Today. I want to talk about freedom. Specifically freedom as we follow Jesus and what that looks like. And I think what I want to do is paint a picture. Of what it feels like to follow Jesus with full freedom. And it's so much better. It's such a better experience. Night. And freaking day experience and let's start with the scripture. I'm going to read this. It's a chunk of scripture. It's a couple paragraphs. It's from the book of Galatians, it's written by a guy named Paul. And. It was written to some of these very early churches. Um, that we're just figuring out how to follow Jesus, how to understand what it feels like and looks like to live out a life following Jesus. And in these early churches, they were getting a lot of pressure. From what they call back then Jewish Christians, you know, people that were following Jesus, but that were originally grew up under the law of Moses under the Torah Jewish. Um, And so there was this sort of friction between what they call Gentiles, who weren't Jewish people that started to follow Jesus and the Jewish Christians, because the Jewish Christian said, you have to do all the laws. You have to follow all these rules of Moses, all of these laws in the Torah, all of these things like circumcision and. Sabbath and roll, keeping in all, all the things you got to do those, otherwise you're not legit. You don't, you're not doing it right. And it's interesting because Paul writes this letter. I'm going to read you the scripture. He writes this letter to kind of combat that to come out there and say, whoa, hold up. No, no, no, no. That is not what this is about. That is not the good news of Jesus. That is not the gospel story. That is not what Jesus taught. And it's interesting to me because the parallel is still here. I mean, we're 2000 years later after this letter was written. And we're still doing this. Like I'm still talking about this today, about how religion puts this bondage of the law upon us, uh, rules, law, legalism performance. As opposed to the gospel of freedom and goodness and Jesus. So, all right, let me dig into this. This is Galatians chapter five. Again, Paul writing this to these very early churches, telling them, teaching them what it feels like, what it looks like to live a life following Jesus. And he says this in Galatians chapter five. Christ has set us free. To live a free life. So take your stand. Never again, let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I am emphatic about this, the moment, any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule keeping system at that same moment. Christ hard. One gift of freedom. Is squandered. I've repeat my warning. The person who accepts the ways of circumcision or the law trades, all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law. I suspect you would never intend this. Paul says, but this is what happens when you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off. From Jesus, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile, we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the spirit for in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior. Faith expressed in love. Boom. Talk about a Mike drop, man. There's so much to dig in there too. A couple of things. I want to share a couple stories and I want to share a couple ideas. That maybe you can chew on, but before we do, I just want to go back to that scripture because there's a couple things that just scream to me. Christ has set us free to live a free life. I love what he says. So take your stand with an exclamation point. Never again, let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. I think this resonates because this has been my journey in faith in church. And it was back then. I mean, Paul, wouldn't say you had to take a stand. He wouldn't. Encourage you to never again, let anyone put a harness of slavery around you. If the current of church and religion didn't always want to do that, it still does today. It wants to control. It wants to restrict and wants to manage and measure. And wants to take away freedom. It is not there to give you freedom. Absolutely the opposite. And Paul says it right then, and I love that. He says I'm in phatic about this. I love it. And he says this the moment, any one of you, the moment you start. Submitting to rule keeping systems. He says at that same moment, you decide to take that path. You've reject the path. Uh, freedom from Jesus. It says his gift of freedom is squandered. You you've, you've thrown it out. I repeat my warning. He says, Don't trade. The advantages of the free life in Jesus for the obligations of the life of the law, the slave life of the law, he calls it. He says, that's what you do. You're trading all the advantages, the goodness. The amazing story of the gospel. You're trading those advantages for the obligations of the slave life advantages traded for obligations. I've done that. Most of my life and I am done with that. I want the advantages. I want the gospel. Goodness. I want. I want Jesus, I don't want rules and laws and religion and restriction. I want Jesus. I love, I love this scripture and he says this and this. I totally agree with. He says, I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ. You fall out of grace. To me. That's the only thing you can do. To fall out of grace. Really? It was just to reject it to say, I don't need it. I will find my own way. I will perform my own way. I will