Rejoice in the Freedom of the Cross
Tom Shrader explores the paradox of Christian freedom - how believers are simultaneously freed and enslaved. He explains three aspects of freedom: freedom from sin's consequences (justification), freedom from sin's bondage (sanctification), and freedom to be who God created us to be. Using illustrations from Jeffrey Dahmer and Gandhi, Shrader demonstrates that salvation is by grace alone, not works, and that true freedom leads to voluntary service to Christ.
“Grace is always dangerous because whenever you hear that, it blows your mind, and for most of us who are Christians, we have a hard time living with grace.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World (2012)
Recorded: 2012
Duration: 38 min
Themes: freedom, grace, salvation, service, bondage, justification, sanctification, character, struggling with sin, new believer, questioning salvation, feeling enslaved, seeking purpose, young adult, doubting worthiness, searching for meaning
Scripture: Romans 3:10-23, Romans 6:11-14, Romans 7, 1 Corinthians 7:21, 1 Corinthians 10:31-33, Philippians 2:12-13
Theological Themes: justification, sanctification, becoming holy, salvation by grace, christian liberty, spiritual freedom, redemption, grace alone
Full Transcript
Today is week number nine of an 11-week series that's titled "How to Stay Straight in a Crooked World." It's been a really interesting time, and I think it's post-election syndrome, but everything seems to be different. We just had a conversation a second ago with one of the guys about college football, and he said for whatever reason, this year seems different. Maybe it just is. Everything seems to be changing.
I talked to my brother yesterday who's a stockbroker. He said, "I'm spending all day talking people off the cliff." I said, "That's because you spent two years getting them on the cliff." There's just that uncertain time. That's kind of the anticipation that I had behind this series when we developed it around the year 2000, because the original title of this series—how catchy is this—was "Effective Living in the New Millennium." So it was that idea of shift and change, and yet stability in the midst of it. How would God have us live?
Establishing Our Foundation
We begin by establishing and arriving at a set of ground rules that are defined for us by God in His word, the scripture. That gives us a base from which now we can make decisions. Then we had a crucial point, I think it was week four or five, where we said our faith is a deeply personal matter, but not a private matter. It has to affect everything we do.
So we go right to the big things, but it should affect the kind of customer you are, the kind of employer or employee that you are. My daughter, last year, had to have an organic turkey. I said, "Seriously, we have to have an organic turkey." So I went to—I can't remember where I was, they all look the same to me, it's all wood—and I'm in line to order a turkey in the front of the store, to get a turkey in the back of the store.
I'm watching these guys, and they're paying like 70, 80 bucks for a turkey, and I just heard an ad at Fry's for like $5. So I'm thinking, I can get a $5 turkey, wrap it in aluminum foil. My daughter's not going to know if it's organic in a million years. So when I got to the front, I said, "I'm looking for an organic virgin turkey." She said, "I'm sorry." I said, "An organic virgin turkey." She said, "I don't even know what that is." I said, "I don't know either. It just popped into my mind when I was standing in line with all these people."
Faith in Daily Life
As you're standing in line, as you're dealing with stuff, your faith should affect that. Ultimately, what God uses to spread His kingdom is His people. So we make the invisible God visible. We speak the truth boldly. We start to live this.
Last week we discussed the issue of contentment, and I would argue it's the essential ingredient in Christian character. That's a wheelhouse message for me. Next time we're together, we're going to talk about something that all of you experience, none of you want, yet it's inevitable in life. And God says it's essential to your growth. We're going to talk about suffering. Then we'll close with this charge: being renewed day by day.
Today, we look at the result of Christ's work on the cross and our embracing that. It's week number nine: "Rejoice in the Freedom of the Cross."
Understanding Freedom
We can't talk about freedom without talking about grace. I've learned that when you talk about grace, it's always open to misunderstanding, and it's very explosive. I'm beginning to accept it and understand it. So we'll work our way through this.
Webster defines freedom this way: liberation from slavery or imprisonment. Exemption from necessity in choice or action, meaning do whatever you want to do. Synonyms: liberty, independence. Interestingly enough, license. Antonym: bondage, slavery. So we understand freedom.
