Do you feel free? Or do you sometimes feel trapped? No way out, all the exits boarded up? Ever feel that all your obligations and responsibilities have tied you down, that all you’re doing is marching to someone else’s music, responding to someone else’s demands, all the time doing what you have to do instead of what you want to do?
It’s easy to feel that way. You graduate from high school or college with very few responsibilities. Then a job (and after a while you’re a manager with responsibility for other people), marriage, children (paying for college), a mortgage, a lease on a Dodge Caravan, a dog. Maybe you have elderly parents to care for too, or an ex-wife to pay alimony to, or college loans to repay. And after a while, and the walls start to close in. Every year that passes, your options, your freedom to make changes in your life, get fewer and fewer. You pass 30, and then what seems like only a few weeks later, 40 and you wonder where the time went. It’s difficult enough to handle when you have a good marriage and a job you enjoy, and the kids are doing well. Even then, the pressure of all those responsibilities can be almost overwhelming. But what if the job isn’t so great? What if the marriage is rocky? What if the kids are going through a rebellious phase - say from 9 to 19? What about when illness or old age starts to place additional limits on your freedom? Then your life can feel like a kind of prison, and you’ve got a life sentence without possibility of parole.
What do you do? Some people’s answer is to run, to try to escape. They feel they have no alternative but to cut and run. Quit the job; divorce the husband; abandon the kids; default on the loans. They may even choose suicide as an escape. If they don’t do it physically, they escape emotionally - they’re home, but completely disengaged from the family. They’re at work, but just doing the bare minimum to get by. They’re still going through the motions, but in reality they’ve checked out. Or they may try drugs or alcohol, or some other mind-numbing pastime, as an escape.
This morning, I’d like to talk about what to do when you feel anything but free, what to do when it feels like the walls are closing in. I’d like to talk about how to have freedom without escape. I’m going to give you some principles to help get you through those times when you feel trapped, when you feel hemmed in, when more than anything else you just want to be free.
1. View your circumstances as ordained by God.
First, understand that your circumstances are from God. You are not a victim of chance. You are a child of God, and He has a purpose for you where you are. Let me give you a couple of examples.
Let’s start with Joseph. [story of Joseph being sold into slavery]. Joseph was a slave, and then he was a prisoner (can’t get much less free than that). Separated from his family and his people, with no hope of ever seeing them again. Falsely accused; unjustly imprisoned. It would be easy for Joseph to conclude that God had abandoned him, that he was on his own, that his painful circumstances were the result of some cruel cosmic joke. It would be easy for Joseph to conclude that it didn’t really matter anymore what he did. But this is not how Joseph responded. He continued to trust that God was with him and that his life had meaning.
"Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master." - Genesis 39:1-2 (NIV)
· [What had happened to Joseph by this time? Where was he? Yet the Lord was with him.]
"When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, "This is how your slave treated me," he burned with anger. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden." - Genesis 39:19-21 (NIV)
· [What had happened to Joseph by this time? Where was he? Yet the Lord was with him.]
How would you feel in Joseph’s place?
Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God." - Genesis 45:4-8 (NIV)
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. - Genesis 50:20 (NIV)
· God was able to overrule the evil intentions of Joseph’s brothers. In fact, he didn’t just overrule their plans; he actually used their evil plans and actions to accomplish His purposes. Were they responsible and guilty for their actions? Yes. But God can use even sin and wrongdoing to accomplish His will. Even though they did in fact sell him into slavery in Egypt; ultimately, it was God who sent him there.
Now, let’s consider your circumstances. Do you ever feel like a slave? Being ordered around by someone else; no rights, no thanks or gratitude; unreasonable demands; difficult working conditions. Little or no concern for your welfare, for your feelings - for you. That would describe a lot of jobs. It would also describe a lot of homes. Joseph was a slave. What does the Bible say? The Lord was with him in his slavery. And the Lord is with you. Do you ever feel like a prisoner? Hemmed in on every side, your actions controlled and restricted, no freedom to live as you would like? Joseph was a prisoner. And the Bible tells us that the Lord was with him in his imprisonment. The Lord had a plan for Joseph. That plan included betrayal by his own family members, slavery, false accusations, and years of unjust imprisonment. But in the end it became clear that God was in control the whole time. God is with you, too. God is in control in your life, too. Someday it will all become clear, but for now, remember that even when you feel like a slave or a prisoner, God is with you and working out His good, and wise, and loving plan for your life.
