Live Free! Part 1

I want to make sure everyone knows that Jesus came to not only save us, he came to set us free. Free from what? Free from any bondage that prevents you from experiencing God's plan for your life. If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Hello and thanks for joining us for this Friday edition of Destined for Victory with Pastor Paul Shepherd. Well, if you've been saved by grace through faith in Christ, then you have what Pastor Paul calls positional freedom.

But how do you go from position to possession? How can you live in the freedom that he so graciously died to give you? Well, answers come your way next on this edition of Destined for Victory. Visit pastorpaul.net to hear any recent Destined for Victory message on demand. That's pastorpaul.net. And stay with us after the broadcast when Pastor Paul joins me from his studio in California. First, let's listen closely as he shares today's message, Live Free. Isaiah 61 verse 1. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted. Now here are the phrases I want you to focus on. To proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. And I want to talk to you from the subject, Live Free.

Live Free. When we first began looking at Isaiah 61, we looked at the fact that it's all about Jesus. And then we looked at the fact that Jesus came to give us life. We talked about life in terms of it being everlasting life. We also talked about life as abundant life. He came to give us life. And then more recently, we've talked about the fact that he came to give us hope.

And the subject I used for that part of the series was get your hopes up. Now I want to talk about the fact that Jesus came to give us freedom. And I'm choosing the subject, Live Free. You can live bound or you can live free. I'm here to tell you some other folk can witness to free is better than bound. If you've ever been bound in any way in any area of your life, and you're now enjoying freedom, you can help other folks understand freedom is far better than bondage. And before I'm done, I want to make sure everyone knows that Jesus came to not only save us, he came to set us free. Free from what? Free from any bondage that prevents you from experiencing God's plan for your life. If there's an area of bondage, whether it is bondage through addiction, or whether it is bondage through some temperamental flaw, if you are experiencing bondage in some area of your life, Jesus came to set you free.

There is nothing good about bondage. There are probably folk in here, I won't have you raise your hand, but there are probably folk in here who have even spent some time in prison or jail at some point in your life. And they could tell you if you knew who they were, they could tell you it's no fun to be locked up. And it is a wonderful experience when one day the jailer comes, calls your name, opens up the prison door, and sets you free. Well, if that's true in terms of natural prisons and jails, how much more exciting is it for us to live free from addictions and bondages, besetting sins, anything that grips you and holds you against your will, Jesus wants to set us free. And I want to encourage you to begin to believe God for freedom from such bondage. Now let me set the stage, let me give you the groundwork for this teaching. We are victorious in Christ. If you are saved by grace through faith, you are already victorious in Christ, because that is what he has given us positionally. But it is one thing to have a blessing or a provision positionally, it's another thing to have actual possession of it.

Let me give you an example. You could have a wealthy relative, relative will you and give you some money say when they die and when their will is read, your name is called and you hear they left you let's say $250,000. Wouldn't that be good news? How many could use a reading of a will like that right about now? Your auntie left you $250,000.

That would be a blessing. Now the reading of the will says that you have a quarter of a million dollars positionally. But it's one thing to have it positionally. It's another thing to have 250 grand in your bank account.

Okay, everybody understands that. So there's a difference between positional blessings and possessional blessings. Christ willed you freedom positionally, it's already yours. But what you got to do is find out now what do I do to get that freedom in my bank account?

And that's what you and I need. We need freedom that we can walk out and live out every day of our lives. Trust me when I tell you whom the sun sets free is free indeed.

Therefore, we should make every effort to find out how to go from positional freedom to actually possessing and enjoying freedom in our lives today and to be able to live free. Now here's the problem. Here's the challenge. We have an enemy. In fact, we who are in Christ not only have a single enemy, we have a threefold enemy. Our enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil.

All three of that. We have a triune enemy. The world, what do I mean by the world? The Bible says love not the world, 1 John. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that are in the world, the love of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, they are not of the father, they are of the world. So worldliness is our enemy. Anything that's part of this world system but is against the will of God, that is your enemy. And I don't know if you recognize it, but we live among people and we live in a world system that is anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-you living the life God wants you to live.

Look all around us on our jobs, in our schools, in our universities. Everywhere you go, you find an anti-Christ message. It is amazing that we live in a country where folk can do all kind of crazy stuff and nobody will mess with them. But I dare you to show up with your Bible and with the word of God in your mouth, folk will be all kinds of upset.

I mean, you can live like a straight fool and people just say, well, that's just him. But soon as you show up representing God, representing the kingdom of God, wanting to see the will of God done, they will sound the alarm on your job. They don't want you to say to somebody, you're blessed. Separates in a church and state.

I'm not at church, I'm just saying, I'm blessed. But the world system is against anything that is the will of God for our lives. So the world system is our enemy. The flesh is your enemy. Now the flesh isn't outside of you. The flesh is the enemy in a me. That's the flesh.

