Why You Still Don’t Feel Free | The Real Power of Easter

God's freedom isn't about doing everything that we want whenever we want. True freedom is living a life that allows us to become the very person that God created us to be, not burdened by the things that once held us captive, but free to be the beautiful and intentional child of the most high god that you are and that I am. And that means freedom isn't something that we just experience once. It's not a one and done thing. It's something that we learn to walk in every single day. In other words, freedom isn't a moment. It's a relationship. [00:26:13] (40 seconds)  #FreedomIsARelationship

The resurrection on Easter, it is the beginning of new creation. It is the beginning of new life for you and for me. It's not escape from this world. It's us moving towards the mission of its renewal. It's the moment that God ushers in his new kingdom here on Earth and invites you and me to be a part of it, to be part of his purposes with him, to be his partner in it. You see, guys, salvation, it's not just about forgiveness from our past mistakes. It's also an invitation to us, but all of us, to live a life of true freedom as a partner with Jesus in his kingdom work. [00:24:38] (42 seconds)  #PartnerInGodsKingdom

And so what started out as something good, like having money. Right? It's not bad. We all need it. We needed to survive and put roof overhead and food in our bellies. Right? Something that started off good like that, it becomes something that owns you, owns me, and keeps us from actually moving forward in our faith that actually holds us back. Yeah? And this is what the Bible calls sin. Yeah? It's not just breaking the rules like many of us think. It's not just breaking the rules. It's actually giving your life to something other than God. [00:20:49] (35 seconds)  #GoodThingsCanBind

You see, this life is temporary. God is one day going to restore all of creation to his original design, his original purpose. God says, I am making all things new in the book of Revelation. So in the end, God is going to restore creation, but that process has already begun in you and in me. And this is where true freedom comes from. This is what true freedom actually looks like. Freedom isn't just about being forgiven. It's being set free from what is has been used to control us in the past and restored to who you and I were created to be from the time he created us in our mother's wombs. [00:25:20] (43 seconds)  #GodMakesAllThingsNew

Maybe it's your job. Maybe it is your money or your relationships. Or or maybe, truthfully, maybe your your worship has been devoted to your pain, your fear. Right? You received the diagnosis. And, again, you wouldn't call it worship, but, man, your focus is all there. Maybe it's on the loss of someone or something that you that that has been taken from you. God's freedom begins when your worship is restored to the one who made you. True freedom is being restored to live as the person, the man, the woman, the child that God created you to be in relationship with him and no longer controlled by anything else. [00:30:06] (41 seconds)  #WorshipRestoresFreedom

Your job is a created thing. Your resources, your money, created things. Your relationships even is a created thing, and these things are all part of creation. And so here's the thing. We can give thanks for those things. Right? It's good. It's a good thing to have resources and to be able to live and survive. It's good to have relationships. Right? And so we we give thanks for them. We it's okay to desire them. It's even okay to strive for them. But as we do that, we must keep our worship focused on the one who created these things and gave them to us. [00:15:05] (36 seconds)  #KeepCreatorFirst

Because here's the here's the truth. While these things aren't necessarily, you know, bad, Right? They're not bad things in and of themselves. But when we make them our whole lives, when we make our whole lives all about them, we end up missing something that is just key and fundamental to life, what it means to be truly free, truly free. Because whatever you build your life around, guys, eventually, it's gonna come back to you and control you. It's gonna control your life. And so if something is controlling you, well, you're not free. [00:12:59] (38 seconds)  #DontLetThingsControlYou

And the b is that we have to believe. We gotta believe that he did die on the cross to break us free from our sins, to break us free from the bondage of our sins, the consequence of our sins, and believe that God raised him from the dead so that you and I can have new life in him. So we admit, we believe, and then we commit. We commit our lives each and every day through daily surrender, through prayer, to following him with all of ourselves in all of our moments, in all of our situations. Guys, these are the ABCs of salvation. It's not difficult. It's not mystical. It's not magical. It is just a savior and lord who is right there with you right now in this moment asking you to come home to him, asking you to believe in him and follow him in all your ways. [00:32:08] (49 seconds)  #ABCsOfSalvation