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What is Freedom?
14 Plays1 year ago
Vernon and Kyle talk through the question, "what is freedom?" and talk through a number of verses starting with Galatians 5:1. Of course, we always hear, "are you saying I can do whatever I want?" You may be surprised at the answer.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Walking Free'
00:00:02
Speaker
This is your host Vernon Terrell with Grace Ministries International and it's time for Walking Free. And this is Vernon Terrell along with Kyle Jenkins. Hello Kyle. Hey Vernon. Well you know today
00:00:29
Speaker
We're gonna talk about a topic that I think is near and dear to many hearts.
Understanding Galatians 5:1
00:00:34
Speaker
And it was to Paul's when he wrote to the folks in Galatia, and he said in Galatians 5.1, he said, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. And I think that is an incredible statement. He didn't say it was for sinning
00:00:58
Speaker
that Christ set us free. He didn't say, hey, it is for license that Christ set us free. He said it was literally actually for freedom that Christ set us free. And then he said, therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.
00:01:28
Speaker
Kyle, I thought we'd dive in and let's just have a discussion around this idea
Embracing Freedom from Sin
00:01:36
Speaker
of freedom. What is freedom? Well, I believe freedom is the knowing that we are already free from the power of sin, no longer under the law, not under laws, rules, regulations to try to stop sinning.
00:01:57
Speaker
But knowing the truth that is a new creation, you don't really want to sin. And we have been delivered past tense from the power of it. We are set free. And the beautiful thing is that you and I can't do anything more to get any more free. We can't.
00:02:23
Speaker
We're free and that's why I love this. It's like, what is freedom? And that is always important to understand the definitions because Paul said, well, it was for freedom that Christ set us free. And that was part of the mission and ministry of Jesus. He came to set the captives free.
00:02:50
Speaker
You know, if you just take that logical step, if he's setting us free, well, that means that, well, I guess we weren't free before. Another word that we've used is, well, we were in bondage and he came to set us free so we could be, well, free. And it's like, well, free from what? Well, free from bondage, people.
00:03:18
Speaker
free from being captive. What were we captive to? Well, we were captive to sin. And we're not captive to that. We are free. And it was for that freedom from sin that he set us free from sin. I mean, that's pretty amazing. What do you think, you know, when he says here, therefore,
00:03:47
Speaker
because I just told you this incredible statement.
Standing Firm in Grace
00:03:50
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He goes, therefore, go out and get checking off your list, people, and make sure you're doing all the right things. He said, therefore, keep standing firm. What does that mean to you?
00:04:12
Speaker
Yeah, I hate the checklists. Oh, such a burden. What is it? The Titus, be strong in the grace of God, which alone can make you stand. It's not rules, but God's grace. And the grace is that God has done it. The finished work of the cross, taking who we were, Galatians 2 20, you were a sin loving sinner,
00:04:40
Speaker
As Paul said in another place, we were slaves of sin. But now because of Jesus and his finished work, you're now a slave of righteousness. Really, the word wouldn't be like I'm slaving away to do righteousness. No, it's your new heart infused with Jesus, the new spirit. You want to do the thing you want to live in freedom because God's free. And now he's united you with him.
00:05:07
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So you genuinely, you truly desire to just walk free. No more laws, no more regulations. They have no power against the desires of the flesh, as Paul said. That's what the podcast...
00:05:20
Speaker
is all about walking free. It's all about the truth that we are free. And I always say, and not always, but most of the time I'll do the little tagline, stop talking and start walking. It's not meant to say, hey, go get your checklist. It's meant to imply that
00:05:42
Speaker
you're free, so go walk free. Don't just talk about it. Go walk free. Paul says here to keep standing firm, and this is a point that we all have to come, I think, in our lives to this point of it's God's grace or it's my works.
Struggles with Law and Grace
00:06:04
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You can't mix them. Paul says, I want you to stand firm and don't be
00:06:10
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subject again to a yoke of slavery or maybe in our vernacular, don't be subject again to your checklist. Because the yoke was the law. And we don't want to be subject to that again. Oh my goodness, we've been there. We've done that. And it doesn't work. I don't know if it, you know, in your life, if
00:06:41
Speaker
having a bunch of religion or a bunch of religious rules was beneficial for you in your walk with Jesus. Absolutely not. The last podcast I shared about how I was hearing mixture of law and grace, but then it wasn't even really the real grace of God, because if you mix law with it, then it's no longer free. It's not a gift.
