Believer’s Independence Day

Thanks to http://www.familyministries.com/independence.htm for several of the original references and headings.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20

We recently celebrated Independence Day which is a fine thing to celebrate. I am deeply grateful to God for living in a country where I have religious and political freedom. But we are only secondarily citizens of the United State of America. We are first citizens of the Kingdom of God. What freedom and independence can we celebrate every day?

Freedom from the bondage of sin that leads to death and eternal separation from God.

 ¹⁸ “’The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’” (Luke 4:18, Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 61:1,2 and 58:6)

Freed by Christ

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” ³³  They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” ³⁴  Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵  Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶  So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:32)

The old covenant was the Mosaic law of right acting and sacrifice. It could only go so far because people were still enslaved to sin. Christ’s great sacrifice replaced the Law forever and those who believe are free from sin and the death of the soul.

Because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. (Rom 8:2)

Freed from the power of sin

²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. ²¹ What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. ²³ For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 6:20-23)

I know we’re uncomfortable with the word “slaves” but remember that this was a normal segment of the population in the 1^st century. It was not good to be a slave but it wasn’t as horrifying to those audiences as it is to us. However, think about it. We serve either God or the devil. That’s they way humankind was created. We are either in the camp of God or in the devil’s camp, and that never turns out well! “Joshua said to the people of Israel] ¹⁴ ‘Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. ¹⁵ But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:14-15)

And heh, atheism doesn’t work out either. False gods are false gods – including the “god” of  science alone.

Free to approach God with confidence

Eph 3:12  In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

 I fall into the trap of feeling bad all the time because I’m not perfect! But I can approach God in freedom and confidence. I confess my sin so I’ll be healed from it, but I’m sick of crawling around on the ground because of it!

Freed from spiritual blindness

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. (2 Cor. 3:17-18) 

The veil refers to two things: 1) Moses’ face shone as brightly as the sun when he came down from Mt. Sinai after seeing God. So he wore a veil at first so the light wouldn’t blind people. But as time went on the light faded – and he still wore the veil so people wouldn’t see it was fading. This was because the Old Testament, the old covenant, was temporary and would be replaced by the new covenant in Christ. The light of the spirit shines on our faces and will never dim. 2) The veil also refers to the limited salvation of the Jews through the Mosaic law. “¹⁴ But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. [The Mosaic law] It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.” (2 Cor. 3:14)

Freed from the curse of a decaying body

Rom 8:21  The creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.  

The earth fell right along with Adam and Eve, which is why the world is cursed with storms, earthquakes, hurricanes, diseases and death. But when Christ returns He will make the earth new with and for us, and it will never fall again.

1 John 3:2  Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.

 Freed from Inferiority

²⁵ Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.  26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. (Gal. 4:25-29)

One of the greatest passages in the Bible! “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Remember that Paul wrote this in a world where slavery was normal and where men had absolute authority over women. There are NO second class citizens in the body of Christ!

Freed from our sins by his blood

Rev 1:5  and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,

 Col 1:22  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.

We accuse ourselves plenty and often we’re right – we are sinners. But God doesn’t look at us that way. He sees our sins sure, and helps us to get free from them. But they do not characterize us, the sin does not affect our souls. It’s like having smallpox: we were sick to death and then we were healed. We might have some scars left but even those God is smoothing away. We are well, we are not sick. And we will be perfect and beautiful forever.

Application for a Group

Satan is going to try to tell us that this is all very well and good, but it doesn’t apply to me.

Well, don’t listen to him. It does apply, because God has called us to personal growth and freedom in every way. Some things aren’t that hard to grow out of or change because they’re not deeply engrained. They’re just a bad habit or surface attitude that we can and do get rid of without too much trouble.

But the things we really need help on – attitudes of confusion or anger or guilt or fear or pride – these  things go deep within us because they are deep-seated temptations! Look, we think that we really don’t want to be an angry person. It’s not helpful, it hurts other people, it gives us tremendous stress and it ruins our relationships. So why do we hang onto it? Because part of it feels good! It feels powerful! I feels like we’re doing something for ourselves!

Or take pride. Same thing – it feels good because we’re just so marvelous.

 

Or take gossip, something women are particularly good at – or rather, bad at. It feels good like eating a whole cake feels. Sure you’re sick afterwards, but boy is it tempting when it’s right in front of you!

