Freedom For #1 Service

 

Freedom For #1 Service

Our last series of messages focused on “Freedom From,” freedom from Satan, freedom from Egoism, freedom from lessor voices, and Freedom from fear.  Our next teachings are focused on “Freedom For.” We’ll consider our freedom for service, our freedom for boldness, and our freedom for righteousness.

 John 8:36 (MSG)

So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.

Freedom, you do not know its value until you are not free.  “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone.” It is a great gift to be free.  We are set free for Kingdom purposes, the incredible opportunity to manifest God’s glory in this world.

  But first, you may wonder how the Son sets people free.  We’re talking about spiritual freedom that manifests itself in our ordinary day-to-day lives.  Jesus sets you free through His sacrifice for you.  Sin separated you from God.  Sin is anything that deters, damages, or destroys right relationships, relationships that work as they were designed by God to work.  In the spiritual economy, sin has to be dealt with.  The New Testament tells us this in various ways, yet in all the various descriptions the result is the same, Jesus made atonement for your sin so that you can be reconciled to the One He called Father.

 It is in your belief that Jesus has accomplished this for you, that estrangement from God ends.  God forgives your sin, declares you to be His own, and seals you with His Holy Spirit.  The bars of spiritual prisons open, blinded spiritual eyes see, spiritually closed ears can hear, the spiritually lame is lame no more.  Faith, trust, that what Jesus has said and done, makes it possible for you to live free, in a right relationship with God, free to live your life to the full, the way the Father has always intended for you to live, faith motivates you to call out to the Father.

 Acts 2:21 (NIV)

And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'

 Call on God to save you and then following the leadings, the impressions, that come from the Holy Spirit, you will know, I don’t know how you will know, but you will know that God is leading you into His Kingdom.  Those who acknowledge their separation from God; who believe that Jesus makes a reconciliation possible, who commits to learning how to live as one set free is how you call on the “name of the Lord.” Call and today you can be free.  Let me know if you do, I want to encourage you in your new way of living.

 Freedom.  Let that word and the implications of it soak in a moment.

Freedom. 

Freedom for self-determination.  Freedom to think, to speak, to act as you see fit.  Freedom to create, to build, to turn dreams into realities.  Freedom to become your true self, your child of God-self.  Freedom for your dreams.  Here’s the best, freedom: to join God in His work.

Ephesians 2:10 (MSG)

“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.

When Jesus sets you free from Satan, egoism, and fear, Jesus sets you free for the opportunity to join the Father in His work.  God has good work ready for you to do.  Catch that?! God has selected you.  God has got stuff that only you can do that will make a difference in this world and possibly in all of eternity.  Doing that job, completing those assignments makes you significant, fills you with a purpose, giving your life meaning.

 In one of those leadership books, there is the story of the ladder of success.  It’s a long ladder, it’s an arduous mile upon mile climb up.  You have worked hard climbing to the top, it’s taken years, and having reached the top you realize that you have leaned your ladder against the wrong wall.  You’ve spent the best years of your life doing what you thought was good, only to miss out on the best.  When you take up God’s assignments as your mission, there are no regrets. You’ve leaned your ladder on the right wall.

 If today you realize that your ladder is leaning on the wrong wall, then this is your invitation to find the right one.  What you really need to spend your life on will be revealed to you by the Holy Spirit who indwells you. Jesus has given you freedom for change, freedom to turn messes into masterpieces, freedom to change course, freedom to get it right this time, freedom to choose to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

 Here’s a great oversimplification of the right wall:  “Bring the Kingdom.”  You have been set free to put your ladder on the right wall.   The Holy Spirit will guide you in your specific assignment for bringing the kingdom. You have been set free for following the Holy Spirit into the specifics.  You have been set free for receiving God’s special gifts and abilities that will channel His love and power into the world through you.

Bringing the Kingdom moves in two directions-- one inwards, the other outwards.  The inward kingdom deals with the health and vitality of your inner spiritual life. 

 Romans 14:17-18 (NCV)

In the kingdom of God, … The important things are living right with God, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. Anyone who serves Christ by living this way is pleasing God and will be accepted by other people.

