Figuring Out Freedom... Again (Part 1)

Alright, well, I am really excited to be teaching this morning.

And I know Justin said this already, but we're in this new part of our journey through the Bible, and it's figuring out freedom.

So it's actually figuring out freedom again.

Because we had a figuring out freedom series, and it was about the Israelites figuring out their freedom from the Egyptians.

So in that figuring out freedom series, the Israelites are leaving Egypt.

They're leaving captivity from the Egyptians.

They're under the oppression of Pharaoh, and they are having to figure out what it is like to be a free people.

So in figuring out freedom again, we have the new believers, the believers under Jesus, and they're having to figure out freedom again because Jesus has set them free from the oppression of sin and death.

And they actually have to figure out what that is going to look like.

They've never been free from that before.

They've never lived free from sin and death.

And they have to figure out that freedom again.

And what I want to do today is take a look at those two stories and what it means to figure out freedom.

And how both of those people figured out freedom with God, and how we figure out freedom with God, and how he patterned these two stories, and what he did in these two stories, and how we can look at those and see how to pattern our lives as we figure out freedom.

Because when God does something on purpose, it's on purpose.

And when he does it twice, it's really on purpose.

Okay?

And when he's doing things with the Israelites in Egypt, and he does it again with the believers in Acts, he's showing us something.

He's showing us his character, he's showing us his language, how he talks to us, how he relates to us, what he wants for us.

And we can use those truths as a blueprint, as markers for our lives to help us navigate the things that we trip over all the time, the things that frustrate us as we try to navigate freedom.

So my hope is in looking at these stories, we actually get an ease of freedom when we walk out today.

Okay, you with me?

Okay.

All right, so the first thing I want to look at is how God launches us into freedom.

And he launches us into freedom with promise.

So if we look at Exodus 3, 7 through 10, this is the Egypt story.

In Exodus 3, 7 through 10, God is talking to Moses from the burning bush.

We've gone over this story before, but I just want to look at this conversation with Moses.

He is going to show Moses that he is going to give a promise to his people.

And with the Egypt situation, with the Israelites, this promise is land.

So take a look at these verses.

It's Exodus 3, 7 through 10.

Then the Lord told him, I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt.

I've heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers.

Yes, I'm aware of their suffering, so I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians, and lead them out of Egypt into their own fertile and spacious land.

It is a land flowing with milk and honey, the land where the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites now live.

Look, the cry of my people of Israel has reached me, and I have seen how harshly the Egyptians abuse them.

Now go, for I am sending you to Pharaoh.

You must lead my people Israel out of Egypt.

So you can see what God has promised to his people.

They are living under awful oppression.

It says harsh slave drivers, terrible abuse, absolutely zero freedom.

And the land he's promising them is flowing with milk and honey.

It says that it's fertile and spacious land.

What a contrast to what they're living in currently.

And that is what he's promising them to go to.

Now, to get there, they have to go through Passover.

Fred covered this a little bit last week.

Justin's covered this in a lot of detail, and I don't want to go back through the whole thing over again.

But we know that they're going to have to sit and wait for this angel of death to pass over their houses, and they're going to have to sit in this room.

And part of that preparation was that they had to sit ready to go.

It actually says that they had to eat the meal dressed, ready to go, dressed in their cloak, like belts tied around, sandals on their feet, staff in their hand.

Can you imagine eating with a staff in your hand?

Okay, that's how they had to eat their meal.

Because they weren't really given an exact program of how it was all going to happen.

Imagine.

Practically imagine being in that position.

You're eating your meal, life and death on the line.

You've been told there's this land out there, this spacious land that you're gonna go to, and the angel of death is gonna pass over your house.

I would like to know what that's gonna look like a little bit, wouldn't you?

When would that start?

How's that gonna finish?

Maybe even like, how will I know it's over?

Right?

A little, would you like a little more detail?

I would.

You're sitting there eating, it's like, was that the angel of death?

Is it was there is there gonna be a trumpet?

Is there like something gonna happen?

Is it gonna be complete silence?

And then is there like a map?

Are we gonna be given a map to follow to the promised land?

Nope.

You're just gonna go, right?

You're just given a promise.

They were not given a program to follow, but just a promise.

That's it.

And you see that same recipe, that same blueprint happen again in Acts.

God launches his people into freedom with a promise.

Acts 1, 3 through 4 shows us what Jesus is promising the believers.

And we get a little bit of backstory of what it was like after Jesus' death and resurrection, and then we see the promise.

Acts 1, 3 through 4.

