Praise God. You know, when we think about all Jesus has done for us, and truly sit and meditate on that and ponder it, wow, it’s just amazing to think that everything Jesus did bought and paid the price for us to be free. Yes. For all eternity, not just for right now, not just for this life here on earth, but for all eternity. God loves you. He loves you so much. He gave himself for you. Yes. And praise God. And one of the ways we can give ourselves for him is by sowing into his kingdom. And that’s we appreciate this opportunity every week as we come together to worship him by sowing seed into his community and into his mission, his ministry.
Yes. And that is seeing heaven come on earth, his will being done here as it is in heaven and lives transformed. And we’re so happy to be a part of that, to partner with him in that. So we encourage you today, sow seeds of gratefulness today for the freedom Jesus Christ has bought for you. And there are several ways you can do that. You can text to give, the codes are at the bottom of the screen. You can go to our website to emergeinternationalchurch.org. And there are several ways there you can give also. And we just want to use everything God brings to us to touch the world.
Yes. With this message of hope. It’s a great commission. Yes, it is. So Pastor Konya, will you pray over our offering today? I’d be delighted. Father, thank you. Thank you that you give into our hands, Lord, and whatever we give back to you, you multiply again. Yes. Father, thank you that we have seed, that we have time, that we have talent, and that we have provision that we can sow here in the earth that will make great strides in heaven. We love you, Lord. We praise you and we thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Let’s get into it. Tomorrow is Memorial Day. It is a day that I always remember that someone had to give a sacrificial gift for me to enjoy the freedom I live in today.
What we have learned is freedom flows from sacrifice. You know, throughout the history of our nation, many have made the ultimate sacrifice and given their lives in the service of our country. They sacrificed to defend the freedom we experience every day. And so we need to remember our freedom flows from their sacrifice. We all have family members and those close to us who have given through sacrifice so freedom could flow to us. And I am very grateful for and aware of the gift of sacrifice those in my family have given as they served our country. My grandfather, Henry Wright, my father Eldridge Wright, my uncle Frank Wright, my cousin Billy Johnson, my brother Andrew Wright, my nephew Chris Wright, and my nephew Ryan Wright.
Thank you, all of you, for the gift of sacrifice you’ve given for us all. Remembering and honoring those who gave their lives for our nation and for everything about our great country always points me back to the greatest sacrifice of all, and that is the sacrifice of Jesus for all mankind. Jesus himself said in John 15 verse 13, this is from the New Living Translation, there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. This freedom that we enjoy in our nation and as Christians comes with a cost, a sacrifice. It always has and it always will.
As I said before, Christ gave the ultimate sacrifice for his life for all mankind. His sacrifice purchased our eternal freedom. And through his sacrifice, freedom flows to us every day. Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2 in the King James Version says, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn.
Liberty, here in this verse, in the Hebrew means a flowing free run. It’s just like a stream, a river, a creek that runs freely, nothing hindering it. It means the spontaneity of outflow, a free abundant flow. That’s what liberty is. It’s living life in a place of having a free flow of being spontaneous, an abundant flow of life, a free life. Jesus quotes this verse over himself in Luke 4, this first here from Isaiah. He quotes it in Luke 4, 18 to 19. This is from the King James Version also. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering a sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Wow. Jesus came that we might have liberty. And the word liberty here in the Greek means release from bondage or imprisonment, forgiveness or pardon of sins. It’s letting them go as if they had never been committed. You are free. You are liberated. It’s remission of the penalty. Jesus paid the price to liberate us and set us free from death, from hell, from the grave.
Let’s look at this definition once again. Release from bondage or imprisonment. Wow. You’ve been set free. Forgiveness of pardon or pardon of all your sins, just not some of them, but all of them. Letting them go as if they had never been committed. You don’t have to be ashamed. You don’t have to think about them. You don’t have to be asking forgiveness all the time. If you’ve accepted Jesus Christ, he’s cleansed you of everything. It’s the remission of the penalty. You do not have to pay the price for sin. Jesus paid it for you. You’re free. You’ve been liberated.
This is what Jesus came to give us through his sacrifice. Freedom. Galatians 5.1. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. So stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened. Don’t let the enemy pour back on you and bring on you and weigh you down with the past. You stand in your freedom. You stand in your victory in Christ Jesus. Freedom and liberty here in the Greek means freedom from the dominion of corrupt desires. All that’s been taken from us so that we do by the free impulse of the soul, by our free will and what the will of God requires, that’s what we walk in.