 Living right results in righteousness, your relationships are in sync with God, yourself, and as far as it is within your ability, with others.  Peace is not the absence of conflict, problems, challenges, but rather the contentment that comes when you know whatever comes, God will get you through. Living right gives you that kind of confidence.  Joy is not happiness, joy is knowing that God has saved you. 

 Galatians 5:22-23 (NCV)

The Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

 This fruit is the very character qualities of Jesus and they grow in you, changing you, making you effective in doing the task God has assigned for you.  In seeing the fruit grow in your life, transforming you organically from within, you know that you are on the right path for accomplishing God’s assignment for you.

 You tend to your inner life through continual communion with God.  It’s in the presence of God that transformation takes place, that growth takes place, that healing takes place.  The way to cultivate the presence of God, to get you on the same wavelength is through the practice of the 7 habits of a disciple.  These spiritual habits, Bible reading, prayer, fellowship, are your requests to meet with God.  It’s through your service, worship, and obedience that you become receptive. By your contemplation, you commune with God.  It is through these inner encounters that you are changed becoming equipped to do the work that God has designed for you.

 Bringing the Kingdom moves in two directions, one inwards, the other outwards.  The inward kingdom deals with the health and vitality of your inner spiritual life. The Kingdom moving outwards is you joining God in His work, filling the assignment that God has designed for you, reaching out to others.

 The Kingdom wells up from the heart of the believer.  Jesus told us about the result of this inside job, of having the Kingdom within.

John 4:14 (NCV)

The water I give will become a spring of water gushing up inside that person, giving eternal life.

 The water is God in you, that rises up, flows out of you, bringing God’s presence  to others, manifesting His glory in our midst. You have the freedom to be a gusher.  Thus the kingdom flows outward and you become a blessing to the world.

 You are free for adequacy.  You may have heard that God doesn’t call the equipped but equips the called.  Recall Isaiah, he felt totally inadequate for the task, a sinner in the land of sinners, but God made him adequate.

 Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)

 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

 That’s the response of a heart set free.  Here I am! Here I am! Put me to use. Put me into your kingdom-building work.  Send me.  There is excitement, there is passion, there is a fire in your belly. The greater the odds against you, the greater the power that will flow through you.  You will experience the reality the Apostle Paul knew when he wrote:  “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:13).  The road won’t be easy, it will be a seemingly impossible challenge to you, but God has called, God has equipped, God has empowered.  It’s time to get to work.

 Jesus has set you free for service; for your story to be heard, for your experience to benefit others, for your gifts to be used to open spiritually blinded eyes, to set the spiritually imprisoned free, to heal the spiritually handicapped.  This is in you already.  Ten million distractions clamor for your attention to steal you away from God’s best.  Ten million doubts are whispered in your ears that you can’t, that you’ll fail.  But greater is He that is in that he who is in the world (1 John 4:4). If God is for you who can stand against you (Romans 8:31). It’s time to get to work.

 Doesn’t matter how young you are with the innumerable opportunity before you, facing the confusion of a thousand paths to choose from.

 1 Timothy 4:12 (NCV)

Do not let anyone treat you as if you are unimportant because you are young. Instead, be an example to the believers with your words, your actions, your love, your faith, and your pure life.

It’s time to get to work. Pick a path, God will guide you when your heart is set on doing what He wants you to do. 

Doesn’t matter how old you are, how tired your body is, how stuck you may feel, it’s not over, don’t retire when you can re-fire.

Psalms 92:14 (NCV)

When they are old, they will still produce fruit; they will be healthy and fresh.

 It’s time to get to work. Your years bring the wisdom that is so desperately needed.

 Jesus has set you free for service.  Are you free indeed?  Prove it to yourself by bringing the kingdom, bringing the kingdom inwardly, outwardly, joining the Father in His work.  Life-changing, world-changing, power is already within you, waiting for you to direct that transforming power where God is at work. Don’t discredit yourself, don’t fall for the lie of inadequacy, even in your weakness, God manifests His strength.  You’ve been set free for service.  It’s time to get to work

 John 14:12 (NIV)

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.