Learning to Live Without Chains
Stuff Jesus Changed, part 1 – Bondage
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
April 8, 2007
Learning to live in freedom is one of the hardest things we’ll ever do. There’s a whole branch of psychology, called Existential Psychology, that’s based on the idea that the single greatest cause of dysfunction in human beings is the fear that is caused by the realization that we have complete freedom. That each of us ultimately is alone in the universe, free to become whoever we wish to become – to shape our lives any way we choose. This complete freedom is terrifying to people, so we act in all kinds of ways that deny our freedom. We blame others for our unhappiness. We say things like “I had no choice,” when actually we have tons of choices. We claim that others made us do this or that, when every single thing we do is actually by our own choice. We are free to do anything we wish to do, as long as we are willing to accept the consequences – and it’s the consequences of living as free creatures that scares people half to death.
Ever thought about that before? Ever thought about the responsibility that comes with freedom, about how much courage it actually takes to embrace your freedom and live as a free person? As I said, learning to live in freedom, I think, is one of the hardest things we’ll ever do. There’s a whole book of the Bible (called Exodus) that’s about the struggle of an entire race of people to learn to live in their newfound freedom. I want to talk to you about their struggle this morning, because I think through it we can come to understand much about the struggle each of us faces to live morally and spiritually free lives.
Let’s start with the opposite of freedom. The Hebrew people (the Israelites – the Jews) were in slavery in Egypt for 400 years. See, a group of about 100 of them had settled in Egypt at the invitation of the Pharaoh, this recorded in Genesis 46, during a time of famine. Egypt had food and rather than continually tracking back there to buy it, they settled in Egypt and Pharaoh was kind to them because his assistant Joseph had saved Egypt from the famine, and Joseph was part of their family.
Eventually Joseph and his generation died. Sixty years after Joseph’s death there was a revolution in Egypt and the new Pharoah didn’t know or care about Joseph and his family. All he knew was they were breeding like rabbits and he didn’t like having them in his country.
Exodus 1:8-14 (NIV)
8 Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt.
9 "Look," he said to his people, "the Israelites have become much too numerous for us.
10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country."
11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites
13 and worked them ruthlessly.
14 They made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their hard labor the Egyptians used them ruthlessly.
That is the story of how the Hebrew people ended up enslaved in Egypt. About a hundred of them waltzed into Egypt in the favor of Pharaoh because of Joseph. Sixty years later, revolution – followed by 400 years of enslavement.
I cannot imagine that kind of slavery, can you? I cannot imagine what it would be like to be driven to do hard physical labor every day of my life from sunup to sundown, to be considered property, to be beaten, for my children not to be my own, for every detail of my life to be determined by a man with a whip who neither knows nor cares a bit for me. I cannot imagine what that would do to my spirit. I think I would be completely broken. There would be no hope of escape, no chance of freedom. How do you live without hope? The spirit cannot survive without it, and so it is that I believe that after 400 years in slavery, the Hebrew people were a broken people. 400 years. That means that by the end of this period, a Hebrew slave’s father, and grandfather, and great-grandfather, and great-great grandfather – well forget that – it would be about 20 generations, you’d have to have 20 greats there to get a grip on this. Twenty generations of slavery. No concept of life in freedom, not even a distant dream from the past. No notion of making choices to determine one’s own destiny. No understanding of personal responsibility. I’m sure that at the end of that whip those people still desired freedom most days, but they couldn’t have had any idea what freedom really was. They never had to buy food to provide for themselves. They never had to seek or receive an education. They never had to make their way in the world. They never had any responsibility to make choices to go a certain way with their lives – their lives were already determined for them.
You might say the Hebrew people had a bondage identity. Why is that important? Because I believe that many people to this day still have a bondage identity – that even though they are physically free, they are in spiritual bondage. The Hebrews understood bondage and servitude, and that’s all. They couldn’t relate to anything else. And they were in for a big surprise because there was already among them a man who was going to boldly approach Pharaoh and demand that they be freed. Do you know his name? Unbeknownst to the Hebrew people, a guy named Moses had had an encounter with God out in the desert. Many of you know the story of Moses standing there, talking to a bush that kept burning but was not consumed. And a voice was coming from the bush, and the voice told him to go to Pharaoh and demand the release, the unconditional release, of some two million Hebrew slaves. If you don’t know that story, read the book of Exodus, or watch The Prince of Egypt – or preferably both. God sent the ten plagues on Egpyt, and eventually Pharaoh gave in and released the slaves. About two million of them. Now time for a little confession. There are about 200 people involved with Wildwind, and I often have weeks where I’m not sure how to deal with everybody. Moses suddenly finds himself responsible for about two million people, and his job is to take them on a trek through the desert into the land God was promising them.
If I was Moses, I’d have marched out of Egypt praying, God you are awesome. Thank you! These people are free. But God, now what? Wouldn’t you pray that prayer? Folks, how do you take two million people who have not known freedom in 20 generations, and organize them, and lead them on a trek through barren wilderness? How do you expect them to manage themselves? How do you expect them to deal with making the daily choice to continue to follow, when they had never had to make a choice in their lives? In other words, what does freedom mean to a people with a bondage identity? What does freedom mean to a person whose spirit is broken?
