Finding Freedom | Living Free
No one was born to be a slave. Yet slavery takes many forms, and oppression has many flavors. We all have experienced it. It can take only a moment to set a slave free from a slave owner, but years to get the slavery out of the person. Turns out, freedom is a long term work, and it comes from the inside out. Jesus has created a way for us to be truly free. Outside and in. You can find freedom from all that enslaves you.
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” Galatians 5:1
Living Free is both an event and a process.
The Israelites took courage and left Egypt, but they had to keep fighting so that “Egypt” didn’t get back into them. Living free requires me to do the maintenance work of freedom.
Message Notes
Freedom is not “one and done.”
It is both event and process.
Today, please listen;
don’t turn a deaf ear as in “the bitter uprising,”
that time of wilderness testing!
Even though they watched me at work for forty years,
your ancestors refused to let me do it my way;
over and over they tried my patience.
And I was provoked, oh, so provoked!
I said, “They’ll never keep their minds on God;
they refuse to walk down my road.”
Exasperated, I vowed,
“They’ll never get where they’re going,
never be able to sit down and rest.”
Hebrew 3:7-1
Slavery is a slippery slope.
I must organize myself to stay free.
Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.
I Corinthians 16:13
So how do you fulfill that strategy for success?
You organize yourself to do it.
Get and stay connected.
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see The Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25
Stay in training.
Train yourself to be godly. I Timothy 4:8
Live with open hands.
God said to Moses, “I’m going to rain bread down from the skies for you. The people will go out and gather each day’s ration. I’m going to test them to see if they’ll live according to my teaching or not.”Exodus 16:4-5
Keep the Sabbath.
Observe the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Work six days and do everything you need to do. But the seventh day is a Sabbath to God,your God. Don’t do any work—not you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your servant, nor your maid, nor your animals, not even the foreign guest visiting in your town. For in six days Godmade Heaven, Earth, and sea, and everything in them; he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, Godblessed the Sabbath day; he set it apart as a holy day.
Exodus 20:8-11
Share freedom. You are not just saved FROM something but FOR something.
But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
I Peter 2:9
Bottom Line
Living free is both and event and a process.
Action Step
Get a FIC appointment if you have areas of need.
Set up your own personal plan for maintain your freedom and continuing to the Promised Land.
