WEBVTT 00:00:00.360 --> 00:00:01.100 On New Year. 00:00:01.260 --> 00:00:02.820 So a little bit of a treat. 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:06.700 But if you've not been introduced to that ministry, that was Joseph and Sundry. 00:00:06.700 --> 00:00:09.200 His wife last name is Thomas. 00:00:09.210 --> 00:00:11.920 They're missionaries that we support in India right now. 00:00:11.920 --> 00:00:15.640 They were outside of the orphanage, which is one of the several things that they do in India. 00:00:15.980 --> 00:00:19.380 It's got around between 60 to 70 girls in that orphanage. 00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:27.180 And he just having people from our church not only support, but to go over there and be physically present has 00:00:27.860 --> 00:00:29.620 impacted his life in such a way that he wants to. 00:00:29.700 --> 00:00:29.820 Thank you. 00:00:30.460 --> 00:00:32.640 We're going to dismiss ten, 11 year olds for their class. 00:00:33.560 --> 00:00:34.820 And I want to invite you this morning. 00:00:34.820 --> 00:00:41.880 I'm going to let you know we're going to teach a concept or a thought that I think is important to the idea of what new means. 00:00:41.880 --> 00:00:48.950 I know sometimes we bring up the new word New Year and some of you are like, This is the time where I set my goals and some of you are like, Man, treat every day the same. 00:00:48.980 --> 00:00:56.720 Who cares if it's a new year, it's another day and all that's fine, but we're going to talk about new anyway because this foundation we're going to lay for us this morning is 00:00:56.720 --> 00:00:58.740 one for you and your Christian life. 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:00.040 No matter where you are. 00:01:00.040 --> 00:01:06.020 It is a springboard into how to think through things in a healthy way as it relates to your relationship in Jesus. 00:01:06.660 --> 00:01:07.810 So I'm going to look at a few passages. 00:01:09.380 --> 00:01:13.590 I'm going to tell you where those are in case you want to turn there and mark in your Bibles, it's going to be up on the screen. 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:17.760 I would encourage you to at least start in this passage that we're going to begin together. 00:01:18.100 --> 00:01:22.120 And if and if you're not comfortable flipping through scripture, you can look to the screen, make notes. 00:01:22.120 --> 00:01:26.090 But all these passages are significant, powerful passages that relate to what I want to get across. 00:01:26.460 --> 00:01:30.380 And so I don't want to downplay the significance of Scripture at all to us and how important it is. 00:01:30.900 --> 00:01:34.180 And so first Corinthians chapter two or not, first Corinthians scuse me, first Peter. 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:41.980 Chapter two is where we're going to start, and then we're going to go to Mark chapter ten and then Exodus chapter six. 00:01:42.020 --> 00:01:45.880 And that will give you a good summary of anticipation of how we're going to build through this process. 00:01:47.300 --> 00:01:51.140 And I'm going to use it in talking about newness of life. 00:01:51.160 --> 00:01:55.750 I want to set the framework for us to really experience freedom. 00:01:57.780 --> 00:02:04.820 When you talk about the word freedom, it's often associated the words often expressed because something in our lives we felt trapped or 00:02:04.820 --> 00:02:11.920 we feel we didn't quite achieve what we needed to achieve because there was some sort of obligation or something that held us down, kept us from a lack of opportunity. 00:02:12.200 --> 00:02:13.050 It could have even been ourselves. 00:02:13.820 --> 00:02:21.300 But we want to think about freedom in the sense of what God desires for us in this life and when 00:02:21.300 --> 00:02:22.640 we talk about freedom. 00:02:24.060 --> 00:02:25.510 I'm going to do it in a very odd way. 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:30.430 Because first, Peter, chapter two does it in an odd way. 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:37.900 He uses these two words that I would say probably when we think about freedom, we would not categorize the word bondslave 00:02:37.900 --> 00:02:40.040 as associated with freedom. 00:02:40.380 --> 00:02:43.230 In fact, we would say this that's probably the opposite. 00:02:44.060 --> 00:02:51.080 But when we talk about it in a biblical sense servant, some translations use the word servant. 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:52.580 Other translations use the word slave. 00:02:52.580 --> 00:02:59.660 Slave is actually more accurate to the biblical translation, but because of the way we have preconceived ideas in America, 00:02:59.720 --> 00:03:06.600 I think some translators choose the word servant because we put certain baggage on the word slave or bond slave. 00:03:06.640 --> 00:03:09.460 That wasn't necessarily the way they expressed it in biblical terms. 00:03:09.660 --> 00:03:16.430 So servants probably more accurate for us without being able to define exactly the way that slavery was used in the in the New Testament. 00:03:16.520 --> 00:03:18.000 So servant is probably a more accurate word. 00:03:18.040 --> 00:03:25.040 But either way, when you talk about freedom in the same sentence of you expressing freedom, I'm going to go out on a limb and 00:03:25.040 --> 00:03:29.220 say you probably didn't use servant in a good way. 00:03:29.540 --> 00:03:36.620 On the back end of that, if you use servant of at all, how in the world when you look at a passage like this, how in the world 00:03:36.620 --> 00:03:41.480 can you use the word freedom with a thought like servant or bond slave? 