During the 40 days after he suffered and died, so we're talking about Jesus here, he appeared to the apostles from time to time, and he proved to them in many ways that he was actually alive, and he talked to them about the kingdom of God.

Once, when he was eating with them, he commanded them, do not leave Jerusalem until the Father sends you the gift he promised.

As I told you before, John baptized with water, but in just a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

So in Acts, Jesus promises them, I'm gonna send you the Holy Spirit.

So just wait a few days.

That's it.

That's their instructions.

That's the promise.

And they follow them.

Later in Acts 1, 12 through 14, it says, Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, a distance of half a mile.

When they arrived, they went to the upstairs room of the house where they were staying.

And it lists out some of the people who were there.

It says, Here are the names of who were present: Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, the son of Alpheus, Simon the zealot, and Judas, the son of James.

They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary, the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.

So they're kind of in a do you see the parallel?

They're in a very similar situation, all gathered in one room.

They're ready.

For what?

They're just ready for the promise.

They've been promised that the Holy Spirit's going to come.

When?

A few days.

Not very specific.

If you tell my kids that we're gonna do something in a few days, you have set yourself up.

You're gonna be bugged every minute for the next few days until you actually come through with that promise.

Okay, a few days.

More than two, less than five?

I don't few.

It's not specific.

It's not a program.

Jesus doesn't say, hey, okay, so first, this is gonna happen, this is gonna happen, this.

He doesn't give them details.

He doesn't give them the who, what, where, when, why, how.

He doesn't give it to them.

He could, but he doesn't.

He just gives them the promise.

That is how God launches his people into freedom.

And when he does it on purpose, it's on purpose, and he did it twice.

So what does this mean for us as his people?

It means that we have freedom.

We have the same freedom that the early believers have.

We are free from sin and death.

We have that freedom.

And we're launched into the same freedom.

But so often we don't want the promises, we want a program.

We've all had this conversation, I know I have, where you go to God or you go to your friend and you say, I just wish that God would tell me what to do.

How many of you have had that conversation?

If God would just show me what to do, why won't he give me a sign?

We want the program.

We want the who, what, where, when, and why it's going to happen.

But that is not God's nature.

That's not his character.

And we start to do mental gymnastics with ourselves, wrestling with the fact that we think God is not good.

If he was good, if he loved me, he would show me.

If God really cared about me, he would tell me.

How many of you have done that?

I know I have.

If he really, really loved me, he would show me what to do.

But we're skipping something really important.

And hear me when I say this: that's not true.

He loves you, he knows you.

He created you and knows you better than anyone that walks this earth.

If you get a who, what, where, when, why, and how, go this way, turn this way, do this thing, do this thing, you're getting this prescribed program, then you're getting expectations of what you have to do and when you have to do it.

Guys, being told what you have to do and when you have to do it, that's Pharaoh.

That's not freedom.

That's what we're delivered from.

God wants more for you than that.

He loves you, He cares about you, He created you uniquely, He has wonderful things planned for you.

That's the promise.

The promise is that He's with you always.

The promise is that He works everything out for your good.

We don't always know the who, what, where, when, why, and how of that.

But we're launched with that promise.

We cling to that promise that He's with us.

And guys, we think about the promise that the Israelites have of this beautiful, spacious land.

That's freedom.

Who, what, where, when, why, how is a tightrope.

That's not what God wants for us.

The Christian life is described like running a race.

It's really hard to run a race on a tightrope.

God doesn't want us confined like little robot soldiers.

He wants to walk with us.

He wants to share with us.

He wants to catch us when we fall.

He wants us to make choices.

He wants to walk arm in arm, hand in hand, yoked with us, is how Jesus describes it, where he does the heavy lifting.

That is what freedom is like.

That's what he wants.

But to do that, you only get the promise, not the program.

But you do get the promise giver, which is better.

Okay?

Alright, so second, I want us to take a look at the second part.

The second similar pattern that we see in figuring out freedom is that if we're gonna figure out freedom in both of these stories and in our lives, we need a leader.

We're not very good at doing it by ourselves.

Okay?

In Exodus 3.10, at the end of that passage we read where God is talking to Moses, the last verse, God tells Moses, now go.

I am sending you to Pharaoh.

You must lead my people, Israel, out of Egypt.

God knows that if he takes all of these people who have never had freedom, mind you, these Israelites have never lived in freedom.

They are generations removed from ever experiencing freedom.

If he takes them and sends them out into the wilderness, it's going to be a mess.

Even with Moses, it was a mess.

They need a leader to get them there.

The same is true of the believers in Acts.

