Another Galatians

Introduction: The Quest for Freedom

If you have ever consider following Christ, or been a Christ-follower for a while… You will notice that… One of the obstacles to coming to follow Christ is that many many Christ-followers seem to be very shackled. Very much in bondage. They don’t seem free. They seem to be shackled to “I must tithe. I must go to church. I must obey this. I must obey that. And they seem to be trying to shackle others. Look at my ball and chain. You should have one too. “ And you are thiniking, “No!” Why would I want that. What I want is freedom! Freedom to do whatever I want… as long as I don’t hurt anyone. After all, who are you to tell someone what to do. Who are you to “know” what God wants… After all there are lots of Gods, lots of theories, And anyone who claims to know God’s will.. is just using a power play to control others. And I don’t want to be controlled. I want freedom.

ILL: It’s like the movie the matrix. The computer “agents” decide to enslave the entire human race, by creating a fantast dream world. And people think they are walking around free, but it’s all an illusion. Actually, they are sitting in a vault in a field with electrodes plugged into them. They are put in a dream coma to “enjoy” this fantasy world… all the while, the computer race is using them as a battery to power their civilization. And often religion is exactly that. Some way to plug into your mind, put you in a mental coma, enslave you into a system of do’s and don’t…. And you are less free than before…. However… “Doing whatever you want” is also a type of plug in slavery. Bitterness will plug into you… and give you a fantasy world of being in control because of your bitterness, anger, and desire for revenge… All the while you are actually enslaved to your bittereness. Doing whatever you want… is actually a synomyn for selfishness. If I do whatever I want, and it’s all about self… I am enslaved to self… And I find myself plugged into the enslavement of greed, lust, narcism, pride. And I end up destroying my relationships because my fantasy world “The world is about me” ends up destroying the things I want.. Do you see the problem? There are actually Two Matrixes. A “Selfish” Matrix that enslaves. And a Religious Matrix that enslaves.

I’d like to give you three reasons why “doing whatever you want” is not Freedom. And Why the message of Freedom Jesus offers is fundamentally different from religion or morality.

Reason #1: Feet are Firmly Planted in Mid Air

If you say that there is no such thing as right, wrong. That no one can know God’s will. And freedom and truth is determined by individuals. Than you have a serious problem. Why? You’re feet are firmly planted in thin air. You lose the right to get mad or challenge anyone. Why? You can’t tell them that what they’re doing is wrong… How do you define hurt? How will you define what is “hurting someone else…”You have no right to say their greed, their pride, their ungratefulness is right or wrong. And you can’t challenge someone you love with “Hey that addiction is killing you…”

Galatians: Do not use your liberty to indulge sin.

G.K. Chesterton quote. The new rebel is a skeptic. Doubts everything. By rebelling against everything, he’s lost the ability to rebel against anything. There is a kind of thought that stops thought.

Reason #2: We’re sealed in Our Own Coffin

Vs 17. The sinful nature does not do what you want.

Paul says, the human heart is so complex. So broken. That when you let it do whatever it wants. It puts itself in bondage. Paul says, “Think about it, don’t you feel the tension in you between what you want to do… And what you do…” Doesn’t your heart seek after things, that put you in bondage. Isn’t the human heart far more complex than defning freedom as “doing whatever I want..” Knowing I constantly do things, I do not want to do? I want to eat lots and lots of steak, but I am an over weight 50 year old man… There are two desires in contradiction. Which of these two is the liberating desire. Which is consistent with who am I? Which of these desire moves me into a place that fits my nature. Bitterness, Anger, Complaining. (fruits of flesh) Do these make you more free.?

Hitchcock Story… Sealed in his own coffin.

When we define freedom as “doing whatever we want” we find ourselves sealed in our own coffin with no one outside of us to get us out. What we need is a deliverer. Someone outside of us, to free us.

ILL: You see this in your kids. When your kids are fighting in the back seat… It doesn’t matter their age, the topic, the time of year. You know the problem. The problem is that “Someone is not getting what they want…” The will be happy. They wil be free if others would just do what they want.” But are they free in the back yard?

ILL: When your life is all about work… don’t you end up sacrificing your health. You marriage. Relationship with kids… All to keep work in the center of your life. Are you free? When things you care about are sacrificed. When your need to be “perfect mom” is the core conviction of your heart… Haven’t you sealed yourself in your own coffin. Defining your worth by how your kids, your friends, your society define you…

ILL: When is a fish free… Only in the water. A glider is free is when it is in the air.