00:03:41.540 --> 00:03:42.690 How does that even go in scripture? 00:03:43.540 --> 00:03:50.220 How do we find what we are being expressed in this passage for us to live out? 00:03:50.620 --> 00:03:51.940 I mean, can I make sense of it? 00:03:52.060 --> 00:03:53.020 I'm going to try to do that. 00:03:53.320 --> 00:03:53.560 All right. 00:03:54.620 --> 00:03:56.060 But I want to say this about freedom. 00:03:57.060 --> 00:03:58.320 Obviously, it's significant to us. 00:03:58.340 --> 00:04:02.680 It's important because it's an expression that Peter uses in this passage for believers. 00:04:02.760 --> 00:04:06.260 He says, act as free men or women. 00:04:06.780 --> 00:04:08.650 It's just including mankind. 00:04:08.920 --> 00:04:14.540 And do not use your freedom as a covering for evil, but use it as bond slaves of God. 00:04:17.000 --> 00:04:19.890 Freedom in this past is according to the way that Peter is directing us. 00:04:20.260 --> 00:04:25.980 And whether you have a biblical context to this or not, we would probably all agree freedom is crucial to building a healthy life. 00:04:28.620 --> 00:04:33.180 Freedom happens to be even culturally a popular word in speech. 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:41.260 You want to gain some momentum in any sort of scene on a stage or a political arena or just use the word freedom. 00:04:41.520 --> 00:04:41.620 Right? 00:04:42.040 --> 00:04:44.080 It's a it's a popular term for us. 00:04:44.140 --> 00:04:49.900 People like it, but it's something that oftentimes it's not always easy to live. 00:04:51.680 --> 00:04:55.500 Whether people, groups are oppressed or even in our own lives. 00:04:55.500 --> 00:04:57.510 We have certain bondage that we might experience. 00:04:59.900 --> 00:05:06.960 You know, usually when we use the word freedom to what we often express as we're using the word freedom, because what we 00:05:06.960 --> 00:05:08.940 want to experience is liberation. 00:05:10.400 --> 00:05:16.560 And so I'll say I'll talk about freedom because we're understanding within the context of freedom that there is something that isn't free. 00:05:17.460 --> 00:05:19.130 And what it needs is liberation. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:27.580 And usually when we're speaking about freedom in that type of context and the idea of liberation, we're oftentimes looking at the 00:05:27.580 --> 00:05:32.900 bondage that exists, not so much the transition that happens after that. 00:05:34.400 --> 00:05:41.480 And so the use of freedom in that way deals more specifically with the problem of bondage 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:47.920 and sin than it does in the fullness of living out freedom, because there's no guarantee. 00:05:47.920 --> 00:05:49.460 Just because you liberate someone. 00:05:51.320 --> 00:05:53.080 That they're going to be able to walk then in freedom. 00:05:54.620 --> 00:05:59.900 In fact, the next thing they enter into could then bring them back into bondage again. 00:06:00.520 --> 00:06:07.920 And so when we use freedom in the sense that we want delivered from when I when I talk about freedom in my own life or I've used an expression close to that, or 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:14.940 maybe even in your life, you would say, yeah, it's usually because there was something that was keeping me from where I felt like I needed to be and I just wanted to 00:06:14.940 --> 00:06:16.220 be liberated from that. 00:06:17.220 --> 00:06:22.280 Now, sometimes when you think that way, those things you want liberated from are probably healthy things to leave behind. 00:06:22.420 --> 00:06:25.540 Other times it might be you giving up on something that you shouldn't be giving up on. 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:26.800 Right? 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:27.080 But. 00:06:27.160 --> 00:06:33.560 But usually in the context of that, when we use freedom, we're using it in the idea of liberation, but not the full expression of what freedom is. 00:06:35.980 --> 00:06:43.060 But I want to be careful when I use the word freedom, because what I don't mean by the word freedom is autonomous independence. 00:06:45.860 --> 00:06:47.540 I think that's actually impossible. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:53.740 And if you play that thought out to its fullest, autonomous independence isn't really freedom, it's more anarchy. 00:06:55.320 --> 00:07:02.220 Because even in the context of a culture, when we describe our nation as a free nation, there are certain things that we would submit to. 00:07:02.220 --> 00:07:06.920 And so that the holistic part of the group that makes up our country could experience freedom together. 00:07:07.440 --> 00:07:14.580 There are certain rights we give up because if we if we all lived autonomous and did whatever we wanted, we could continuously violate one another by our own 00:07:14.580 --> 00:07:16.180 freedom that we're trying to live out in our own lives. 00:07:16.680 --> 00:07:22.720 And so there's certain ways that we structure ourselves in relationships to one another so that we can experience freedom together. 00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:26.460 And so autonomous independence really leads to anarchy. 00:07:26.460 --> 00:07:28.300 But I don't think that's where freedom finds itself. 00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:29.090 Let me tell you why. 00:07:29.500 --> 00:07:31.830 I don't think living autonomous independence. 00:07:34.600 --> 00:07:36.120 Is really, truly freedom. 