Again, I would argue that's this amazingly powerful force. What makes America great is not the American people. You don't have a gene that they didn't get in Bangladesh. You were born here. That's why you can take a guy who gets off a boat or a plane, and he's got all of his possessions in a bag. In five years, he's got five restaurants and four apartment buildings, and he was the same guy when he was in Bangkok. It's the system.
The Importance of Systems
That's why, when I have the chance to argue in these elections and in the operation of it, what's so important is when you chip away at the system, and you keep changing the system, and you make things difficult, and you take away freedoms, and you make entrepreneurialism and operating businesses more difficult. I just read the other day, there are up to 15,000 pages now of implementation of Obamacare, written by some PhD from Princeton, who's got nothing else to do but to write these things in a way that will demand a whole bevy of attorneys to be able to figure it out. But you know at the bottom line, you'll be screwed. That's what you know about it. So it's going to take a little longer than they thought. So it's freedom.
Christian Freedom vs. Worldly Freedom
Now all of a sudden, I come into this process, and I look around, and I see Paul, who writes a great deal about freedom. But as he writes about freedom, he begins the letter by identifying himself as Paul, what? A bondservant or a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when we talk about freedom, what typically comes up is, is it all right to go to an R-rated movie? Can I drink a beer? Is it okay to smoke? Those kinds of things. The R-rated movies—there's a group of people who over the years have just staked out a position: no R-rated movies. Then, and this is the dark side of me, out comes "The Passion of the Christ," which was rated R, and these guys are buying blocks of tickets to go see it.
It's the same thing with drink. Is it okay to have a glass of wine with dinner? Well, I always clean it up that way. But is it all right to have a beer and a shot while you're watching the game? Well, the Bible gives us
Some instruction on alcohol specifically says, don't be drunk. So we know we can't do that. If we want to play it ultimately very safe, we know that anytime I get drunk, it's going to start with a drink. So if I want to go down that road, I could land there. You have freedom. You have freedom to, I think, to have a drink.
Although I watch - I told you I'm on direct TV now and I have something like nine or ten religious channels. So it's like drinking false doctrine out of a fire hose when you turn this thing on. One of these guys the other night was going nuts on drinking. Can't drink, can't drink, can't drink. Jesus didn't turn water into wine. He turned it into a version of non-alcoholic grape juice and all this other stuff.
By the way, that's not an unusual position. That was J. Vernon McGee. The first time, Larry was so excited - he wanted me to hear J. Vernon McGee. Some of you, you've got to be a little older here, but it was at Bethany Bible Church. J. Vernon McGee gets up and I did not know until that night, and he told the story, that they actually offered him the job at Bethany Bible Church. And he said no. And they said, why? And he said, I have three reasons: June, July, and August was his answer.
Larry takes me down to see him, and he spent the first half hour of the hour presentation explaining that the wine that Jesus created there was grape juice. So, you know, whatever. I would say, is it okay to have a drink? Sure it is. But you have to get in that and understand the limitations.
It's like smoke. There was a guy the other night on Christian TV, and he is going nuts about this guy who he said was a Christian, but was still smoking. And I thought, if this is the biggest problem they got in this church, they're way ahead of us. If I go to a pastor's conference in Britain, they're all smoking like a chimney. If I go to a pastor's conference in Germany, they're all schlepping down beers. So we've got our own level here of freedom.
The Rule of Freedom
Here's the rule, 1 Corinthians 10:31: "Whatever then you do, whatever you eat or drink, whatever you do, do it for the glory of God." Now he goes on and says, "Give no offense either to the Jew or to the Greek or to the church of God, just as I also" - think now of Paul writing this - "1 Corinthians 10:33, just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, so that they may be saved."
He said, there's a particular concern as I engage people who don't share my faith, and this gets sticky, where he says, I kind of mold myself to their behavior, not in a way to sin, but to be available to them in the proximity to them, so that I might have the opportunity to share Christ with them. So I think these are a matter of conscience for you, that you're going to have to work those things through.
My experience is when we start to make a bunch of hard line, across the board rules, you end up sounding like an idiot with somebody because you're saying no just to say no. So I encourage a lot of freedom and personal growth in there, and then you have to understand the person you're talking to. But that's not what we're going to talk about today.