In the Acts passage, Jesus tells them, stay put, don't leave.

I'm sending you a leader.

I'm sending you the Holy Spirit.

You're going to need him.

They need the Holy Spirit because they can't do it on their own.

And God knows that we can't do it on our own.

And I know that there's a lot of passages in the Bible that talk about how you can live your life, and that if you try to live your life completely apart from God, you will make a mess of it.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm talking about those of us who have decided to live as Jesus followers.

When you decide to live as a follower of Jesus and you are living in freedom, Jesus has won that for you.

He's died on the cross, it is finished.

Okay, sin and death, done.

That's done.

Promised land, there, right?

Done.

When you decide to follow Jesus, there are really two ways to go about it.

You can do it with the Holy Spirit leading you, or you can try to do it on your own.

Those are the two ways to do it.

And God knows we need the Holy Spirit to be successful.

To truly, truly, truly walk in freedom, to experience the freedom that has been won already there.

To experience that freedom, we have to have the Holy Spirit leading us.

Now we can try and do it on our own.

I've been there, done that.

We can try to do it our own, and this is what it looks like.

Okay?

And I say this with all compassion in my heart because I did this for so, so, so long.

If you try to live as a follower of Jesus on your own, you will try to love.

You'll try so hard.

You'll try to love the people around you.

You will try to be kind.

You will try to be patient and you will fall short.

And you will get so discouraged because you just can't do it.

But then you'll try to do it again and you'll fall short again.

You'll try to beat addictions and you just can't do it.

The habits that you keep doing over and over and over and over and over, and you'll get so frustrated because you just can't do it.

And then you'll get so discouraged and you'll look at the people around you going, How are they doing it?

What is wrong with me?

I must be so broken.

What is wrong?

Why can't I beat this?

Why can't I do this?

Why can't I love?

Like it seems like everybody else just happens to do it.

And you'll get exhausted and defeated and discouraged.

And you'll beat yourself up, and the enemy will come in and beat you up too.

It is exhausting.

And that is what it is like to try to follow Jesus on your own.

It's awful.

Romans 7 describes it really, really well.

Romans 7, 6 through 7.

It says, now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power.

Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in a new way of living in the Spirit.

And we'll stop right there for a minute.

What I mean is when you're trying to follow Jesus in your own power, you're trying to do what the law says.

You're trying to do good.

But you can't get there.

Because you're doing it the old way of trying to obey the letter of the law.

You're trying, it comes from a good place.

You know that's what you're supposed to be doing.

But you need the new way of actually living in the spirit.

But you're trying the old way.

Okay, just like the Egyptian, um, just like the Israelites had lived under Pharaoh for generations and generations and generations, we had lived, the believers had lived under the law for generations and generations and generations.

They had been told, you sin, so sacrifice.

You sin, so sacrifice, sin, sacrifice, sin, sacrifice.

And there's this cycle of striving to do it.

That's the law that just sits there.

And when we try to do it on our own, we're sitting there under the law, trying, trying, trying, striving, striving, striving.

And it's like you beat your head against this law wall.

And you just beat yourself to death trying to do it.

Okay, going back to Romans.

Sorry, Romans 6 through 7.

Um, where was I?

Verse 7.

Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful?

Of course not.

In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin.

I would have never known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said you must not covet.

The law in itself isn't bad.

It shows us what we can can't do.

It shows us the bar, but if we're trying to get there on our own, it's so discouraging.

Romans 7.14 says, So the trouble is not with the law, it is spiritual and good.

The trouble is with me, for I am all too human, a slave to sin.

I don't really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don't do it.

Instead, I do what I hate.

It is such a description of trying to live a Christian life out of your own self.

You just end up doing what you hate anyway, and it's frustrating.

But there's a better way.

It's living in that new way, living following the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

And that is described in Galatians 5, 22 through 23.

It says, But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

There is no law against these things.

You see, when we live that way, all the things that we were trying to muster up, trying to find somewhere in ourselves to get there, the Holy Spirit begins to produce.

The Holy Spirit strips away the stuff that shouldn't be there and actually begins to produce love and gentleness and kindness, begins to produce the self-control needed to kick at the habits you don't want to have anymore.

The Holy Spirit is the one, the leader that leads you into the way of living freely.

You can't do it on your own.

I cannot do it on my own.

It's only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we are ever able to live freely.

We have to have a leader.

On our own, we make an ever loving mess of it.

But with the Holy Spirit, we actually get it.

Galatians 5, 1 says, So Christ has truly set us free.

Now make sure that you stay free and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law.