00:07:37.760 --> 00:07:44.960 Because we as people, as soon as you find yourself free, we'll go to find something in life to 00:07:44.960 --> 00:07:47.440 give you worth, purpose, value and meaning. 00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:56.060 And so as soon as you're liberated from something, being able to experience that freedom, if that freedom isn't leverage 00:07:56.060 --> 00:07:57.340 in a place that is healthy. 00:07:58.820 --> 00:08:05.940 Then you'll find yourself being placed under bondage in something else again, because you are looking for something in life for which you could belong to 00:08:05.940 --> 00:08:07.840 in order to have purpose, value and meaning. 00:08:09.000 --> 00:08:16.360 And so when you're just wandering in this world trying to figure those things out, what we find ourselves in is trap after trap, maybe a moment 00:08:16.360 --> 00:08:22.960 of something that expresses to me that I'm worth something, but in the end just captures me and will not release me. 00:08:25.340 --> 00:08:32.360 And so freedom when we use the word freedom, it's not it's not autonomous independence, because what we recognize in freedom is 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:35.159 that we as people were created to belong somewhere. 00:08:35.400 --> 00:08:41.200 And when we find that healthy place for which we are to belong, we find our identity, shape, our meaning and purpose within it. 00:08:42.980 --> 00:08:48.900 And so freedom is intended to be expressed in the place for which you were created to belong. 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:58.440 And so if we back up from this verse for just a moment and see what Peter is saying in this passage, he really 00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:01.320 culminates his thoughts leading into verse 16. 00:09:01.700 --> 00:09:08.820 But if you back up from this, what he's doing in verse nine and on is he's helping us in the free men that we are or free women 00:09:08.820 --> 00:09:09.560 that we are. 00:09:09.820 --> 00:09:16.900 He's helping us find the place for which we were intended to belong so that we can shape our identity and live in the freedom for 00:09:16.900 --> 00:09:18.260 which God has given us. 00:09:18.460 --> 00:09:20.690 And so this is what He says in verse nine. 00:09:21.100 --> 00:09:22.220 You're going to have to give me a quick show. 00:09:24.220 --> 00:09:26.610 And in verse nine, he says. 00:09:28.840 --> 00:09:29.340 But you. 00:09:30.940 --> 00:09:32.000 You're a chosen race. 00:09:33.520 --> 00:09:34.260 A royal priesthood. 00:09:35.780 --> 00:09:36.400 Holy nation. 00:09:37.660 --> 00:09:38.720 A people for God's own possession. 00:09:39.560 --> 00:09:39.960 See this? 00:09:41.540 --> 00:09:41.960 He's shaping identity. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:49.530 These are the things that you may proclaim the Excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 00:09:49.980 --> 00:09:57.120 See, the temptation, the reason, the reason I think the Bible chooses to say things to us is because sometimes within our nature, we often choose to 00:09:57.140 --> 00:09:58.740 believe the opposite to be true. 00:09:59.960 --> 00:10:02.940 I think our hearts naturally stray from God. 00:10:04.180 --> 00:10:06.140 We have to be active to pursue God. 00:10:07.400 --> 00:10:14.490 And so I would say with what Peter is expressing here, that the tendency within our own nature is to not live in this freedom that God's given us and this identity. 00:10:14.900 --> 00:10:21.360 And so he's wanting the church to recognize their position in God so that we can continue to shape ourselves in that. 00:10:21.640 --> 00:10:25.680 And so he says in verse ten, for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God. 00:10:26.880 --> 00:10:29.960 You had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 00:10:30.800 --> 00:10:36.560 Beloved, I urge you, as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lust which wage war against the soul. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:44.180 Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may, because 00:10:44.180 --> 00:10:48.760 of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. 00:10:51.740 --> 00:10:57.940 So he's helping us create this picture for where we belong. 00:10:57.960 --> 00:11:00.860 And I just want to highlight just a couple of words that he says here. 00:11:00.900 --> 00:11:07.170 Because he's not saying that you're going to become this or this is this is your goal. 00:11:07.680 --> 00:11:13.380 What he says in this passage, verse nine, verse ten, he uses these words as active words. 00:11:13.380 --> 00:11:14.260 This word for are. 00:11:16.580 --> 00:11:19.840 He's saying to us, this is actively as belonging to Jesus. 00:11:20.140 --> 00:11:24.020 Your continual position in him, this is who you are. 00:11:24.980 --> 00:11:29.210 In case you get lost on the journey, in case you lose perspective, in case you feel like you're not worthy. 00:11:29.220 --> 00:11:32.440 In case you don't think that you're accepted, this is who you are. 00:11:34.100 --> 00:11:41.220 And one of the important things I think he does with this are is then he attaches it to you, which becomes really important to understanding freedom 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:45.040 because it's about everything that I just said and autonomous independence. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:47.960 This word you are is your. 00:11:49.380 --> 00:11:54.160 And so what it's saying for us is this isn't your freedom, an autonomous independence. 00:11:54.880 --> 00:11:58.580 This is the church together being shaped in the identity of Jesus. 