THE COURAGE TO LIVE FREE

“O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave

O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

It takes courage to live free!  In the USA today, we could replace the last line of the National Anthem to say “O’er the land of the afraid, and the home of safety.”  The true definition of a great society is providing a place where people are free.  We stopped being a courageous people and have followed other fallen societies into the quagmire of enslavement to our baser nature.  Fear is our base nature.  

If someone were to ask me what is the greatest advantage of living in the Kingdom of God, I would tell them; living free!

It takes a lot of courage to trust God.  It takes even more courage to live free of fear, but that is what Christ purchased for us on the cross of Calvary.  As we mature in our faith, fear is replaced with love, and worry is replaced with trust. The Spirit led life is a life of courage, bravery, and nobility.  The carnal nature cowers in the dark, huddles shaking with fear in the middle of the pack, and follows the crowd, even if it means surrendering their freedom.  The carnal nature yearns for safety, while the Spirit led life yearns for freedom to love as Christ loved.  It takes great courage to love.  One of the most common examples of this is when couples are dating and everyone knows they should get married, but one or both of them is “afraid of commitment.”Simply put, they are afraid to really love.  It’s easy to have sexual relations with someone, but it takes courage to commit yourself to someone for a lifetime. The Kingdom of God is the courage to love, and it is by the Spirit that we are able to live free to love.  In 2nd Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”

It takes immense courage to follow Christ!  When we are born again, God’s Spirit makes us a new creation. The new creation no longer lives in fear of death, or punishment, but lives for love, and goodness. I’ve been in so many churches where the leadership felt the need to hammer people into their own image by using the fear of the rapture as their hammer, and the fear of hell as their anvil. I have to believe they meant well, but it quickly devolves into a religion of touch not, taste not, and look not. They become enslaved again to a form of legalism, bound up by chains of fear. This form of religion is exactly what Christ warned the disciples about when he said ‘whoever wants to be great among you must be a servant, and whoever wants to be first must be the slave of everyone else.’ (Mark 10:43-44 paraphrasing mine).  It takes courage to live for others first, but it is the only way to be truly free.  

I’m sure being a world leader must look attractive, especially to those who have been at the bottom of the social ladder most of their lives.  It’s easy to think that they can do whatever they want, say whatever they want, and go wherever they want, but nothing is further from the truth.  It has been my experience that those who want great power, live in great fear.  Look at all the handlers surrounding our own President.  Look at the Secret Service agents it takes to protect our President.  Our own President surrounds himself with advisors, and political advisors who direct his every move.  The powerful eventually become enslaved by fear. At no time in history was this more evident than at the time of Christ’s crucifixion.  

Christ challenged the religious leaders of the day, pointing out their fears. He revealed their lives of fear and the bonds of public approval.  In return, they appealed to their captors, the Romans, to help them get rid of Christ. Even Pilate found himself giving into the will of the crowd when he gave the choice of freeing Christ, or Barabbas. The carnal nature is defined by fear, while the Kingdom is defined by courage.  Walking by following Holy Spirit is a life of freedom!  (Romans 8) Paul made it even clearer in Galatians chapter 5 (please read the whole chapter)

The carnal nature of fear is expressed in:

Sexual immorality (fear of missing out on something or someone to fulfill your pleasure)

Impurity (fear of doing the right thing)

Debauchery (fear of being alone)

Idolatry and sorcery (fear of being powerless)

Hatred (fear of others being better than you)

Discord (fear of more than one person being better than you)

Jealousy (fear of others being valued more than you)

Rage (fear of the knowledge that you aren’t the one in control)

Rivalries (giving your fear of being like everyone else to someone else)

Divisions, (fear of being united with someone)

Factions, (giving your fear of being united to someone else with the same fear)

Envy (fear that someone else has something you don’t)

Fearful people will seek out other fearful people, get drunk in their fear, submit to sexual perversions in fear, and give in to every kind of debasing behavior to mask the fear) Murder, theivery, deceit, and destruction are all symptoms of fear. 