You walk around with your enemy all day long. The flesh, what does that mean? That means living life in a carnal way, living life completely apart from God's will, God's purpose for your life. Paul said, the flesh in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing. You know what that means? That means when you got saved, your flesh did not.

Now we just need to understand that. The Bible teaches when you get saved, that your spirit is transformed. Your spirit is born again. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. And when you're born again, you're born again of the Spirit of God, but your flesh doesn't get saved. When you get saved, your flesh is not saved. You down here at the altar and you're having your spirit reborn, but your flesh still wants to be on the throne of your life. And so the flesh is against God. That's you doing things your way and not God's way.

So our enemies are the world, the flesh, and certainly the devil and all demonic forces are against us. Now that threefold enemy does not want to relinquish freedom to you. They want to keep you bound no matter what. In the same way that an oppressor would always want to keep the oppressed bound in the same way it's happening in your life. So let me give you a slogan that I want you to really marry your mind and your heart to. Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor.

It must be demanded by the oppressed. We'll be right back with more of today's Destin for Victory message from Pastor Paul Shepherd, Senior Pastor of Destiny Christian Fellowship in Fremont, California. Listen to the broadcast on demand at pastorpaul.net.

That's pastorpaul.net where you'll find a host of great resources at our online store. Jesus died to set you free from sin and death, but your adversary, the devil, won't let you have that freedom without a fight. Here's Pastor Paul with the rest of today's message, Live Free. Freedom's never given voluntarily. No oppressor says, well, you know, the slaves are really tired of being slaves, so I guess we better let them go.

That never happens. The oppressor will fight to the death to keep you bound, to keep you enslaved. So you must insist on being free. I don't know if y'all saw years ago that movie Amistad. You remember that years ago and it shows, it talks about an actual slave uprising where there were some slaves that came over on a ship named Amistad, thus the title, and they were here in the Americas, but they came as slaves against their will. They were free people in their homeland in Africa, but when they got here, they were bound and freedom was always still in their heart. Though they were in physical change, they wanted to be free and there was one powerful scene where there's a court and I think it was and I think it was John Quincy Adams who was fighting on their behalf and they were going through the legal process, but there was one slave in particular who had led an uprising.

That's why they were in court and I remember him sitting there and then he began to say, he didn't really know English very well, but he had heard enough to know three words. He said, give us free and they told him, you just quiet him and instead of quiet him, he kept saying, give us free, give us free. I came to tell somebody, you got to tell your threefold enemy, the world, the flesh and the devil, give us free. I'm not going to be bound all my life. I am going to be free.

Jesus won freedom for me. I'm not going to stay bound. Give us free.

I need somebody to make up in your mind. I'm tired of being bound. It's time for me to be free. I am not going to live my life in a bondage to an addiction. If Jesus has enough power to set me free from this, I want to be free. And so I want to let you know Jesus came to offer us freedom and we have every right to want to live free. Now let's talk in practical terms about how that's going to happen. That will only happen if we learn to walk into things, our authority and our power. Let me make sure you understand those two concepts. The Bible says we have authority to be children of God and that is where our positional right of freedom comes from. We have authority. Where do you find that in scripture? Let me just give you one example. John's gospel chapter one beginning with verse 10.

Here's what it says. Jesus was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. There's the concept of authority. To them he gave the right. When you got saved, when you received Jesus Christ, this word tells you that God gave you the right. That means legal right.

The Greek word translated right there is the word exousia. It means legal right. It is the same concept that you would have as a citizen. I have certain rights. There is in our country the bill of rights. There are things nobody has to will me.

I already own it. By virtue of my citizenship, I have the right to certain things. That's the concept here in John one. When you accept Jesus, you have the legal right to be a child of God. Brothers and sisters, let me pause long enough to say that's why you have to learn your spiritual bill of rights. That's why you got to get in the word and let the word get in you so you know what you are entitled to as a child of God.

And you know how that'll bless you. You know why it's important to do that? Because you live among people, some of which don't want you to walk in your rights.

There are some people in your life, think about them right now. There are some folk who don't want you to be who God wants you to be. There are some people who want to hold you down for instance, and you have to decide, no, I am not going to be bound by you.

I am going to be free to live for God. There are some people, some of you have probably had an abusive boyfriend or girlfriend who wanted to keep you down, keep you under their thumb, make you do things the way they wanted you to do. You ever had somebody try to control you?

You got to get to the place where when you are in Christ, you know that you're free to live the way he wants you to do, and you're free to reject what other people want you to do. I don't know if you've experienced it, but sometimes folk will try to define you. You have been in a relationship with somebody and they want to define you.

They want to create you in their image and after their likeness. It's up to you to say, no, that is not who I am. I am a child of God. I have the authority, the legal right to be a child of God, and I am not going to let you define me.

I am his child. Because you know, if you let people define you, then they'll own you. Whoever writes the dictionary owns you. And so when people tell you, you are nothing. You're a loser.

