Freedom: The Choice (Week 1)

[Music] hey everyone how you doing my name is justin goodson and i'm the campus pastor at our south county location i'm so glad that you have chosen to be a part of a freedom life group these are the best life groups we have i'm i'm a little partial but these are the best ones we have and i'm so glad that you've chosen to be a part of it so let me give you some information of how it's going to go so i'll start today with week one we'll cover a topic we'll talk about it at the end and we'll do that for multiple weeks but at the end of the freedom curriculum there is a freedom conference and i don't want to just hype it up but i'm telling you the freedom conference is the best thing we do for your spiritual well-being your spiritual health and growth so you want to make plans to attend your life group leader has those dates and that information it's totally free so make sure you come you know get the kids taken care of get the babysitter get it you don't want to miss the freedom conference and before i get into my lesson today i just want to give you some helpful tips about how to get the most out of the freedom curriculum here's my first one just be open be open and be honest you're going to feel some pressure at some point you're going to feel a tug on your heart at some point to open up to ask a question to tell a story to really open your heart to your group and that's going to feel risky it's going to feel scary but i want you to go ahead and take that step of faith because as you open up you're going to find freedom you're going to find healing and you're going to find a group of people that just want to help and serve you so let's go ahead and let's get into week one of our freedom curriculum um what i'm covering today it starts at the beginning and it starts kind of foundationally and it's what is your view of god what is your view of god and how do you approach god what's your view of god and how do you approach god and we really are going to look at the the beginning story of the bible it's in the book of genesis it's the first book of the bible and it's the story of adam and eve and what god asked them to do and their story is just like our story their story has three parts to it and your story has three parts that we all have the first part is that you know god created adam and eve and god created you you have a beginning the second thing is god gave adam and eve a choice he told them they can eat anything in the garden except this one tree they had a choice and the third thing they were tempted they were tempted by the enemy and you and i throughout our lives we are going to be tempted so they were created they were given a choice and then they were tempted and so that's our story as well let's read genesis chapter 2 verse 8 9. it says this so the the lord god planted a garden in the east of eden and he placed man who who he formed and out of the ground the lord caused every tree to grow that's pleasing the sight it's good for food says the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we're going to use this passage and those two trees to kind of show compare and contrast two different views of god two different approaches to god see in the first one he says there's a tree of life and this tree represents really just a life that is submitted to god a life that is transformed by god a life that is surrendered to him and it's life-giving and it's enjoyable um the second tree is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and this tree really represents our our attempts to get to god it's the rules that we think we have to obey it's the i better do this to get god to like me it's the approach of god that's really just rule-based and harsh and demanding and a burden and we see these two trees in the beginning and these two trees man one is life-giving one is enjoyable and one is hard and see what we wanted to do and what god wants for you is christianity is not supposed to be endured christi christianity is supposed to be enjoyed and i hope today when we talk through this that you're going to find your relationship with god to be enjoyable and so let's talk about the differences here with these two trees the first one says the tree of the knowledge of good and evil says this it says that i have to do more to get to god i have to i have to work really hard i have to try really hard i have to follow all these things and i have to do more to get to god well the tree of life would say man you have to enjoy what jesus has already done see jesus paid the price for my sin and your sin he came to heaven left earth he died in my place for my sins making a way for me to have a relationship with god it's like he did it he paid the price on the cross he said it is finished he didn't say no hey you better do this right you better do this right he didn't give us a list of rules his command to us wasn't rules it was to follow it was a an introduction into a relationship not an introduction to a set of rules so let's let's continue with this so the tree of knowledge of good and evil again like what's what's the difference here because it's how do we view god how do we approach god the second thought here the tree of the knowledge of good and evil says i have to keep trying to get god's approval the tree of life says you have to receive the fact that he already loves you let's just pause and think about the verse second jesus loves you not the perfect version that you hope to be not this um version that you hope people believe about you not the ultra filtered instagram you the real you he loves you with all your issues he loves you with all your baggage he loves you with all your pain he loves you and he loves you so much he doesn't want you to stay as you are he wants you to grow but he loves you as you are and you don't have to do anything more to get his approval see romans 5 8 says that while we were still sinners while we wanted nothing to do with god he pursued us he chased us while we were still sinners christ died for us so let's continue with this thought again like i don't have to work for his approval he already loves me here's another one the tree of the knowledge of good evil says i have to obey god out of duty but the tree of life says i get to obey god out of delight that the the things that god asked me to do the things that god wants me to do the things that god expects me to do they're not supposed to be this burden that weighs me down and ugh can't believe i have to go to church ugh i can't believe i have to love my wife ugh can't believe i have to raise my kids in humility like it's not a bunch of rules that are supposed to press on us and and make us feel like oh i can never measure up it's supposed to be a delight it's supposed to be good see first john 5 says this this is the love of god that we obey his commandments and then he says this and says and his commandments are not a burden see when i fall in love with jesus when i pursue him and my relationship with him not out of something i have to do and or he's going to get me and i better do this or man hell's coming for me i get to i get to have a relationship with him and when i fall he helps me get back up when i miss it there's grace extended for me to walk in freedom it's not this duty it should be a delight so what do we do with that so what do we do with this this difference this rule-based harsh demanding law you know like versus this life-giving relationship like how do we do that so i'm gonna give you four responses four things that should get you to respond differently to your relationship with god and and here's the first one what do we do now i see these differences and i mean i grew up in church and it was just harsh and demanding i just felt like i could never measure up and i felt like god was always mad at me and angry with me what do i do when i want to break free from that here's the first one you just fall in love with jesus i know that's simple and i know that's basic but let me break it down in a practical way see my wife and i were