The Paradox of Freedom and Slavery
We're going to talk about the almost paradoxical position that I'm freed and yet enslaved. Twelve years ago now, I was in my daughter's car in the back seat, Susan in the front seat, with Sarah driving, and Sarah's journal was there. My assumption is she wouldn't leave it in the car if she didn't want me to read it. But I also, smart enough to know I should ask her, I said, "Honey, this looks like your journal. Is it all right for me to read it?" And she said, "Eh, I'm like you, Dad. I start a journal, doesn't last long. Those are just some notes I made. If you want to read them, read them."
And so I read something, and I said, "This is really good. Can I copy it?" She said, "Do whatever you want." Here's what she wrote. She was, at the time, nineteen, I think.
"Many feel that to follow Christ is to lose everything and gain nothing. But once we've been given freedom, we as Christians often forfeit that freedom and return again to slavery by pursuing our own desires and following our own flesh. We will one day realize that apart from Christ, we are not free. Our freedom looks nothing like the freedom the world looks for. The world looks for freedom to do as it pleases no matter what, no matter who they hurt along the way. Our freedom is to love as Christ loved, to serve as Christ served. Many say that sounds like bondage, but in following the truth, the truth will set you free."
So there's that idea: I am so free that I have now voluntarily enslaved myself. The metaphor - I went back and did a little work on the Greek - the metaphor is one who gives himself up to another's will. Those who serve, in this case Christ, devoted to another at the disregard of one's own interest. So I think of a slave, of a galley slave. The picture of this servant here is one who's totally dependent on His master, not just to tell them what to do in terms of labor, but totally dependent upon that master for provision of food and clothing and all of the amenities of life.
Three Areas of Freedom
So here you go, freedom in three areas. Let me give you the three. Number one, I'm free from the consequence of sin. Number two, I'm free from the bondage of sin. And probably up till five or six years ago, I don't know if I'd have put the third one in there, but it's a big one: free to be who God created you to be. So we'll work our way through this.
First of all, free from the consequence of sin. I have a friend who is in another state who does not agree with me on the doctrines of grace. He is in the process of teaching through the book of Romans. So I figured he should be converted in this process. He's reached Romans chapter three.
So in Romans chapter three, verse 10, Paul quotes from the Old Testament. He said, "There's none righteous, not even
The Universal Problem of Sin
There's none righteous, not even one. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they become useless. There's none who does good, not even one. It's very sweeping language. And what Paul's doing here is issuing an indictment first against the Jews and then the Greeks and then Romans chapter three, verse 23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So what the Bible teaches us is that by nature and then by action, we're sinners.
So we have game day every Saturday down at Haley's house and there are seven kids—six, five, four, three, two, one in six months. They're so cute. There's a great picture. I didn't bring my phone in, so I can't show you, but there's this moment during the game and it happens every week where all of a sudden I realized I'm almost alone in the room. Maybe Haley will be there, Sarah will be there. And I realized that Sandy has all seven kids somewhere and they kind of follow her like—she taught kindergarten for 12 years and she's got this gift with these kids.
So I look in and they are all there and they formed a band. They have guitars and drums and you can hear Lucy singing and then everything stops and Yale picks up his Bible and does a lesson. It's one of those moments where you hear it all, it's so sweet that you almost forget what rotten little sinners these kids are and they're gonna tell you no and get out of here as soon as they can. That's who we are by nature and then that's how we are by action. That's all of us. All of us are equally lost in our sin.
The Three Tenses of Salvation
The Bible actually speaks of us being saved. It speaks of the fact that we were saved, we are being saved and we will be saved. There's a past, present, future to it. So we were saved, that is we were justified. We were saved from the consequence of sin. We are being saved, that's sanctified, from the bondage of sin and that one day we will be saved. That's glorification. That is we will be spared from the very presence of sin.
Sandy's got me on this. She has this idea that if you haven't worn something in a year, you should throw it out. And I've heard that before, I've just never lived under this pressure. And so now I find myself wearing stuff just to wear it once. And so she said, "All right. Let's expand it in your case. So if you haven't worn it in three years, throw it out."
