Free Indeed
“Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” John 8:36
We are all broken people who need Jesus. We are bound in sin, enslaved to a sin nature we have inherited from our common fore parent the ‘first Adam.”
We don’t have a drug or alcohol addiction problem, or a problem with pornography, adultery, rage, theft, violence, or whatever your poison.
WE HAVE A SIN PROBLEM AND IT IS SPIRITUAL!
In our flesh born alone condition we are helpless to overcome sin and dead in our sin, . We must be “born again,” born of the Spirit, made a new creation.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” -2nd Corinthians 5:17
When God enters the picture, everything changes! We change!
Made Alive By Grace Through Faith in Jesus Christ
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:1-8
What life controlling issue holds you in bondage? They are known as works of the flesh.
“Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21
Freedom is far more than just freedom from substance abuse.
Recovery is a word that leaves an impression that it is only about recovering from addiction to substance. It’s much more, as the list of the “works of the flesh,” describe. Some believe that it’s an us and them kind of situation. Some say, “At least I’m not addicted to drugs, or an alcoholic.” Yet they live their lives in “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries,” if not yet in action, it is in thought, that when entertained, leads to the act.
“But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:28
Sin begins in the mind of man. Entertaining thoughts of sin will lead to doing sin in the physical. It is the inevitable next step from what has already happened in his or her heart, unless the thought is brought into captivity to Christ.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” 2nd Corinthians 10:4-5
The battle is in our mind. But in the Spirit, taking the thoughts of sinfulness into captivity to the obedience of Christ, we stop the sin in its tracks before it ends up being done in our lustful flesh. The reality is that we can now take that step of bringing our thoughts captive unto obedience of Christ. Before we were born again, we were a helpless slave to the sin and its lust in our old heart. It is our flesh that is the problem. And it has to die.
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.”James 1:13-16
The old man cannot contain his or her thoughts. He is a slave to his fleshly desires. And there is no such thing as a little sin versus a big sin. In the heart of man, it comes down to whether one has a new heart through rebirth by the Spirit from above and is set free from the bondage to sin or remains dead in their sin with no possible way to overcome “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.”
In the Flesh or in The Spirit?
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Romans 8:5-17
The word “enmity” means to be hostile. Our mind in the flesh is diametrically opposed to the things of the Spirit and wars against the Spirit. We were in bondage to our inherited heart of sin. But, if we belong to the Spirit, God has entered into our situation with the redemptive and resurrection power that raised Jesus from the dead and has given life to we who were once dead in our sin. No longer slaves to sin! He has set us free!
“Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!”
“Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” -Jesus
Is Jesus a liar? No! He is not! Are we in recovery, or are we recovered? If we are a new creation in Christ, our inner man or woman is recovered. We are free! What was it that our Jesus proclaimed? He proclaimed that we are “Free Indeed!”
When Jesus made the emphatic statement that the freedom He brings is freedom indeed, it isn’t qualified by your thoughts or understanding. He means what He says, and He is faithful. It isn’t freedom from the sin of pornography while still awaiting freedom from tobacco. Nor is the freedom from drug addiction, while struggling in our flesh with other sinful expressions, believing we have to wait for Jesus to set us free from them, one at a time.
That Jesus set us free from one sinful act and not another is a mindset that is not from God! We have been given the mind of Christ, if we believe what is written. Jesus said, “Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed!”
In Christ – Freedom is Freedom!
When the chains are broken and the jail is door open, it is incumbent upon us to walk out into the fresh air in our new life unburdened and free from sin. You have been given authority over your lustful and dead flesh over every expression of sin. This authority is given to those of us who have humbly surrendered to the authority of the Sovereign God who is Spirit. We belong to Him who purchased us by the blood of His only begotten Son. We are born again, from above, by the resurrection power of our Great God and King! Born again means you were dead in your sin, but now you are no longer dead in your sin, you are now “alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
The Road to Freedom
Paul’s Letter to the Romans is the truth that presents the road to freedom in Christ by the power of the indwelling Spirit, to those of whom we are now possessed by through a new reborn life in Christ. In Christ we have received power over our flesh, by the Spirit who is God, within us. Note the following verses:
“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise, you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” Romans 6:1-14
“You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” 1st John 4:4
“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace, you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:1-10
What are Good Works that We Are to Walk In?
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:25
The “good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk” in them is fruit borne by walking in the Spirit who indwells us.
Who works in us? We are the workmanship of Christ. We have the Spirit on The Word of Life implanted within us, dwelling within us, and He is at work in us, bearing the fruit of who He is, the Spirit, in us and through us.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:22-25
Self-Control is not a pull yourself up by the bootstraps – not a self-help book of recovery – not a twelve step program, nor behavioral modifications. Self-Control is a fruit of the Spirit in us who are born again by the dynamite resurrection power of God in the redemptive blood of the Lamb, Jesus! It is what He does and has done, as we rest in His finished work on the cross, for us!
“for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Philippians 2:13
“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:10
God does not do incomplete work. He is always faithful to do exactly as He has promised. The Book of Hebrews says, in Hebrews Chapter Ten, Verse Twenty Three, that “He who promised is faithful”. Jesus promised that we “Free Indeed!”
The Heart of the Matter
The Bible tells us where the sin that defiles us comes from. The problem is that each of us need a new heart. The word “heart” is “Kardia” in the Greek, and it means our thoughts, our mind, the very “middle” of who we are. It is who we are at the very center of our being. Who we are predicates what we will do and what we will say. Jesus didn’t die just for your particular addiction. He died, so that when you receive Him by faith, you are free from the sin nature of your old person, where your addiction(s) and many sins come from.
“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Matthew 15:18-19
This is why the old man must die, and we must die to our old man each moment of each day. We are to reckon ourselves dead to sin, and now alive to Christ.
Free Indeed is about being Free Indeed, as Jesus proclaims, completely.
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Are you tired of the works of the flesh continually destroying your life and family and peace with God? Do you desire true and lasting peace, reconciliation with God and restoration of the years that have been taken from you? Are you ready to change directions and get on the true path of the Way, the Truth and Life? Are you ready for the chains to fall off, broken in pieces and to see the jail door wide open, and torn off the hinges?
Are you ready to walk out FREE INDEED? Spirit led and not program bound!
• Weekly meetings with a focus on the truth of freedom in Christ.
• Testimonies of others who have found great freedom in Christ.
• Uniting with other pastors and other congregations unified in the headship of Christ for this purpose.
• Discipleship, which is another word for being a mentor, and not just a “sponsor.” Making disciples and teaching them to make disciples – Replication and Multiplication.
• Not just 12 Steps and 8 Principles, but teaching the whole counsel of God, in context.
• Presenting the truth that we are no longer recovering addicts or recovering from any other life controlling issue, but we are blood bought, born again from above, children of God, co-heirs with Christ, and members of the royal family. We are a new creation who is free from sin and a productive loving member of the body of Christ. We have the fruit of the Spirit of “Self-Control” and are no longer a slave to the life controlling issues of sin.
It is not about religion, but it is about relationship, and lives changed by the love of God
This is the vision and mission of First Love Outreach Fellowship, and it can only be fully realized as the body of Christ comes together as one in Jesus Christ. We need each other and that is why I am proposing that pastors or representatives chosen by pastors of other churches be involved in practical aspects as well as the leadership group of First Indeed!
“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore, He says: “WHEN HE ASCENDED ON HIGH, HE LED CAPTIVITY CAPTIVE AND GAVE GIFTS TO MEN.” (Now this, “HE ASCENDED”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Ephesians 4:1-13
Who wants to join me? Email: bannerkidd55@gmail.com or call 260-336-4106