00:07:09
Speaker
and it led me to suicide many times, ready to just check out that yoke. You know, the word yoke gets used twice. Paul talks about the yoke of slavery, which in Galatians two, three, and four, he says it, he explains it out. This is the law, the yoke of slavery is the law. And then Jesus talked, you know, before then, Jesus talked about his yoke. Matthew 11, 28, take my yoke.
00:07:36
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easy light burdens. I have come that you have rest.
Living Christ's Life Through Us
00:07:41
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And so the big transition kicker, the meat and potatoes of what we teach in grace circles is, well, whose life is it? Whose life is the freedom life? Realizing it's Christ's life. It's the life of Jesus being fused with us and now letting
00:08:02
Speaker
Jesus express it through us, but it's not under a system of laws. It's not try hard theology. It's, okay, Jesus, you're my source now for this freedom. I am free. I want to just agree with God. I was just going to say, even when my behavior doesn't line up, well, I'm still free. You're still free. Even when your feelings don't line up, well, you're still free.
00:08:30
Speaker
You're just choosing in that moment, or we're getting deceived in that moment, not agreeing with, like how Steve Eden puts it, I'm just not in the moment agreeing with the reality of who God has already made me to be free in Christ. That is so true, and we love Steve, Pastor Steve. The truth is, you are so free, and someone says,
00:08:56
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And I've used this so many times before I used a lot in the jails when I would work with inmates in the local jail in Cherokee County. I would say, so are you telling me that you can do
00:09:11
Speaker
whatever you want." And they would be resounding, no. And I would go, yes. And they would look at me and like, what? And I said, yeah. In the words of that famous Christian group,
00:09:27
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I tell you what you want, what you really, really want. And you tell me what you want, what you really, okay, and that's not a Christian group. I think that's Spice Girls. They're not at all. However, let me tell you what you want, what you really, really want. If you're in Christ, what your wanter has been radically changed. You want righteousness and you want holiness and you want kindness and you want love.
00:09:55
Speaker
That's what you really want. That's why you get so upset with yourself when you don't do that. That's why you get mad when you quote fall or sin. Because what you really want is who you are and that's holiness. And so go do what you really want. You're that free. And so that's the message.
00:10:23
Speaker
A freedom is that you're free to do what you want. And so that's the question. Well, what do you want? Well, what you want is what does Christ want? Because Christ is in you. He is your life. You are aligned that way. But what happens with this, Kyle? What happens when we don't choose, when we don't choose life, when we're not acting and behaving, what is really going on?
00:10:54
Speaker
No, like you said, the second thing that results is you're just miserable because you're not acting according to who you really are in Jesus. You're just not expressing Christ as life. And this all just goes back to deception from the enemy world system, the flesh, not your flesh, the flesh.
00:11:17
Speaker
which is just all those ways which we've learned to get needs met apart from God who promised us to meet all of our needs according to the riches of His glory in Christ. And so it all just goes back to the deception. And, you know, I was gonna share it. I'm like the student on this because Vernon, it was you and really
Victory Over Sin and Deception
00:11:40
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you and Mike Quarles that really God used to help me
00:11:44
Speaker
just drill this down on y'all's webinars that y'all will do of lies keep me bound, but it's the truth that sets you free. And really coming into this place of just, I guess, settling it between you and God of, well, Lord, I can't live the Christian life. That's why Jesus said, I am the life. And that indwelling life of Christ,
00:12:11
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letting him express it through us, and anytime I'm sinning, well, that's just me believing the lie that I think this thing or this behavior is going to satisfy or fulfill, in which, of course, it never does. And that's exactly the enemy. You're 100% right. The enemy is so skilled at this warfare. He's had a lot of practice to hone these skills.
00:12:40
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The strategy, I think the top strategy to the enemy is this deception to a believer of having that believer think that the thoughts that are in his mind are his own. It's like, wait a second. Let's think this through a minute.
00:13:04
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You know, every thought that comes into our brain isn't necessarily generated by us. We get bombarded with thoughts all the time, from the media, advertisement, signpost, friends, family, we got all kind of voices popping into our head, as well as the enemy. And we start to think, I remember I was tempted in a certain area, like these thoughts are coming, oh yeah,
00:13:33
Speaker
Um, you got to do this or say this and that'll really make you feel better. And it's like, wait a second. I had to like shake myself kind of like the Samson, although Samson wasn't in the model believer, if you will, you know, he had his deal, but I like shake myself. So the ropes come off. It's like, wait a second. That what is that? That's, and I had to, and I routinely.
00:14:01
Speaker
routinely have to come back to an idea, to a principle, if I could use that word. Paul was writing to the Romans and writing this very long letter or treatise almost, and he's talking about really this justification by faith through Christ that we have and how that
00:14:26
Speaker
that when sin increases, well, grace increases even more. You really cannot sin the grace of God. And he takes the next logical argument that says in 6.1, Romans 6.1, well, what shall we say then? I think he's kind of go to him. I know what you're thinking. What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so grace can increase?
00:14:47
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Right? I mean, you talk so much about grace. Aren't you, you know, you're so grace focus. Why don't we just keep sending? Cause while we get more grace, right. And Paul's like idiots. He might've thought that he didn't write that down. He just said politely, may it never be. And I love, here's what I come back to every time. How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
00:15:16
Speaker
It's like mic drop. Yeah. You, you, you died and I died to sin. Why would I live in that in which I died to? And that next little phrase and, and just a couple of words, he says, or do you not know? Well, apparently they didn't know, uh, and he's letting them know, and maybe
00:15:46
Speaker
Someone listening here doesn't know. Well, let me inform you. You, as a believer in Jesus Christ, died to sin. You didn't die to sinning. We can choose to sin. But let me tell you, it takes a lot for a believer to sin. You have to, everything, you've been so radically transformed
00:16:16
Speaker
that everything you do is righteous unless you choose to go against your righteous nature. And even then, that's covered by the cross. That's what grace does. So I go back to the truth, and I had to at that moment, and I had to kind of shake myself and say, wait, I'm dead to sin. This has no power over me. As you said, this is not going to satisfy my need
Waiting and Trusting in God
00:16:46
Speaker
I'm dead to this. What's your go-to when you think of freedom and this idea of the choice to sin, go against really your brand new design? What's your go-to? My go-to is first it's taking those thoughts captive. The 2 Corinthians 10, three through five.
00:17:12
Speaker
take every thought captive because there's thoughts that are raised up against what God's truth really is. We know those are the enemy. I was going to touch on the 1 Chronicles 21 verse 1. Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved or incited David to number his troops. It clearly shows who the culprit there
00:17:39
Speaker
was in King David's life to do the wrong offense. And for me, it's been, I'm sure it's different timing for everybody. I just got to that place where, you know, from hearing the message over and over and just saying, well, Lord, would you just give me the revelation? Just give me the revelation. And I still pray today. I still have areas of growth of
00:18:04
Speaker
we were talking right before we got on, it's just becoming more aware. We're just becoming more aware of how free we really are. And so this is a walking rest, not a striving run. The Bible says walk, walk in the spirit, walk by the spirit. It's not a run. And that's been a big struggle for me, being okay with my time and pace and place of maturity and where God has me in this.
00:18:34
Speaker
But learning to be okay with it as God reveals, it's like, well, yeah, like you mentioned, it's like, well, there's no guilt. There's no shame. There's no condemnation. I'm not being punished. There's no punishment for those in Christ, no condemnation. So I can just learn, getting to enjoy this abiding relationship with Christ in me and with my Father God and being okay. And then it's easy, like burdens and any patience, endurance that I need. Well, the Bible never says, drudge up your own endurance.
00:19:05
Speaker
or judge up your own patience. It says that God who gives us endurance, God who gives us the strength in Christ, He is the source for it. Christ in us is the source for it. And so being okay with it, now when I get tempted, sometimes I fall, sometimes I walk in victory, remembering 1 Corinthians, what is that, 1557, He has given us the victory. Thanks be to God who has given us the victory.
