GETTING FREE
Sermon Three: Imagining Freedom
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
March 2, 2008
This series is called Getting Free. But over the last few weeks I have been talking to you mostly not about freedom, but about slavery to sin. Now as I begin today’s message it is not my thoughts and belief that are foremost in my mind, but it is the emails and phone calls I have been getting over the past few weeks from so many of you – all of which are saying the same thing. “Dave, something is happening in me. I find myself longing for whatever it is you are talking about – wanting to be free from sin, wanting the struggle to be done, wanting to be able to be fully dedicated to any and everything that God might have for me, wanting to no longer live in fear of what I stand to lose if I follow Christ with my whole heart.”
Those are the testimonies I am hearing, and I suspect there are many more people represented by these testimonies than just those I have heard from. My goal for today’s message is to tell you that, if that is your testimony – if you sense God is doing a great work in your heart, leading you to another place – I just want you to know there is freedom! Today I want to show you, Biblically, that you don’t have to live the way you have been living.
Last week we covered Romans 7, which is the Apostle Paul’s brilliant explanation of what it feels like to be a Christian yet still struggle with sin. At the end of that section Paul says this:
Romans 7:24 (NIV)
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
Now last week we stopped there and I told you that this week we’d look at the answer. You probably already know what Paul’s answer was –
Romans 7:24-25 (NIV)
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!...
That’s Paul’s answer. Who will rescue me from my daily, ongoing struggle with sin? The answer is Jesus. Now that’s a Sunday school answer if I ever heard one. And many of us have read this passage a thousand times and many of us know that the answer is Jesus. It just so happens that most of us don’t live like it. We just saw what the passage says, but how do we actually live? Here’s the passage again in my own paraphrase that I like to call the Confused Christian Translation, or the CCT.
Romans 7:24-25 (CCT)
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
25a Golly, that’s a tough one. I guess Jesus will, but not right away. I mean, get ready for a long, hard struggle. 25bAnd it won’t be so much a rescue as a kind of gradual “growing out of it.” And it won’t really seem like Jesus did it, because of how much effort you’re going to have to put into it. 25c Come to think of it, I’m not really sure what I mean when I say that Jesus will handle it. 25d All I know is good luck to you, because you’re in for a long, hard fight. 25e Trust me, it stinks bad.
That’s close to how we live. Even in some of the notes and calls I’m getting from some of you, there is still a misunderstanding about the kind of life I am talking about. Many of you have talked about “wanting God more than ever to lead me away from sin.” That’s great. But that’s just an increased desire you’re talking about. My question is, “Does God have both the power and the intention to set you free from sin?” If so, is God capable of doing this in your life NOW – TODAY? Can something happen in your heart today – by the end of this service – where your heart can be so deeply changed that you can be essentially freed from the struggle with sins that have dogged you most of your life? The Apostle Peter seemed to think that can happen. He wrote:
1 Peter 4:3 (NIV)
3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do…
This is a letter to the church! Stop doing these things – you’re Christians now! You’ve spent enough time in the past doing that stuff – time to live a new life. Time to be done with sin. Why?
1 Thessalonians 4:7 (NIV)
7 For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.
God called us to live lives of holiness. Now something tells me that when Paul wrote this, he was not thinking about three-five minutes of holiness that God gives to us in the final moments before we die. Paul has in mind a lifetime of holiness. A life that is given to God and is changed and is done with sin and is characterized by purity.
2 Corinthians 7:1 (NIV)
1 … let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
Hebrews 12:1 (NIV)
1 …let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
Folks, do you see it? Do you see what God has in mind for you? A life of purity, of holiness, and of freedom not only from sin but from the DESIRE to sin! See, when you became a Christian, Jesus forgave your sins. He breathed life into your spirit that was dead to God.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
God did something REAL in your life. He set you free from the power of sin. In that moment you became aware of the realness of sin, and you have tried hard ever since to avoid it. But a problem remains and that is the fact that you still DESIRE to sin sometimes – and perhaps frequently. Sin, like last week’s table of donuts – still has a hold on you. You have continued to fight that battle Paul writes about in Romans 7 that we covered last week. The things you want to do (godly things), you often do not do, but the things you do not want to do (sinful things), those are the things you too often continue to do.