That’s what we do. It is the freedom to do or not do. It is a power of choice. We get to choose every day to walk in God’s freedom. Hallelujah. The freedom to choose. A part of walking in agape love is choosing to love someone. God’s love is a choice. It’s more than just an emotional feeling. It goes way beyond feelings and emotions. This is what God did for us. He chose to love us even though we rejected him. And he sent Jesus to give us freedom and liberty. The word free here in the Greek is set at liberty from the dominion of sin. Hallelujah. We’ve been set free from the power, the dominion of sin.
We’ve been delivered. It means to set free from another’s control. The enemy has no control over you anymore. That we might be possessors of freedom, that we are exempt. We are exempt. God has set us free. The word stand fast here means to stand firm, to persevere, to persist, to keep on standing, to persevere in godliness. Stand fast in one’s fellowship with the Lord to maintain your allegiance to freedom. I am free. Satan, shut up. You have no right, no authority, no place, no dominion in my life anymore. I am free. I’ve been liberated. Second Corinthians 3.17 in the Amplified Classic.
Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty, emancipation from bondage, freedom. Hallelujah. If you’re in Christ and he’s in you, you’re free. You’re walking and living in liberty, praise God. That’s the same definition in the Greek as in Galatians 1.5 for liberty. Freedom from the dominion of corrupt desires so that we do by the free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires. Hallelujah. Here I am, Lord. How would you have me speak? What would you have me do today? What we see here in these verses is through his sacrifice, Jesus has made us free.
He’s given us freedom. It’s a gift. Freedom is a sacrifice that is continually received every day. Hallelujah. Freedom flows from the sacrifice of Christ to you every day. John 8.36. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. There’s no question about it. There’s no going back to, oh, that didn’t quite work. No, you’re not good enough. Oh, you don’t deserve. No, you are free in Christ Jesus. You are set at liberty from the dominion of sin. Hallelujah. Another definition here in the Greek for free is you are free born in a civil sense, one who was not a slave.
You are not a slave to sin. You are not a slave to Satan’s dominion, his power, his influence. You have been freed. You are exempt from all of that. Unrestrained, not bound by an obligation to the enemy, but living and walking in freedom in relationship with Jesus Christ and your Father God. So it could be translated this way. John 8.36, and I call this the emerged translation. If the Son sets you at liberty from the dominion of sin, then you are free born, one who is not a slave. You are free, exempt, unrestrained, and not bound by obligation to the enemy.
The benefits of his sacrifice, of the sacrifice of Christ, are to be received by all. All who believed yesterday, all who believe today, and all who believe tomorrow, not only that, but we can receive this freedom every single day throughout eternity, continually, every moment of every day. The next thing is this, freedom is walked out through continual sacrifice. It’s not just one, it’s a continual thing. Only through sacrifice can freedom endure. It’s our choice every day. We have the freedom to choose to walk in true freedom by surrendering to God’s will or not.
We have the freedom to choose to do or not to do. As I think about this, I’m reminded of a song written by Judson Van Deventer, the open lyrics declare, all to Jesus I surrender, all to him I freely give, I will ever love and trust him in his presence daily live. I surrender all, I surrender all, all to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. The continual sacrifice that we as believers walk out releases the flow of freedom that is ours to take. When Jesus died on that cross, he added, and made a deposit in our account beyond our earthly political right to live in freedom.
He added to us an indestructible, supernatural, eternal right to live in freedom forever. Let’s look at Ephesians 4, 22 through 24 in the Amplified Classic. It says, strip yourselves of your former nature, put off and discard your old unrenewed self, which characterized your previous manner of life and becomes corrupt through lust and desires that spring from delusion. And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind, having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude, and put on the new nature, the regenerate self created in God’s image, godlike in true righteousness and holiness.
Wow, we are empowered to live supernaturally in freedom, but this comes with our own level of responsibility. Every day choosing to walk there, walking out a continual sacrifice, as it says here in Ephesians 4, is laying down old mindsets that are not life-giving to take up new mindsets that continually align us with our new nature, God’s nature, to scripture and truth. Paul expresses this again in Romans 12, the Amplified Classic. Don’t be conformed to this world, this age, fashioned after and adapting to its external and superficial customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by its new ideals and its new attitude, so that you may prove for yourself what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect in His sight for you.
What is God asking you to lay down or surrender to Him? It is for your freedom. Everything God asks for us is for our good. His heart is for us to be free and walk in freedom forever. He isn’t trying to put us in a box and hold us back. As we celebrate freedom, don’t forget to thank God for the sacrifice of Jesus that purchased for us the ultimate freedom. Put your gratitude into action by living a life of yieldedness, sacrifice, and surrender, in obedience to God, to what He asks you to do. An obedience that leads to sacrifice will always produce a flow of greater freedom.
