The Truth will set You Free
“Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” (John 8:31-32 MSG)
Freedom, like Truth, is found solely in Jesus. To some of us, freedom would be the loss of all that is familiar. All that we have become comfortable within. We have learned to survive in our slavery and are afraid of the unknown world beyond. Freedom would seem like being thrust into that unknown world and asked to trust in someone we do not know.
“Better the devil we know than the one we don’t!”
Free Indeed
“Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” (Ephesians 2:8-10 MSG)
It is the freedom of flight to the bird that has only known the life of the nest. But we were never intended for anything else! It is love that pushes us out into the vastness of space. Love that calls us up to the heavens of flight’s freedom and Life. There is a time for the nest, but we must become what we are, become what we were created to be, let go of the security of the familiar, and rest in the breath of God!
Did you know if you tried to help a chick break out of its shell by putting a small crack in it, it would die on the other side? It is through the effort and struggle of the chick banging away with its beak that its muscles and lungs develop to where it is strong enough to survive on the other side. The same kind of thing is true when it is time to fly. No bird ever learned to fly while staying in its nest.
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28 NLT)
“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:31 NLT)
God’s purpose for us is freedom, and we are designed to fly!
Free Indeed is the introductory blog for the sermon below: