THE ELUSIVE NATURE OF FREEDOM | Erwin McManus - MOSAIC

i've been thinking a lot about the elusive nature of freedom i mean we live at a time in history where we're probably unquestionably the most free people that human history has ever known i mean we live in a nation in a state in a city and a community that's free we we we have freedom of speech and the freedom of choice and the freedom to choose our careers and and to choose our our husbands and wives to choose our our futures and and even with all the other constraints that are around us and and those things that make us feel more limited in our choices i think most of us would agree that we're essentially free and and yet even in this freedom i think most of us have this overwhelming sense that we're not free and then when you add faith when you add a relationship with god and you hear all the language of do's and don'ts it seems almost as if that freedom becomes more difficult to experience more more difficult to realize and and there's this one particular verse this one particular psalm that david writes that has always just struck me in in in regards to god's commands and to the experience of freedom it's in psalm 119 verse 32 david says this i run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free now that statement for me stands out because it brings together two concepts in the same phrase that seem to almost be mutually exclusive commands and freedom i can understand that there are commands and the things that you have to do or require too obligated to do and then i can understand that you are free that you have freedom that you have choice that you can run wild but the idea of having commands and having freedom and having them somehow in this unique interplay where they complement each other that doesn't make any sense to me and yet david says i run in the path of your commands for you have set my hearts free so i started right away just trying to remember my own adversarial relationship to commands i mean when you think about it as human beings we we don't really have a positive relationship with commands if you can go back into your latent memory as a child you probably did not have great experiences with commands i mean think about how we relate to commands we grew up as children we basically are completely not free now we have parents and they tell us what to do and it depends on on the nature of your family system but some things never change parents always command you to do things that you do not want to do that's why it's called a command they never command to do things you want to do i i just don't remember any commands from my mom or step dad saying go play or eat more dessert or just run wild or paint on the walls i i can't remember a single command they ever gave me that was for me just an affirmation of my own desires and what brought me joy and delight in life all the commands were stealing for me the freedom i wanted they were stealing for me the joy i wanted they're stealing for me the the pleasure of life they would command me don't cross the street because i knew freedom was on the other side of the street or they would command me don't don't eat another cookie and i knew that that one more cookie would make me so much happier they would command me to go to bed at at some ridiculous hour whether it was eight or nine or ten or eleven it didn't matter how much it changed because they kept adding half an hour to give me a little bit more freedom but it never felt like it was enough it was always limiting me why would they force me to go to sleep if i want to stay up and live and enjoy a life and feel fully alive why did it matter that i was exhausted the next morning didn't have the energy to go to school and and so if you think about your adversary relationship to commands it starts with your parents they they're just holding you back they're stealing your joy they're stealing your freedom they're they're they they seem to be compulsively in need to tell you what to do and to command your life and it seems to me that command and control were really connected and then you go to school i i really cannot remember a single teacher that commanded me to do things i wanted to do they they didn't command me to stay outside and play they didn't command me to enjoy recess more they didn't command me to to hang around lunch they would always command me to not talk to the people around me they command me to pay attention or command me to sit up straight and even that that cafeteria lunch lady now i see some of you don't remember but in the old school days we would go to school we'd have cafeteria lunch and we had that that that lady who who was the supervisor of our eating and i hated milk white milk i could do chocolate milk and i just couldn't tolerate milk and every single day that lady and milk was about five cents she would come and watch me to see if i would drink my milk and i would not drink my milk i would give my milk to my brother because he loved milk or just someone else because i'm very generous and this lady took it on herself to make sure that i would drink my own milk and she would tell me i'm gonna tell your mother if you don't drink your milk i'm gonna stand here and watch you drink your milk and every single time i didn't drink my milk she would tell my mom what is it about people that that have this need to command and control and so really all of my life and i have a suspicion that all of your life you've had a fairly negative relationship to commands versus your parents commanding that your teachers commanding you to do homework i mean what good is homework what good is having to pay attention in school what good is having to show up on time to class and and then you get a job and now you have a boss and he's commanding you now one of the first jobs i had was working in a restaurant i worked in a pizza restaurant and i worked in a steak restaurant i worked in a burger joint and you have some guy telling you what to do i mean he's wearing a paper hat and now he's commanding me telling me how to live my life [Music] all of those