00:19:35
Speaker
Right. It's a gift. You are, I mean, that's, you know, I think, and I don't know if you've been there, um, sometimes in our journey, we get impatient and I think it's good intentions. We get impatient, but we want to kind of run ahead of our headlights. And, um, and there's so much that we're, we're just impatient because we want to impact more and do more. And that's a good, that's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's,
00:20:05
Speaker
But we get impatient and to use a phrase that some of, I remember I think an old boss used to, where we just want to run ahead of our headlights. And it's like, you know, on this journey, this journey we're on is, as you said, we don't have to be trying to sprint ahead. Let's just walk the journey as the Lord leaves. He opens the doors and he closes the doors and we don't have to be
00:20:33
Speaker
in a hurry. I don't think you see in the Gospels Jesus getting in a big hurry. I don't think that's why I think God in His wonderful grace put me on this planet at this time because there's cars, there's vehicles, there's transit. I don't know if I could have walked
00:20:58
Speaker
all that time. I would have said, well, Lord, come on, come on. Let's pick up the pace a little bit. I just want to get there, get to my destination. I love it when Sirius says, you have reached your destination. It's like, yes. And maybe there's some other crazy people like me where it's like, we don't care about the journey. I want to be in the age of Star Trek. Well, I can just transport. Scotty, beam me up. Beam me over there.
00:21:28
Speaker
The journey, for me, can be challenging. I just want to get there and get something done. That's part of my personality, I guess. But the Lord says, you know, it is true. I don't know who said it. And we need to find joy in the journey. And I think Andrew Farley,
00:21:53
Speaker
He says it best. He's so funny the way he says this. But people get mixed up about rewards, and I agree 100% with him on this. He says, do you really think that you're working and serving the Lord so he can get more loot in heaven? Or you could get more square footage in heaven?
00:22:14
Speaker
You know, that'sโI mean, is that really whatโno, we are heirs of God and joint heirs in Jesus. We're going to get the reward singular of the inheritance. And that's every believer in Jesus Christ. And so we can rest in the grace. But here's the opportunity. I think what we're saying here
00:22:38
Speaker
And I think what Paul was saying, he was saying, guys, it was for freedom that Christ set you free.
00:22:47
Speaker
So, man, enjoy your life on this planet. Live free. Do what you want in Christ. Be who you are in Christ. Go be the righteousness and love in Christ. Don't wait for God to drop some big sign from heaven to say, go this way. Just get up and go. And God's given you desires. And just go and enjoy Him and follow Him.
00:23:15
Speaker
And I guarantee you that the sovereign God of the universe, if you're veering off course a little bit, and he says, I got something better for you, he's going to nudge you over that way. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. So what are your thoughts, Kyle? So when it comes to this idea of that freedom, it was for freedom.
00:23:44
Speaker
that Christ set us free. What else around this idea of freedom is hitting your heart? No, I was thinking as you were sharing about the impatience being, you know, it's like, well, Lord, I always thought of it's like, I'm trying to tug the Holy Spirit. Come on, Lord. I'm going this way. And he's like, what do you mean? You know, he's kind of sitting there looking like, I'm not leading you that way. You're wanting to go too fast. That was all stemmed for me, not realizing all that I already had in him.
00:24:14
Speaker
If you believed in Jesus, you're completing Christ, you're not lacking anything. I needed that so much as the just paradigm shift in my walk with the Lord was understanding. It's like, well, I'm okay. I'm exactly okay where I need to be. In the journey, you learn intimacy, you learn dependency, you learn trust.
Intimacy and Dependency on God
00:24:40
Speaker
trenches of life, of going through the pains and the sufferings and the waiting and having to wait for things. Like you were saying, it's like, well, come on, Lord, I want it now. Come on now. And a good counselor friend of mine, Charles with Operation 220, he'd be like, yeah, you know, a lot of people just want the, I want my problems resolved and fixed in a commercial of 30 seconds or less. But you never learn intimacy. You never learn trust.
00:25:10
Speaker
You never learn the real Christian life, Christ as your life, as your source. We were never called to fix. We were called to depend. Sheep are non-burden-bearing animals. Branches don't produce fruit. They bear fruit effortlessly as they just simply depend and trust and let the life flow through us. But without, like how Mike Wells used to put it, without the passage of time,
00:25:36
Speaker
There's no faith. You won't have dependency unless there's that passage of time, the waiting. I was praying it today. It's like, Lord, bring me a wife. I really want a wife, that woman who understands grace. It's like, well, I'm going to have to wait. And it's like, well, good. Well, then, Lord, this is just another opportunity for you to be my patience, for you to be my endurance and still having to walk through this, single. And it's like, all right, well, I'm OK, though.
