WEBVTT 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:04.139 This morning we're talking about one of the most important topics in our culture right now, 00:00:04.219 --> 00:00:09.220 a topic that means a lot to almost everybody in our society, which is the topic of freedom. 00:00:09.960 --> 00:00:15.640 And freedom is something that everybody wants, and yet few people actually have. 00:00:16.100 --> 00:00:21.879 And we're going to see why as we look together at Psalm 119, which is a lengthy psalm, 00:00:21.980 --> 00:00:26.960 and it's a psalm entirely devoted to Scripture, to God's Word. 00:00:26.960 --> 00:00:32.679 And the psalm is broken up into stanzas according to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:34.480 So we're not going to be looking at the whole psalm. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:39.760 We're going to be focusing on the section of verse 33 through verse 48. 00:00:40.020 --> 00:00:42.600 And this shows us a couple of things about freedom. 00:00:42.760 --> 00:00:48.280 It shows us the peril of freedom, why freedom can be dangerous if misunderstood, 00:00:48.760 --> 00:00:50.880 and then the path into freedom. 00:00:51.020 --> 00:00:54.060 What is the way for human beings to actually become free? 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:56.840 Let's pray, and then we'll open God's words together. 00:00:57.960 --> 00:00:59.539 Lord, we thank you for your Word. 00:00:59.640 --> 00:01:01.079 We thank you for your Spirit. 00:01:01.700 --> 00:01:05.780 We thank you that we're not alone in this endeavor of trying to understand your Word, 00:01:05.879 --> 00:01:09.659 but your Spirit helps us because you're a God who wants to be known. 00:01:10.159 --> 00:01:14.519 You want us to know you, to feel your love, and to meet your Son. 00:01:15.000 --> 00:01:20.299 And we pray that this would happen as we open your Word together in the power of your Holy Spirit. 00:01:20.719 --> 00:01:20.980 Amen. 00:01:20.980 --> 00:01:21.060 Amen. 00:01:22.060 --> 00:01:24.620 So first of all, the peril of freedom. 00:01:25.340 --> 00:01:30.460 Dale Keene is a professor of politics, and he wrote a book called Sex and the Eye World. 00:01:30.459 --> 00:01:40.239 And he says that our modern ethics revolve around individual freedom, that they're sort of the center, the crux of modern ethics, 00:01:40.319 --> 00:01:43.899 really revolves around individual freedom in our society. 00:01:43.899 --> 00:01:47.259 And he summarizes it in terms of three mandates. 00:01:47.419 --> 00:01:52.039 He says this is essentially the moral code that most people live by today in our society. 00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:55.300 Number one, do what you want as long as it's consensual. 00:01:55.440 --> 00:01:58.820 Number two, do what you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone. 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:06.060 And number three, do what you want, but never, ever, ever tell anyone else that their life choices are wrong. 00:02:06.140 --> 00:02:10.560 And he says this essentially encompasses how most people try to live. 00:02:10.960 --> 00:02:17.980 So in our culture, when you think of the word freedom, most people define freedom as the ability to do what you want. 00:02:17.979 --> 00:02:21.519 In other words, we think of freedom in terms of personal autonomy. 00:02:22.659 --> 00:02:29.780 And we tend to assume as Americans that more freedom equals more autonomy, and more autonomy equals more happiness. 00:02:30.120 --> 00:02:35.500 So the more we can have autonomy, we assume the more happy and fulfilled we will be in life. 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:41.500 And of course, there are a lot of debates in our society about how to apply this to the government, 00:02:41.859 --> 00:02:45.500 or how to apply this to our interpretation of the U.S. Constitution, 00:02:45.500 --> 00:02:48.319 or how to apply this to the market, the free market. 00:02:48.919 --> 00:02:50.580 Lots of debates about those things. 00:02:50.840 --> 00:02:55.240 The question that we want to focus on is, how do we apply this to human beings? 00:02:55.759 --> 00:02:58.080 How should we think about human freedom? 