Even fear, something we don’t necessarily think of as a sin, can be a stronghold we need to be liberated from. Fear becomes a sin when we are directly countering the promises of God that we should not be afraid, we should trust Him. But fear is tempting because heh, at least you fell into whatever the bad thing was with your eyes wide open! No one can surprise you, you saw that coming!

First of all, let’s go around the group and briefly tell what you want freedom from. I want freedom from my insane desire for comfort, a great sin that leads to sloth and affects my work, relationships and life purpose. How about you? What do you need to be freed from? Several of us did this last week, so if you all would repeat that so more of us could hear.

[Go around the room.]

All right. Now we’re going to hear directly from God! I’m going to lead you in a prayer, but before I start I want to make a comment about those of you who find silent prayer really hard to do. What is silent prayer? It is either imaging prayer, where you pray using the imagination; or it is listening prayer, where you sit quietly and listen for God to speak to you. These kinds of prayers can be very hard for some people. Listening prayer is hard for me, imaging prayer is easier. For some of you neither way is easy either because you either have trouble seeing pictures with your imagination, or because you’re very distracted with anxious thoughts. Believe me, this is very common. Before I teach you a method of listening prayer that works for everyone, let me ask the question: Why bother?

We bother because we are so used to words. We are immersed in words. We don’t like being silent. And God speaks to us in words! Jesus spoke using His voice and God speaks to us in all times and places through the Bible, the Word of God. Words are good, words are blessed. But words can also become a weapon against God if we can’t shut up. And often we can’t.

That’s why God also makes end-runs around the intellect when it becomes a barrier. He uses  stories and pictures! This is what Jesus did! He used parables and throughout the entire Bible there are stories, visions, and vivid pictures. God reaches our souls and hearts this way just as He reaches out with His word.

So how do you sit and listen to God, which is listening prayer, it when you’re not good with imaging prayer and you are totally distracted during silent prayer? Here’s a good way to do it: Just picture a cup. That’s it. A cup. Not just any old cup  though, it’s a communion cup. It’s the Holy Grail. It’s filled with the juice or wine of communion. It can be old and wooden, or pewter, or china or stoneware, or gold shining with jewels, whatever you want. Just picture the cup and keep that picture right in front of you. Look at its shape, height, color, and the rich red of the communion wine within. This type of more static imaging is much easier to do than the dynamic movement of imaging prayer, and gives you something to concentrate on when you’re prone to distraction.

So this is what we’ll do. When you close your eyes I’ll slowly read off a list of responses we usually give to God about ongoing problems. Feel for the sentence that most resonates with you. After I read off the list we’ll sit in silent, listening prayer for a while. If you feel your attention wandering or a sense of confusion erupt, look at that cup! God will help you use it as an anchor for wondering thoughts.

Settle our minds and hearts before God so we can hear Him better. Everyone picture the cup of communion. It may be wooden or ceramic as it may have been in the Upper Room the night of the Last Supper. It might be silver. It might be gold. Picture it any way you like. The cup is directly in front of you and represents the blood of Christ that made you free. If you have distracting thoughts that’s O.K., just come back to picturing the cup.

(1^st reading)

• I’m in pretty good shape, I don’t want to worry about it.
• It’s been so long. In my heart of hearts I don’t think that God is going to help me get free.
• I’m too weak and undisciplined for God to set me free from this thing.
• It’s too late, the damage is done.

Let’s sit in silence for a few moments. God may speak to you in words, or in pictures, or in feelings. Just listen. Just be with God. If you are having trouble listening to God, then picture the cup and just keep your attention on it. This will help to quiet raging thoughts.

(Pause)

Please keep your eyes closed. I’m going to re-read the list of objects and counter each of them with the word of God. After I’m done reading we’ll sit in silence for a little while longer while God speaks to you. I will be praying for you so that you hear Him, and nothing and no one will come in between you. Then I’ll end with a song called “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” Please join me in singing it when I start; we’ll sing it a couple of times.

Let’s be in silence.

” I’m in pretty good shape. I don’t want to worry about it.”

¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. ¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. ²⁰ Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with them, and they with me. (Rev. 3:17-20)

“It’s been so long. In my heart of hearts I don’t think that God is going to help me get free.”

¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God. (Ps. 42:11)

“I’m too weak and undisciplined for God to set me free from this thing.”

⁹ But God said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Cor. 12:9)

It’s too late, the damage is done.

 ¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. (Heb. 12:1)