order to be effective, and then I stopped thinking about it. Case closed. Jury is in. The result? More and more lives changing week after week. When that slows down or stops, I’ll reevaluate what we’re doing, but until then I’ll keep asking you to join us, because there are some of you who are letting this incredible opportunity pass you by. Just please don’t make the mistake of thinking there’s no connection between what we ask of people and the change we see in their lives.
Are you an excuse-maker? I want you to know that there are many people here who are spending themselves to get results, even as they rely on God. There are many here who may not agree with everything we do, but see the good in it, understand that serving is the freedom-grower, and are finding freedom as they pour themselves out to God through service at Wildwind, service to their community, service at their workplace.
There are others who just whine. Don’t get upset that I said that. We’re a collection of individuals here. I’d love to think that we don’t have whiners, but we do. And our approach to whiners will never be to try to build our church on the foundation of their complaints, but always to continue to ask them to put down their excuses and step up to the plate. Frankly I can’t imagine what Wildwind would look like today if our least committed people got to determine how we do ministry. As long as I’m the pastor here, that will never happen.
Serving is the freedom-grower. Serving is something you freely do that always leads to more freedom. So to those who say that our membership requirements constrict your freedom, every one of them asks you to serve and I assure you will lead to more freedom. And I ask you to freely make those commitments. No one forces you to.
In closing, Shaw said:
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die. For the harder I work, the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no brief candle to me. It’s a sort of splendid torch which I’ve got to hold up for the moment and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
That is the call I want to hear. That is the opportunity that awaits you through the local church, holding up that torch for it to burn as brightly as possible. Some opportunities ask you to give of your time to serve in a Wildwind ministry. Others ask you to attend a class so that we can teach you how to serve in other areas of your life – at home, at work, everywhere you go.
Perhaps you’re newer to Wildwind and this message feels like it has completely burned your eyeballs out of your head. I completely understand! To you I simply want to extend an invitation to join us in what we are doing.