achieve my own way. I will earn my own way. Then you're cut off from grace. Not because. Cod did it cause you did it. You chose your path. You chose you. It's almost like you are worshiping at the idle of you. You will carry yourself. I don't want to carry myself. I want to be carried by Jesus. I want to be carried by grace and by mercy and by love and forgiveness. And I love that. He says, I suspect you would never intend this because I think that's true of most church people we get in the system and it becomes so conditioned. We don't, we can't even see. What it has become. I don't think. I don't think we would intend that. I don't think we would intend to trade the advantages of grace for the obligations of the law. No one, nobody would. Really probably intend that, but we do it so often because we're so in it. Sometimes as church people. We're so deeply bound into this thing. It's like, we can't see it. You know, there's an old quote. O's old story about the. The fish. Right. And he's in the water and someone says to him, Hey man, how's the water? And the fish says what water. And I think that's so true of church and religion. We have been conditioned. Some of us have been in it since childhood. And we've been conditioned and shaped. To think that this is how it always is. And then we, instead of using our own thoughts and reading scripture and taking the teachings of Jesus for face value for what he really says, we just let religion shape that we let the current sort of shape that and guide it. And. Unintentionally. We often end up in this place where we're bound by these rules and these laws and these restrictions. Last thing in the scripture. I just want to repeat, he says in Jesus, neither, our most conscientious religion. Right. No matter how good you can keep it. Nor our disregard of religion. Amount to anything. Because of Jesus, right? That's what it starts for in Christ. Whether you're the best rule keeper, or you don't even go to church except on Easter or never, or whatever the case, whatever it amounts to. Nothing because of Jesus. What matters is something far more inside interior in our hearts, faith. Expressing itself in love. That's what followers of Jesus do we trust that God has our rescue, and then we try to share it out, walk out and love to be helpers, to care about things God cares about to be kind, to be bucket fillers, to bring, to be peacemakers, to bring hope, enjoy. To love people. Well, to love our neighbors. That's what matters. So freedom. Man freedom, you are called to freedom. I want to tell you this, if you're a church person and you can. I don't know. Maybe you don't know if you are, but if you are a rule following church person, And you think that your standing with God depends on your performance. Maybe how long you studied the Bible, maybe how little swear words you say, maybe. How nice you've been maybe how much money you give away, whatever, if years, any performance based. Status with Jesus. You're probably a church person. And I'm here to tell you there's such a better way. There's such a better way and it's called freedom. And I can tell you this because I've lived it. I have lived this I've been on the inside and I've been on the outside. And I'm still on this journey. I can tell you the freedom way. Is the better way. And just like Paul says, I am adamant about this. I make no apologies, no qualms, no hesitation. Freedom. Is the gift we've been given in that. The life we should be living. But I understand, I will say this. Freedom. Can be scary. Right. Especially in the circle and the bubble of church, it can be scary because we have this thought of like, how do we control people then what will people do? What, if people go crazy, what do people do? Whatever they want. Well, here's the news flash. People can already do whatever they want. The the, the facade of control in the church bubble of religion is just that it's a facade. People do. And can do whatever they want, any time they want. You could fight. Steel. Cheat. Smoke curse. Whatever you want to do, you can love, laugh, help serve. Seeing all of these options are available to you. It has all your choice right now today. You can't do anything you want. You can obey. You can disobey, you can follow Jesus. You can run the other way. You can read your Bible. You can watch Netflix. You are free. But, but what if this, or what if this, this is the thing, there is no kicker. You can do whatever you want. Anytime you want. And. God will still love you. Jesus will still like you he's already decided this he's already shown us this. He's already told us this, this. Uh, friends, this is the gospel. This. Is a scandalous gospel of grace. So let's just have a quick chat just to make sure we're on the same page and to just clear everything up. All right. A quick conversation to clear it up. Can I really do whatever I want? Absolutely. Well, God still love me. If I don't do what he says. Absolutely. Jesus put an end to the old hole. I have to earn it type of scenario, right? Where we have to earn his approval, earn his love. We have to please him to make him love us. Jesus. Put it into that. He came to show us that God loves us right now in any state. He said, I came to rescue centers. I came to rescue people, searching and doubting and struggling. I came for the sick. That's who needs a doctor? That's the beautiful, good news of Jesus. So, well, God's still love you if