Last year Deer Park ceased to be Deer Park. Now somebody had told me last year – seriously – somebody told me that the deer in Deer Park were released into the wild. I very much doubt that’s true, don’t you? I mean, how does that work? How do you take a creature that has never had to fend for itself, and suddenly place it into an environment where it will die if it does not? I don’t think they were released into the wild, but I thought a lot about that over the next few days. I have often imagined those poor deer being shoved out of the back of the truck. The truck speeds off. There they are standing there in the woods, looking for their shanty that used to shelter them from the cold. No shanty. They check the ground for food. No food. But they are delighted to see food being brought to them. They know they’re gonna love this new place because not only is the food brought out to them like before, but it’s brought out by a couple of men wearing bright orange jackets so they can see them clearly. You get my drift.
How do you go from being in captivity to being in freedom? What does freedom mean when you have a bondage identity? The people Moses was leading had a bondage identity. After the cymbal clanging and gong-banging of the ten plagues in Exodus, after the drama of Moses’ showdowns with Pharaoh, and the majesty of Moses’ confrontation with the burning bush, the story of Exodus works as a tragedy. It is not only the story of a powerful God who delivered the Hebrews from slavery. It is also the tragic story of an enslaved people who, though they walked out of Egypt free, never shook a bondage identity. As a result they made all kinds of stupid choices. They were constantly disobedient to God, and they wandered in the desert for forty years. Do you think it’s possible that right now there are spiritually free people living as slaves, people who have never given up a bondage identity? Possible. And likely.
Most of the Hebrews died in that desert. In fact, the book of Joshua records that every single one of the Hebrews who Moses led out of slavery in Egypt died during those forty years in the desert. So the Promised Land was not given to the Hebrew slaves, but to their children, who had never been slaves. It’s hard to escape a bondage identity. I mean think about it. Those Hebrews must have left Egypt thinking, “Yes! We’re free!” But they did not know how to live as free people – didn’t know what to do with their freedom. The truth is that a generation of Hebrews left Egypt as slaves, wandered around in the desert for forty years, and died as slaves. Their bondage identities ended up killing them, preventing them from ever embracing, ever seeing what was right in front of them. How did the Israelites miss freedom? How did their bondage identities keep them in chains, long after they had left Egypt? We’re going to look at four ways, and after that we’re going to make the comparison to us living in America today.
First for the Hebrews is that they could not give allegiance. Exodus chapter 32 records that when Moses went up to get the Ten Commandments from God on the mountain, they got impatient and had Moses’ brother (Aaron – their priest!) melt down some gold and forge it into a calf so they could have something to worship. God had freed them from slavery and wanted their allegiance, but when you have a bondage identity there is no allegiance to anyone but yourself. Allegiance comes from a choice you make to acknowledge someone over you, and there had never been any choice in their servitude. All authority was cruel and illegitimate authority. So they never accepted the authority of God, or of Moses as God’s instrument to lead them to freedom. Their religious affections landed wherever they landed. With God when God was getting them out of Egypt, then just a while later with a cow they forged out of gold. That’s a bondage identity.
Second is they could not show gratitude. Just two months after they came out of Egypt, and by these incredible miracles nonetheless, here’s what they were saying:
Exodus 16:3 (NIV)
3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."
Boy, remember when we were slaves? Those were the good old days, weren’t they? Things sure were good when we were slaves. Bondage identity. This freedom thing stinks because we don’t know where our food is coming from. With a bondage identity, gratitude is impossible. When you have a bondage identity, bondage comes to look better than freedom. In a bondage identity, freedom isn’t worth what it costs. Forget about gratitude for our freedom – we’d rather go back to Egypt. This freedom business is too confusing and scary.
Third, they could not exercise faith. The people were hungry, right, so God sent this stuff called manna from heaven during the night (ch. 16). Every morning, they got up and collected manna to eat. God asked the people not to collect extra manna in the morning – just have faith that each day there would be enough for that day (that’ll preach). But they collected it anyway. But when you have a bondage identity, you’d better get what you can while the getting is good. You better not trust that anybody is looking out for you or cares about what happens to you. Faith is hard to exercise, isn’t it? Bondage identity.
Fourth, they could not voluntarily obey. They came from slavery. Obedience was forced upon them at the end of a whip. Now they’re free, and they need to willingly obey a leader who will not physically force them to comply. As I said earlier, most days they were supposed to collect only the manna for that day. But a day came when they were supposed to collect extra manna for the next day. They went out and collected the extra manna – let’s pick up there.
Exodus 16:24-28 (NIV)
24 So they saved it until morning, as Moses commanded, and it did not stink or get maggots in it.
25 "Eat it today," Moses said, "because today is a Sabbath to the LORD. You will not find any of it on the ground today.
26 Six days you are to gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will not be any."
27 Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.