00:11:58.940 --> 00:12:01.460 This is what God is working out in all of us. 00:12:01.740 --> 00:12:03.020 You want to find a place where you belong. 00:12:03.120 --> 00:12:05.140 You want to find a place where you have purpose, meaning and worth. 00:12:08.040 --> 00:12:09.920 It's God's people being shaped in this identity. 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:17.960 And what Peter is encouraging us for in this passage is this when we're free. 00:12:20.520 --> 00:12:23.180 It's then that you can live for the purpose for which you were created. 00:12:25.940 --> 00:12:28.140 When you choose to live in this identity. 00:12:29.620 --> 00:12:33.300 Then it shapes the trajectory for the way you conduct yourself in this world. 00:12:35.780 --> 00:12:38.090 You don't have to go on a quest for purpose and meaning. 00:12:40.180 --> 00:12:42.220 Because Jesus has already given it to you. 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:44.620 Now you live it out. 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:50.260 Jesus, Mark. 00:12:50.420 --> 00:12:50.520 Ten. 00:12:53.120 --> 00:12:56.330 Tried to explain this to his passage, and this is the way I want to approach Mark ten. 00:12:56.880 --> 00:13:00.360 So I've talked a lot about freedom, and now we need to connect the dot. 00:13:00.920 --> 00:13:02.540 How in the world do we draw this to slavery? 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:08.140 You know, like if you if you say to yourself this morning, I agree, I agree. 00:13:08.140 --> 00:13:15.200 I'm holistically in with Jesus, I give my life to him, but how could I ever convince someone else that this is 00:13:15.200 --> 00:13:17.480 what they need to do to when it comes to Christ? 00:13:17.480 --> 00:13:19.300 Like, where does where do those dots connect? 00:13:19.460 --> 00:13:20.400 How can I go on this journey? 00:13:20.460 --> 00:13:21.500 What scriptures are important? 00:13:21.500 --> 00:13:28.710 Well, Mark ten Jesus is sharing with his disciples and He gives this proclamation for what He's going to do in verse 32 00:13:29.820 --> 00:13:36.920 and this verse for when I look at this verse, I feel like everyone's concerned for Jesus because they feel 00:13:36.920 --> 00:13:42.990 like he's going to have like this Ronda Rousey experience just a couple nights ago, if you even get that cultural reference. 00:13:43.680 --> 00:13:46.080 But in verse 32, look what it says. 00:13:46.580 --> 00:13:47.960 They're on the road going to Jerusalem. 00:13:48.780 --> 00:13:50.660 Jesus is near death here. 00:13:50.660 --> 00:13:57.580 They know people are out for Jesus and now they're on the road going to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them. 00:13:57.580 --> 00:14:00.440 It's not like, Hey, you guys, check it out for me, okay? 00:14:00.580 --> 00:14:04.110 But Jesus was walking ahead of me and look and they were amazed. 00:14:05.120 --> 00:14:06.520 And those who followed were fearful. 00:14:07.340 --> 00:14:08.520 It's like, you go on. 00:14:08.640 --> 00:14:10.040 You go on ahead, Jesus. 00:14:10.160 --> 00:14:12.540 Like, oh, that's incredible. 00:14:12.920 --> 00:14:16.100 And I'm going to pretend like I don't know you as soon as the crowd jumps you. 00:14:16.540 --> 00:14:17.540 So they're all fearful. 00:14:17.760 --> 00:14:23.360 And again, he took the 12 aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. 00:14:24.340 --> 00:14:25.040 And then in verse 33. 00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:30.460 Saying, this is Jesus, Behold, we're going to Jerusalem. 00:14:31.960 --> 00:14:35.440 And the son of man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. 00:14:37.160 --> 00:14:38.540 And they will condemn him to death. 00:14:40.340 --> 00:14:41.940 And we'll hand him over. 00:14:43.160 --> 00:14:44.920 The Gentiles. 00:14:45.440 --> 00:14:50.260 Now, Jesus, in this passage, referring to himself, he's actually talking about himself in third person. 00:14:50.320 --> 00:14:54.540 I don't know if you caught that, but when he when he's referencing himself, it's kind of it's kind of bizarre. 00:14:54.760 --> 00:14:55.950 Why would Jesus do that? 00:14:56.640 --> 00:14:59.900 The reason Jesus is referring to himself in third person has to do with the phrase of the son of man. 00:14:59.960 --> 00:15:07.060 He's actually quoting scripture, showing how he is the son of man as it records in Scripture, which actually the son of man points more to the deity of 00:15:07.160 --> 00:15:08.500 Christ than it does the humanity of Jesus. 00:15:09.200 --> 00:15:10.680 But there are two passages that do both. 00:15:11.020 --> 00:15:15.130 In Psalm 814, it talks more about the humanity of Christ and the Son of man. 00:15:15.580 --> 00:15:21.690 But in Daniel chapter seven, verses 13 and 14, you see the son of man is actually God become flesh. 00:15:22.300 --> 00:15:27.780 And so Jesus is putting this title on himself to show he is the fulfillment of Scripture. 00:15:29.100 --> 00:15:36.370 And like any, any great disciple, any any dude, it's like they don't even know what to do with that man. 00:15:36.400 --> 00:15:36.860 That sounds heavy. 00:15:37.420 --> 00:15:38.600 And so they just change topic. 00:15:39.420 --> 00:15:44.580 They don't even they don't even engage in this conversation like, Jesus, that sounds horrible, you know? 00:15:44.880 --> 00:15:51.940 But they just say this, James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus and they said to him, Hey, can we sit one on your 00:15:51.940 --> 00:15:53.890 right and one on the left in your glory? 00:15:54.280 --> 00:15:55.320 Like their question. 00:15:55.520 --> 00:15:55.960 Their question. 