I am Free when I am in the Environment I was made for.

Where is my heart liberated. It’s not about “being away from boundaries…” It’s about being in the best environment. The one they were made for. The human heart is continually enslaved because we do whatever we want.

REASON #3: Real Freedom Must be Compatitble with Love.

Do not use your freedom in such a way to destroy love.

If you define, you, or utilize your freedom to love… It will fail. Real Freedom Must be Compatible with Love. And what is compatiable with love..

Not Independence

Independence is incapaitble with love. If your spouse never needs you. You feel unneeded. Unnecessary. If you can’t express your needs for comfort, respect, appreciation… You spouse, your kids, will not feel love. But on the other hand.

Not Dependence

If you so need your friendship. You spouse, that you are co dependent. You are only happy if they are happy. You only feel secure if you are resucing them. You are only worth while if they feel, act, think, say you are loved. Than you are not in love… You are a leech. Leaching off them for your needs. You can’t give yourself to someone unless they meet all my needs. I will only date someone, marry someone I don’t have to sacrifice for, be inconvience…

Interdependence is Love.

If your concept of freedom is out of love… Chuck it. Change the definition.

If you seek power, you are controlled by power. If you seek acceptance, you are controlled by those you want to please. We all love something. And whatever you’ve given your heart to… is your lord. Thinking we are free by giving our hearts to no one.. Our hearts are always given to something… Peer Group, Lover, Work, Acceptance. You can even be enslaved to your need to prove you are independent… You end up destroying your heart, by defining it’s freedom as isolating from everything. Withdrawing, not being hurt, etc.

C.S> Lewis, If you don’t want to be hurt. Give your heart to no one. Lock it up in a casket. And in that casket, it will not be hurt. It will become unbreakable, impenitrible, and irredeemable…. And that place is called hell… But the truth is, you gave it to fear, selfishness, pride….

NATURE OF CHRISTIAN FREEDOM

Galatians (vs 18) If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

What does that mean… Not under the Law… means you are free from Guilt. Free from Shame. Free from “Have to” Free from “Hamster wheel” You are out from “I’ve failed” I’m rejected. I need to make up for it.

Freedom from Works Righteousness: It doesn’t mean I need the law to feel worthy. My worth, acceptance is not dependent on it. To be under the law is to need to be perfect. How many of us have gone to counselor’s with many doctorates… to tell us “you don’t need to be perfect.” All the money, the sessions, etc.. I must be good enough. I must get a little better. More powerful. More beautiful… Only one lover says, I love you when you are imperfect. When you don’t fully obey. When you don’t even half way obey.

Freedom from Fear: The worst thing that can happen to me, is the best thing that can happen to me. I am not afraid of the future. I know what’s coming. We eagerly wait for the hope… I am free from needing to live up..

Free for… “faith expressing itself in love’ LOVE!!! Free to desire God. Wholly want the one thing that moves us into the one thing we need. The beauty of God. The love of God. If you are a moralist… You’ll wonder… Did I make it. Did I keep my promises. Only when you are free from the law… I want to give myself to something more beautiful. In fact, the only way people ever change is when they find something more beautiful to replace what they have. Until you see Jesus as more beautiful than self, you won’t change. Until you see his freedom, acceptance, and unconditianlly love as real… More beautiful than trying hard, obeying out of a need to be accepted, you will keep plugging along.

STORY: The story is told of Abraham LIncoln at a slave auction. When a young woman was put up on the auction block. He stepped forward and paid for her. As they were walking away together, Lincoln told her she was allowed to go. She couldn't believe it. He said she didn't have to follow him home, she was free. He paid for her freedom. She was in disbelief. She was waiting for "the catch". She looked up and asked if he was serious? Could she really just leave his side, go her own way, and be free.. YES he replied. "Then I choose to follow you, " the girl said. Keeping stride with him. "Because any man who offers me freedom is the man I want to follow."

(ADORATION) Jesus is Neo from movie Matrix. He is the one who breaks us free. To be in the environment we want and need. He shows us what we are plugged into. What we plug ourselves into. And it comes in to destroy the Matrix. To pull down the illustion of both selfishness and religion. He shows that Fear and Pride powers the whole matrix. Only He beat the system. Conquered Death. And …