married we've been married 11 years now we have two beautiful kids i love them little jokers but um there are rules in marriage like there are expectations in marriage one of which is don't commit adultery and i could look at that rule and say i'm just doing everything i can not to commit adultery i'm not going to cheat on megan i'm not going to cheat on megan i'm not going to cheat on megan and that could be like this obsessive focus that i have or i could just fall in love with her and see yeah there's a rule and yeah i don't want to hurt my wife and damage our relationship and have an affair but i'm not focusing on that i'm just falling in love with my wife and i obey the rules it's easy not to have an affair on my wife because i love that woman i do love that woman she has to put up with me so you know that's that's hard enough as it is the fact that she's willing to do that i'm not screwing that thing up but again the focus is not on the rules the focus is on what what can i do what can i not do what better i you know what it's not on the rules see if i just focus on loving my wife see love is patient love is kind love isn't doesn't demand its own weight it's not selfless it's not selfish it's not rude it's not demanding love serves love gives love humbles itself and if i'll just focus on loving her the rules they take care of themselves i'm not focused on oh i better not i better not i better not i better not i'm just focused on man if i spend time with her if i pursue her if i go on dates with her it's easy to not have to focus on the rules so that's the first thing just fall in love with jesus you know in john 14 15 it says it says if you love me you'll obey me and we could look at that two different ways we could look at that and say you better prove to jesus that you love him by you you do what he says or we could look at it a different way and say if you love me of course you'll obey me the focus is not on the obedience the focus is on the love and if i get the love right obedience follows so we've got to fall in love with jesus here's the second thing we have to serve god through a relationship and not rules we have to serve god through relationship and not rules see jesus said this he says don't think that i've come to abolish the law of the prophets he says i didn't come to abolish them i came to fulfill them he fulfilled what you could not fulfill jesus is the only person that's ever been alive that's ever been sinless he was sinless for you because you can't do it we are sinners by nature and we are sinners by our actions we've all broken god's laws we can't obey them you know there's this passage in the new testament that talks about the whole purpose of the law was to stop all of us and make us guilty before god what does that mean it means it was to point us to our need to be saved and so it's like i i broke the laws i messed up man i need a relationship with jesus to help me with that i need his grace to overcome my shortcomings i need his grace to overcome my failures i need his grace in relationship to help me follow him so here's number three so what do you do again this tree of life this tree of the knowledge of good and evil i want a relationship i don't want all these rules and all this harsh demanding structure pain of christianity so here's the third one so we fall in love with jesus we serve god through relationship not rules here's the third one respond to all sin with repentance now that word seems heavy i know that word seems harsh that word seems like i thought we're not all about the rules and now you're breaking out the word repentance here's what that word really means that word simply means to change the way you think that i respond to my sin and i say you know what that was wrong i agree to repent means to agree with god about my sin that i miss it i've fallen short i made the mistake i committed the sin i did the wrong thing what do i do with that i repent what does that mean it means i agree with god that i say i'm wrong lord i missed it i made a mistake i sinned help me walk free from sin you know in proverbs one of my favorite passages in proverbs it says a righteous man falls you can be in in a relationship with jesus and actually sin you can mess up you can make mistakes it says a righteous man falls seven times but he gets back up and that's my hope for you that when you sin you get back up when you sin you repent you say god i missed it i'm sorry help me to grow help me to get better help me to change and here's the last one you have to guard your heart from going back you have to guard your heart from going back and this part is pretty practical and i hope in your life group today you kind of start discussing this because if you're anything like me i mean i grew up in church went to church my whole life my parents drug me to church and most times i was on drugs when they were dragging me to church and it was just a mess you know i felt they made me do it and i had to do it and i lived in their homes so i did it and for me church was i believed in god but wanted nothing to do with following god and so i that was kind of my experience grew up in church and for me there were times where i would try to surrender my life to jesus there were times where i would try to go all in and it just wouldn't last uh you know i'd be at a youth camp and someone would preach real good i'd get real excited i'd go to the front i'd cry and then i'd leave and be the be the same person and what i didn't do and what i hope you do is you guard your heart from going back and what do i mean by that i mean you make decisions to change certain things about who you spend time with what you do what you don't do what you watch what you listen to who you talk to how you talk you make some changes that make it hard to go back to the life that you left behind because jesus paid for you to walk free from sin he paid for you to have a relationship with them he paid for you to have this life-giving free pursuit of him that's what he wants you to have and a lot of us sin is so tempting because it's all in our face and it's right there and we haven't made the decision to kind of walk back and say you know what maybe that relationship isn't good for me maybe that thing i've been doing that what i've been learning or studying or whatever it might be guard your heart protect yourself from going back because god wants you to be free you know i hope today was helpful it's kind of a basic introduction of how do you view god what's your approach to god is it a bunch of rules and harsh and demanding or is it an enjoyable relationship because that's what it's supposed to be so coming up on the screen now are some discussion questions and really it's just going to help you talk through the lesson today what you learned and really these two approaches or these two views of god is god this harsh mean rule-based dictator or is he a loving compassionate gracious father and those are really the two differences and so as you discuss that i'm sure it's going to be super helpful but your life group leader is going to walk you through those and and from there you can talk about other questions that you had things that stuck out to you things that are going to help you walk this out in your relationship with jesus before we go today i just wanted to pray for you and then we'll break up and you'll discuss today let's pray father we love you god we are grateful for your teaching us in this freedom curriculum god we pray that we would get this right this view of you this approach to you that we would get this foundation settled and we would see you as a loving compassionate caring father in jesus name amen all right right now go ahead and start discussing what you just learned today you

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Keywords: freedom, lifegroups, life group, small group, small group curriculum, twin rivers church, christian foundations, freedom curriculum

Id: wc54PpB7CmM

Length: 16min 33sec (993 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021