BUT,,,,,

The Kingdom of God is; 

LOVE (the courage to put someone else above ourselves)

Joy (the courage to express our happiness with what we’ve been given)

Peace (the courage to be at one with our creator, ourselves, and others)

Patience (the courage to defer judgment, criticality, and fear)

Kindness (the courage to give others what we would want)

Goodness (the courage to share our glories, victories, and honors with others)

Faithfulness, (the courage to live courageously no matter what we face)

Gentleness (the courage to lay aside our strength, power, and prestige for others)

Self-Control (The courage to do what is right even when we know we are afraid)

If we go back to Romans 8:1 we can understand the courage it takes to live free. Those who seek power and to enslave others will be the most fearful among us.  The tool of enslavement is CONDEMNATION!!!! In today’s world we see it in the rebirth of racism, gender politics, and especially in social media.  I’m always amazed by those who preach the new religion of ‘identity’ and the hypocrisy they get away with.  Social Media has given rise to what is called the tyranny of the majority and all dissent is condemned by mindless millions who like nothing more than to pile on the weak. John Adams warned against it when our nation was being formed, and now we see it in all of its ugliness through social constructs. It will take courage if we are to bring the Kingdom of God to earth.  Holy Spirit gives us that courage if we will learn to trust HIM.Throughout history, the Kingdom of God has been resisted, and its citizens killed for preaching it. Still, it has advanced despite persecution.  Love conquers fear.

THE KING OF LIFE

There never was, and there never will be a King like Jesus. It is easy for us to view Him through the abstract lens of His deity, instead of seeing Him as the expression of God’s compassion, and goodness.  Without the help of Holy Spirit, our view of Him is that of a stoic, emotionless man sent to keep people from having fun. Yet, if you try and inform people of what life was like under ancient rulers, they won’t believe the tyranny, and utter disregard these ancients had for individuals.  How do I know how God feels about humanity?  By looking at what Jesus did while He was on this earth!  How do I know what the Kingdom of heaven looks like?  By looking at the King of heaven and what he did. 

The Kingdom of heaven is life!  Not just your heart ticking, and your brain spinning, but a life of wholeness, and healing.  When Jesus entered into this vale, He didn’t come as a warrior king with a vast angelic army.  He came as  a lowly infant, lived among us, and became as we are.  The Spirit of God put on the garment of flesh, so that He would know exhaustion, pain, sickness, and disease.  He is touched by our infirmities!  There is nothing we can go through in this life, that He hasn’t touched or seen. Throughout history, when the Kingdom would invade this earth, it would be to bring healing and life to all it touched.  Every other king could only take life.  They worked people till they couldn’t work anymore.  They brought diseases with them from foreign lands they conquered.  Jesus conquered sickness and disease.  No other king has done this.  

Jesus brought life to the downtrodden, giving them worth, and value.  He knew the very number of hairs upon our head, knowing when they fell.  Once liberty has been given, it can’t be taken away.  They can lock you up, beat you, and even kill you, but the liberty of Jesus Christ can’t be taken away. No other King has ever done that!  Only Jesus has set the captive free!  The foundations of other kingdoms were built upon the emptied lives of slaves, and servants.  No matter where you were in a kingdom or empire, you were still subject to the king.  You couldn’t escape or run away from your fate.  Ancient kings saw everyone as their subjects, and if you tried to escape, you were killed.  

Ancient kings would try to invent cruel ways to kill rebellious subjects. The description of these horrors don’t need to be recounted here, but suffice it to say that death was often more preferable to the torture humans could inflict upon one another.  Highways were often lined with the rotting corpses of those who dared to challenge the kingdom.  Jesus opened up the gates of the Kingdom of heaven and paid the price for our entry into it.  He prepared it for us, and is making everything ready for us to enter.  

The King of Life allowed himself to be suspended between heaven and earth, offering his life for our salvation.  His anguish allowed Him to be a caring loving King extending a hand of mercy, to all who reached out to Him.  

More than anything else, He left His Spirit within us!  His Spirit allows us to extend grace and love to generation after generation.  There is a direct line of ancestry from the cross to a document stating that all men are created equal, and granted inalienable rights by their creator. His Kingdom is life, and He is the King of life!  

THE GOSPEL

What is the gospel?  In our evangelical fervor it is easy to forget the fact that most people are fairly content in their lives, and the gospel has very little draw.  For most people living today, there is little thought beyond tomorrow, and even less thought given to eternity.  Yet, in most evangelical services you will be bombarded with the threat of an eternity in hell without Christ Jesus.  This is not the Kingdom message Christ sent His disciples into the world with. Gospel is almost always translated as "Good News."  

So, what is the good news?  What was so different about the message of Jesus?  

You have to look at what HE said, and what HE did to come to an answer.  

John 3:16 is the encapsulation of the salvation message, but it isn’t the good news.  Prior to Jesus, and for many centuries after His death, and resurrection, the governments of this world operated on the idea that you had value only as long as you were valuable to the ruler over you.  It didn’t matter whether you thought you were valuable, only someone above you could give you worth. The idea of imputed worth flowed from the family who needed sons as a captive workforce.  It was also given to you if you were of worth to the tribe, city, state, or nation you were in.  Your worth was determined by what you did, or who your family was.  This was never God’s intention.  Kings, and rulers believed they were either chosen for their role as rulers, or that they themselves were gods and were fated to rule.  

