Easter 39 Practicing Freedom

[HKHaugan]

Marriage, family, friendship, profession, church, strangers, clubs, citizenship, travel, vacation and being alone pretty much cover most everything we are involved in that demand relational exchange from day to day. The risen Lord wants us to experience Him working in each. God's Word speaks to each of them and they are the arena in which we practice His freedom. They are the exacting daily structures Scripture directs us to experience looking forward.

You can subdivide each of them but there are three common themes in all of them. First is the relational foundation, what we believe in to best relate to others in those contexts. Second is the attitude we carry into them, the way our heart perceives and reacts to others. Third is the learning we take from each of them and then apply our willingness to change and grow from them in order to be honest with ourselves and others. The governing factor in all three is the 'looking forward' freedom as Jesus taught and exemplified it.

We've just spent the last two sections on the difference between false freedom and true freedom. The difference needs emphasis. False freedom is to think we are totally our own person and can think and do anything we want, that underneath we will eventually make the best choices for ourselves and others. That's the primary flaw, the sin, in human nature. False freedom says there is no such thing as sin. Outside of God we tend to think we are acting out of perfection not imperfection. A good verse to remember is Genesis 6:5, “The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.”

True freedom comes only when we are willing to let God in Jesus, the perfect person, direct our lives through His Word and Holy Spirit. False freedom is governed by the imperfections of fear and pride. That's when life becomes all about me.

True freedom realizes sin is the internal source of frustrating aloneness, distrust of authority from outside the self and that if I work hard enough at getting life right I can do it. False freedom is all about performance, living only for what I can get out of the moment I'm in.

True freedom is looking forward to the Holy Spirit's leading in every next moment. It's seeing, thinking and responding to every next moment in an eternal spiritual context, namely the relationship we have with the risen Jesus.

We started above with a relationally centered list each of which each is a relational structure that can only be honestly dealt with through the guidance of the Holy Spirit through whose relational power we were created. Each structure is populated by human beings who by God's definition are His images and likenesses. To the contrary notice how the world's concept of people is divided, stereotyped and bordered into racial, ethnic, economic, psychological, political and intellectual categories. The world in which we live has little or no understanding of true equality which comes only from God. His Word shows us there are only two kinds of people, images of Him that believe in Him and those images that don't believe in Him.

Take marriage and family for instance. Once we look forward to what God wants to do in those relationships we don't look at the world's list of expectations and definitions as to what a good wife should be and do or what a good husband should be or do or what a good mother, father, child, brother or sister should be. We look at the Word of God, trust Him to guide His instructions in His Holy Spirit. He is always moving those relationships in a 'looking forward' mode, in He is going to accomplish in them through faith in His Son.

Secular values develop 'trophy wives' and like trophies last only as long as the values that made them trophies or they cave in to the pressure of being used, displayed by status seeking male egos and look somewhere else for the love only God can give. Macho attitude and behavior die on the floor of the last fake acceptance laugh and the 'morning-after's' blowout hangover. Face lifts, dyed hair, 'six-pack-abs' and other appearance changers only hold off the freedom that comes through the timeless spiritual realization they just don't work. The key is to take all of that stuff to the Cross, leave them there and cherish every new moment as the Lord God's personal gift in the eternal context of His heart's true freedom. What has He got for me to think, to feel, to do in every next relational event that comes along? Contemplate that, meditate on it, pray for the Holy Spirit to help you anticipate then respond. That's looking forward.

Keep in mind the world's freedom agenda keeps you looking back. You are in control. Maintain it. Work hard at being right. Secular 'right' is spiritual 'wrong.' Take notes on who is for and against you. Resentment is looking back. Guilt just makes you work harder. Gossip is looking back. Revenge is hate fulfilling resentment. Lust is looking back. Greed is looking back. Envy is looking back. Murder, hostility, anger, malice look back. Nostalgia, 'longing for the good old days,' is looking back. Coveting, thievery, stealing, robbing, manipulation, bullying, all carry us backwards. “Do unto them before they do unto you.” Judging one another with expectations of what 'they' should be and act like not only keeps us from looking forward to how God is working in them but also keeps us from being what God wants us to be because of them. Looking for wealth, success and acceptance as keys to feeling purpose through economic and social applause breed only momentary satisfaction and end with the last 'good night.' “He who dies with the most toys wins.” Like it or not, there is no trailer hitch on a hearse.

Now jump over to the alluring 'isms' to which you might adhere and you will find they may be holding you in 'pause' mode. When religion becomes an 'ism' watch out. Protestant-ism, Catholic-ism and denominationalism in general are human traditions that grow out of and away from the person of Jesus from Whom they sprung. In their origin is the Lord Jesus. However, when they become ends in themselves, developing a bureaucracy and intermediary leadership standing between the Lord Jesus and you, getting you into legalistic ritualism, determining their value through big membership, it's time to hold yourself and them accountable to our Savior and Lord as His Word leads. The purpose of a church institution and its leadership is to keep helping us look forward to how our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus can be more creative, more productive and consciously giving Him all the glory.

There is only one way to live life in the Lord's freedom and that is like He did, always looking forward to see His Father's will being personally worked out in His life. When Jesus was growing from childhood to manhood He learned in a family, in temple and synagogue guided by the Word. In prayer and worship He was always in contact with His Father. For Jesus religion was personal, spiritual and relational. Jesus' brother James caught that early when he said, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep one's self from being polluted by the world (James 1:27).” Again what makes church membership genuine, what makes marriage and family genuine and the whole list we started with genuine is when the church we attend keeps us focused on having a personal relationship with the Lord that is always looking forward in every next moment and event. Now we are practicing the freedom He died and rose to give us. “I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken (Ps.16:8).”