life experiences oh by the way i didn't even bring in dating and i know that you date because you're in love but very quickly you discover that you've just given someone permission to command you and to have expectations of your life and that also expands to this relationship called marriage but then it involves god now even if you never believed in god who didn't grow up believing in god didn't have a religious background you probably already had an adversarial relationship to commands and and then you hear about god and all of god's expectations and all of god's do's and don'ts and don'ts and don'ts and and and then you hear that he has commands at least 10 of them where he's obligating you to live your life a certain way and and how in the world could those commands have any relationship to your freedom i mean just like your parents were unreasonable telling you not to eat the rocks oh by the way we just celebrated rooney roy's one year birthday and she's so beautiful we we love her mom and dad eric and tas and we're there celebrating this birthday party and and they gave her this beautiful cake it was like this multi-colored cake and and when she was sitting there i had never seen anybody do this you know usually they try to keep their kid from from putting their hands in the cake or or contaminating the whole cake because they want to share with everyone it was a cake just for rooney but she didn't seem to want to eat it she wanted to wear it she wanted to sculpt with it she wanted to design with it she just kept putting her hands in it and and messing with it and i noticed that she didn't put any of it in her mouth but a little earlier she was in the backyard and she saw these rocks on the ground and she was putting the rocks in her mouth now i thought how strange that rooney couldn't keep from eating the rocks but didn't really feel that inspired to eat the cake and of course you know how mom and dad are don't put that rock in your mouth rooney no there they are again with this advertiser relationship to commands because we don't understand that though commands feel like they're limiting us those commands are actually there to help us experience freedom at its fullest level i mean let's look at god's commands how reasonable can god be just look at the top 10 and you realize wow god is really trying to to suffocate us and steal from us our freedom i mean what is god thinking when he says don't steal from each other or don't lie to each other or or especially this one don't kill each other i i mean why would god want to oppress us and hold us back and and keep us from our freedom it seems to me that god understands how to experience freedom far better than we do that that when we're not thinking through things properly we will make choices in our freedom that will cost us our freedom and what god is dashingly trying to do is help us to trust him that his path is the path to freedom so he says in psalm 119 32 i run in the path of your command now i i think this dynamic um action declaration is so important he's not saying i i walk in the path of your commands you're not saying i'm i'm stumbling in the path of command or i'm getting dragged in the path of your commands and and by the way this is where you can tell whether your relationship with god is healthy or not see if you are moving in god's direction kicking and screaming you are in an unhealthy space with god if you're doing what god says well because you're afraid of his judgment or punishment you don't want god to get angry with you then you're not in a healthy space you see when you're being forced to move in god's direction when you're being forced to move in god's path you don't understand who god is and you certainly don't understand who you are because when you think that god's path actually steals from you your future steals from you your freedom you don't understand what life is really all about it says i run in the path of your commands you say god i finally understand who you are it finally makes sense to me i finally get it you're not commanding me because you're trying to stop me from being free you're not commanding me because you're trying to limit my freedom you're not commanding me because you're trying to withhold for me what is best in life you're commanding me because you understand the direction where freedom is actually experienced most fully the optimal space to be in when you know that you are connecting to god at the deepest level when you're living in intimacy with jesus you are running in the path of god's command you are not apprehensive you're not afraid of god's direction you're you're you're not feeling like you're giving something up or holding on to something that god doesn't want for your life you are running in direction of god's intention for your life i run in the path of your commands why because you have set my heart free now there seems to be this beautiful interplay here between running in god's commands and being set free because when your heart is free you can now see things clearly and what david is saying god you've set my heart free and now if god sets your heart free right now with the desires that you have inside or the dreams you have in your heart wouldn't it be probably a future full of regret you see so oftentimes we want god to give us what we want right now we want god to give us the dreams we have right now we want god to give us the desires we have right now without allowing god to shape our dreams and shape our desires and shape our heart and what david is actually telling us is that as we trust god in his commands as we trust what god is speaking into our lives it shapes our hearts it shapes our desires it shapes our dreams and in that god sets our hearts free now i think so oftentimes the prison that we live inside is not created by the world around us but by the world within us we are trapped by our desires we are trapped by the things we want we're trapped by the things we believe will give us meaning we're trapped by the things we think will give us significance we're trapped by wanting more and more