28 Then the LORD said to Moses, "How long will you refuse to keep my commands and my instructions?
Bondage identity. Folks, when all your discipline comes from outside of you, you do not develop internal discipline. When someone else constantly controls you, you do not learn to control yourself.
Do you see what a bondage identity will do? It cost these people their lives. God had freed them. God had given them a chance to get to a brand new place. God had provided for them a way of being free, but they could not, or would not, accept freedom. They could not give allegiance to God. They could not show gratitude. They could not exercise faith. They could not voluntarily obey. Their chains had been loosed in Egypt 40 years ago, but they never really learned how to live without them. And because of that, they died still in bondage.
Now let’s talk about you and me. About fourteen-hundred years later, another leader and deliverer was born to Israel. Another person chosen by God to lead enslaved people to freedom. Another leader who goes to great measures to bring that freedom. Another person who not only brings freedom, but a new presence of God to his people. Another leader who frees people into a freedom they do not appreciate because they have bondage identities. Another leader whose life shows us what happens when we are given freedom, but continue to live in slavery. This leader’s name was Jesus.
In his first sermon in his hometown, Jesus stood and read from the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Here is what he read:
Luke 4:18-19 (NIV)
18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."
Jesus ministry on earth was a freedom-bringing ministry. This is Christ’s business, and throughout the gospels, you see this is what he brought to every encounter. He brought freedom and healing and sight and release everywhere he went. And in his death and resurrection, he claimed to be providing the ultimate freedom – freedom for you to experience forgiveness of your sin, freedom for you to know God in a way you never could otherwise. This comes with release from the chains of your past life and past ways of thinking that were tying you up in knots, insight into your own sin and need for a Savior, and carries with it the Good News that this life is not all there is – that you matter to God in ways you could never have imagined, and in ways that can make a difference in both this life and the life to come.
My friends, if Easter is about anything, it is about freedom. Freedom that God has extended to you, offered to you without condition. And though your chains may drop off you in an instant, you have to learn to live without them. Christ can give you freedom, but you must shed your bondage identity – that old way of thinking that keeps bringing you down.
Ever worn a hat all day long, then taken it off at dinnertime but continued feeling it on your head for the rest of the evening? Drives you crazy, doesn’t it? You feel like you’re wearing a hat, but you’re not. In the same way, Jesus Christ can free you from the bondage of sin, but you can still feel that you are carrying it around. Why? Because you have to learn to live without your chains. It doesn’t come naturally – you have been a certain way for too long. There’s a letting go that has to happen – a letting go of an old life, and an embracing of a new one. That can be a huge struggle and it’s one we take seriously at Wildwind. Watch this story about a woman who’s struggling to give up her baggage and embrace freedom.
So will you learn to live without your chains? Will you learn to give your allegiance to God? Your life has always been about your plans for yourself, your desires, your dreams. Your allegiance has always been to yourself. Will you learn to give allegiance to God, who has laid claim to your life?
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Will you learn to adopt a posture of gratitude? One cannot experience God if one is not willing to learn to be grateful in all circumstances. As you saw in the sketch, this is not easy, it is not immediate, and it is not without frustration, but it is essential.
Colossians 3:17 (NIV)
17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Will you learn to exercise faith? All of our lives we operate mostly according to what we can see, hear, taste, touch, and smell. When we surrender our lives to God, we suddenly must learn to operate according to none of those things. We must learn different ways of knowing, different ways of thinking, different ways of relating to others, and faith is the cornerstone of them all. The one who gives his/her life to God and then will not learn to exercise faith will live in bondage all of their life.
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Will you learn to be obedient? God’s desires for you will sometimes be at odds with what you would desire for yourself. In those moments, obedience is required. You must learn to choose God’s way over your old way.
James 4:7 (NKJV)
7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
God can loose your chains of sin, self-absorption, anger, greed, lust, or whatever else you might be a slave to. That’s what the death and resurrection of Jesus were all about. But you must be willing to learn to live as a free person. And it’s learning that takes a lifetime. This morning I’m inviting you to be on the journey – to let Christ loose your chains, set you free from sin and its hold on your life – and then to learn how to live without your chains. Learn from the Bible, learn from sermons, learn from books, learn from Christian friends, learn from small groups at Wildwind, learn from life! Will you pray with me? Just pray this with me in your head if it gets close to where you’re at this morning.
God, thank you that through Jesus you have loosed my chains and set me free from my old life. I don’t need it anymore and I want freedom. Jesus would you forgive my sins – past, present, and future – and be the new leader of my life? Holy Spirit, will you make your home in my heart? I’m so sorry for how I have been living – I know I have grieved you so deeply. I don’t want that life anymore. Will you help me make a brand new start? God my life is yours. It’s not much, but it’s everything I have. Please take it and use it for whatever you want to accomplish in this world. I am giving my life to you. Thank you for bringing me freedom. Now God, will you help me learn to live without my chains as I trust in you? In the name of Jesus, who died for my sins and rose for my salvation, Amen.