Perfect example. So Haley and Tyler go to Aruba on their honeymoon and they bring me back a t-shirt, which I haven't worn in a year or two or three, but it doesn't seem like that should go out. So our compromise is this. It was my idea, I think it's a good one—you give me plastic bins, I'll put the clothes in them, we'll seal them. Now that you've got the garage cleaned out, there's room in the garage. So we'll put them in the garage and then it'll be an estate sale when I'm done.
Freedom from Sin's Presence
So she said, okay. So I found a really cool cashmere sport coat. I'm going to a wedding tonight and I'm gonna wear a sport coat because it's outside. Well, so I thought, well, maybe I could wear this. Well, then I put it on and it gaps about here. So it's not likely it's gonna fit, but I mean, I'm in the process of losing weight.
I'm going through the pocket and I pull out—apparently I wore it the night I emceed kind of a banquet for Larry Wright. And in it was the program. So I'm reading through it from like 15 years ago. And I'm going through and it made me think about Larry. I had an episode like two weeks ago where this knuckle just swelled up on a Sunday. And I thought about Larry all that day.
This is what I thought about Larry: he is not just free from the pain, the physical pain, but he's in heaven—no more sin. And you will be too. Now let me take this a little bit further. It's not that you will be absent from the presence of everybody else's sin. That's true, but absent from the presence of your sin. That's the consequence of being saved. And the issue for us there is that's what God does with grace, with this unmerited favor.
Understanding Which God We Thank
When Reggie White was inducted in the NFL Hall of Fame, I think I could be wrong here, he was the first round eligible guy who was inducted into the hall who had died in those five years. So his son was there to receive the award for him. And here's what his son said: "I want to thank God." Everybody says, "Ah, we all thank God." So he got through that. And then he said, "Now I want to tell you which God I thank." So now we get into this, a very different perspective of God.
What's happened in the culture, obviously, is that God has been minimized, man has been magnified. And when we minimize our view of God, we minimize the view of our sin. We fail to see the scope of it. We see action.
The Heart Behind Our Actions
So this is my favorite illustration, and it's a week from today. If the day is going so bad that you're watching the local news, watch them. They'll be downtown at a food bank, and they'll be interviewing some people like you, and they'll say, "Why are you here today? You could be home with your family, be playing in the Turkey Bowl football or whatever. Why are you here today?"
And they will inevitably say, "I'm here today, and I do this because it makes me feel good." Got nothing to do with the fact they're hungry. It makes me feel good. So is it good to feed hungry people? Sure it is. But what God is saying: "I don't really see that as a good action on the part of the actor, because I don't look at the transfer of food. I look at the heart condition of the person." That's how He comes up with His universal indictment of mankind. And the solution to that is nothing we can do—the solution to that is grace.
So I have a great friend who on the second Friday of December, so it's coming up, at 1:15 we meet at Durant's every year. So we'll have lunch at Durant's at 1:15 on the second Friday. He sent me a text—
other day, he gave me the date, the time, and I texted it back. I said I put it in the calendar a year ago. It's been in there for a year.
Well we'll inevitably talk about faith, and here's where we always hit a wall. I'll use Jeffrey Dahmer and Mahatma Gandhi. So I used Dahmer with a group of 25-year-olds the other day, and they didn't know who he was. I anticipated that. Let me tell you, when you learn as you deal and teach in those environments, you get a real sense of the gap. A lot of the illustrations just aren't there.
So I said, "How many of you know Jeffrey Dahmer?" There was like one hand that went up. I said, "What do you know about him?" He said, "He was a bad guy." I said, "Yeah, let me tell you what he did." He had sex with boys that he seduced, then he killed them. Many of them he had sex with again, then he cut them up, then he ate them. Now he did some other things that were really bad, but this is kind of not good.
The Shocking Reality of Grace
Well here's what we know about Jeffrey Dahmer. We can't look into the validity of it, but Jeffrey Dahmer in prison made a profession of faith and was baptized. I can't look into his heart. All I can do is look at the externals. Based on that, and then he was killed by a fellow prisoner, Jeffrey Dahmer's in heaven.