00:15:55.960 --> 00:15:56.820 Oh, Jesus, you're done. 00:15:57.120 --> 00:15:57.560 That's. 00:15:57.620 --> 00:15:58.420 I feel so bad. 00:15:58.680 --> 00:16:00.010 Let's just pray about this together. 00:16:00.020 --> 00:16:00.220 It's. 00:16:00.580 --> 00:16:01.320 Oh, man. 00:16:01.760 --> 00:16:03.170 Hey, can we be first in your kingdom? 00:16:03.680 --> 00:16:10.720 Like, it's totally, totally misses what Christ is trying to say here, But they're more interested in their 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:11.820 position. 00:16:11.820 --> 00:16:11.940 Right? 00:16:12.300 --> 00:16:14.520 This is where it gets important to servanthood and slave. 00:16:14.760 --> 00:16:17.440 But they're more interested in how they can get to the top. 00:16:19.040 --> 00:16:20.220 And then Jesus says this. 00:16:20.400 --> 00:16:22.760 He uses it as a teaching moment, as all good teachers would. 00:16:22.760 --> 00:16:25.850 He says, calling them to himself, Jesus said to them. 00:16:26.880 --> 00:16:34.060 You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them and their great men exercise authority over them. 00:16:34.900 --> 00:16:36.680 But it is not this way among you. 00:16:38.000 --> 00:16:41.620 Whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant. 00:16:43.060 --> 00:16:47.600 And whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:53.480 Now you listen to that and you're like, That really doesn't explain to me why, but it just tells me that that's what I should do, right? 00:16:55.000 --> 00:16:56.860 But then Jesus says probably the most important thing. 00:16:58.640 --> 00:16:59.360 Verse 45. 00:17:02.460 --> 00:17:03.360 For even the son of man. 00:17:05.480 --> 00:17:06.500 Did not come to be served. 00:17:08.040 --> 00:17:08.540 But to serve. 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:11.280 And to give his life. 00:17:12.420 --> 00:17:15.859 A ransom for many. 00:17:18.940 --> 00:17:21.140 The way you can really see. 00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:23.160 I'm going to jump back to this person in a second. 00:17:23.359 --> 00:17:25.400 But the way you can truly see if someone is free. 00:17:27.619 --> 00:17:28.560 As if they're using. 00:17:30.260 --> 00:17:31.320 Their giftedness in the freedom. 00:17:32.680 --> 00:17:34.040 To leverage for the benefit of other people. 00:17:35.960 --> 00:17:40.880 Meaning it's only free people that can help those that are in bondage find freedom. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:44.080 And that's what Jesus is saying about his life here. 00:17:45.440 --> 00:17:45.720 I'm free. 00:17:46.840 --> 00:17:47.220 You're not. 00:17:48.060 --> 00:17:50.900 I've come to give my life that you can experience freedom. 00:17:50.940 --> 00:17:51.080 That's. 00:17:51.280 --> 00:17:54.080 That's what makes freedom continue on. 00:17:54.080 --> 00:17:59.330 That's what births freedom Is that when someone else is willing to lay down their life for the benefit of other people in bondage. 00:18:00.700 --> 00:18:05.370 But what Jesus does here is something, something significant as he points to the reason of his servanthood. 00:18:05.380 --> 00:18:08.400 And this is what leads us to servanthood and emulation of Christ. 00:18:08.940 --> 00:18:14.720 He chooses to use a popular or not a popular expression, but a common expression. 00:18:15.960 --> 00:18:23.180 See, in our language today, when we talk about financial transactions, we have we have several words that we have that relate 00:18:23.180 --> 00:18:30.600 to any sort of financial transactions, whether it be to purchase, to deposit, to get a loan, to get 00:18:30.600 --> 00:18:31.980 get a receipt to pay down a debt. 00:18:32.020 --> 00:18:35.310 There's all sorts of words that relate to financial transactions. 00:18:37.520 --> 00:18:38.780 In Jesus's culture the same thing. 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:47.460 And Jesus chooses to use this particular word related to financial transactions in order to create an image within our mind. 00:18:49.700 --> 00:18:54.480 He uses the word at the very end of this phrase and to give his life a ransom. 00:18:55.920 --> 00:18:57.200 For many. 00:18:58.760 --> 00:19:06.020 This word for ransom in Jesus's culture was used for the purpose of purchasing Purchasing a 00:19:06.020 --> 00:19:06.340 Slave. 00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:15.920 And so when he uses this expression to his people and the disciples that he's explaining his purpose to, they would have immediately understood what 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:21.340 Jesus is associating his life for and what He's saying about this ransom. 00:19:21.420 --> 00:19:26.360 Normally within his own culture, when someone would pay the ransom for a slave, they would pay some sort of money. 00:19:26.560 --> 00:19:30.780 But what Jesus is saying about this ransom is that he himself would be the ransom. 00:19:33.260 --> 00:19:39.280 Now he's not proclaiming that he would be the ransom sort of as a as a worst case scenario. 00:19:39.380 --> 00:19:41.780 Like I don't I don't have any other options here. 00:19:42.520 --> 00:19:43.880 Like this is my last resort. 00:19:44.320 --> 00:19:45.520 And so I've just got to do this. 00:19:45.900 --> 00:19:53.180 But rather Jesus is laying his life down to be the ransom, because this was the plan 00:19:53.180 --> 00:19:55.540 from the beginning to set people free. 00:19:57.440 --> 00:19:59.380 Wasn't because the opposition was so difficult. 00:20:01.380 --> 00:20:02.300 Because Jesus, is that great? 