00:02:58.860 --> 00:03:07.659 In Psalm 119, verses 33 to 48, this entire section, we see the psalmist praying to God for freedom. 00:03:08.180 --> 00:03:11.060 The psalmist is asking God to set him free. 00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:14.139 And so the first question we need to ask is, why is he not free? 00:03:14.219 --> 00:03:15.259 What is trapping him? 00:03:15.719 --> 00:03:18.099 And if you look at verse 37, he says this, 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:25.139 Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things, and give me life in your ways. 00:03:25.139 --> 00:03:33.599 And the word that is translated in the ESV Bible, worthless things, can also be translated as false gods. 00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:37.060 We see it show up a number of times in the Old Testament translated that way. 00:03:37.060 --> 00:03:48.060 And so the psalmist is praying for God to help him turn his eyes away from these false gods, these worthless things, because he cannot do it on his own. 00:03:48.259 --> 00:03:52.080 He doesn't say, I will turn my eyes away so I can focus on you, God. 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:53.300 He's saying, God, help me. 00:03:53.900 --> 00:03:55.860 Help tear my eyes away. 00:03:55.860 --> 00:04:00.280 In other words, he's trapped, and he needs God to intervene in his life. 00:04:00.280 --> 00:04:08.460 Now, this is very important, because what we need to understand is, the psalmist is held captive, but it's not in a physical prison. 00:04:08.620 --> 00:04:10.360 The bars aren't physical bars. 00:04:10.879 --> 00:04:13.159 He's in a kind of spiritual prison. 00:04:13.159 --> 00:04:15.159 He's spiritually trapped. 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:23.399 David Foster Wallace was a keen observer of culture and human nature, in many ways a genius. 00:04:24.060 --> 00:04:29.680 And in his famous commencement speech called, This is Water, he says this. 00:04:30.519 --> 00:04:33.240 He says, here's something else that's weird but true. 00:04:34.159 --> 00:04:38.720 In the day-to-day trenches of life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. 00:04:39.360 --> 00:04:41.759 There's no such thing as not worshiping. 00:04:41.759 --> 00:04:43.300 Everybody worships. 00:04:43.500 --> 00:04:45.959 The only choice we get is what to worship. 00:04:46.139 --> 00:04:52.300 Now, this is interesting, because we're not even really sure where David Foster Wallace fell in terms of faith. 00:04:52.379 --> 00:04:57.039 He had some interest in Catholicism and various things, but it was always a struggle for him. 00:04:57.079 --> 00:05:01.620 And yet, on this point, he was very clear, spoke with conviction. 00:05:01.800 --> 00:05:10.339 He says, there's a kind of danger that we need to recognize here, because most of the things that we worship, in his words, will eat us alive. 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:12.179 They'll eat us alive. 00:05:12.659 --> 00:05:13.979 And here's what he means by that. 00:05:14.019 --> 00:05:20.819 He says, if you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough. 00:05:21.500 --> 00:05:23.319 You will never feel you have enough. 00:05:23.319 --> 00:05:28.920 Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure, and you will always feel ugly. 00:05:29.599 --> 00:05:38.360 Worship power, and you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. 00:05:38.360 --> 00:05:47.600 Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, and you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. 00:05:49.340 --> 00:05:53.800 So this is what the psalmist is talking about, in a sense. 00:05:53.900 --> 00:05:58.180 He's saying, God, my eyes and my heart are fixed on something. 00:05:58.540 --> 00:05:59.960 They're fixed on something. 00:06:00.139 --> 00:06:01.740 It could be comfort. 00:06:01.740 --> 00:06:05.480 It could be being smart or the smartest person in the room. 00:06:05.759 --> 00:06:08.420 It could be the approval of other people. 00:06:08.579 --> 00:06:11.960 It could be being in control of everything in your life. 00:06:12.259 --> 00:06:19.720 But the psalmist is saying, I'm fixed on this, and I can't tear my eyes away, and it's eating me alive. 