The Mahatma, who was kind of a hero of mine, Gandhi—as you study him, there's this classic picture when he died of all his earthly belongings: his glasses, his prayer book, his walking stick. Gandhi said, "I read the Gospels every day, but I refuse to believe that Jesus or anybody else could die in my place." So based on that testimony—don't know what happened after that—but based on that testimony, we can say Gandhi's the nicest man in hell.
Now when you start to grapple with those things, now you see grace. I drive by it every Thursday coming up. There's a Bashas down here at McDonald and Granite Reef, and we used to live right there on Montebello. So there's a place at that corner of Granite Reef and McDonald. I'm walking along with a guy who I know well and love a great deal. He's from a Catholic background—that's not the point of this—heavily works-oriented, and I'm explaining grace to Him.
He stops and he says, "Wait a minute, if what you said is true, then I could come to Jesus Christ in repentance and faith this morning, kill somebody this afternoon, and still go to heaven. Is that right?" I said, "Yeah, we don't recommend it. It's not part of our discipleship program, but yeah, is it true? Yes, it's true." Well, he said, "Well, that's a bunch," and then he just went off.
But I rejoiced at that moment because I knew then he had heard something that related to grace. Whenever you hear that—because all that wells up in you—that's not fair. We're all hung up on fairness. Well, I like fairness in a bunch of areas, but I don't want fairness from God. I want mercy.
Freedom from Sin's Consequences
As a result of knowing Christ, I'm free from the consequence of sin. If I die tonight, I know I'll be absent from the body and present with the Lord. I'm no longer a sinner on my way to hell, but a saint on my way to heaven. So I'm free from that.
Here's the second point: I'm free from the bondage of sin. Romans chapter 6, verse 11, Paul writes this: "Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lust. Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourself to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." Verse 14: "For sin shall not be master over you. You're not under the law, but you're under grace."
Let me read you Eugene Peterson, one of the paraphrases. I'll begin in Romans 6:12: "That means that you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don't give it the time of day. Don't even run little errands that are connected with the old way of life. Throw yourself wholeheartedly and full-time. Remember, you've been raised from the dead into God's way of doing things. Sin can't tell you how to live. After all, you're not living under the old tyranny any longer. You're living in the freedom of God."
The Power to Live Differently
You now have a desire and a power to do good. You're free from the consequence of sin, but you're also free from the bondage of sin.
In Philippians chapter 2, verse 12, Paul uses a phrase that can be confusing, so let's make sure we're not confused with it, where he tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. What he is not saying is work really hard to earn your salvation. What he is saying is because you have been saved, now start to act like it.
First Corinthians 7:21: "You were bought at a price, don't enslave yourself to men." Let me read you from the Living Bible, Philippians chapter 2, verses 12 and 13. He said, "Now that I'm away from you, you must even be more careful to do the good things that result from being saved. What are they? Obeying God with reverence and shrinking back from all that would displease Him. For it is God who is at work within you, helping you to want to do and obey Him, and then helping you to do what He wants you to do."
The Ongoing Struggle with Sin
All of a sudden, I understand now that there is this struggle in me that Paul talks about, writes about in Romans 7, where he says, "I don't do the things I want to do. I do the things I don't want to do." Now for those of us who are Christians and serious about this, the godliest I should feel is like within moments of my salvation. Ever since then, what God has done in my life is just peel it back and say, "You thought you were okay? Look at this, and look at this, and look at this. Then why did you do that?"
So we go back to a verse from a few weeks ago: "Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven." Now I'm free from the bondage
What that should create in us is this amazing sense of thanksgiving and praise. I was coming over to McDonald's this morning, and the garden church, whatever it is down there, always has a pithy little saying out on their little billboard. It said this morning, "Thanksgiving is a word of action." I have a sense of thanksgiving and a sense of worship—worship would be the same, love is the same. In reality all of these should be action words.
Sunday, that sense of worship wasn't there. Well here's what I do in my life, and I try to encourage other people, that's typically my problem, not the band's problem. If I want to have a sense of thanksgiving, you're going to have it this week, and we'll have it around our table.