00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:09.120 And to paint the picture really more fully in our mind exactly what Jesus is saying here. 00:20:09.360 --> 00:20:16.820 Jesus is also carrying this word ransom from a particular storyline so that for the Jewish people 00:20:16.820 --> 00:20:19.780 it would it would just saturate them. 00:20:20.040 --> 00:20:21.540 And the beauty of what Christ is saying. 00:20:23.600 --> 00:20:30.760 And when Jesus is using this word ransom, it's a fulfillment of everything that God told the people of Israel as 00:20:30.760 --> 00:20:32.400 he brought them out of bondage in Egypt. 00:20:34.840 --> 00:20:36.300 In Exodus, chapter three. 00:20:36.860 --> 00:20:44.300 If you're familiar with the story of Exodus, it's the story of Moses being called to go before Pharaoh and set 00:20:44.300 --> 00:20:45.080 the captives free. 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:48.700 To see Israel brought out of slavery. 00:20:50.420 --> 00:20:54.620 And so in chapter three, God meets Moses at the burning bush. 00:20:56.300 --> 00:21:01.670 And in verse 14, he commissions Moses to go back to Pharaoh all the way into Chapter four. 00:21:03.020 --> 00:21:06.440 And then Moses goes before Pharaoh in chapter four and verse 18. 00:21:08.300 --> 00:21:15.480 But when you get to the chapter five about the midway through Chapter five, what you find out with Moses's initial encounters with Pharaoh is they didn't go the way that he wanted 00:21:15.480 --> 00:21:16.110 them to. 00:21:18.060 --> 00:21:21.000 And so Moses comes back to Pharaoh distraught. 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:28.280 In Chapter five, verses 22, he asks the question, God, why did you why did you send me before Pharaoh? 00:21:28.340 --> 00:21:30.300 The people were better off before I even came here. 00:21:33.880 --> 00:21:34.320 And then. 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:34.580 God. 00:21:37.380 --> 00:21:38.450 Pulls back the curtain. 00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:43.520 He paints for Moses. 00:21:45.340 --> 00:21:46.260 This beautiful picture. 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:51.220 And he lets Moses sort of see on the inside. 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:54.840 What he's working for. 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:55.060 Our goodness. 00:21:57.620 --> 00:22:04.960 So as we trust in God with our lives, we don't always know how things will end up. 00:22:05.500 --> 00:22:06.640 And the long term we do. 00:22:06.760 --> 00:22:06.860 But. 00:22:08.520 --> 00:22:11.510 But we're just trusting him each step of the way to be there to provide. 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:12.360 God is faithful. 00:22:13.380 --> 00:22:14.690 God is faithful to us. 00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:23.200 But he says in Exodus, chapter six, as he starts to pull back the curtain in verse two, But then in verse, verse six, he goes from here and he says, Say 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:24.520 therefore to the Sons of Israel. 00:22:26.600 --> 00:22:27.220 I am the Lord. 00:22:29.340 --> 00:22:35.800 I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I will deliver you from their bondage. 00:22:37.600 --> 00:22:41.800 I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgment. 00:22:41.840 --> 00:22:45.060 Then I will take you for my people and I will be your God. 00:22:45.380 --> 00:22:51.050 And you shall know that I am the Lord, your God who brought you from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 00:22:55.380 --> 00:23:03.060 Jesus in this passage or the Lord in this passage, as He's explaining to Moses, he 00:23:03.100 --> 00:23:06.980 uses this phrase to kind of identify what he desires to do for Israel. 00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:07.960 Who is their slaves? 00:23:09.840 --> 00:23:10.430 They're in bondage. 00:23:10.560 --> 00:23:11.100 They're not free. 00:23:12.840 --> 00:23:14.040 And he gives these I will statements. 00:23:15.660 --> 00:23:19.920 And when you notice the first the first two that he gives deals with the liberation. 00:23:21.320 --> 00:23:25.940 But then the next to deal with the identity, which really is all of what freedom encompasses. 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:30.790 And so he says, I'm going to set you free from the burden of the Egyptians. 00:23:31.040 --> 00:23:32.400 I'm going to deliver you from their bondage. 00:23:33.220 --> 00:23:35.340 But liberation isn't the fullness of freedom. 00:23:35.340 --> 00:23:37.950 It's just being set free from what held you in bondage. 00:23:37.960 --> 00:23:41.600 It doesn't guarantee that you're not going to continue to be free from the things that can bond you. 00:23:44.200 --> 00:23:45.140 And so then he says this. 00:23:47.680 --> 00:23:48.570 I will also. 00:23:51.640 --> 00:23:51.860 Redeem you. 00:23:55.320 --> 00:23:58.780 This word for redemption in Hebrew literature is rich with meaning. 00:24:01.580 --> 00:24:05.920 It's a word when you look into it deals with and focuses on preserving. 00:24:07.640 --> 00:24:09.250 It focuses on restoring. 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:16.880 And that's possible, this redemption, because it's done by someone who has the means to do so. 00:24:18.900 --> 00:24:25.280 The value of the thing redeemed is determined by the price someone pays for it. 00:24:28.210 --> 00:24:29.250 And you think of Jesus. 00:24:32.600 --> 00:24:33.980 Who paid the ransom. 00:24:35.820 --> 00:24:36.500 With his life. 00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:40.580 And when you study this word redeemed. 00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:46.000 What you find in Hebrew is that it comes from the same word cluster as the word for ransomed. 