Always. As we yield ourselves to Him, a greater flow of freedom comes to us. Paul reminds us in Galatians 1-4, Jesus gave His life for our sins, just as God our Father planned in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. As Christians, we are privileged to have liberties that are not provided by any man, government, or nation. This freedom flows to us through the power of God. There are five freedoms that have been granted to us as followers of Christ that I’d like for us to look at today. And so, as we do this, let’s remember to celebrate these freedoms.
The first one is this, as His followers, we are free from fear, worry, and anxiety. John 14-27, the Amplified Classic says, peace I leave with you, my own peace I now give and bequeath to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Stop allowing yourselves to be agitated and disturbed, and do not permit yourselves to be fearful and intimidated, and cowardly and unsettled. We’ve been set free. Matthew 10-31 in the Amplified Classic, fear not, then you are more valuable than many sparrows.
Don’t be afraid of lack, of unrest. God says, I’m right here with you. You’re more valuable than anything to me. 2 Timothy 1-7, Amplified Classic, for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, or cowardice, or craven and cringing and thawning fear, but He has given us a spirit of power, and of love, and of calm and well-balanced mind, and discipline and self-control. Again, it comes back to our power to choose, our right to choose. Second thing is this, we are free from condemnation. John 3-16-18 in the Amplified Classic, for God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He even gave up His only begotten unique Son, so that whoever believes in, trusts in, clings to, relies on Him, shall not perish, come to destruction, or be lost, but have eternal everlasting life.
For God did not send the Son into the world in order to judge, to reject, to condemn, to pass sentence on the world, but that the world might find salvation and be made safe and sound through Him. He who believes in Him, who clings to, trusts in, and relies on Him, is not judged. He who trusts in Him never comes up for judgment. For Him there is no rejection, no condemnation. He incurs no damnation. But he who does not believe, clings to, relies on, trusts in Him, he is judged already. He already has been convicted and has already received his sentence because he has not believed in and trusted in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
He is condemned for refusing to let his trust rest in Christ’s name. Romans 8-1 Amplified Classic, therefore, there is now no condemnation, no adjudging guilty of wrong for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit. Third thing, we are free to come to God and be in His presence. We have all access. Hebrews 10, 19-22, Amplified Classic, therefore, brethren, since we have full freedom and confidence to enter into the Holy of Holies by the power and virtue in the blood of Jesus, by this fresh, new, and living way which He initiated and dedicated and opened for us through the separating curtain veil of the Holy of Holies, that is, through His flesh, and since we have such a great and wonderful and noble priest who rules over the house of God, let us all come forward and draw near with true, honest, and sincere hearts in unqualified assurance and absolute conviction engendered by faith.
By that leaning of the entire human personality on God and absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness, having our hearts sprinkled and purified from a guilty, evil conscience, and our bodies cleansed with pure water. We are free to come before Him confidently, boldly. We have all access into the presence of God. Matthew 11, 28-30, Amplified Classic, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest, I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle, I am meek and humble, lowly in heart, and you will find rest, relief, and ease, and refreshment, and recreation, and blessed quiet for your souls.
For my yoke is wholesome, useful, good, not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant, and my burden is light and easy to be borne. John 6, 37, Amplified Classic, for all whom my Father gives in trust to me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will most certainly not cast out. I will never, no, never reject one of them who comes to me. The fourth thing is we are free to pray and bring our concerns to God. Philippians 4, 6-7, Amplified Classic says, do not fret or have any anxiety about anything. But in every circumstance and in everything by prayer and petition, definite request, with thanksgiving continue to make your wants known to God, and God’s peace shall be yours, that tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation, through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and being content with its earthly lot of whatever sort that is, that peace which transcends all understanding, shall garrison and mount guard over your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Mark 11, 24, Amplified Classic, for this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe, trust, and be confident that it is granted to you, and you will get it. Romans 8, 26, Amplified Classic, so too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness, for we do not know what prayer to offer or how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. Fifth, we are freed from the shame and guilt of our sins.
Isaiah 1, 18, Amplified Classic, come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. And 1 John 1, 9, Amplified Classic, if we freely admit that we have sinned and confess our sins, he is faithful and just, true to his own nature and promises, and will forgive our sins, dismiss our lawlessness, and continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness, everything not in conformity to his will and purpose, thought, and action. Thank you, Lord.
Freedom flows from sacrifice, and it flows to you every single day. Let’s stand and pray together. Father, thank you for the freedom Jesus purchased for us through His sacrifice. Thank you for every one of these five freedoms — from fear, from condemnation, into Your presence, into prayer, and from shame and guilt. We receive it all today in Jesus’ name. Amen.