we're trapped by by wanting what other people say matters in life and and what what david has actually discovered is that you cannot live a life of freedom until your heart has actually been set free this is where it starts it starts with your heart being set free it starts with your heart being set free from dreams that aren't yours to live or desires that aren't yours to have i i think that the prison that most of us live in is trying dastardly to live a life we were not created to live and that's why envy can actually become so destructive because when you see someone else's life and want their life or you see someone else's dreams and you want their dreams that's the elusive nature of fame that we we see someone and they become not simply aspirational for us they don't simply cause us to long for our greatest life but they actually become for us a source of envy where we want their life we want their things we want their success we want their story and and what god wants to do first is he wants you to set you free from all the expectations of others he wants to set you free from what other people told you your life should be like he wants to set you free from even your parents expectations on your life he wants to set you free from everything else that's telling you who you should be how you should live and what kind of future you should create you want to set your heart free so that you can be fully and freely you let me tell you that's the greatest freedom i've ever come to know it's that freedom where you're no longer controlled by the criticism of other people you're no longer controlled by by even the praise of other people you're not controlled by the expectations or or the standards of other people but you now live your life based on this incredible space of freedom where it doesn't matter what other people think it doesn't matter what other people say what matters is that your life is bringing pleasure to god and once you are in such alignment with jesus and you realize oh the only person whose approval i need in my life is jesus and when you come to that place your heart becomes fully free and when you get to that place you're able to run in the path of his commands because you know that when you trust god's calling on your life and you trust god's intention for your life when you trust that intimacy with god and you allow his voice to be your singular source of affirmation and significance it sets you free from the gravitational pull of everyone else around you when you set your heart toward him it gives you the compass to move always in that due north of the calling and intention that god has for you you know another translation of psalm 119 32 when it says i run in the path of your commands for you have set my heart free actually can be translated like this i run in the path of your commands for you have broadened my understanding it's it's an interesting slice on that translation one says you you've set my heart free but the other one says you've broadened my understanding and if you just take that nuance what he's actually telling us is i can run in the path of your commands god i can move fast i can move without hesitation i can move without apprehension i can move with courage and faith because i finally see things from your perspectives as you have broadened my understanding see i think a lot of times it happens the reason we lose our freedom is we just don't understand what god is doing in our life we just don't understand what's going on and so we keep trying to fix what god is doing rather than trust god to follow him with the the clarity that his calling on our life is all we need and i can look back in my life and he says god i can run the path of your commands because you've broadened my understanding i can look back at times i'm like god what are you doing god what are you thinking god do you know what's going on god damn you understand what i'm going through and and so oftentimes the reason we lose our freedom is that we lose our confidence that god is actually for us we lose our confidence that god is good and that everything he intends for us is actually good and david is saying god you've set my heart free so i'm free from all those things that would pull me off course and god you broaden my understanding and so now i can see with the clarity that i need to know what you're doing in this crazy mass of life all around me and i look back at our adversarial relationship to commands and if we could just understand why god is doing what he's doing why god gives us those boundaries that seem to limit us but actually they liberate us you know the other day kim and i were taking a walk and we always walk from our house and we cross uh third street which is a pretty busy street and and and we have thatcher and anybody who knows our dog our dog thatcher is like nine years old and and she's almost more of a carpet than she is a dog she almost never moves and doesn't really want to walk so we have to take her on walks but but she just sort of moves at a snail's pace but whenever she wants to she can move quicker but even that's not that fast and and we had been walking we crossed third street and we were on our way back and and it was already dark at night and kim had had that day an incredibly um terrifying experience where she was meeting a friend for lunch up in the pasadena area and she went around to get something from her car when she stepped forward a bus went by and almost hit her and and she said the bus within was within inches of her face and she just stood there paralyzed as the bus went by and and she had this overwhelming awareness that she could have died in that moment and she was carrying that emotional weight all day long and now we're walking thatcher she's sharing the story with me and i'm realizing how um terrifying that moment was for her and i just kept wondering even as we were walking like how did she know to stop right there and and you just wonder in those moments if there isn't that that that that moment where god is just there and protecting her and just keeping her an inch