00:06:19.819 --> 00:06:23.420 I want it more than anything, and that desire is eating me alive. 00:06:23.600 --> 00:06:27.340 It's never enough, and no matter how much I chase it, I can never get it. 00:06:28.120 --> 00:06:29.540 This is what the psalmist is saying. 00:06:29.540 --> 00:06:40.000 So it's worth us asking, sort of pausing and asking, as we think about our own lives, what are some examples of this in our lives? 00:06:41.120 --> 00:06:46.840 So, for example, are you the kind of person who avoids conflict at all costs? 00:06:47.020 --> 00:06:49.480 And you do it to a point where you don't set boundaries. 00:06:49.680 --> 00:06:51.360 You let people take advantage of you. 00:06:51.439 --> 00:06:55.259 You quietly resent them later, but you would never say it to their face. 00:06:55.259 --> 00:07:02.079 But you avoid conflict at all costs because you cannot bear the idea of anyone being angry at you. 00:07:02.819 --> 00:07:08.920 If that's the case, then it's very possible that you have made an idol out of the approval of other people. 00:07:09.360 --> 00:07:12.139 You've made an idol out of other people liking you. 00:07:12.980 --> 00:07:20.060 Are you the kind of person who holds on to grudges, and you refuse to forgive even old wounds, 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:27.000 even people who have asked you for forgiveness, it's possible then that you've made an idol out of resentment? 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:33.740 Are you the kind of person, if you have kids, who when your kids fail, it crushes you? 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:38.840 You feel like you have personally failed, and you can't bear to see that happen. 00:07:39.100 --> 00:07:43.939 And so you'll do anything to prevent your kids from failing in any endeavor they take on, 00:07:44.180 --> 00:07:45.939 because you can't bear it yourself. 00:07:46.060 --> 00:07:48.939 If that's the case, you may have made an idol out of your children. 00:07:48.939 --> 00:07:55.319 See, we can take almost anything in life, good things in our lives, and we can turn them into ultimate things. 00:07:55.399 --> 00:07:58.279 That's what a false god is. 00:07:59.620 --> 00:08:03.220 So whatever it is in your life that you look at and you say, 00:08:03.579 --> 00:08:06.139 I cannot live without this thing. 00:08:06.220 --> 00:08:10.360 I cannot bear the thought of life without this thing. 00:08:10.860 --> 00:08:16.399 That is a false god in your life, and it's holding you captive, and chances are it's eating you alive. 00:08:16.399 --> 00:08:23.120 Nick Kristoff and his wife, Cheryl Wudun, wrote a book called Half the Sky. 00:08:23.279 --> 00:08:25.479 At one of Pulitzer, it's about sex trafficking. 00:08:25.739 --> 00:08:27.699 It's a brutal book to read. 00:08:27.919 --> 00:08:36.860 It's really, really, really, really horrible when you begin to read these accounts of these women who have been trafficked all around the world. 00:08:36.860 --> 00:08:44.419 And they say that rescuing these young girls from the external slavery is actually the easy part. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:52.980 If you want to get these young women out of slavery, actually rescuing them, comparatively speaking, the external rescue is the easy part. 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:57.940 But rescuing them from the internal effects of slavery is far more difficult. 00:08:57.940 --> 00:09:06.720 And he tells a story about a young Cambodian girl who had been held captive as a sex slave for the better part of five years. 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:09.500 And they're able to rescue her. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:10.780 She's able to gain her freedom. 00:09:10.779 --> 00:09:15.059 And Christoph talks about driving her back to her home village. 00:09:15.500 --> 00:09:21.139 And that as they pull up, she gets out of the car and runs to meet the people in her village. 00:09:21.339 --> 00:09:24.220 And everything sort of erupts into celebration. 00:09:24.419 --> 00:09:29.279 And people are screaming and laughing and weeping and dancing and singing. 