00:26:06
Speaker
Is it wrong to want a wife? Absolutely not. Exactly. It's like for the women out there, is it wrong for them to want a husband? No, but that's where we, as you said, we learned to trust and we learned to, we learned to wait and trust nothing wrong.
00:26:35
Speaker
having a wife, having a husband or not. And being single, you know, it's when there's advantages to being single, there's advantages to being married. There's not one better than the other. It's where we are. And we need to learn to enjoy where we are.
Finding Peace in Christ
00:26:56
Speaker
Enjoy the truth of who we are, where we are, when we are.
00:27:01
Speaker
If we can get there, then we experience the peace that is ours in Christ. So nothing wrong with that stuff. Give me some final thoughts that Lord's putting on your heart around freedom. I mean, I think this is such the, maybe the biggest important thing that there is, this intimacy with God, this dependency. And you're not going to get it through
00:27:30
Speaker
I mean, I always, for so long, I was like, you know, once I have this or this, then I'll be satisfied. Once I get here career-wise, or once this takes place in my life, then I'll be at peace. Then I'll know the peace of God. It's like, no, that's peace of circumstances. That's not the peace of God. Hey, I praise God for the nice circumstances, enjoyable circumstances. I love the mountain tops. Man, those are great.
00:27:58
Speaker
But if I can't experience that in the pits of life, then there's no real trust there. There's no real intimacy. And so having that dependency, having that intimacy with God, simply just looking to Him as the source for this life. So like how Bill Gilham used to put it, it's like, so you learn trust now. So then when you get to heaven, it won't be as if anything's really changed.
00:28:26
Speaker
Yeah, it'll be a different place. I mean, it'll be different, but that intimacy that you found with your Abba Father and your Savior and friend Christ in you, your Savior, it's going to still grow. We're going to learn or we're going to be learning for all eternity and, you know, enjoying our Savior, but you'll get to enjoy Him now.
00:28:47
Speaker
wouldn't you like that to enjoy him now? So no matter what's going on, you have the, like you said, like you quoted, the peace of God that passes all understanding. I'd rather have that now. Absolutely. And you're free to enjoy Christ right now because it was for freedom that he set you free. You're free to enjoy the enemy. What another strategy of the enemy
Beware of Dissatisfaction Tactics
00:29:16
Speaker
is to put seeds of dissatisfaction into your mind that I'm missing something. It's the FOMO, fear of missing out. He puts this dissatisfaction that something's missing, classic marketing strategy. It's this fear of missing out and an artificial
00:29:41
Speaker
expiration or time limit. The timer's counting down. If you don't do this, you're really missing out. You're missing out. And he puts all this and you start to feel it when you accept these ideas that aren't your thoughts. They're coming from the enemy, but you start to feel it literally in your emotions. You feel it in your body. Your body's responding. Your emotions are responding to all of that. And it's literally,
00:30:10
Speaker
It is a pressure in you, and you have to release that first in your mind, in your emotions, and your body will follow suit. But you've got to open your hands and let that go and say, I am Christ, and Christ is mine. I am His. He is mine. He lives in me. He is everything I need.
00:30:40
Speaker
He loves me more than anyone else ever could, and I can rest and trust his love and his favor for me, and I can be at peace and rest with that. Don't fall for the enemy strategy of being dissatisfied. Recognize often if you're feeling that sense of uneasiness, of dissatisfaction with a career,
00:31:11
Speaker
a job, promotion, relationship, whatever that could be, not always, it could be an indication that you've just received from the enemy a lie that says Christ is not enough. And I want you to know that He is enough. And I want to leave you with this, that it was for freedom
00:31:38
Speaker
that Christ set us free.
Conclusion: Embracing Freedom in Christ
00:31:41
Speaker
You see, we died to sin. And Romans 6, 7 says, he who has died is freed from sin. You are free, whether you feel like it or not. You are free. And as Kyle said, you have the victory right now. So I want you to meditate on that.
00:32:08
Speaker
Thank God for that. Have your go-to verse. What is your go-to when that lie comes in, as Kyle was talking about, that we want to take those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ? What's your go-to? That's Kyle's. Mine is that I died to sin, and he who has died is free, and I'm free from sin. What is yours? Don't just talk about it.
00:32:37
Speaker
Ask the Lord what are your next steps so you can start walking. You've been listening to Walking Free, a production of Grace Ministries International in Marietta, Georgia. For more information, go to our website at gmint.org. That's gminc.org.