Then came Jesus!  

The incarnation of the godhead didn’t come to this earth in splendid array, dressed in gold, nor did He come in adult form.  If a ruler ever stooped to live in the poverty and squalor of the poor, He would have been quickly dethroned.  More than that, Jesus came to restore individual worth, and liberty to all people. If you ever wanted to know what the Kingdom of God is supposed to look like, all you have to do is look at Jesus’ first message.  

Let’s look at Luke 4:14-30

This passage was a description of what Jesus said immediately after being baptised, and then being tempted in the wilderness for 40 days and nights.  

You can’t preach the kingdom without being in the power of the Spirit.  Jesus taught in the synagogues as He made his way to Nazareth, and we’re told He was glorified by all. 

Then He gets to His hometown where he goes to the synagogue of His youth.  He is given the scroll of Isaiah (He didn’t choose it), and proceeds to read from Isaiah 61.  This is the mission statement of the Kingdom.  God didn’t come down with angelic armies (even though He had in the past.)  He didn’t enter with great pomp and circumstance as men would do.  

He said; The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, (if the Spirit isn’t upon you, you aren’t anointed to proclaim the good news.)  because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. 

Unlike any other King before Him Jesus wasn’t interested in the rich and powerful.  The poor were the ones who were treated the worst, and were often forced to sell themselves as slaves to those who were better off.

He said; He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives.  The slave, servant, or indentured servant could be free.  Freedom is why Jesus came.  

What does a good God do?  He heals the blind, gives liberty to the oppressed, and declares the year of God’s favor.  

If there is one thing that defines the Kingdom of God, it is liberty, healing, and deliverance.  These blessings have flowed independently at various times throughout history before Christ, but never together.  While many want you to believe that the miracles of Christ were done to convince men of His divinity, I would argue that they were simply the expression of the Kingdom, and were meant to continue in us, through us, and as gifts to mankind.  They were never meant to be signs, but were simply the heart of God being revealed to people everywhere, in every time. If as Paul said in Romans 8:29 that Christ was to be the firstborn among many brothers, then the same Kingdom purpose should be in us. Throughout the history of the Church, the greatest threat to the Kingdom has never been from the outside, but from men and women of God focusing on only one aspect of the Kingdom message. The mission statement of Christ should prompt us to be like Him. There is nothing we can do to rectify past failures of the Church. What we can do live up to the high calling of Christ, and become  what God predestined us to be. The Kingdom has come slowly over the last 2,000 years, but there is a resurgence as we take Christ’s words to heart.  Jesus is speaking throughout the nations to His brothers to break the bonds of enslavement both physically, and spiritually.  We have to ask ourselves

What is good news to the poor?  

What is good news to the captive?

What is good news to the blind, deaf, and lame?  

What is good news to the oppressed?

We don’t have to guess what the good news is. God spoke it through His Son, and the Son showed us what the Kingdom looked like through His actions!  God’s first ambassador revealed what the Kingdom looks like in heaven, and what it should be on earth. Because God is Love, everything Christ did was love. The Kingdom abhors poverty, enslavement, disease, and oppression. Most people today don’t know what the Kingdom is, because we’re fulfilled by the things of this life. The carnal nature rises up if it feels threatened by the Spirit working within us, and justifies itself by using scripture to push away Holy Spirit.

For example, caring for the poor is often shut down by quoting Jesus saying that ‘you will always have the poor among you.’  During the early part of the Evangelical movement, the Second Coming of Christ was used to bludgeon people with fear to accept Christ. The fear of hell was preached so often, that no one knew what the Kingdom of God looked like. The Church has focused on eternity and getting out of this present life for so long, that we don’t know how the Kingdom flows beyond salvation.  Physical death comes to all of us all too quickly, and we waste most of this life wanting to escape it.  

Jesus came to give everyone who will believe in Him a taste of the Kingdom so we will know that we have worth, and value to the Father. The poor, the captive, the crippled, and the oppressed all have hope because the Kingdom is here. 

What Jesus said about individual worth:  Matthew 10:31, Matthew 6:30-32, and most especially the Parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son found in Luke chapter 15.  In Luke chapter 19, Jesus reaches out to Zacchaeus (A tax collector) and offers to eat with him.  Through one act of kindness, the Kingdom came to an entire family.  This is just like what OCC does with one shoebox.  One child gets the box, and an entire family finds salvation. Individual worth for one is the light that shines on others.