The point of my sermon in week one of this series was that this is the natural condition of every Christian. We commit our lives to God, we ask for Christ to forgive our sins and be the Lord of our lives, and something very real happens in us. But the struggle with sin continues. Our condition today is no different from the condition of those sinful Christians living in those first days of the church.
Basically the Bible tells us that there are three kinds of people, or three kinds of spiritual conditions:
1. First is what the Bible calls the natural (or “fleshly) person. The natural person lives a completely self-directed life. Christ is outside of their life completely and their interests are entirely self-directed, often resulting in discord and frustration.
2. Second is what the Bible calls the “carnal” or “fleshly” Christian. When the Bible speaks of a carnal or fleshly Christian, what it is saying is that this is a person who has received Christ but who lives in constant defeat because they trust in their own efforts to live the Christian life. All of their confidence is “in the flesh,” or in their own abilities and bodies to live the life the way they should. Christ has been invited into this person’s life, but he is not allowed to be on the throne and so they continue to direct their own interests, again resulting in discord and frustration. This is because the one on the throne (self) consistently directs them to do things that create those conditions. They have not yet given way completely to God and so they are constantly torn between God’s interests and their own. This is what I’ve been trying to communicate to you the last few weeks, most vividly last week with my table of donuts. A person in this condition will experience several or even all of the following things:
Periods of painful unbelief, disobedience to God, loss of love for God and others, a poor prayer life, no desire to spend time in God’s Word, a legalistic attitude (obsessive focus on religious rules because they have little or no relationship with God), impure thoughts, jealousy, guilt, worry and fear, discouragement, a critical spirit, a chronic sense of life being out of control and the anxiety that comes with it, frustration, and a sense of spiritual aimlessness.
It was to these kinds of Christians (carnal ones) that the Apostle Paul wrote these strong words:
Galatians 3:2-4 (MSG)
2 Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you?
3 Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it?
4 Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!
Remember, Paul’s writing to Christians. Notice that Paul says to these “carnal” or “fleshly” Christians, “your coming to faith in God will end up a total loss if you keep trying to do this by your own efforts.”
Then the Bible shows us a third kind of person.
3. Third is what the Bible calls the “spiritual person.” A spiritual person has not only invited Christ into their life, but has placed him on the throne so that God and his Word completely direct their lives and their interests, and the spiritual person is constantly yielding to Christ. The result is harmony with God and peace in life because the one on the throne (Christ) directs them to live in ways that consistently bring them peace and joy. A person in this condition will experience several or even all of the following things:
Christ-centered living, empowerment by the Holy Spirit for full service to God, effective evangelism that springs out of contagious happiness and contentment, greater understanding of God’s Word, deeper trust in God and consistent obedience to him. Here’s how Paul described this kind of life:
Galatians 5:22-23 (MSG)
22 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, 23 not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely…
When you hear that, don’t you just want to go, “SIGH!” Doesn’t it sound wonderful? My friends, it IS, wonderful!
This is the life God envisioned for you before he ever sent Jesus to the cross for your sins. Jesus did not die so that you could invite him into your life, continue to struggle bitterly against sin all your life, and then ultimately die in your sin anyway. Jesus did not die so that you could read all the scripture that talks about holiness and purity and the beautiful lives of those who serve Christ with single-minded devotion and think, “Someday, fifty years from now, maybe I’ll be in that place.” Jesus die not die so that you could invite him into your life to forgive your sins but then remain seated firmly on the throne of your life, not allowing him to direct your interests and manage your affairs.
Let’s spend another moment envisioning the freedom God has called us to:
Galatians 5:22-23 (MSG)
22 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard (the fruit of the Spirit is…)
—things like affection for others, (love)
exuberance about life, (joy – are you exuberant about life?)
serenity (peace).