And when I look at those two choices, beating my head against the wall of law or living by the Spirit, why would I ever go back to slavery to the law?

And I'll tell you, it's because it gives us a little sense of control.

Maybe it gives us a few gold stars to make us feel like we did something for a minute.

Because living by the Spirit means we have to submit to the Spirit.

It means he's in control.

He leads.

When he says, don't do that, we say, okay.

When he says, this is what I want you to do, we say, okay.

And it's submission to the spirit.

Living by the law makes us feel a false sense of control.

But it also leads to that horrible downward spiral.

I would much rather live in submission to the spirit.

Now, the spirit's gonna go where the spirit wants to go.

Okay?

Jesus described it to Nicodemus in, I think it's John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

He's having a conversation with Nicodemus, and he says, those born of the Spirit is kind of like the wind.

He goes wherever he wants to go.

All right?

The Spirit, you don't know what he's gonna do, right?

Promise, not a program.

All right, you're gonna be on a little bit of an adventure, but I would much rather have a loving, peaceful, joyful, patient, gentle adventure than be caught in that awful, downward, despairing, discouraging spiral.

So when God launches you into freedom, he gives you a promise, but he gives you such a loving leader.

Okay.

All right, let's go to the third thing.

Oh, wait, before I do that, let me say this.

If I'm talking about the Holy Spirit and you're like, I don't know if I have that, ask for it.

That's all you have to do, is ask for the Holy Spirit.

And we know we have the Holy Spirit because it affirms with our Spirit that we have the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8.16 says his spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God's children.

So if you're like, I don't know, I don't know if that's going on in my life, you just have to ask.

Luke 11, 13 says, if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?

If you're not sure, or if you're like, man, I wish I had more of the Holy Spirit, ask.

Just ask God.

I know that sounds really simple.

It's because it is.

There's not some weird formula or dance or anything like that.

If you are at a place like that, that is a cult.

You just ask, okay?

You just ask.

Ask the Lord for the Holy Spirit.

Ask for more of the Holy Spirit and more of the Holy Spirit and more of the Holy Spirit.

I don't think you can get to the end of the Holy Spirit.

And you know what?

We have a prayer team that is in the back at Sunday's in the room back there.

It's hard to see with the lights.

It's right back there.

Go there and say, hey, I would like more of the Holy Spirit.

They'll pray with you.

If you want to have like a moment, ask.

Ask God for the Holy Spirit.

And He says He says He promises He will give it to you freely.

Okay?

All right, so now we're gonna move on to the third thing.

All right.

In figuring out freedom again, looking at the first figuring out freedom.

When freedom is happening, God is moving, we have a leader, we have a promise, there can be confusion as to is God moving or not?

What is happening?

And when that happens, God always gives confirmation that it's Him.

We don't ever have to be confused.

In Egypt, they did not have Scripture like we have today.

Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible.

They didn't have it yet.

He was working on it.

Okay?

They didn't have scripture, they didn't have scrolls, they had stories.

So they knew stories about God, but they didn't have like a Bible.

They didn't have scrolls, they didn't have scripture written down.

But God used very specific signs to show that he was moving.

One of the things was Moses' staff, right?

Moses' staff turned into a snake that ate the evil magician's snakes.

Um, his staff parted the Red Sea, his staff made water flow out of rocks, his staff showed that God was doing something.

The plagues in Egypt systematically dethroned the Egyptian gods.

It was very clear that God was with Moses and the Israelites and not with Egypt.

It was very clear where God was in that whole story.

In Acts, with the believers, God makes it very clear that his presence is with them.

And he does it through his word.

It's really, really interesting.

He does some miraculous things, but his word confirms the miracles.

It's really beautiful.

Let's take a look at Acts 2, 1 through 8.

It says, On the day of Pentecost, all the believers were meeting together in one place.

Suddenly there was a sound from heaven, like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting.

Then what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them.

And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.

At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem.

When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers.

They were completely amazed.

How can this be?

They exclaimed.

So this is the moment, right?

This is the oh my gosh moment, where they've been praying, they've been waiting.

The promise comes.

It comes in this amazing, I just I can't even imagine being there.

Fire comes down in the room, it spreads out amongst everyone there, settles on each one of them, and they can all of a sudden speak different languages.

It had to have been incredible.

But something else happens at this time that lets this word spread.

Because God doesn't just take this miracle moment for the people in that room, He uses His scripture to spread his word and confirm that what's happening in that room is not some hocus pocus moment, it is God's presence.

And he does it through Scripture.

It's really, really cool.

It says in verse 5, at that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem.

