(This transcript was generated by AI. Apologies for any inacuracies)

Well, again, happy 4th of July weekend.

And because I'm a history buff, I thought it was a great historical fact that it was actually today, July 2nd, 1776, that the Continental Congress declared the US's independence from England.

So it was on July 4th that they ratified what we know as the Declaration of Independence.

And so initially they thought the 2nd of July was going to be the day that was remembered, but it's actually the 4th.

But today is that day where, as a nation, at least in our own eyes, we said we are free.

We are no longer under the subjugation of England.

And so today, as we celebrate our nation's freedom, as I said, I thought it would be great for us to really look into this idea of what does it look like to have the freedom that God promised us?

Freedom as God's people.

Because what I know is, as an American, I think I know what freedom is.

And to me, one of the things that symbolizes freedom is fireworks.

And I'll share why, is because coming from California, this freedom was taken away from me.

And at the time, I thought it was the most tyrannical, despotic, vulgar display of power that any government has ever forced upon a free citizen.

I mean, it was serious.

And the reason why it was so serious to me was because I remember as a kid, we would gather together with our entire family.

We'd pool the resources.

Every part of the family brought a box of fireworks.

And my dad and my uncle, they would get two ladders out with a big two by four in between so that the fireworks looked like they were going higher.

And we would sit out there all night on the 4th of July, and we would light fireworks.

And it was so special.

And as I grew up, the great thing was is that I one day was handed the lighter myself.

And I'll tell you, when I got the lighter, I mean, I was grabbing three fireworks.

I'm twisting the fuses together, and I'm lighting just so that they would be bigger.

And then it was right about when I was in high school that the chatter started.

And what that chatter was, was I think it was every grouchy old person, every mother, and everyone who owned a nervous dog got together and decided that fireworks should be illegal.

And so what we started noticing is they put signs.

I mean, they printed out fancy signs.

Fireworks are illegal to shoot off.

And it was like my freedom was taken away.

And let me be clear, in California, it's not like we were shooting bottle rockets or anything like that.

We're talking like sparklers and the little flower things and fountains that would only shoot about six feet tall.

Hence, we needed the ladder to be able to see them.

And so this was just, and I'll be honest, I broke the law.

All right?

I don't know if the statute of limitations is up yet, but every year, there were a couple cities that did allow fireworks.

And lo and behold, in my travels, oh, I'm going to the city today.

Maybe I'll pick up some fireworks.

So I did shoot off some fireworks because it was that memory for me as a kid of, man, this is America.

This is exciting.

And then in all of his wisdom, God brought me to South Carolina.

Right?

Come on.

And I'll be honest, one of the first Google searches I did was, are fireworks legal in the city of Little River, South Carolina?

For those of you who don't know, yes, they are.

Yes they are.

And so, and now I'm not even worrying about fountains and sparklers and ground flowers.

I get to play with the boom shakalaka.

And this is fantastic because, I mean, this is basically a cannon.

Right?

Like, I get to play with a cannon.

And so on Tuesday night, freedom is going to ring at the Miller household.

Freedom is going to ring.

But again, the great thing is, is as a dad, like I've got two sons, they're very excited about it.

My wife and daughter are less excited, but I have passed on the lighter to my boys.

And it is just, it's a great moment.

And I try and be as safe as we can, but there's times where my boys look at me and be like, hey dad, can we try this?

Yeah.

Go ahead, son.

Like, let's see what happens.

And again, I share this obviously because number one, it's funny, but the reality is as we talk about freedom, I want us to examine what does this look like for God's people?

Right?

Because I know freedom in God's plan and in God's kingdom isn't just about me shooting off fireworks.

Right?

We sing these songs, like we did the first song where it says, where the spirit of the Lord is, there's freedom.

And then we read in John chapter eight, verse 36, Jesus himself says, so if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

But what does that mean?

For most of my life, I will be honest, I thought I could define freedom as the ability to do whatever I wanted to do.

I thought that's what freedom was.

And then it hit me.

How can the definition of freedom be the exact same definition for anarchy?

Right?

Because that's basically what it is.

Me doing whatever I want is the same as just anarchy.

And so what I know, what I understand is that even in our society, freedom has to encompass a concern for others.

My freedom has to take all of you into account.

That's what freedom is.

But who decides those boundaries?

Who decides what that looks like?

The one thing I do know is that I don't want to be that person.

And here's why.

Because I will always give myself more freedom than I give you.

If you want an example, think about when you're driving on the road.

If I'm behind you going home today, and I'm tailgating you, it's fine.

We're good.

But if somebody's behind me tailgating me, what in the heck is going on right now?

Who is this idiot?

Right?

I always give myself more freedom than I give other people.

What I also know is that these boundaries, if placed in the government's hands, that's not necessarily the best either, because depending on who's in charge, those freedoms are going to change.

And so again, we're not talking about our freedom as a country.

We're talking about our freedom as God's people, the freedom that God promises to us.

And so I might be a little biased, but if I really want to understand what freedom is and what it looks like, I'm going to look to the person who is the most just, who is the most loving, who is the kindest, and who takes everyone's life into account.

And that's God.

That's what God does.

And so as a Christian, what I understand is that the world's freedom and this freedom that I read about in Scripture, they're two different things.

And what I also know is that because I'm a human and because I make the mistake that freedom means I can do whatever I want, guess what?

I sometimes make that mistake as a Christian as well.

I think freedom in Christ, when I hear those words, means basically once I pray the prayer, once I'm good with God, once I have my fire insurance, the rest of my life, that's on me.

And I can go and party it up.

I can light as many boom shakalakas as I want to light off.

But the reality is, again, that's not the case.

My life in Christ is not about me being free to do whatever I want.

And if I'm honest with myself, this is how the church in America has gotten into the predicament that it's in today.

Right?

Because why would anybody necessarily see the benefit of becoming a Christian when the rate of divorce is just as high in the church as it is outside the church?

When the percentage of addiction is just as high in the church as it is outside the church?

See, this is what happens when people say that they are Christians and say that they believe in God, but yet there's no fruit being born out of their lives.

And that is how I know that this freedom that Christ calls me to has to be different.

Because this freedom that Christ has called me to is a freedom that says once that Christ is in my life, things change.

Things transform.

And not only in my life, but as a byproduct of that faith, it changes in the lives of those around me.

My freedom in Christ impacts my family.

It impacts the type of husband that I am.

It impacts the type of father that I am.

It impacts my relationship with all of you, the friend that I am, the pastor that I am, the citizen that I am.

And so we have to understand that there is a difference and that this freedom that Christ called us to isn't just the ability to do whatever we want.

And if somebody disagrees with us, I won't say what I was gonna say, because Miss Kim's here.

That we disagree with them, that we argue with them.

How's that?

But last week, I talked about the new life that we find in Christ.

And what we did talk about was that this physical life that we live, my breathing, my interaction, with the world, my pursuit of wealth, my pursuit of popularity, everything that has to do with me as a physical being interacting with this world is called bios life.

And there is another type of life that scripture mentioned, and that is zoe life.

It's a spiritual life.

It is a life that can only come through Christ and his death and resurrection on the cross.

And what this new life does is that it changes my focus from the things of this world to the things of God.

And it's not something that I simply add to my life.

It's not like I'm a father, a husband, and a Christian.

What this new life is, is not a part, it's a brand new whole.

It's the old has gone and the new has come.

And so again, there should be evidence in that.

And the reason what we're called to is again, not to separate ourselves and go live in a cave as Christians.

Because I'll tell you, I'll be honest, there is a part of me inside that I just want to build a 20 foot cinder block wall around my property for just me and my family and cut off all contact with the outside world, right?

I think I would be so much happier, so much more happy.

It would be great.

But that's not what God calls me to.

God calls me and calls us as Christians to live that spiritual life, that new life in the midst of bios.

So in the midst of everybody else chasing after this world and the physical things of this world, I as a new spiritual being am supposed to stand in the middle of that darkness as a bright shining light and say, here is hope, here is love, here is peace, here is joy, here is true freedom.

That is what God calls us to.

The reason I live that zoe, that spiritual life in the midst of bios, right?

And not just run away.

The first reason is to glorify God, right?

I do this because God gave everything for me.

I do this so that when the world looks at me, they see him.

That's why I do it.

The second reason I live my spiritual life out in front of this world for all to see is to be able to help others.

To help others see that there is a God who cares about them.

There is a God who is filled with mercy and grace and forgiveness.

There is a God who, if he has saved me, he will save you, right?

In scripture, it calls that loving your neighbor as yourself.

And again, as we start to look at this idea that if God, if this is what he wants from my life, if this is what he calls my life to be, if this is my purpose, then it goes without saying that God's idea of freedom would do the same thing, right?

God's idea of freedom is not that I do everything I want, but that in doing so, I glorify God and I love others.

Love God, love your neighbor.

His idea of freedom is the same idea as life.

In fact, sometimes we can almost use the two as being interchangeable, right?

If I'm living that life, I have freedom.

And if I truly have that freedom, I am definitely living that new spiritual life.

We see in the Old Testament, and again, the reason I love the Old Testament is because for so many people, we just write it off, right?

It's a list of names, it's a list of rules, it's a list of everything.

But what we see in the Old Testament is God revealing himself to a people that he has chosen.

And what we see is every step along the way, as God reveals more and more to his people and through his people, what we see is that it points directly to Jesus Christ and the fact of us coming and accepting him as our Messiah.

And so the Old Testament is important as we look at it to define and to see what is God's understanding of freedom.

And there are four things that I think we find.

And the first one is that freedom was a precious gift from God.

The Israelites didn't earn it, they didn't get it because they were the best or the smartest or the prettiest or anything like that.

And the reason they were taken out of captivity in Egypt is number one, because God loved them and number two, because of his power.

The reason they inherited the promised land that God had promised to Abraham thousands of years before is because God loved them and because of God's power.

And so the Israelites experienced freedom as a gracious gift of God.

They had no way to bring it about.

That freedom was only given by God.

The second thing was freedom was bound to God.

And what I mean by that is if I chose to stop worshipping God, if I chose to stop following God, if I chose as a part of the people of God to just walk away, I wasn't just walking away from the people of God, I was walking away from God's freedom.

To choose to not worship God and follow God and obey God was the same as stepping away from freedom into bondage.

And we see that in 722 BC, the Northern Kingdom, because they had started following the ways of the world, because they had stopped worshipping Yahweh as God, because they had started to do things on their own and be like the rest of the world, God said, fine, if that's what you want, I'm gonna step away.

And the Assyrians came in and took the Northern Kingdom into captivity.

And see, again, I wanna be clear is that this isn't God punishing.

This is God saying that, hey, if you stay with me, you will be safe and you will be free and you will understand what it looks like to live in relationship with me.

But if you choose to leave that, I'm gonna let you.

I'm not gonna force you to follow me.

That's the great gift of free will.

That's the great gift of God's love.

Because to be forced to love somebody is not love.

And so God will allow us to step away.

And he did that for the Northern Kingdom.

They left away, they left God and they went into captivity.

In 586 BC, less than 200 years later, the Southern Kingdom of Judah did the same thing.

God warned them and God warned them and they still strayed away from him.

And here come the Babylonians and the Southern Kingdom is taken away into captivity.

The third thing, freedom was available to all who belong to the people of God.

And here's why this is so important.

What we see in the Old Testament is God telling his people, hey, if there are aliens, strangers, aliens meaning people from other lands, not other planets, okay?

There are aliens, strangers, widows, orphans, slaves among you.

They are a part of this.

They have an opportunity to jump in and experience this freedom and this life that only comes from being a part of my chosen people.

And so if you were here today, I want you to hear these words.

I don't care where you are.

I don't care what you believe about God.

I want you to know that you are welcome in the house of God and you are welcome in the people of God.

Freedom belongs to everyone who opens their heart to God.

Amen.

And then the fourth thing is the struggle to preserve freedom.

The struggle to continue to call the people back to God was a consistent message in the prophets of the Old Testament.

That's what they did.

Because what was happening is as the people of God were moving further and further away, what they saw is that the wealthy and the noble elite class were starting to exploit and even enslave the poorer people.

And so what God says is, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Freedom is for everyone.

And if you are going to exploit, I have to do something to call you back.

And so he sends the prophets and it's about this time we start hearing these messages.

From these prophets that talk about freedom for captives, that talk about breaking of bonds, that talk about healing of the brokenhearted.

And in Isaiah 61, here's a passage that most of us will recognize because this was one of Jesus's first teaching moments.

In Isaiah 61 verses one and two, it says, the spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the darkness for the prisoners.

To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God and to comfort all who mourn.

And so what we see as we look at freedom is that in the Old Testament, we find this God who comes to these people he has chosen and says, all you have to do is trust me.

All you have to do is follow me.

All you have to do is obey me and I will take care of you.

I will provide for you.

I will fight for you because I love you.

Your one job, your one job is to always remember that it was me who gave this to you.

That's it.

I don't need you to sacrifice a thousand bowls.

I don't need you to dance for 12 hours, twirling around, doing anything crazy or anything like that.

I don't need that.

I mean, if you want to dance for 12 hours, twirling around, that's fine.

I'm cool.

I'm cool.

We can dance.

But God didn't need that.

Your one job, remember.

Remember what I did for you and tell other people.

As other people come and ask you, why are you so blessed?

Why are you so full of joy?

Why are you so free?

Tell them it's because of me.

Tell them it's because I did this in your life and I can do it in theirs.

And God says, but if you choose to not be a part of that, if you choose to walk away, I'm going to let you.

I want you back.

I want you here.

I want you to be a part of this.

