We didn't waste any time getting back into the swing of things. This past Wednesday night was our "Night at the Oscars" Theme night. We had a blast watching movies that our students had filmed as well as being entertained with a few wacky games. We finished up with a Bible study on freedom that is found in Chris.
Enjoying one of the games at our theme night
Bible Study
On the Lot, Session 3
8/10/11
In the creation of movies, people approach their scripts in different ways. Some memorize every word and can recite it like a robot. Others ignore the script, get the general feeling for the story, and pretty much do whatever they want with the dialog. And then some people internalize the words and speak them naturally.
Those who ignore the script see the words as restrictive. They don’t want to be locked into the words of one writer, but they want to freely express themselves according to their every whim. I think we’ve all been there, haven’t we? We’ve all had moments when we simply want to do what we want to do when and how we want to do it.
Example: There are a lot of perks to being the middle child. One of them is that I was able to learn from my older brothers mistakes! One in particular happened while we were in France at a playground. Ryan had decided that the 1 story plastic tubes of a certain playground were too restrictive. They didn’t allow him to experience the wind in his hair while being so high off the ground. So, he found a way to climb over the top of the tubes entrance and hang on the outside. Fortunately the play area was surrounded by sand. Unfortunately, that only partially cushioned his fall when he slipped and fell.
What was protecting him from his freedom happened to also be protecting him from falling and breaking his arm. Out of his “Freedom” he ended up with a cast on his arm for a few months.
Have you ever craved “freedom” that was probably not good for you? Have you ever done something you knew deep down probably wasn’t right? Sure, we all have.
Maybe that something you knew wasn’t good was dating a girl/guy who wasn’t a Christian. Maybe it was something you thought you could get away with. Maybe it is a secret you have. Maybe it is an addiction you have. Chances are you don’t want anyone in church to know about it. You don’t really want God to know. You just want to do what you want to do.
We’ve been talking about how the Bible shows us how to live. Some of you are probably thinking, “That’s exactly why I DON’T read the Bible.” You don’t want someone else telling you how to live, and you feel like reading the Bible will just make you feel bad about doing the stuff you want to do. You feel like the Bible will hold you back and limit your freedom. Why do we do feel this way?
The answer is really simple. It is the allure of freedom. It is one of the greatest desires of our hearts.
But there is a problem with how we define freedom. What is the best description of freedom that you can come up with? Isn’t the best description of freedom someone who doesn’t have any guidelines or rules to live by? Isn’t the person you think of as the most free the one who has no curfew? Isn’t the person who seems the most free the one who can do whatever he or she wants?
In the Psalms, David, the king of Israel gives a different definition of freedom. He says: I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free (Psalm 119:32 NIV). Does this verse seem weird to anyone else? I usually don’t think of the word command and the word free in the same sentence. But that is exactly what David was saying. Freedom and obedience go together. According to this verse, they are not opposites.
According to David, freedom isn’t doing whatever we want. David found freedom when he searched out and obeyed the commands of God in Scripture. Does this seem odd?
How different would life look for you and me if we believed this?
Example: What does it look like in our lives? If we completely ignore our parent’s rules that they have set up for us, we end up breaking their trust. They then take away more of our freedoms because they no longer trust us to act wisely. We lose freedom through our false idea of what freedom looks like.
If you follow the regulations your parents have set up, don’t they give you more room? Don’t they loosen up a little more? Freedom comes through obedience, not through doing whatever you want.
The Bible says: For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin--because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:6-11 NIV).
Many of us still refuse to believe that God wants to give us freedom. But is it possible that King David was right? Is it possible that freedom is found with God and not away from Him?
Over the course of the last several sessions, we have been talking about why we read the Bible. We have been reading in the book of James, and so far we have seen two important reasons to read the Bible. In this passage, James gives us a third.
The man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it--he will be blessed in what he does (James 1:25 NIV).
He says the law, which is synonymous with God’s written Word, is something that gives us what? Freedom! Doesn’t that seem strange? Freedom doesn’t come from doing whatever we want. Freedom, according to James, is found when we allow ourselves to soak in God’s Word, not just reading it, but acting on it and doing it. There is something that happens when we take God’s Word out of our heads and begin to experience it with our lives. We begin to live in freedom.
According to James, this is one more reason to read the Bible. We don’t have the Bible just so we know what to believe. We don’t have the Bible just so we know what heaven is going to be like. We don’t have the Bible just so we can know God’s stance on drugs or promiscuity. We have the Bible so we can experience freedom through our relationship with Jesus Christ.
If this passage is true, then the opposite is true as well. It means that when we decide to not live inside God’s commands, when we decide not to obey His Word, we will be in bondage.
We don’t like to call it bondage though. Satan has distorted our view of freedom.
It’s the girl/guy who says, “It is my body. I am free to do what I want to do with it.” Eventually, because she pursued freedom away from God’s commands and looked for freedom on her own, what does she discover? She isn’t free; she is in bondage. She can’t ever go back and claim her purity again. She can’t get away from that awkward relationship. She can’t erase the emotional attachment. In pursuit of freedom, she lost it.
It’s the young man who says, “They are my eyes, and I am free to look at whatever I want.” After doing things he shouldn’t on the internet, he isn’t freer. He is addicted. He can’t stop something he wishes he could stop. He can’t erase images that get burned into his mind. In pursuit of freedom, he lost it.
Sin never leads to more freedom. Sin leads to bondage and a slavery that overtakes you. David was right. Freedom isn’t found away from God. It is found with Him.
When we read the Bible we shouldn’t just be looking for new information to store in our heads. According to Hebrews 4:12, God’s Word is active and alive. It is giving freedom. Don’t run from the Bible because you think it makes life restrictive and boring. Turn to it because it’s the only way to live life with less baggage and more freedom.
So often there is a tendency to think God is in heaven telling us to do something because He is mean and demanding. God has given you His words and truth, not because He wants something from you, but because He wants something for you. He wants you to live a life free from the bondage of sin. James says in another passage that sin leads to death (James 1:15). Following Jesus leads to life. He wants that for you. So do I.
As we close this series, what are some areas where you have been living contrary to God’s Word? What are some areas where you know what God says, but you continue to do the opposite? What are some areas where you have not been experiencing God’s truth and words in your life? It is the difference between knowing His words and living them. What if tonight you decided to live God’s Word, not just know it? What if you decided that David was right? Freedom is found with God, not away from Him.
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