Liberty and Personal Freedom

July 4th 2006 “LIBERTY”

1. Welcome to Heart of the MatterTGNN’s original show where Shawn McCraney deconstructed religion and developed fulfilled theology.!

Is this a live call-in show? YES! (801) 973-TV20 973-8820

Can you email us? YES! Heart@tv20.tv

There’s not a website is there? YES!

Is this show rebroadcast? YES!

Is there anything else you need to know? YES!

We are looking for Christian teenagers interested in being guests on a brand new live call-in show airing the first week of school in September.

If you are interested in being a guest, performing (we’re looking for good musical talent) or helping behind the scenes (great place to learn videography) email me at shawn@born-again-mormon.com!

An Apology

2. Let’s have a word of prayer.

3. Apology Start with an apology right off the bat here tonight. Last week I announced that we were going to discuss the Book of Mormon tonight. But we’ve postponed that show one more week in order to present our best information possible.

Independence Day Reflections

4. Tonight Tonight we are going to talk about something that is very, very, very important to me personally. It has always been important to me – freedom! Today our nation celebrates what we call Independence Day. It is a day where we celebrate when our nation’s forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence. In so doing, they essentially said, “I am placing my life on the line in this battle for liberty because if we lose this revolutionary war, I am a dead man.” These forefathers wanted liberty and they were willing to die for it. They wanted out from under the thumb of King George – his taxes, his control, and his demands. They wanted the liberty to exist without the burdens of tax, state religion, or cultural impositions. And on this day they signed their names to a relatively insignificant piece of paper (at the time) that essentially condemned them to deathSeparation from God—now overcome. Physical death remains, but it no longer separates us from life with God. if the revolution failed.

Personal Freedom

I too, have been at a place in my life where I yearned to be free – genuinely free. And I would have signed my name to a death list if signing gave me the opportunity to know and live in spiritual libertyFreedom to know and follow God without religious control—through personal faith, not obligation., freedom, and truth. I was burdened under the weight of religiosity, of man-made rules, of legalisms, and found myself under the constant scrutiny and condemnation for failure to comply to what men and women testified was necessary to please God. I too, sought revolution, often in the wrong places, wondering if freedom were possible, if Truth and liberty did exist from a source unencumbered by the notions of Man. In this quest for liberty and absolute truth, I found myself at the side of a road one day petitioning God in the Name of Jesus Christ, to give me liberty or give me death. To break the shackles around my heart. To let me know the liberty that comes from really having a relationship with God. It was here that God changed my heart. The war was over. Freedom was won when certainty in Him – not myself – replaced fear, doubt, and striving.

There’s a great story told in the synoptic Gospels that help illustrate the concept of spiritual liberty through Jesus verse the bondage many religions produce.

Observations on Jesus and the Sabbath

Let's turn to Mark 3:1-5 (Luke 6:6-11) and set the scene.

(Our text is a combination from Mark 3:1-5 and Luke 6:6-11) Jesus has just come from a scene where he is questioned about the Sabbath-day practices of His disciples. They were eating wheat that they had plucked from the fields on the Sabbath and this infuriated the religious rulers of the day. Jesus refuted the condemnation by asking the religious leaders about David and the temple shewbread, and then commented that the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. He then headed toward the Synagogue, possibly or apparently followed by the same group of religious leaders.

Jesus Challenges Religious Legalism

Let’s read: MARK 3:1-5 (ALL OF IT FROM SCRIPTURES)

Mark 3:1 And He again entered into the synagogue. And a man was there who had a withered right hand. 2 And they (the scribes and Pharisees) watched Him to see if He would heal him on the sabbath day, so that they might accuse Him.

Luke 6:8 But He knew their thoughts and said to the man who had the withered hand, Rise up and stand in the middle. And he arose and stood.

Mark 3:4 And He said to them, I will ask you one thing: Is it lawful to do good on the sabbath days, or to do evil? To save life, or to kill? But they were silent.

Mark 3:5 And looking around on them with anger, being grieved because of the hardness of their hearts . . .

“Stretch out your hand!” And he stretched it out. And his hand was restored whole, like the other.

FOLLOW-UP ON THE STORY Luke 6:11 And they (the religious rulers) were filled with madness, and talked with one another as to what they might do to Jesus.

Jesus' Focus on Those in Need

You know, when we enter church today, we often look to those who seem to have it all together, don’t we? The leaders, the best dressed, the most popular, the obedient and blessed, right? Not God. Not Jesus. He walked in the synagogue and who does he see? Who does He pay attention to? The one needing the most help.

I propose to you that nothing has changed with Him. I propose that when Jesus looks down into a Church he doesn’t see those who’ve “got it all together,” the best dressed, the self-assured, the proud, or the religiously minded. I propose He sees the broken, the suffering, the weakened and down and out of life. It is to these He gives His attention . . . just like He did when He was on the earth.