you don't do what he says. Yes, he will. What if I do something bad, will God still bless me and love me and answer my prayers. Absolutely. His goodness is his goodness. It is not earned by your behavior. When I was a pastor, I served as a pastor for almost nine years, a little over nine years. And. Some of the strongest teachings that really resonated with our community were times when I was struggling the most through something. And to me, it's just this lesson that God's grace doesn't leave us. It doesn't lift. Based on how we're doing or how we're trending right at this. He is good. It's he is good because he is good. His love and favor. For us as shown in Jesus on the cross, not because of our report card. That's the beautiful, good news, right? There's a scripture in Ephesians that says this because of the sacrifice of the Messiah. Jesus has blood poured out in the alternative, the crossword free people, free of penalties and punishment chocked up by all of our misdeeds and not just barely free either. Abundantly free. He thought of everything provided for everything. We could possibly need letting us in on the plants. He took such delight in making. Guys. Are we all reading the scriptures? So many scriptures I share. I just feel like, are we all reading? These are the churches teach in these as your pastor talked about, this is your Bible study reading freedom scriptures. Let me read this again. This is from Ephesians chapter one. Because of the sacrifice of Jesus, the Messiah. His blood poured out on the altar of the cross. We're a free people. Free from what you might ask. Well, I'm glad you asked. Scripture says free up penalties and punishments chocked up by all of our misdeeds. Are you hearing that you are free from penalties and punishments because of your mistakes? And not just barely free. I love that. He pushes again. I think this is Paul writing in Ephesians again, and he's pushing it again. Because he knows the current of religion. He knows how strong it is. This guy used to be in the current. This guy used to kill and hunt down early Christians. He was an adamant church rule follower. Who's high up in the religious society. So he knows how it works. So I love that he doubles down here. He says, you're not just barely free. You're abundantly free because he knows, he knows that church over time, their conditioning, their teaching, their shaping of the story. There. There. Inclination to control people. We'll, we'll change this right here and it will water it down until it's. Until you feel barely free. And I love that. He says, here you are not barely free. You are abundantly free. That is good news. That's what people need. People that don't follow Jesus, people that are following Jesus. We all want that. We all want that freedom. Does it mean that being free in making choices, that, that God's pleased with whatever we choose and whatever we do. Absolutely not. I mean, That's as basic, right? Like, It doesn't mean that God's pleased and he still loves us. We're still as kids. We're still forgiven. We're still inside grace. Like that doesn't change. Of course not. But I know that this is the thing about scripture, about. About some of the things that Jesus teaches it's like meant to point us to life. It's not meant to restrict us. So, you know, growing up kids would always be like, oh man, the Bible, that's just a book. You know, that's a book full of rules. Yeah. Under the law. I think it is. I agree. It's it's disheartening. It's overwhelming. It's uncapable. But under grace and under Jesus. We know we're not under the law anymore. We're not under the spirit of the law, the curse of the law, the burden of the law. We're free. God's taking care of all that. But we still sometimes make choices that don't line up. We're still not loving. We're still not fulfilling. We're still take advantage of people. We're still selfish. We'll still rude. It's still unchain. We're S we still do these things. We're still human. And so absolutely some of our choices in life have real world consequences that will hurt us and hurt others. That's the brokenness of sin and the brokenness of poor choices. Right. I'm usually selfishness. So the. I think to me that the critical point of like looking at the teachings of Jesus isn't to put pressure on you. It's not. Not this thing that you have to uphold to, to make God like you or to align with you. It's about how to live your best life as a human looks like this, like the rule. Or the guidebook. Of how to live your best life looks like loving others. Looks like putting others before yourself. Looks like sticking up for others when they're down. Looks like standing on the side of truth. Looks like standing up for grace looks like being a peacemaker. On and on and on the things Jesus cares about and teaches. That's what life near God looks like. That's what Jesus cares about. That's what we're meant to live. That's what we're called to. So some of our choices we can make and we have freedom to make. They're going to hurt. I've made choices that have hurt me that have come back to bite me. That I've regret deeply. Absolutely all of us have, but the big point I want to make today and the church often doesn't tell you is that that will never preclude. You never puts you outside of God's grace, his mercy, his love for you never. There's nothing you can do. We talked about this over and over says there's nothing, not the worst