HERE IS FREEDOM - Sermon Notes 1

2 Corinthians 3:17 "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

I'm finally getting on with my resolution! At 10:30 PM. On Sunday evening. School tomorrow morning. My first ever summative. Final projects a quarter of the way done.

Heh. Yup.

For the past three weeks, my ministry has been discussing "Freedom", concluding this series today as the last part. Pardon, as I attempt to decipher my horrible handwriting, but I'll do my best to relay the message.

2016 was a year a lot of us were glad to see go. It was filled with difficulty, sadness, challenges and fear.

But it was also full of goodness. It was full of God's faithfulness.

New Years bring a sense of optimism and excitement. Goals and new ideas. But there's also a sense of cynicism. That this year will be just like the last. It's like waking up to a beautiful morning, sun-shining, birds chirping. Picturesque. And all you can think of is "here we go again..." How do they do it. How do those optimists never let anything get them down? How do they smile like that? How do they always ask for others? How do they always know when to say and what to say and how to say it?

This generation..."Millennials" is what they call them. I guess the younger ones, like us, are called something different but apparently we do share similar traits. They're floaty. They want to make an impact and when they can't immediately do that, they'll jump back on the wagon and look for some other place they can make a change.

We're a generation that needs to know that what we do is not for nothing. That it does something in the end. I've often pondered myself, if I don't make a dent into this whole big world then what's even the point of being on it? We need validation. Those likes. Those thumbs ups. Those responses and those double-tap hearts.

Because then we know someone's paying attention.

This is where we live. An age of technology. A generation of billions of people trying to find a sense of purpose, value and identity while living against the impossible standards of this world. A popularity contest everyone's competing in and everyone wants to win but no one ever will. We cover our Instagram pages with picture after picture of "living the good life" with deep, introspective, usually nonsensical captions. We advertise to the world that's we're good and we're ok and you see the likes pile up and you think, "OK, we got this. Just one more..."

This isn't anything new. In fact, it's the oldest thing there is.

As Christians, we ought to live unashamed. Adam and Eve, the first humans in the world never had anything to fear. They had the perfect relationship with each other and with God. And yet still the enemy got in. To their heads, messed with their thoughts. Because once they saw who they were and what they did, they hid. From God, who said he'd love them no matter what. They hid and they were frightened.

The enemy's been using this tactic from the very beginning. Telling us every second: Unworthy. Not good enough. And so we try to be good enough. With the right clothes maybe, with the right hairstyle. I'm better than this person so that makes me one step above on this hierarchy.

Isn't it so tiring though? To be enough to this world - it's draining. It's hard, sometimes harmful. It's a shackle. Striving to be enough.

"He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where is it written:

"'The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.'

"Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

Luke 4:16-21

You may have noticed I bolded a part of the passage that sounds actually quite bland. Jesus sits down. Yes. That's what people do. However, this is purely speculation, as the Bible doesn't directly say, but if you look into some history, back in those days, when the scripture was being read, there was a single chair at the front of the sanctuary in which the gathered worshiped. This chair was the chair of Elijah. It represented the seat of the Messiah, the one who would bring salvation and restore Israel. It was not sat in by anyone else.

You see where this is going?

This is the first place Jesus declares himself as the Saviour and Messiah that the people had so hoped for for so many long years of silence. And here he was, reading an entirely coincidental passage from the scroll that he definitely did not chose out or predetermine. And then bam. He sits down. In the chair of Elijah. Like a boss. Imagine him flipping on some rad shades and crossing his legs while he watches the room, dumbfounded at what he just declared with his single action.

This is our God. And I really like to think this is what happened.

Good news to the poor. Freedom for the prisoners. Sight for the blind. Release for the oppressed. This is what Jesus came here to do.

And you know, worshipping God, being with him. It doesn't give him any benefit. He is an infinite being, he doesn't need us to pray and read the Bible and come to church every Sunday and all that stuff. He doesn't need it.

We need it. He wants us to live the absolute best versions of ourselves and that comes when we are faithful to him.

We are only made sufficient through Christ.

What really is freedom? It's a feeling of nothing holding you back. It's sneaking downstairs at midnight to finish all the cookies before you go back to binge watch more K-dramas. Is it doing what you want, whenever you want? Is it travelling the world and climbing the highest mountains?

We all feel held back. By something. And the problem is, society and the world, it promotes freedom as living large, doing extraordinary things, looking like you have the perfect life because everything is just so fine and dandy, right?

No. That's not it at all. We want to appear like we're having a blast. We want to pretend we're having the fun everyone else seems to be having. We wanna look at pictures from that birthday party and comment: "THAT WAS AWESOME" instead of silently scrolling past and pretending you weren't hurt that you weren't invited.

That's another shackle.

Jesus's whole ministry was to set people free. So if you're sitting there on the other side of the screen believing your worthless, believing you're nothing, believing that anyone saying anything other wise is a lie? You are living the lie.

And another.

If you call someone so great and cool and awesome, someone you look up to, someone you admire, and then they go, "Oh, I'm not so great," and they're not being modest, they actually think they're trash and the suckiest person in the world, that's dishonouring you! You who put trust in that person and sought out to say that to them! You who trusted them! Because if they think that they themselves aren't good enough, how would that make you feel when you thought so highly of them?

If God calls us his children, if he calls us co-heirs to the Kingdom of God, if he calls us his dearly beloved, and we respond to him with "No, I'm not worth it." then you're dishonouring God. I'll say it again, you're dishonouring the Creator of creation, the master of the heavens , the High priest, the King, the Father. Do you know how much pain he must feel? Do you know how hurt he must be? Because he came down here and told you you were worth it. He died to tell you you were worth it and you're throwing it away? Did he do it for nothing?

All in some way, shape or form, what we ultimately seek is freedom. Here I escape from the clutters of my life to this cheesy blog that maybe one person reads that I keep going with anyways because it's nice to have somewhere to put my thoughts when my desk drawers get too messy and my binder papers are falling out. I also read, invest my time in the fantasy worlds of problems that can always be fixed and people I will always understand. I watch TV to see extravagant realms and watch as they always find the happy ending all the while plucking at my heartstrings that the real world had played too roughly with. "The tendency to seeking distractions and relief from unpleasant realities." That's what escapism is.

But finding this freedom in all these things - it's only temporary. It's only for a little while. Because after you've trekked the mountainsides and dived into volcanoes, when you return home it will be like a part of you stayed back there. And it's like you'll never really be whole because you never were from the beginning and now there are even more parts of you missing that you're trying to piece together again.

Freedom is what we were made to be.

Freedom is what we were created to live. And that is why we desire to find it. Each and every one of us. But we're looking for it in all the wrong places.

"Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom."

And where is the Spirit of the Lord? He's right there inside you. Within you. Begging to be released.

Do you choose that freedom?

Heheh! Wow this is kind of really long! Agh and I didn't even word it properly but I really wanted to get this published tonight so it's probably really rushed. As you can tell I never plan any of my posts so that's real swell but a resolution for next year. I tried to cram three weeks worth of notes into this and I guess that wasn't such a great idea because I missed so much stuff and I really don't know much about anything right now.

Ok, well, stuff's been going on and I kind of needed some escapism right now so here you go! Hope you enjoy! Next time instead of cramming three into one, I will divide it accordingly! I'll have more Sermon Notes next week! See you then! Stay saltful!

#sermonnotes