But if you choose to walk away, know that instead of freedom, you're going to face captivity.

And time and time again, the people of God would walk away, just like we do.

And then what we find is that in the New Testament, this Messiah comes along and Jesus, God in human flesh.

And what he does is he tells us once again, he reminds us that if you just trust me, you will find freedom.

If you just trust me and follow me and obey me, I will be there and I will provide for you.

I will give you safety.

I will give you peace.

I will make you free.

Because in the New Testament, what we realize is that we are not free.

We are not free people.

Listen to what Jesus says in John 8.

He says, very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son, a daughter belongs to it forever.

So if the son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

And here's what I know, because I've spent some time as a slave to sin.

I can't break that power on my own.

I have no power to break free from sin.

I've tried.

And I'm sure this room is full of people who have tried on their own to stop doing something that you know was hurting you.

And I know in this room that those of you who are with me know how horribly hard it is and how many times you have failed and how many times you have thought, this is the time, this is the time only to stumble and fall again.

I have no power to break free.

See, these aren't real chains that we can just smash or cut with a bolt cutter or anything like that.

These are spiritual chains that latch onto our soul.

And they're there.

And no matter how hard I try to remove them, they keep coming back.

And here's the thing, and maybe some of us have experienced this as well, there comes a time where I've tried so hard and tried so many times to get rid of these chains that at some point I'm just like, you know what?

This is just my life.

And I accept them.

And instead of getting lighter, those chains get heavier.

Instead of getting better, I get worse because one drink turns into two and pretty soon two doesn't do it, so I need three or four.

And all of a sudden we start to notice that to be a slave to sin is a slippery slope that brings us down into despair.

And until I find that, eventually no longer is it sin just affecting me, it's affecting the people I love.

It's affecting my family, it's affecting my friends, my coworkers, my neighbours, the world around me.

And this is the danger.

And so these words of Jesus are life to my soul.

And here's what I wanna do.

If you are a sinner here today, or if you have ever spent any time in your life living and stuck in a life of sin, I want you to close your eyes and I want you to either think about or remember the despair.

I want you to remember the hopelessness.

I want you to remember the idea that nothing is ever going to change to make this any better.

And with your eyes closed now, I want you to hear these words of Jesus, your Saviour, your Messiah, the very Son of God.

And He says, if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.

Those are the words of Jesus.

And what those words mean is that there's no doubt.

When you live in that freedom, there's no doubt.

Those chains are gone, you are free.

And if as you were hearing those words and something sparked in you, right?

It's some memory, some hope that, wow, maybe it is true.

I want you to know what that is.

That's Zoe, that's new life.

That's what God does.

And that's what He says, that freedom, that spark you just felt, that's what I want for you every single moment of every single day for the rest of your life.

That is what freedom is.

And that is something only Christ can bring.

In Galatians 5, Paul says this, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

That feeling, that spark, that's why Christ came.

Because before Him, that spark wasn't there, that hope wasn't there.

It was empty and it was dark and He brought light.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.

Here's something I want us to be aware of.

You know what, I need us to be aware of this.

You can be free, but still be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.

And here's what I mean.

Here's two stories that will illustrate this.

The first one is the rich young ruler.

And in Luke 18, it says this, a certain ruler asked Jesus, "'Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'

"'Why do you call me good?'

Jesus answered.

"'No one is good except God alone.

"'You know the commandments.

"'You shall not commit adultery.

"'You shall not murder.

"'You shall not steal.

"'You shall not give false testimony.

"'Honor your father and mother.'

"'All these I've kept since I was a boy,' He said.

"'And when Jesus heard this, He said to him, "'You still lack one thing.

"'Sell everything you have, give it to the poor, "'and you will have treasure in heaven.

"'Then come follow me.'

When he heard this, he became very sad because he was very wealthy.

Now, I wanna be clear, this isn't a story about selling everything you have and living on the street, right?

That's not what this story is about.

What this story is about is Jesus asking us to take a look and say, what's got your heart?

What's got your heart?

Because if my heart is latched onto the things of the world and chasing the things of the world and not the kingdom of God, I'm not free.

Does Jesus still love me?

Yes, absolutely.

But I'm not free the way He's called me to be free.

And that's what we see in this story is this rich young ruler, He's done great.

He's lived an incredible life.

He is a good person.

And he knows that Jesus has the answers.

But yet the one thing he can't give Jesus is his entire heart.

The next story that I wanna talk about comes from the parable of the prodigal son.

And if you spend any time in church at all, you know the story.

So here are the highlights, right?

There are two sons and they're part of a wealthy family.

And the one son is tired of doing his chores.