00:09:29.759 --> 00:09:32.559 And her mother hears that she's come home. 00:09:32.620 --> 00:09:36.240 And her mother comes running, sprinting, sprinting down the road to see her. 00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:39.759 And it's this great party and celebration of this freedom. 00:09:39.899 --> 00:09:41.100 And it was a wonderful night. 00:09:41.799 --> 00:09:49.480 And then he says, not long after, early one morning, without a single word, she slipped out the door of her house and went back to her pimp. 00:09:51.100 --> 00:09:56.740 And you read a story like this and you ask, how in the world could something like this have happened? 00:09:56.840 --> 00:10:04.480 And of course, as is very common with sexual slavery, she had been given methamphetamine to keep her compliant. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:06.360 And she had become addicted. 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:13.460 And that addiction and that desire to have more overrode her desire for freedom. 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:18.080 It was in that moment for her the most important thing and worth any price. 00:10:20.460 --> 00:10:23.399 See, on the outside, she was free. 00:10:23.899 --> 00:10:26.659 But on the inside, she was still a slave. 00:10:27.460 --> 00:10:28.320 Still a slave. 00:10:28.320 --> 00:10:38.300 In the Bible, in the Old Testament, after God frees the Israelites from over 400 years of slavery, they, in a similar way, they erupt into celebration. 00:10:38.620 --> 00:10:43.020 And Miriam and all of the women, they dance and they sing about their freedom. 00:10:43.220 --> 00:10:46.340 But in no time at all, they are doing the unthinkable. 00:10:46.700 --> 00:10:50.460 They are begging to go back to the chains of Egypt. 00:10:50.460 --> 00:10:55.220 And you read this and you think, how in the world could they be begging to go back to Egypt? 00:10:55.660 --> 00:10:59.000 And the reality is, the chains on the outside had been broken. 00:10:59.139 --> 00:11:00.040 They had been liberated. 00:11:00.340 --> 00:11:03.900 But the chains on the inside were still there. 00:11:04.560 --> 00:11:06.379 As one commentator put it, 00:11:06.379 --> 00:11:12.820 It took a day to get Israel out of Egypt, but it would take a lifetime to get Egypt out of Israel. 00:11:13.860 --> 00:11:21.059 It's far easier to break chains on the outside than it is to break the chains that are wrapped around your heart. 00:11:22.439 --> 00:11:28.559 So this is the danger of freedom when we think about it only in terms of personal autonomy. 00:11:28.559 --> 00:11:41.359 Because every human being, as David Foster Wallace observes, every human being worships some false god, something that we have turned into a god. 00:11:41.779 --> 00:11:45.919 And when we do that, we have chains wrapped around our hearts. 00:11:46.739 --> 00:11:52.119 So what happens when you tell such a person that freedom means doing whatever you want? 00:11:53.259 --> 00:11:57.599 Well, what that really means is, do whatever your idol wants. 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:01.519 Because if your heart is in chains and you're being driven by this idol, 00:12:01.820 --> 00:12:06.399 then doing whatever you want really means doing whatever that idol wants you to do. 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:11.300 And so if your idol is an addiction, then you will use more and more and more. 00:12:11.300 --> 00:12:18.480 If your idol is control or money or the approval of other people, then you will chase those things even more. 00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:21.860 And what happens then is, the chains get stronger. 00:12:23.460 --> 00:12:26.600 The chains around your heart get stronger. 00:12:26.600 --> 00:12:34.279 And that definition of freedom, do what you want, personal autonomy, will actually rob you of freedom. 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:36.940 It will actually rob you of freedom. 00:12:37.080 --> 00:12:38.600 It will strengthen the chains. 00:12:39.800 --> 00:12:45.139 True freedom is only possible for human beings if we have spiritual freedom. 00:12:46.420 --> 00:12:51.040 And spiritual freedom means that we have to break the chains that are wrapped around our hearts. 