00:24:47.780 --> 00:24:54.930 And so when Jesus is walking on this road with his disciples and he's explaining to them the fullness of what he's desiring to accomplish, 00:24:55.280 --> 00:25:02.900 he uses this word ransom, to draw them back to the history of Israel in which they lived at a time in bondage, to understand 00:25:02.900 --> 00:25:10.060 in their own lives exactly what Jesus was going to do and how him being a servant is what led to the freedom of all people as 00:25:10.060 --> 00:25:11.310 they trust in him. 00:25:13.160 --> 00:25:15.080 And so the focus of redemption. 00:25:16.680 --> 00:25:19.620 It's not just about what you were bought from. 00:25:22.600 --> 00:25:23.920 The focus of redemption. 00:25:25.820 --> 00:25:28.730 Finds its fullness in what you were bought for. 00:25:30.840 --> 00:25:38.120 So when you talk about the word freedom and what it means in our lives to live in the identity of that freedom, to just stop on 00:25:38.120 --> 00:25:42.500 what you were set free from is to sell it short of what it's intended to do. 00:25:42.980 --> 00:25:49.250 Because what God's desire to do in you is to set you free for what you were created for. 00:25:51.280 --> 00:25:53.560 Not from. 00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:58.020 And so Peter is shaping this identity for us. 00:25:58.060 --> 00:26:05.300 And so when you see why you were made and how to be free and what Jesus gives us, we begin to want 00:26:05.300 --> 00:26:06.440 to serve in it. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:12.600 When the disciples wrote the New Testament. 00:26:12.620 --> 00:26:18.220 When you read their Epistles as they are writing letters to the church, almost all of them start this way. 00:26:19.000 --> 00:26:22.420 Servant of the Lord or slave of the Lord. 00:26:24.280 --> 00:26:31.380 And I think their intentions for us is not to oversell the redemption and ramps and that Jesus has paid for us so that we 00:26:31.380 --> 00:26:33.400 can truly see what it means to shape identity. 00:26:33.660 --> 00:26:38.310 Because when you ask anyone in history at any point, if you say to them, Do you want to be a slave? 00:26:39.640 --> 00:26:41.500 No, Lord, no. 00:26:42.860 --> 00:26:44.400 I don't no one's going to sign up for that. 00:26:46.060 --> 00:26:53.440 But when you see that Jesus becomes that place of saturating your life so that you find freedom in here so that you can truly live for why you 00:26:53.440 --> 00:26:54.750 why you were created. 00:26:55.640 --> 00:27:00.980 What the disciples are doing is saying, as much as I can give all of my life for this. 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:04.540 I am laying it down. 00:27:06.360 --> 00:27:13.600 And you ask the disciples if you could just think of a word that expressed the totality of laying all that you are down to experience 00:27:13.600 --> 00:27:15.840 this freedom, What word could you use to express it? 00:27:19.980 --> 00:27:20.420 Bondservant. 00:27:23.520 --> 00:27:26.720 Servant of God. 00:27:27.080 --> 00:27:28.570 A slave to him. 00:27:30.040 --> 00:27:37.160 Because it's when I find the reason for which I am created and I am mastered by it. 00:27:39.260 --> 00:27:40.720 That I live in that freedom. 00:27:42.520 --> 00:27:44.260 We begin to want to serve in it. 00:27:45.680 --> 00:27:50.700 And this becomes important because it really answers for us the question why do Christians do good works? 00:27:52.660 --> 00:27:53.260 I get this? 00:27:53.400 --> 00:27:56.030 I get asked this in Utah a lot. 00:27:56.900 --> 00:27:58.200 Good works don't lead to your salvation. 00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:01.160 How do good works not lead to your salvation? 00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:02.240 Why would you do good works then? 00:28:04.540 --> 00:28:04.760 Do you know? 00:28:04.820 --> 00:28:06.360 Paul was asked that same question. 00:28:08.320 --> 00:28:15.560 When he talked about the liberation that Jesus brings us, the freedom in him that we now have, in the identity that we receive in him, the people's 00:28:15.560 --> 00:28:21.620 reaction, because the goodness of Christ that sets us free totally because of Jesus, because we were slaves, that could not set ourselves free. 00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:23.840 The question came up then why do we do good? 00:28:26.740 --> 00:28:27.780 Romans Chapter six. 00:28:27.800 --> 00:28:28.440 That's how it starts. 00:28:28.660 --> 00:28:29.480 What shall we say then? 00:28:30.520 --> 00:28:32.950 Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 00:28:33.020 --> 00:28:40.440 What they're saying is, if God's grace rescued us from our sin and it doesn't matter that what we did to save ourselves, rather God's 00:28:40.460 --> 00:28:41.940 grace is the thing that rescues us. 00:28:42.380 --> 00:28:44.350 Why don't we just go on and keep on living in sin? 00:28:44.700 --> 00:28:47.060 So that demonstrates just how good God's grace is. 00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:48.200 I mean, that's the question. 00:28:48.860 --> 00:28:51.210 Can we continue in sin so that grace may increase? 00:28:51.960 --> 00:28:53.480 And he says in verse verse two. 00:28:54.780 --> 00:28:55.560 And may it never be. 00:28:57.460 --> 00:29:00.160 How shall we who died to sin live in it. 00:29:01.400 --> 00:29:01.580 Meaning? 00:29:03.360 --> 00:29:05.320 How shall you who've been set free? 00:29:05.400 --> 00:29:07.680 Go back to the thing that bound you. 00:29:10.320 --> 00:29:12.180 Why not live for what you were created for? 00:29:13.740 --> 00:29:17.600 They ask the question again in verse 15, What then shall we sin? 00:29:17.600 --> 00:29:20.440 Because we are not under law but under grace. 