And that was on purpose, because this is the end of a festival cycle in Jerusalem.

It started with Passover that we know Jesus celebrated with his disciples, and it's ending with Pentecost, which is happening that day.

And these Jews had traveled from all over the world to Jerusalem, where the temple was, so that they could sacrifice, so they could celebrate all of these festivals.

It is Passover, then First Fruits, then Pentecost.

And they're still there because they're still celebrating these festivals.

And they're in the street, which I'm sure was incredibly busy, very loud, very noisy.

Because there would have been vendors trying to sell them things, people from all over the world.

It was a trade hub, animals, I mean, picture it, right?

Super loud.

And they're drawn to this upper room, to this place where this stuff is happening.

Now, when I originally was taught this story, I don't think anybody taught me this.

I just assumed they were drawn to this upper room because they heard their languages being spoken.

But that's not what it says, and that actually doesn't make sense because there would have been a lot of languages being spoken all in Jerusalem.

People were there from all over the world.

So hearing their own languages wouldn't have drawn their attention.

If you look at verse 6, it says, when they heard a loud noise, everyone came running.

So something about a noise drew their attention to that room.

But they're in a noisy street.

Why?

Have you ever wondered that?

Have you ever seen that before?

What about a noise in a room made these specifically devout Jews go, hmm?

What was that?

Why?

Well, we also know it's the first day of Pentecost, and later in this chapter, we also know what hour of the day it was.

It was the morning.

They're out in the street.

They're out in the street because they're going to the temple.

Because in the morning they had temple reading, and they're devout Jews.

So they're going to the temple to hear the morning reading.

Why is this important?

Because every Pentecost, they had the very same reading.

We actually know what scripture they heard.

Because they read it the same every day on Pentecost.

This is the scriptures they would have heard.

They would have heard the story where Moses receives the law on Mount Sinai.

And in that story, Moses is on top of the mountain, he receives the law, and God's presence comes on that mountain in a windstorm.

Then they would have heard a story in Ezekiel.

It's the first chapter of Ezekiel, and he gets a vision.

In that vision, there are these really weird heavenly chariots with heads that spin around and these giant wheels that turn around.

And God's presence shows up in fire and a windstorm.

So when they were walking down that street, having just heard or about to go hear this scripture, they would have been thinking about these stories.

They would have been thinking about God's presence being a windstorm.

And so when they're walking down that street, just so happens, a violent roaring wind is what verse 2 says, suddenly there was a sound from heaven like a roaring of a mighty windstorm filling the house.

To them, it signals the presence of God.

And it turns their heads like, no way.

Today's the windstorm day.

Because they know God's word.

And they rush over to see what's happening, and there's fire, and they're like, Ezekiel fire.

They know God's word.

They know that those things aren't on accident.

God's word is confirming his presence.

So then later on, when they hear their languages and Peter's preaching about Jesus, it all clicks for them.

God's word confirms that what's happening is actually God.

And this is a pattern for us as we figure out our freedom.

Because as we walk around in freedom and we have promises and we have our leader, there's gonna be a lot of people telling us, well, this is what God says, and there's gonna be a lot of teachers and preachers and devotionals and things that we bump into, and we go like, well, is that God?

I don't know.

It has to be confirmed with his word.

His word is truth.

And if it doesn't get confirmed with this, it's not truth.

God does not contradict himself.

And if you run into a teacher or someone who tells you God says X, Y, Z, and this disagrees, throw out the teacher.

Okay?

God always confirms his presence, what he's doing, where he's going, any miracles you see have to be confirmed with his word.

He did it in Acts, even with the amazing tongues of fire and all that stuff, and he does it still today for us.

Know his word.

You have to know it.

Study it.

Get in a Bible study, read it.

And when you have the Holy Spirit, it will help, he will help it make sense to you.

I remember after I was baptized, I was baptized in fifth grade, and I remember after that baptism, I know this might sound weird and it's okay.

I'll I risk sounding weird.

Reading the Bible after fifth grade made so much more sense.

It's like it opened my eyes.

The Holy Spirit just helped me understand.

It was after my water baptism, I understood God's word.

The Holy Spirit was helping me.

If the Holy Spirit prompts you to get baptized, do it.

Let him lead you.

Let him lead you to the right passages of Scripture.

Get involved and study God's word because his word confirms.

So as you're figuring out freedom as a believer, know that you are launched with promises.

It will not be a program, but you have promises and you can trust them.

You have a leader to follow.

And if you are ever confused, go to God's word for your confirmation.

And that will help you figure out your freedom.

Okay.

Thank you guys.