00:12:51.039 --> 00:12:53.059 So how do we do that? 00:12:54.179 --> 00:12:57.159 Next point, the path into freedom. 00:12:57.719 --> 00:12:59.980 If you look at verse 45, the psalmist says, 00:13:00.319 --> 00:13:02.379 I shall walk in a wide place. 00:13:02.379 --> 00:13:04.079 That's an image of freedom. 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:06.099 It's a wide expanse. 00:13:06.259 --> 00:13:08.439 For I have sought your precepts. 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:11.659 The psalmist is saying, I'm going to walk in a wide place. 00:13:11.819 --> 00:13:13.539 I'm going to walk freely. 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:15.039 I'm going to be unencumbered. 00:13:15.059 --> 00:13:16.980 There's going to be no obstacles in my way. 00:13:17.059 --> 00:13:18.219 I'm going to have options. 00:13:18.220 --> 00:13:20.220 I have a life full of possibilities. 00:13:20.420 --> 00:13:20.700 Why? 00:13:21.660 --> 00:13:23.220 Because I sought your precepts. 00:13:23.740 --> 00:13:29.800 In other words, I made God's truth, God's wisdom, God's law the aim of my life. 00:13:31.060 --> 00:13:32.639 That's what I made my life about. 00:13:33.580 --> 00:13:37.060 So he's saying, and this feels counterintuitive, 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:43.160 the more I submit to God's truth and God's wisdom and God's law, 00:13:43.320 --> 00:13:45.259 the more free I become. 00:13:45.399 --> 00:13:47.600 So you see how this is almost paradoxical. 00:13:48.300 --> 00:13:54.120 For human beings who are living in chains, in spiritual chains, 00:13:54.259 --> 00:13:58.139 to tell a human being like that, that freedom means doing whatever you want, 00:13:58.200 --> 00:13:59.639 that actually robs them of freedom. 00:14:01.080 --> 00:14:01.500 Right? 00:14:01.580 --> 00:14:04.180 So they may look free, but they're actually not free. 00:14:05.019 --> 00:14:09.620 On the other hand, for people who recognize what this psalmist recognizes, 00:14:09.620 --> 00:14:15.399 the more they submit, the more they seemingly give away their personal autonomy to God, 00:14:15.460 --> 00:14:17.720 the more they actually gain their freedom back. 00:14:18.080 --> 00:14:18.980 See, it's a paradox. 00:14:19.679 --> 00:14:20.659 So how does this work? 00:14:21.500 --> 00:14:23.419 Well, coming back to the example of Israel, 00:14:23.899 --> 00:14:26.879 400 years of slavery meant that that's all they knew. 00:14:27.320 --> 00:14:30.600 And so God set them free, and now they're his people. 00:14:30.700 --> 00:14:32.000 They're in the wilderness following him. 00:14:32.060 --> 00:14:33.240 They're free of their chains. 00:14:33.240 --> 00:14:36.840 But God has to teach them how to be free. 00:14:36.919 --> 00:14:41.440 They have to learn what a free human being looks like and what a free society looks like. 00:14:41.440 --> 00:14:46.320 So how does God teach his people in the wilderness how to be free people? 00:14:47.680 --> 00:14:49.020 He gives them the law. 00:14:49.980 --> 00:14:52.300 He gives them the law at Sinai. 00:14:52.940 --> 00:14:55.360 This is what the Ten Commandments represent. 00:14:55.600 --> 00:14:59.340 You can think of the Ten Commandments as a kind of manual for freedom. 00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:02.500 This teaches them how to be a free society. 00:15:02.700 --> 00:15:08.940 So, for example, freedom means being able to take a Sabbath every week where you stop working. 00:15:08.940 --> 00:15:12.020 See, a slave, by definition, can't ever stop working. 00:15:12.100 --> 00:15:13.220 That's what it means to be a slave. 00:15:13.400 --> 00:15:16.260 But if you're free, you can take a weekly Sabbath. 00:15:17.000 --> 00:15:21.240 A free society is one where people honor their fathers and their mothers. 00:15:21.340 --> 00:15:24.960 In other words, a free society is a place where there's a strong social fabric, 00:15:25.100 --> 00:15:27.540 and there are healthy families and strong institutions. 00:15:28.340 --> 00:15:30.640 A free society is one where there's no murder, 00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:34.040 because in a free society, human life is treated as sacred. 00:15:34.540 --> 00:15:35.960 Not true if you're a slave. 00:15:36.440 --> 00:15:37.840 Your life means nothing. 