So Thursday night, 5:30, whatever, everybody's going to be in the room. Half of them will have already eaten this huge meal, but we're going to go through all this again for some reason. Should just be dessert, but that's my vote. I lost that, I can't win any election. So I lost that, and we're going to sit around, and one of them will say, typically it's me because I'm the patriarch of the whole thing, "Who wants to pray?" And then one of the boys, typically Yale now, he's a little more aggressive, Yale will say "I'll pray," and he'll go, "I want to thank God for mom, and for dad," and then he'll be looking around, "and for Haley, and for Gracie." I'm going, "The food's getting cold, let's get to this thing," and he'll thank God for all of these things.
Thank God for Both Blessings and Suffering
There are a couple of things that we need to thank God for. We need to thank God for our suffering and pain. Last year, our Thanksgiving was our first Thanksgiving as a family that Susan wasn't there. So I took some time at that meal to thank God for Susan's life, rather than here we are bemoaning the fact that she's not here.
I said, "Gosh, you were so gracious, you gave me 32 years with her, you gave the girls 30 years with her, the grandkids. She wanted to live to see Brayden be born, and she got all the way through Lucy. She got through six of them." All of a sudden, when I understand who God is, and then I understand, and you gave me that in spite of me, and you delivered me from this life of sin, all of a sudden, thanksgiving and praise start to flow pretty easily.
He freed you from that bondage of sin, and as a result, all you want to do is follow Him.
The Story of Lincoln and the Slave Girl
There's a story about Abraham Lincoln, I assume it's apocryphal, but the story is that Lincoln is walking along, and there's a slave auction that's being conducted. He sees this beautiful girl that's being auctioned off, and he begins to bid, he wins her, and they're walking away. According to the story, Lincoln observes really the anger in her, the resentment in her, and he said to her, "You're free."
She said, "What does that mean?" He said, "It means you're free." She said, "Can I say whatever I want to say?" He said, "Say whatever you want to say." "Can I be whatever I want to be?" He said, "Be whatever you want to be." She said, "Does it mean I can go wherever I want to go?" He said, "Yeah, it means you can go wherever you want to go, you're free." And then as the story goes, she said, "Then I want to follow you."
In a sense, that's what God does. He said, "Listen, you're free, you're free. This is not a quid pro quo here, where I'm going to free you, and now, that's based on something you're going to do in the future. That's not it. I'm going to free you." When I begin to understand what He's done, the most natural thing in the world is to be drawn to Him. Not to pay Him back, but in response.
The Ultimate Sacrifice at Arlington
Sandy and I watched a show the other night on Section 60 at Arlington Cemetery. It's a section that's been set aside for young men, primarily men—I think there's some women in there as well—but primarily men who've died in Afghanistan and Iraq. All they did was basically interview the people who were coming. It is an amazing, powerful thing.
So you have fathers, mothers, boyfriends, girlfriends, fiancés, wives. There was a lady there with three little girls, and her husband had died, and he had never seen this youngest one. I found myself just pulled into their lives. Here's a person you don't know, who laid down their life, and again, maybe in some abstract way, you benefit from it. You look at it and say, "This doesn't seem right. This life cut short. That seems unjust."
Well, the greatest injustice ever demonstrated in the history of mankind is the sinless perfect person who died on the cross and did it so that you and I could have eternal life. He freed you from the consequence of sin and the bondage of sin.
Freed to Be Who God Created You to Be
I'll just give you this. He freed you to be whoever it is you are, and how He created you. We're chronically dissatisfied with ourselves. Some of it is legitimate. I just want to improve myself. But I long ago, and maybe this is a cop-out, I long ago came to grips in my life that I'm not going to spend hours and hours and hours trying to get better at something that I'll never be good at.
I have a daughter with curly hair who wants straight hair. I have a daughter with straight hair that wants curly hair.
What Are You Afraid Of?
I did a Bible study for the senior tour when they were in town a few years ago now, and there were these guys in there that were like iconic to me, in different ways. So there's Gary Player, Doug Sanders is there. There were three major winners in the room. I didn't know what to do, and then a friend of mine said, "Do the 'What Are You Afraid Of?'" which I've done, I've done that with all sorts of groups. Done it in spring training with a bunch of teams. Done it at ASU, done it with men, done it with women. Did it with the Cardinals—they're afraid to win. I've just done it all over the joint.
