Day 38: The Best Things In Life Are: FREE!!!

Day 38: The Best Things In Life Are: FREE!!

Read: Colossians 3:1 - 11; John 8:31 - 36

Is anything in life really and truly free? You go to your favorite supermarket and then it catches your eye - buy three and get one free. It is that word 'free' that always gets our attention. My wife says to me 'free is always good', 'free is .... well .... free' The ads read 'free vacation' - all you got to do is travel to this wonderful vacation spot using your own gas money in the car you pay insurance on that you take to the mechanic before hand and pay him to make sure the car can survive the long trip. And I suspect that somewhere along this wonderful journey to free you will want to eat and drink something - probably that buy three get one free thing from the market. Most of us have a hard time giving away something free to even our best friends.

We want the best that life has to offer but it is never really free. There seems to always be one string or another attached that we have no ability to cut ourselves away from. Such a string is our very own past. We are hopelessly tied to it forever. From time to time we feel compelled to look back at what are life has been. We see the times when life was being really good to us and smile from ear to ear. Then we look at those times, perhaps those too many times, when life was really really bad. Somehow, it seems to me, that it is too often the bad times that govern our future.

We long for the best things in life but, find ourselves tied and bound too tightly to our past. We want nothing more than to be free from it and feel like we have permission to finally move on into our futures. We look everywhere for the right pair of the very sharpest scissors. We cut and cut and cut some more, change scissors repeatedly and still find ourselves tied and bound. Are there any scissors ever made that are sharp enough to free us from ourselves?

We’re going to discover this morning from Colossians 3:1-11 that if you want to break free from your past, then where you put your eyes is very important. Instead of looking everywhere for exactly the right pair of the sharpest scissors which are freely offered and freely given away. Paul points out that freedom comes when we:

A] Look up (1-4): Seek the things that are above that are freely offered and freely given through Christ - Grace, Mercy, Love, Forgiveness - the Author of our Faith.
B] Look forward (5-9a): Through the sacrifice of His own Son, God has forgiven your past. Be FREE! for God gives you permission too to likewise forgive your past, leave it behind and look forward to the eternal things freely offered through Christ Jesus.
C] Look in a mirror (9b-10): The tattered rags of your past have been cut away by the sacrificial love of Christ. Be transformed: Clothe yourself in the free garments of your very own wardrobe in a walk in space of your own personal redemption.
D] Look around (11): In that renewal there is no bondage for Christ is our Freedom.

Father, you have called us out of the bondage of our past into the light of freedom. You have taken away our emptiness and filled it with Christ. You have touched our pain and made us whole. You have shared and made it your own. You loved us with an everlasting love, you have held us close to your bosom and we walk side by side. You have freely blessed us and healed us and made us your children. You have freely become our Savior, with no strings attached. Now let us freely claim you as our Lord. We are Redeemed!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFC76Z_2oC4

Big Daddy Weave - Redeemed Worship Video With Lyrics

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Enjoy this incredible song by Big Daddy Weave!