sins, listening to scripture. Nothing can separate you from the love of Jesus. Nothing separates you from that. But church doesn't make you feel that way. Oftentimes religion makes you feel exactly the opposite. If you don't perform up to their rules. And their system and their club. God is angry. God is upset. You are outside, you are other, you know what I want to say? I think God's angry at that. God's angry at the system and the burdens that we lay upon people, and we don't lift a finger to help them. We don't bring hope. We don't bring a way out. We don't. We don't point them to freedom. We point them toward obligation and burden. Desperation and fear so much fear. It used to control religious people by religious institutions and leaders. That's wrong. That is wrong in a more and more of the last several years. As I read scripture, I see the bad guys in scripture, always used to be the bad people. It's the church people I see so often. And I don't mean that as like, if you're just a church person. I mean, as like the leadership that wants to condition and control people. And that never, never lifts a finger to help. It's the system that just. Points towards rules, obligations, laws, restrictions. And it's a system that says we're good because we do this and you're bad because you do this that's wrong. That is wrong. It is not the gospel. It is not true. I hope maybe if you're listening to that and you felt any of that hope, this has maybe good news for you that is wrong. It is not accurate and it is not true. God has set you free to live a free life. You some your choices might come back and hurt you and haunt you and re you might regret. That's just real. That's just called living, being human. But none of it separates you from Jesus. None of it. And this is the other thing, the guidebook we have in the teachings of Jesus. Help us really limit those times, those options of scenarios, situations, and choices, where we make. Selfish choices, where we lead into the wrong direction. Like when we lean into the way of Jesus, love people, love, God, love others. Like you love yourself. Man. It's really hard to get off track. It's really hard to have choices that you regret. You know, like, think about like a time in your life where you've really blessed someone or love someone or help someone. Is there ever one of those that is in the column of regret, man, I wish I wouldn't have gone that far. Man. I wish I really wouldn't have helped that much. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. God is a freedom. God. His commands point this to life. They're not meant to restrict us.. Second Corinthians chapter three 17 says wherever the spirit of the Lord is there is freedom. Where God is there's freedom. I think just using our logic hat, right? Put our logic hat on. We can go one step further. We can almost invert this where there is not freedom. The spirit of the Lord is not there. God's absent. I, I, it makes me wonder about. Church religion. Laws rules, all the systems, we built, all the things, all the clubs, the bubble. The current. All of it. I just wonder, man, if it's not pointing us to freedom. This is Jesus. Even there's the spirit of God, even there. Something to think about. But I do know this no body. Wants you to be free. As much as Jesus. Wants you to be free. Nobody. Oftentimes growing up in church, again, I just speak from my own experience. So maybe this resonates, maybe it doesn't, maybe you think I'm crazy. Maybe you think I'm a bad, crazy. Fallen away church person, but I have lived this life and all I'm doing is sharing my experience so you can not like it, but you can't disagree with it in a sense of like, it's my lived experience. I grew up. And very legalistic church and religion. And oftentimes scripture. And laws and rules. In the whole current of religion was used to control and settle, liberate. All right. We were infamous for giving freedom and taking it right back. Stripped weight, everything we might possibly enjoy life because why, why what's the, what's the logic or the reasoning behind so much of the restriction while you might be a bad witness, you might be a bad example. You might, someone might see. I think I observed this is I wasn't allowed as a kid growing up to go to the movies till I was, I don't know, 12 or 13 or something. I couldn't go to the movies to see cartoons because why? Well, Well, somebody might see our family there and think we're going to bad art rated movie or something. How stupid is that? How stupid is that? I mean, that's not that long ago. That's in the eighties. That's just dumb. That's just control for the sake of control that is. Ridiculous. This is the thing I believe is that it's our pretense. It's our falseness. It's our. Fake righteousness as church people that kills our witness, not our freedom. What if we really just kept a real. What if church was a place where you could just be real? Where you met real people. You know, people that were struggling, people that screwed up and that really just still proclaimed. God still really likes you. God loves you a lot. There was nothing you can do. People that were saying I had a bad week. I dropped the ball, but thank God. Thank God for grace. Thank God for forgiveness. That's what would draw people in? That's the story that I want to tell. That's a story that I'm drawn to. That my mistakes, my screw ups, my failures are not held against me. That is