Next, let’s look briefly at Jesus before the Roman governor Pilate:
"Where do you come from?" [Pilate] asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer. Do you refuse to speak to me?" Pilate said. "Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?" Jesus answered, "You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above." - John 19:10-11 (NIV)
· Jesus appeared completely helpless, at the mercy of Pilate. But Jesus understood that Pilate had no power over Him, except that which was granted to him by God. He appeared to be a helpless prisoner, but in reality, He had the power of God behind Him, a power far greater than that of Rome. You are not helpless. You are in God’s hands, not anyone else’s. Even when it seems that others have a great deal of power over you (boss, creditor, spouse, ex-spouse, relative), they hold that power only at God’s pleasure, only in order to accomplish His purposes in your life.
2. Understand the nature of true freedom
What is freedom? The world would answer that it’s the ability and opportunity to do whatever you want, however you want, whenever you want, with whomever you want, with no consequences. Freedom means indulging every appetite, fulfilling every desire, yielding to every temptation. According to the world, freedom means not doing anything you don’t want to do, and not answering to anyone else. In short, the world sees freedom as me putting myself and my desires first, and woe to anyone who gets in my way. [If I only had ___, then I would be free.]
But as anyone who has tried it knows, that’s not freedom, it’s slavery. Slavery to sin, slavery to self, slavery to desires which can never be satisfied. There’s no joy in it, no peace, just a constant chasing after the next thrill, the next pleasure.
"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income." - Ecclesiastes 5:10 (NIV)
"All man’s efforts are for his mouth, yet his appetite is never satisfied."
- Ecclesiastes 6:7 (NIV)
"I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired men and women singers, and a harem as well-the delights of the heart of man. . . . I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun."
- Ecclesiastes 2:8-11 (NIV)
Real freedom is the power to live in obedience to God. Real freedom is the power to serve God rather than self. And here’s the key. Those who have the Spirit of God, those who have received Christ as savior, can serve God in any and every circumstance. We are always free, because we are always able to serve and obey God.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
- 2 Corinthians 3:17 (NIV)
[Not "where plenty of money is, there is freedom . . . "]
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. - Romans 6:22 (NIV)
Freedom doesn’t come from following our own desires. Freedom doesn’t require that we have no limits or restrictions on our actions. Freedom is the ability to reject sin and to follow Christ. It’s the ability to serve and obey God in any circumstances, pleasant or unpleasant, desirable or undesirable, easy or difficult. If you are a Christian, you are truly free. You are free to love God, to serve God, to obey God, to follow God. That’s what true freedom is. That’s the freedom that brings joy and peace, regardless of our circumstances.
3. Freedom comes through voluntarily serving others
"A Christian man is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian man is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one."
- Martin Luther, Concerning Christian Liberty (1520)
"Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible."
- 1 Corinthians 9:19 (NIV)
"For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave." - 1 Corinthians 7:21-22 (NIV)
"You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love."
- Galatians 5:13 (NIV)
"Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free." - Ephesians 6:8 (NIV)
Here’s the secret to freedom: find someone to serve. It’s a paradox - we are only truly free when we serve one another. We can only be free of the things that truly bind us - our own sin and selfishness - when we give up our rights and seek to be a blessing to others. Only by letting go of the desire to be served, and seeking opportunities to serve others, can we be truly free.
Let me give you an example: a husband "imprisoned" in a loveless marriage, a marriage in which his wife doesn’t appreciate him, doesn’t care for him. He’s trapped. Stuck. How can he get free? Our culture would say, "divorce her." But there’s a better way. He can relinquish his claims to appreciation, cease his demands that she admire him. He can give up all his emotional "rights" in the relationship. What does this do? It frees him up to love her unconditionally, to serve her without any thought of return, to meet her needs while not insisting that she meet his. Once he lets go of his rights, he is truly free. He doesn’t have to wait for her to respond in a certain way, he can serve her any way, any time he pleases. The things she demands of him, he can do voluntarily, willingly, cheerfully, knowing that he will receive his reward from God.
If you serve someone unwillingly, grudgingly, under compulsion, then you are not free. You are a slave. But if you serve them willingly, you are free. If you want to be free, stop serving unwillingly, and start serving willingly.
Conclusion
Do you want to be free? Then stop serving unwillingly, and begin to serve others freely, willingly, voluntarily, just as Christ served us when He freely gave His life for our sins.
(For an .rtf file of this and other sermons, see www.journeychurchonline.org/messages.htm)