from the step that would ruin everything that would destroy everything now what how many times in our lives we've been one step from catastrophe one step from disaster one step from the end of everything and god has protected us but we we didn't see it we may have even experienced it as a command or a boundary or a limitation but god understood that that that was the line from which our freedom would be lost and on that same day where she had that horrific experience where we're coming back across third street there are no cars coming from a pretty significant distance and as we're we're crossing the street we notice his car is coming and he must be going at least 60 miles an hour and he's coming at a much faster pace than all the other cars and and and then kim said we have to hurry and i tried to pull thatcher and kim always puts thatcher's collar on loose so it doesn't feel uncomfortable with thatcher i keep telling her that's not a good idea you need to have it tight enough where you can actually um control her when you need to and thatcher stopped in middle street i pulled the collar the caller went flying off her head and she just stopped as this car is coming at least 60 miles an hour and and he was not going to stop and i see this car coming i see thatcher stop and i have to run in the middle of the street between thatcher in the car and yell at the car and put my arms up and say stop and this car still keeps coming and finally just swerves off and stops just to the side of us and and in that moment i thought about how many times i've experienced god yelling stop and if i'm not in the right relationship with god i think god is trying to be controlling commanding judgmental maybe even condemning i think god is trying to limit my freedom and steal from me my future and i don't realize that god is trying to stop me from making the worst decision of my life and and i wonder how many times god had to stand and it sets right in front of us and just tell us stop and when our hearts are postured toward god with trust we understand that whenever god says no it's not because god is trying to keep something from us but he's trying to keep us from something that would steal from us our future our freedom our joy our hope our love our life kim and i have been married wow almost 40 years really we're just pressing up to that fourth decade and i can tell you that the reason our love has survived is that we both have said yes to each other which means we've said no to many other things and that for love to flourish there have to be boundaries where you say no to yourself about other choices other actions other directions it's the same way with god it's the same way by the way with life you know why we have an elusive relationship to freedom it's because we think that freedom is the freedom to choose but just because you have the freedom to choose does not mean that your choices will bring you freedom in fact most of us the freedom that we've lost we've lost because of the choices we've made and my question today would be this has freedom remained elusive to you even in your relationship with jesus if freedom is still elusive to you if you still feel as if you're trapped you still feel like you're being limited if you feel as if you're imprisoned it's not because god is not the god of freedom it's because you have been resisting the path that god has been calling you to maybe you've been going forward picking and screaming maybe you only step forward with god when you feel there's no option you know the real proof of spiritual maturity again is not that you involve god in your consequences but to that you involve god in your choices and when we want to experience freedom at its fullest level we understand that whatever god calls us to whatever god invites us into well yeah whatever here it is whatever god commands you it is the path to your freedom and that's why jesus came two thousand years ago why god took on flesh and blood two thousand years ago why god walked among us his name is jesus why he was crucified on the cross why he rose from the dead so that we could choose our freedom so that we could choose our forgiveness so that we could choose god and when we choose him we step into our freedom and our future let me tell you if you're hesitant to trust jesus with your life if you're hesitant to cross the line of faith and give your life completely to jesus if you're apprehensive to trust god with your future you just don't know who god is and you don't understand how freedom comes jesus died so that you and i could be forgiven and free and once you understand that following jesus is the path to freedom you won't crawl in that direction you won't be dragged in that direction you're not going to follow jesus kicking and screaming when you finally understand that jesus is the path to freedom you will run in the path of his commands because he has set your heart free and maybe you're listening right now and you're ready for jesus to set your heart free you're tired of living in this self-created prison of your choices i want to invite you right now to cross the line of faith put your trust in jesus to follow him into your future and if you're ready to do that i want to lead you in a simple prayer it's not everything you and god need to talk about but it's where it begins right now if you're ready to trust jesus with your life would you just pray this prayer with me right now jesus i give you my life right now just tell him jesus i give you my life just tell me jesus i give you my life if you just prayed that prayer with me right now you've just stepped into your future if you're stepped into your freedom because when you put your trust in jesus you've stepped into his forgiveness and new life begins you

Channel: Mosaic

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Keywords: MOSAIC, MOSAIC Los Angeles, Erwin McManus, Erwin Raphael McManus, Los Angeles Church, YouTube Church, Church, Jesus, Worship, Mosaic MSC, Mosaic, MSC

Id: yBdJjM2Seyk

Length: 27min 49sec (1669 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 09 2021