00:29:22.280 --> 00:29:23.220 May it never be. 00:29:26.940 --> 00:29:28.630 Freedom means we live in the new identity. 00:29:30.460 --> 00:29:31.460 The identity you were created. 00:29:33.620 --> 00:29:34.200 To live out. 00:29:35.440 --> 00:29:35.960 Why? 00:29:38.200 --> 00:29:39.280 Why do you use the word slave? 00:29:41.280 --> 00:29:42.020 Why? 00:29:44.940 --> 00:29:46.590 Because we see how we've been given freedom. 00:29:49.560 --> 00:29:50.220 We were ransomed. 00:29:51.660 --> 00:29:53.760 And redeemed from something. 00:29:55.320 --> 00:29:57.840 But more importantly, for something. 00:29:59.240 --> 00:30:06.440 And living in that identity and shaping our lives in that purpose, we find the full potential for which we were created. 00:30:09.960 --> 00:30:10.700 I believe this. 00:30:13.140 --> 00:30:14.880 That life change for any of us. 00:30:16.840 --> 00:30:17.380 Doesn't happen. 00:30:19.540 --> 00:30:20.760 Until we first see why. 00:30:23.140 --> 00:30:23.860 Why would I want to change? 00:30:26.760 --> 00:30:27.580 Why would I want that? 00:30:29.800 --> 00:30:30.480 Why would you want to fall? 00:30:31.040 --> 00:30:33.130 Follow Jesus as he is your master. 00:30:35.840 --> 00:30:36.880 Because he set you free. 00:30:39.520 --> 00:30:41.270 Because you find the reason for which you were created. 00:30:43.300 --> 00:30:44.380 The freedom to live. 00:30:46.240 --> 00:30:51.360 The beautiful cost he paid for your ransom and the opportunity to find identity where you belong. 00:30:53.160 --> 00:30:54.160 You were bought from. 00:30:56.000 --> 00:30:57.310 But you're also bought for. 00:30:59.720 --> 00:31:02.660 When you discover why, then the question becomes for all of us. 00:31:04.000 --> 00:31:04.520 Who do you want to be? 00:31:07.900 --> 00:31:11.520 In the Christian life isn't about what you're trying to avoid. 00:31:11.960 --> 00:31:14.740 It's not a set of rules about what you're trying to avoid. 00:31:15.100 --> 00:31:21.950 The Christian life is about who God wants to transform you into and who you are to become. 00:31:24.220 --> 00:31:25.020 All of that. 00:31:26.460 --> 00:31:31.440 All of that is experienced in the freedom of a relationship with Jesus as you walk with him. 00:31:33.100 --> 00:31:33.850 It is impossible. 00:31:36.140 --> 00:31:39.860 It is impossible not to belong to something. 00:31:41.880 --> 00:31:47.200 And to deny Jesus means you will go somewhere to find worth, value and meaning. 00:31:47.840 --> 00:31:47.940 Purpose. 00:31:49.840 --> 00:31:56.940 But what Jesus points to in this scripture is that the greatest worth, the greatest value any of us could ever have 00:31:56.940 --> 00:32:00.820 happened at the ransoming and redeeming that Jesus has brought? 00:32:00.820 --> 00:32:06.810 Because the ransom that he's paid and the redemption that he's paid the worth of you is determined by the value for which you were purchased. 00:32:09.210 --> 00:32:10.560 And it was done by his life. 00:32:13.080 --> 00:32:13.460 Which makes. 00:32:14.760 --> 00:32:15.640 This last slide. 00:32:15.800 --> 00:32:17.280 Beautiful for me. 00:32:17.880 --> 00:32:18.950 And I'm sure for you. 00:32:20.100 --> 00:32:25.720 Because this is the picture of God's people gathered around his throne and it says this. 00:32:25.740 --> 00:32:27.250 And they sang a new song. 00:32:28.500 --> 00:32:33.720 And God gave them a new song to sing in that freedom and the liberation. 00:32:33.900 --> 00:32:40.980 You've been there in your life, right, where you've experienced something that was just so heartwarming, something that opened up new opportunity in your life, and you were like the sound of 00:32:40.980 --> 00:32:43.380 music dancing around and you can't even carry a tune. 00:32:43.400 --> 00:32:50.160 By the way, I appreciate you letting me do music this morning, whatever happened there, but a new song. 00:32:51.340 --> 00:32:54.260 And this is what they sang because the freedom they experienced in Christ. 00:32:55.640 --> 00:33:03.140 Worthy are you to take the book and to break its seals for you were slain, ransomed and look and 00:33:03.140 --> 00:33:10.160 purchased for you purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and 00:33:10.160 --> 00:33:12.160 tongue and people and nation. 00:33:12.200 --> 00:33:16.380 You have made them to be a kingdom and priest identity to our God. 00:33:18.340 --> 00:33:21.440 And they will reign upon the earth. 00:33:24.900 --> 00:33:25.300 Here's my hope. 00:33:27.240 --> 00:33:34.340 I hope every time you pick up the Bible that everything we talked about this morning colors everything that you read in 00:33:34.340 --> 00:33:41.340 Scripture, because the theme of everything that's been expressed is about us finding identity in everything that this is 00:33:41.340 --> 00:33:44.470 so that we can live to the fullness of which God has created you. 00:33:44.600 --> 00:33:45.940 And when you think about freedom. 00:33:47.460 --> 00:33:54.640 You see freedom not just as an escaping from something, but a living in something and knowing that we're going to belong to something in this world, 00:33:54.960 --> 00:33:57.360 that what better could our hearts be longing for? 00:33:58.820 --> 00:34:00.640 In Christ. 00:34:00.700 --> 00:34:02.260 And if you live that this year. 00:34:03.920 --> 00:34:04.200 Incredible year. 00:34:05.620 --> 00:34:07.300 But if you live that every day. 00:34:08.900 --> 00:34:09.340 Look out. 00:34:11.020 --> 00:34:12.830 Because of what God can do through you. 00:34:13.560 --> 00:34:14.550 Let me close in a prayer.