We develop a willingness to stick with things, (patience)
a sense of compassion in the heart, (kindness)
and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. (goodness)
We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, (faithfulness)
23 not needing to force our way in life, (gentleness)
able to marshal and direct our energies wisely… (self-control)
These are known as the fruit of the Spirit and they are the natural, simple, and logical result of the life where Jesus is Master and where he is enthroned as King and the individual human will is constantly yielding to him.
In an email I sent to Wildwind’s leaders a few weeks back, here’s how I described this freedom that had come into my life:
You can be set free from most of the things that dog you! Let me give you a list of what God has recently set me free from:
• Excessive shyness and self-consciousness when I’m around strangers
• Wounds that I carried from being ridiculed in childhood and from tragedies that befell me in my early 20’s
• Taking myself way too seriously and not being able to enjoy laughter. I have laughed more in the past week than in the last five years, and I have LOVED it! I’m having a ball with my wife and with my kids. God has set me free!
• Inability to worship God in my heart and really feel it
• A constant sense of guilt over not praying enough, not reading the Bible enough, and not “caring” enough when I do!
• A frequent sense of heaviness in ministry. Suddenly I have the ability to bear up under its pressures and responsibilities without sinking into excessive frustration and/or depression
• Anxiety and anger
• Constant self-examination and perfectionism and beating myself up for every little flaw and failure
Do you realize the root cause of every single one of those problems I was delivered from was excessive focus on self? Think about it. Self-consciousness even has the word self in it! Wounds from childhood and tragedies in my 20’s – not being able to get past myself. Taking myself too seriously. Not being able to laugh. Inability to worship God, because of self-consciousness. I mean you can go right down the list. What are some other things God’s Spirit can free us from?
• Rigidity and inflexibility. We don’t need to control our lives! We don’t need to be able to predict and manage everything. It’s okay if it doesn’t all work out! We are free in the care of God.
• Fear and anxiety. Again, these come from wondering and worrying about what will happen to us. When we are sold out to God completely we realize we don’t have to carry this around any more!
• Desiring revenge. Revenge is all about us getting our due. God will take perfect care of others as well as me. I don’t need to worry about that.
• Hating, or even disliking, others. As much as Jesus told us to love others, we will not be capable of doing so (and will find reasons to justify hatred and lack of love) until we have completely abandoned ourselves to God and no longer have to be the judges of who is and is not worthy of love.
• Guilt. Guilt comes from excessive focus on our shortcomings and failures. God knows us through and through and loves us with everlasting love. We don’t have to live with guilt.
• Striving in all of its forms. Striving for promotion, recognition, success, attention, power, status, money, material objects, to be a better Christian, to manage our image, and the most serious form of striving – perfectionism. We don’t have to do any of that. If we are doing these things, it is evidence we are still on the throne in our lives. God can bring us freedom from that.
I experienced deliverance from all of these things too, in an instant. I mean, I had wrestled with God and lived in agony for years and years, and I had spent weeks in quiet prayer and intense study and reflection, but when it happened, it happened in a moment. And I’m not saying I’m perfect and no longer have any hang-ups. I’m just saying that I’ve been freed from many things, and in the places where I need to improve, I am now deeply aware of God’s grace and love (God-sufficiency, not self-sufficiency) and I no longer carry the burden of worrying about my flaws and failures and shortcomings. God freed me in places where I didn’t even know I was in chains! Almost daily, I do things that I know I would never (could never) have done before that experience. I have been set free to serve and follow God with my whole heart.
My simple question to you as I close is this: do you desire to be free? Have I painted for you a picture of a life you would like to have? Do you see that it’s the picture the Bible has always painted of abundant life in Christ, and that all I’m doing is taking seriously the possibility that this life is actually possible? See, Paul not only asked a question:
Romans 7:24-25 (NIV)
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?
He gave the answer:
Romans 7:25 (NIV)
25 Thanks be to God--through Jesus Christ our Lord!...
Can you imagine what your life would be like if you were free from sin? Can you imagine what this church would be like? Can you imagine how we could impact our community and how each of us could impact our own families and friends and workplaces? It would be like – well – maybe kind of like how the early disciples of Jesus in fact DID impact the world they lived in.