You have to know your bill of rights, and you have to say, burnt, wrong answer. I'm not a loser. I'm a winner in Christ. In fact, I'm more than a conqueror in Christ. You got to learn to tell people who you are rather than let them tell you who you are. I am.

You just heard this earlier. I am who God said I am. I am a conqueror in Christ.

I'm more than a conqueror through him who loves me. I'm not going down. I'm going up. I am not the tail. I am the head. I am not beneath.

I am above. You got to tell the enemies of your life who you are. Don't y'all let somebody define you. You put your foot down.

You want to live right, and somebody trying to make you do what you know the Lord doesn't want you to do, and they get mad. I'm leaving you. You will never be anything without me. Tell them, see you. See you. That's it. Hold the door open.

Let them walk out. Lord bless you and keep you. Make his face shine upon you. Be gracious unto you.

Lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Bye. You got to let these folks know.

Sometimes they'll be all sassy. You'll be nothing without me. You got to tell them in the words of that great theologian, Beyonce, you must not know about me. You must not know about me.

This is years ago. Y'all don't know, but years ago Beyonce sang a song irreplaceable. Some of y'all remember, don't even try it. Trying to sit up here like, who is even Beyonce? I don't know who he is. I'm going to pray that God will deliver you from that. Years ago, she wrote a song and she said, I can have another you in a minute. Matter of fact, he'll be here in a minute.

To the left, everything you own in the box to the left. Why? Because you don't let people define you. Oh, you must not know about me. I'm going to make it without you.

Just hang around long enough. You're going to see me going up. You're going to see me doing better than I ever did before. You're going to be jealous of the person the Lord brings into my life. That's why you're going to be sitting somewhere.

Why? Because God is the one who defines you. I am who he says I am.

Therefore, I will not allow myself to be defined by other people. Thanks so much for being here today for Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Live Free. We're so glad you stopped by. Before we say so long for the weekend though, Pastor Paul joins me from his studio in California. Pastor, here we are in the Christmas season. So easy to get distracted with how the world positions Christmas and even the circumstances of the last many months we've been through.

But I thought I'd ask you, what's on your heart this season? Well, I'm thinking about the grace of God. In fact, last Christmas in the two Sundays before Christmas, I preached about the grace of God as it related, of course, to the gift of Jesus coming into the world.

And as we move toward Christmas on the broadcast this month, I'm going to share those messages about grace. I started the series by asking people to reminisce with me. I said, let's think about some of our most memorable Christmases in years past.

And then as a true baby boomer, I walked down memory road to places the young people said, what in the world are you talking about? I started in 1978 and talked about a game called Simon that came out. That was the big Christmas gift in 1978. And then I said, 1980, there was the Rubik's Cube, and only a few folks knew what I was talking about then. And then I said in 1983, there was Cabbage Patch Kids.

Oh, boy. And more folks came alive as I talked about that. And then I talked about 1989. And I said, by then, stuff was becoming more technological.

There was an 8-bit handheld cartridge-based console called Game Boy. Before you know it, more than 118 million units had been sold in America. And then I said, just allow me one more old man memory. I said, in 1996, I was pastoring, and I was amazed by this phenomenon called Tickle Me Elmo. I said, it's unbelievable that people lost their minds over Tickle Me Elmo. In fact, I talk about the fact that one of the rumors was that one parent paid $7,100 to someone who had bought an extra one just to make money off of it. And somebody who said, well, I got to get it for my kid. And the guy charged $7,100 and they bought it. Elmo, are you kidding me?

$7,100 for Elmo. And so I just told people, we've been through all kinds of things, but let's always remember at the end of the day, and especially dealing with a worldwide pandemic that hasn't yet gone away, we still got to deal with the rest of this. We've got to remember in the midst of all of this, the one true thing we can rejoice in is the real meaning of Christmas.

And it's not about our gifts, not about our toys. It is about what Jesus did and the grace that gave us that blessing of salvation. Pastor Paul, thank you for those words of encouragement about the reason for Christ coming and the reason we celebrate the Christmas season.

Well, it's hard to believe that we have just a few weeks remaining in 2021, and we have big plans for 2022. So we're praying that God will allow us to finish this year in a strong financial position. And if you can give generously today, we have a special resource to share with you. It's Pastor Paul Shepherd's brand new book, Lessons from the Vineyard.

In this book, Lessons from the Vineyard, Pastor Paul inspires believers to use their gifts to glorify God and bless the lives of those around us. And this is our gift to you by request for your generous donation of $25 or more to Destin for Victory. Call 855-339-5500. That's 855-339-5500. Or visit pastorpaul.net to make a safe and secure donation online.

And as always, you can mail your gift to Destin for Victory, Post Office Box 1767, Fremont, California 94538. Some of you brought bondage into your Christian experience. When you got saved, you already had some bondages in your life. And if you don't know it, let me make sure you understand just because you get saved doesn't mean every bondage automatically falls away from your life. That's next time in Pastor Paul Shepherd's message, Live Free. Until then, remember, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. In Christ, you are Destined for Victory.