Using Our Freedom in Christ to Love Others

Sometimes, think about it this way, think about politics for a moment because we have lots of freedom in our political decisions, our political alignments, our political voting. have you noticed this in our country now? Where we want to stand for our right to have a political position to the point where we alienate other people and then they'll never have a chance to hear the gospel because all they hear is our political position. It's a sad reality where people may guess your political affiliations quicker than your spiritual alignment to Jesus in this day and age because we are standing for our rights. [00:22:08] (44 seconds)  #GospelBeforePolitics

He knows though, in all this charged moment, in order to get people to listen to the message that he's going to say, which is already scandalous enough, he's not going to add more offense. He's not going to put up another barrier. He doesn't want to cause unnecessary barriers to come between people understanding him or not. He's not going to die on that hill, you could say. That small hill of offense of attacks when he knows he's going to die on the hill to deal with it all. [00:15:24] (31 seconds)  #AvoidUnnecessaryOffense

We are free from certain kinds of obligations. We have freedoms, rights, you could say. But we're often called to lay them down so that we would love others so they would see Jesus, so that we would seek their salvation. the greater good of laying down our freedoms is often for them to hear the gospel because the gospel is scandalous enough. Let's not put more walls up so that people can't hear it. [00:20:31] (30 seconds)  #LayDownRightsForLove

Jesus is sovereign over the sea, and yet he stoops for our salvation. He's that powerful, that amazing, that sovereign, and yet he restrains and uses all of his power, all of his freedom for the sake of the salvation of others. That is how much he lowers himself to love. And that is the same call he gives to us, I think, here. [00:19:51] (29 seconds)  #SovereignAndHumble

your finances your talents all the moments where we grow most significantly it's because someone has denied themselves and given that to you the way that our church has grown is because people deny themselves don't insist on their rights and serve like Jesus served them friends Jesus life death and resurrection gives us lots of freedoms lots of things we're no longer obligated to and yet maybe one of the things we're to do in our witness and our discipleship in our desire to seek and save lost maybe one of the keys that we're missing is laying down those rights using these freedoms we have to love [00:34:49] (88 seconds)  #DenySelfServeOthers

Who needs a temple when Jesus, who is the fullness of God, God's temple in flesh, pays for all of our needs, all of our sacrifice with his own blood. Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Like death and taxes is rewritten in Jesus. He says it here. His death means no taxes. His death means no more temple tax because all his children have already been paid for. [00:14:04] (34 seconds)  #JesusPaidItAll

He's not obligated to pay this tax but he humbles himself so people will be willing to hear about his death, resurrection, and his love for them. And he kind of solves this lack of ability to pay the tax. I mean, Jesus isn't generally walking around with tons of money. He has nowhere to lay his head. He’s basically homeless, a nomad. And so how does he pay this two days wage tax? [00:16:28] (29 seconds)  #HumbleForWitness

demanding and standing up for our rights that we don't recognize sometimes that even if we have a right, we should lay them down for the sake of others. I think that's built into this idea of democracy in our country, this culture of we have certain rights and it's just natural. We should defend them and stand for them and we kind of baptize that into Christianity at times. But Jesus is telling us and we'll see in Paul often we do have rights. [00:21:29] (30 seconds)  #RightsWithResponsibility

so he can sovereignly cause someone to lose the coin at the right moment, cause a fish to come along and somehow get that coin and not swallow it. And then time to Peter to go and fish for it. God is so sovereign that he can do all of that. And yet he humbles himself to pay this tax. Amazing, isn't it? [00:18:48] (34 seconds)  #ProvidentialProvision

but he says right not to cause offense and we have workers who work in Muslim countries where they even though they have a right to eat whatever they want would choose to restrain that right and be halal give up that right not to cause more offense that's one way that we can think about it for the sake of the gospel we should be willing to deny ourselves [00:24:22] (30 seconds)  #AdaptForTheGospel

recognized why this is bizarre and why it's kind of intentionally bizarre because it teaches us something. Jesus is sovereign to the point he's over everyone's money because think about how a coin gets into the fish's mouth. Someone has to drop it. Or it has to fall over the side of a boat. You ever lose change in your couch cushions or you ever go cleaning your car and you're like, oh my gosh, there's all the quarters. [00:18:01] (33 seconds)  #SovereignInSmallThings

But Jesus questions Peter, Do children of the king pay taxes? And he says, no. They tax others, their subjects. Now, we're not used to this kind of arrangement because in our democratic society, everyone pays taxes. No one is exempt from taxes except, and no one, right? So not even the president is exempt from taxes. He must pay taxes on his $400,000 income. [00:10:41] (24 seconds)  #ChildrenOfTheKing

friends there are people in your life that you are called to that you are trying to reach think about those people for a moment the people that uniquely God has placed in your life that he wants to use you as the witness to that brother that sister that friend that family member that neighbor that co-worker that stranger maybe [00:27:31] (34 seconds)  #ReachYourCircle

especially if you think about the people you've been trying to share the gospel with for quite a long time maybe the answer to breaking through is actually laying down the very rights that you have or privileges that you can claim so that in denying yourself you're opening a door for the gospel and maybe the barriers are not actually the gospel themselves but actually it's because of you and me what [00:28:05] (30 seconds)  #SelfDenialOpensDoors

and I chose to go to that church not because it was a far drive I didn't want to go to church that far but because this pastor was willing to give me and surrender his time and for two years or almost three years he met with every Tuesday for almost the entirety of my entire years in seminary under no obligation he's a pastor he's got so much stuff going on in his life already he's leading this church that was quite challenging he's lots of sermons to prep and lots of meetings to lead lots of things and yet he took every Tuesday evening one of the highlights of my week because I [00:31:02] (45 seconds)  #SacrificialMentorship

go to his house and I was very frugal and poor at the time so I eat very simple the same things all the time and yet every single time on Tuesday he or his wife he would cook the three of us a meal that was home cooked and it was tremendous and then we would just talk about everything when it comes to ministry literally I think about this I don't know what it means to be a pastor without thinking to [00:31:47] (36 seconds)  #MealsAndMentorship

no one under no obligation right but what if you surrendered that denied yourself denied your desire for the ways that you spend your time what would that look like think about the ways that you've experienced great love and great transformation in your life it's almost always because someone denied themselves of their own time someone [00:30:04] (26 seconds)  #GiveTimeChangeLives