Verse 2

You see, these men had religious training, religious ideas, religious methods, and religiously prescribed rights and wrongs. When people operate by set rules, codes, and laws, they have a built-in system to judge and condemn others, which is antithetical to what Jesus taught. Yes, there was order and meaning in their rules, and this, this, Jesus was breaking and bending them all to heck right before their eyes! Now listen to this. Listen! This is important stuff.

Jesus Confronts Hypocrisy

Jesus knew what was in these religionists' heads and hearts. He knew it was against their man-made law to heal on the Sabbath and He knew they were so tied up in rules, they lost the ability to love or have compassion. IN ESSENCE, THEY DEMANDED ALLEGIANCE TO THEIR RELIGION OVER HEALING THIS MAN! It was church over Christ! LegalismRule-based religion is over. Faith and love—not law—define life with God now. over love! (PAUSE) Religious rules over righteous deeds.

So Jesus asks the crippled man to stand up right in the middle of all the religious leaders! It was almost as if the Lord was saying to him: “Arise, you have nothing to lose but your chains!” Now, the man could have refused. He could have run away or doubted. He could have looked over to the Bishop or Stake President and asked: “Is it okay to this, oh religious intermediary?” But he didn’t! Listen: He followed, he followed what Jesus told him to do! This is faith! This is faith from a man who desperately wanted to be free – both physically, and I would suggest maybe even more so religiously.

And so Jesus has this man with the withered hand standing in the middle of all these religious leaders, and he turns to the leaders and speaks . . . verse 4 in Mark.

Jesus was pushing their religion right back into their face with a very straightforward question. And what did they do? They were silent! Why!? Because their religion had reckoned them unreasonable. It had become a burden that defied.

The Message of Liberty in Christ

The normal, simple, liberty God desires for all of His children. It served nothing but itself. It served rules within rules within rules. It was man-made ridiculousness in the face of human reality. Form over function.

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus even had to ask them: “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath days?” “How ironic! How pathetic!” Then we get to an interesting reaction from Jesus. (read it)

When we think of Jesus we think of love, compassion, humility, and kindness. But here we read anger. This is telling. It is also the only time the Word describes Jesus as angry (casting the moneychangers out of the temple never says He was angry – it’s just implied). And He was angry because he knew their hearts! Hearts more concerned about their religious rules than human suffering. Hearts set, in the end, on murder – the murder of liberty, and ultimately, the murder of the Lord.

Mark writes often about Jesus “looking;” Can you imagine the “look” Jesus gave these religiously minded leaders as He stared them in their eyes? Then He turned back to the man with the withered hand and said

Now this was an impossibility! The man’s hand was withered! How could he stretch it out? Again, the man could have refused, he could have hesitated, he could have said it was impossible, but Jesus told him to stretch forth his withered, bound, tied-up hand! What did he do?

Reaching Out to Jesus

If you are LDS, or under the rule of any organized religion or religious ruler, there are two very important elements to this story that speak to liberty in Christ Jesus. First, Jesus is calling you to stand up amidst the religious leaders of your life and look to Him. They might scoff. They might threaten. They might warn you that you are going to lose your salvation by leaving their organization for a relationship with the Lord. But stand up and look to Him who is the way, truth and life.

The second thing to do once you have stood is to reach out to Him. Reach out to Jesus in unfettered faith. Are you withered and bound-up? Reach out to Jesus Christ! Are you burdened by a religion that demands, demands, demands? Reach out to Jesus! Have you been born-again, been given a new heart, and know your place with God if you were to die? If not, reach out to Jesus. Turn from the religious rhetoric in your life! Walk from man-made religion that keeps you bound! Trust in the only one who can give you peace, life, and salvation.

A Call to Independence

Jesus came to the man with the withered hand and offered Himself as the way to freedom, liberty, and truth. He didn’t offer Joseph or another man-made religious institution. He didn’t offer temple rituals. He didn’t offer modern-day prophets and apostles. He said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

I know you face insurmountable rejection for choosing Jesus over religion… especially in this state. I know you face the loss of work, family, marriage, children, fellowship and security. How do I know? I’ve been there. I know the reactions that come from people when they hear you have become “born-again.” I know very well most of the arguments they will throw your way. But all of those arguments have one purpose – to keep you in.

Use today, the 4th of July, 2006, to be your day of liberty. To get out. Make it a day of independence from man-made religion and make it your first day of dependence upon the Lord alone. I promise you that He will give you all you need – peace, rest, and a new life. How can a person ever go wrong trusting God too much?

(PAUSE)

All right, let’s open the phone lines.