Freedom: The Misconception!

For some of you this is just a reminder, for others it may be a wake up call.

Free from misconceptions
Free from substance injections
Free from the sinful lifestyle that provoked God's rejection
Free from hangovers
Free from investing in the club scene
with no return in my life
Free from searching the parties for my wife
Free from fake conversations that attempt to boost my ego
Cause I'm free from the insecurities that boost my evil
Free from selfish ambitions desires and agendas
Free from the American dream...free to live the dream
Free to dream...Free to be in Him

Let Freedom ring! From "My Country 'Tis of Thee" to Martin Luther King's "I Have A Dream" speech we've heard these words recited often. What do they really mean? Especially to a follower of Jesus Christ. In America we have the "freedom" to do many things and when that freedom is infringed upon we protest loudly and arrogantly. No one can take away our freedom to say and do whatever we so choose. I just got back from Poland and ministered to a group of youth and young adults that also know freedom. This is really the first generation born in the free country of Poland. Just over 20 years ago Poland was still under communist control. So freedom is still fairly new to them. It is still a country in recovery from the communist regime that controlled them so many years following Hitler. But how well do they really understand freedom? How well do we really understand freedom here in America, the land of the free?

Freedom as we know it, and as I stated earlier, is the ability to do whatever we choose. This is irregardless of morality and whether or not it brings harm to another or ourselves. It has become an idol in America. Oops, did I say that. How dare I speak anything other than reverence for our country's freedom that many have died or risked their lives to protect (including family of mine by the way). But is this the ultimate freedom that we should be raving about? Don't get me wrong, I love that we are a free country, not under the strong, unfair arm of control of another, but let's really understand the freedom that we have and how to use it to truly impact humanity. Let's reverence the one who died for that freedom as well.

First of all God gave Adam and Eve the freewill to love him back. So freedom is not about our ability to do whatever we want, but that we love God back from a willing heart and from a place of coercion. Now we get into the connection of freedom and love. Since true love is one that loves freely and is not forced to. God's picture of freedom had to do with loving Him. John 8:36 says "who the Son sets free is free indeed." The freedom the Bible is speaking of is the freedom to not have to live in sin and separated from the Father anymore. He wants us to take advantage of the freedom we have to love him separated from a lifestyle of sin.

See the freedom we celebrate is often times the freedom to sin however we choose. We celebrate the freedom to gossip publicly, to protest morality, to have sex when and with whomever we choose. Now the freedom to marry whoever we want is celebrated with no regard to God's design. On that last example, I really don't expect someone who is not submitted to the Lord to see anything wrong with same-sex marriage, neither am I concerned about offending anyone with the truth (just wanted to clear that up). We celebrate the freedom to erase the line of morality as if none exists and we make up our own lines. What we don't understand is what we celebrate we endorse and we give permission to the next generation to take and run with. This isn't always a good thing if you are a believer.

I recently wrote down a list of things that I am free from that others are enslaved to, but feel they do them because they are free to. I am free from cigarettes, lifestyle of sexual sin, alcohol and hangovers, misconceptions that lead me to chase material wealth, drugs, road rage, the list goes on. However we celebrate and encourage many to engage in these things simply because they have the freedom to do so. Then we make reality shows out of them. I know people with this so-called freedom that they can't stop doing many of these things, even though it brings nothing but hardship and detriment to their lives.

And that's the freedom we celebrate.

Listen to what the Bible says about freedom. This is and should be a primary focus of the freedom we truly celebrate as believers. In Galatians 5:13 it says "for you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Why would Paul write this? Because love does no harm to another (Romans 13:10), and loving others is loving God. Our priority with our freedom should be that we are free from the selfish ways and desires that are encouraged between the intimacy of our flesh (passions, cravings, and appetites) and the world (which caters to them daily), so that we might love others by serving them. Love is the preeminent characteristic of God. Serving is a selfless act. That's what freedom is about.

We have bought into this lie for so long that we even take God's grace as being synonymous with the very freedom we have perverted. We think it's freedom times 10, as if God gives us permission to engage since He already saved us because Jesus already died for our sins. The point of the cross is that we are free to love God and love others...serve God and serve others. Even many churches afraid to offend anyone have signed off on this false freedom that many have embraced. Polluting the name of God and misrepresenting what love really is. Love won't ever sign off on sin. Because sin will kill you. If some part of the church is signing off on some sin then that may explain why many other parts of the church are choosing their own sin to sign off on. Now we are a church (bride of Christ) filthy with the sin that no one wants to talk about. As long as we have great music and people are getting baptized we're cool.

And we wonder why there is no power flowing through the body of believers? I wish someone else would ask me if God still does miracles? I'm not perfect, not by a long shot. I don't know anyone who is. But exercising freedom has to be associated with giving of yourself for the sake of the gospel and not giving of yourself for the sake of celebrating a freedom to sin.