So I said, "All right guys, what are you afraid of?" I don't know why I'm surprised at this, I know this. Their first
I'm afraid of failure, I'm afraid of rejection, I'm afraid of isolation, I'm afraid of loneliness. I mean, these are the guys who have others flying in on their own jet. You look at them and think, these guys deal with isolation, loneliness, failure, rejection? Here's what I'm reminded of, and I don't know why I need the reminder: they are human.
There's something in us. Even when we come to Christ, we fight this battle. Last night, I told you, Sandy has put together eight bookcases and now has filled them with books. She's trying to get my den to where you can go into it. I'm coming around the corner last night, and there's a book I forgot about—"When People Are Big and God is Small." That's a great book.
People drive how you think. You begin to ask yourself, how much of what you do is driven by trying to measure up to somebody else's standard? So why did you wear that shirt? Why do you drive that car? Why did you join that club? Why do you wear your hair that way? All those things come into play, and it's just be free. God gave you and created you the way He wanted you to be.
Freedom from the Opinions of Others
I wrote this, and then I wrote "wow" after it: You're freed from the crushing blows of criticism and from the headiness of flattery. You're no longer just blowing in the wind. So somebody comes in and they say, "God, you look stupid," and that ruins the rest of your day.
I learned this a long time ago. Somebody comes in and says, "That was a really good lesson." All I can do is say thank you, because I'm not going to get into a discussion. But if that's true, that's because God used something for His honor and His glory. It's got nothing to do with me.
If all of a sudden you're like a stock—if people are critical, you're down; if people are flattering, you're up—you're free from this. Now your concern is what does God think about you? Not is what you do pleasing to the people in your homeowner's association or at the office, but is what you do pleasing to God? And He creates you this way.
The Dangerous Nature of Grace
Now, here's a lot to think about. You can take those thoughts and expand on them and add to them or throw away some of it—that doesn't matter to me. But be thinking about that. You have this incredible freedom.
I'll give you a book. This is a dangerous book to recommend, and if you don't like it, please email the author. I don't want to hear about it. The title of the book is "Scandalous Freedom," and the author is a gentleman by the name of Steve Brown. I will tell you, and you probably don't even have to buy the book. I think you can go online and work through his website, and you'll find at least the audio messages there. I think you can get hard copies as well.
I'll warn you upfront: when I read the book, I thought, "Wow, this is a lot of stuff. I'm not sure about some of this. You're really pressing the envelope." And here's what I realized: grace is always dangerous. If you're an unbeliever, when you hear grace, it blows your mind. Here's what I've discovered: for most of us who are Christians, we have a hard time living with grace. We still run a bunch of rules and regulations and don't understand that He honestly forgives me. I can't make Him love me more. I want to, but I'm not performing for this.
A Christmas Eve Illustration
This is the first time this has ever happened to me: I have my Christmas Eve message all figured out. Normally I do that like Christmas Eve morning. I know that's disappointing to people, but that's it. I mean, you know it's going to have Jesus in it and a manger.
Here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to exegete, in a way, "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town." This is my last one, because in January I step down as the primary communicator. So this will only make everybody say we're glad that he's stepping down. I mean, they're going to be out of their mind.
"You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town. Sees you when you're sleeping. Knows when you're awake." Well, that creeps into our whole mind, and we have this total performance-based relationship with this omniscient power. And then we transfer Santa Claus and put God in there, and the same thing happens for those of us who are Christians.
Rejoice in Your Freedom
So rejoice in the freedom He's given you—freedom from the consequence of sin and the bondage of sin. And God's created you. He didn't make a mistake. He's got you exactly in terms of skills and gift set as He wants you to be. It doesn't mean, by the way, that I don't try to get better, but I have to accept some of these things I'm never going to be good at.
Father, we come before You with hearts filled with gratitude and thanksgiving because we're stopped short and we understand that You saved us in spite of us, not because of us. Father, we pray that to You in Christ's name, amen.