scandalous grace. That is. The very essence of the good news. If you water it down, if you restrict it, if you limit it. Shame on you. I fear for you. That's wrong. That. Is wrong. We know it, we talk about it, we acknowledge it, but do we really step into it? Do we liberally live it? Do you really enjoy freedom? I wonder if you do. I wonder if you do today, I wanted to give you permission. I want to literally be the person. If you need it to give you permission to step into freedom. From religion and from rules and from laws, freedom to live your life. Freedom to know that God is crazy about you and that anything you do say don't do, or don't say it will not be held against you. You know, there's a story of. The Wright brothers, 1903. The first humans to fly. Right. They get this thing off the ground for like, I don't know, 60 seconds they're flying. 20 or 30 feet above the beach in North Carolina. It's history May, 1903. Think about this 66 years later. That's not very long in the scheme of things. Humans land on the moon. And 66 years, it's almost like once someone gives you permission, then you're allowed to explore and step into and go further. So today, I want to give you permission to step into freedom, to not be fearful. That God is going to pull the rug out from under you to not be fearful, that you can let God down that he's going to be disappointed. Maybe for you. It's like releasing the burden that you have to always perform. Do you know how tiring that is? I do. I know it I've lived. It. It is exhausting. Maybe if you're in the sweet stride of it. You know, There's a season where it peaks and then you get good feedback and it all seems to work well for you. Maybe you're in that season and what I'm saying, you can't even understand. It doesn't even resonate. You think I'm crazy. But if you're not in that sweet peak season where you're getting rewarded for all your religious church achievements, let me tell you it doesn't feel so good. It's exhausting. It is like being on the hamster wheel. You can never catch up. It never ends. You never do enough. What if you just took a deep breath and said I'm free. God's grace has got me, no matter what I do. Or what I don't do. God's grace has got me. What if we trusted the spirit to lead us and to guide us into truth? And to love and to joy, right? The Bible talks about the fruit of the spirit. It doesn't say the fruit of religion. The fruit of church. It says the fruit of the spirit God's life living inside of us. The fruit of the spirit is love. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness gentleness. Self-control. Those are beautiful things that God works within us. As we let him. Shape us. I think what I'm trying to say is just. Let Jesus shape you. Step into the freedom of Jesus, not don't let church religion shape you and mold you into something that's fake and fraud and phony and not even the real story. Step out of that current, if it's all you've known, I'm throwing you in SOS, I'm shooting up a flare for you. There is a better way. I promise you. There's a better way. Jesus. Not only has given us the invitation to freedom and permission to step into it. He has literally kicked the door down. Jesus says in John chapter 10. Verse 10. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full a button. It overflowing life. That's what he brings us. Never to restrict us. When Jesus used the word. He used a term that meant liberation from bondage. When Jesus says that word freedom, he means liberation. From bondage and here's something interesting for all the religious scholars who like to go back to the Greek and the Hebrew. We'll get this, the Greek word for free. Means free. And the Hebrew word for free means free. Literally it's that simple. It ought to be that simple. It is that simple. If Jesus access it, we accept it. And we run with it. John chapter eight. It says this, Jesus says, if you stick with this living out, what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourself the truth and the truth. What. Where does the truth? Do. Jesus is the truth will set you. Free. To be a free person. And I know it's dangerous. I know. I know there's dragons out there in the unknown seas. It's scary. But he wants you to live and soar and explore into thrive. I reminded as I closed just this last story. Ellington when she was really little, my youngest daughter, I remember one of her first days of kindergarten or pre-K. She's scared. We're nervous as parents. It's a big day to kind of have your very first day of school full day away from your parents. She's five years old or something like that. We walk her to the door. I remember she turns and looks at us. It's. Can I just stay home? Can I just stay home today? Right at the precipice of stepping in. Right. She's so close, but still so scared at the very last minute. And I get that. And I, I remember her face so clearly dad, can I just stay home? And of course, no, you can't get your butt in there. But really, I remember like the, the thing I was thinking in my mind was, yeah, you can, but why would you, everything beautiful and wonderful everything. You're going to explore and discover all these friendships that await you, this growth that's on the other side of the door. It just, there's waiting for you. Yeah. You don't have to step into this freedom. You don't have to believe you don't have to embrace it. But why wouldn't you. Why wouldn't you.