He's tired of working for his dad.

So he says, dad, I want my half of the inheritance.

And so dad says, fine.

So the son takes it and he wastes the money on wine, women and fast living.

And pretty soon the money's gone and a famine has struck the land.

And so the son is left to feed pigs for a farmer in the area.

And as he's feeding the pigs, he realizes that the food he's given the pigs and the pig trough looks a lot better than what he's having.

It looks good.

And at that point he wakes up and he says, you know what?

The hired hands in my father's house are treated way better and they have so much more than I do right now.

I'm gonna go back to my father's house and I'm gonna ask my father to forgive me and simply hire me on as a servant.

And so the son begins to walk back to the father's house and the whole time he's rehearsing this speech that he has ready for his dad.

And while the Bible says, while he was a long way off, the father saw him and he comes running.

And the son is about halfway through this rehearsed speech and the father just grabs him in his arms and he hugs him and he's so excited and he puts this robe on his son and he puts the family ring back on and he tells the servant, go get ready because we are about to have a rager party.

We're gonna get the boom shakalakas out and we're gonna have some fun.

And so the party's getting started and all of a sudden the older son, the obedient son, the son who has always been there to help his father out, the son who has worked with his father for years and years, the son who was always by his father's side, comes in and says, what's going on?

And the servant comes out and says, your brother's back and we're starting to party, get ready.

And this is what it says in Luke 15.

It says, the older brother became angry and refused to go in.

So his father went out and pleaded with him, but he answered his father, look, all these years, I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.

Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

But when the son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fat and calf for him.

And here's what I wanna say.

Some of you in here have been hurt.

Some of you refuse to forgive or you just don't know how to forgive.

And I'm telling you right now, as somebody who has been there, you are not free.

When we were in California, I was a pastor of a really small, small church plant.

And it was seven years of the most difficult time in not just my life, but my wife, my three kids.

It was hard.

We had people in the church betray us and some of these people were in our wedding.

And I remember just being so angry and so frustrated and I was just, I was done.

And in that moment of pain, I cried out to God and I remember just praying, God, wherever you take me, this can't just be a job, right?

This can't just be a paycheck.

This has to be a place where my family, my kids, my wife, myself, where we get healed.

And God brought us here.

And I will tell you, you guys, my wife and I, our marriage is stronger than it has ever been.

We are filled with joy.

My kids are thriving.

I'm surrounded by an incredible church family that is there every step of the way.

And I sit here and what I realize is that what these people intended for evil, God used for good, right?

I wouldn't be here without that hurt.

I wouldn't be here without those people and what they did to me.

And so I look at that and I have to be able to forgive because if I don't, me being here is just a tale of sadness.

But what me being here is, is a tale of victory.

It's a tale of hope.

It's a tale of excitement.

It's a tale of God's not done, no matter how far away we feel.

And so I choose to forgive.

I choose to not be like the older brother, right?

Because in his frustration and in his anger, he decided I'm not gonna be in my father's presence.

I'm gonna remain away from my father.

You guys, if you are there, if that is your story, if you have been hurt and you are choosing to remain out of the father's presence, please know that today of all days, he's begging you to come in.

Come in and join the celebration of the redeemed, of the restored, because that's where you belong.

Let me pray for you.

God, we love you and we thank you.

Father, you have given us freedom and it's a freedom that no matter what happens in this country, no matter what happens in this world, this freedom cannot be taken away.

This is a freedom that can be with us in prison.

It is a freedom that can be with us in the midst of our deepest pain.

It is a freedom that can be with us when everything seems to be falling apart, Lord.

It is a freedom that only comes from you and can only be taken away if we want you to take it away.

And so Lord, today as your church, I pray that we would step into that freedom, that we would no longer be a slave to sin, that we would no longer be a slave to bitterness, to anger, to the things of this world, but Lord, that you would break those chains and truly set us free.

Father, for the people here today who might, for the very first time or the first time in a long time, need you to come into their lives as Lord and Savior, may their heart's prayer be this.

God, I have tried to do it in my own power for way too long.

I need the freedom and the life that only come from you.

Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross to set me free from my sins and to allow me to live in the freedom that comes from being a son or daughter of God.

Lord, for the rest of us as your church, I pray that there would be a difference in here as opposed to out there.

And I pray, Father God, that as we live out that difference out there, that it would draw more people in here.

Thank you for that freedom.

Thank you for the peace, the joy, the forgiveness.

May we hold onto it and may we be reminded every day that it comes from you and that all we've been called to do is remember that and point other people back to it.

We love you, God.

Thank you for allowing us to be your people.

It's in your name we pray.

And all of us said, amen.

Amen.