00:15:37.840 --> 00:15:41.139 But in a free society, your life is sacred, right? 00:15:41.340 --> 00:15:43.780 A free society is a place where there's no adultery, 00:15:43.920 --> 00:15:48.019 because in a free society, people have control over their desires 00:15:48.019 --> 00:15:50.680 instead of their desires controlling them. 00:15:51.759 --> 00:15:56.800 So marriages are honored, and those vows are observed. 00:15:57.180 --> 00:16:00.320 A free society is a place where people don't steal 00:16:00.320 --> 00:16:03.220 because they respect the property of other people. 00:16:03.340 --> 00:16:04.920 Slaves can't own property. 00:16:05.019 --> 00:16:05.900 They are property. 00:16:05.899 --> 00:16:08.699 But in a free society, people own property. 00:16:08.799 --> 00:16:12.500 They respect the right that other people have to have their property, 00:16:12.500 --> 00:16:16.620 because everybody recognizes that all of our property is ultimately God's property, 00:16:16.620 --> 00:16:20.120 and we've been made stewards of that which belongs to Him. 00:16:20.539 --> 00:16:24.919 A free society is one where people do not bear false witness, 00:16:25.019 --> 00:16:28.659 because, listen to this, you cannot have freedom without truth. 00:16:28.659 --> 00:16:33.100 And so in a free society, truth is upheld as sacred. 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:39.259 In a free society, people don't covet the possessions of another 00:16:39.259 --> 00:16:42.399 because they are content with what they have, 00:16:42.539 --> 00:16:47.399 and they know that covetousness is the root of all human evil. 00:16:47.399 --> 00:16:50.399 So this is what freedom means. 00:16:50.399 --> 00:16:56.240 And all of this, all of this freedom begins with the very first commandment, 00:16:56.620 --> 00:17:01.939 which is to love and to honor the name of the God who made you 00:17:01.939 --> 00:17:04.400 instead of the gods who will eat you alive. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:08.700 To love and to worship and to honor God, 00:17:09.480 --> 00:17:11.740 to not have any other God before Him, 00:17:12.259 --> 00:17:14.740 to honor and reverence His name, 00:17:15.320 --> 00:17:19.440 rather than the false gods that will eat you alive. 00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:21.700 That's where freedom begins. 00:17:21.700 --> 00:17:28.400 So the path to freedom starts by recognizing that certain kinds of freedom, 00:17:28.500 --> 00:17:32.140 in fact, I would say the most valuable kinds of freedom by far, 00:17:32.759 --> 00:17:35.960 such as spiritual freedom, the most valuable type of freedom, 00:17:36.440 --> 00:17:41.360 the path to freedom begins when we recognize that these kinds of freedom 00:17:41.360 --> 00:17:43.759 can only be found through constraint, 00:17:44.440 --> 00:17:48.819 by submitting yourself to something greater than yourself. 00:17:48.819 --> 00:17:53.839 Now, we see this in all kinds of ways if we think about it. 00:17:53.939 --> 00:17:56.879 Think about sports, submitting yourself to a coach, 00:17:57.240 --> 00:18:00.200 submitting yourself to a regimen 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:04.700 that helps you develop your gifts and talents and abilities. 00:18:05.159 --> 00:18:06.339 Think about art. 00:18:06.599 --> 00:18:07.899 Think about music. 00:18:08.359 --> 00:18:12.779 The Oxford mathematician John Lennox uses this example. 00:18:12.919 --> 00:18:13.279 He says, 00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:16.059 When a great musician wants to play beautiful music, 00:18:16.200 --> 00:18:18.339 they first have to read the sheet music. 00:18:18.819 --> 00:18:22.079 The success of their performance depends on their ability 00:18:22.079 --> 00:18:25.000 to read and play those notes as they are written. 00:18:25.539 --> 00:18:27.899 It is only when you know the notes, 00:18:28.179 --> 00:18:29.139 and as he says, 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:31.539 submit yourself to their discipline, 00:18:31.759 --> 00:18:34.539 that you are free to play beautiful music. 00:18:34.599 --> 00:18:38.799 When you hear somebody playing beautiful classical music, 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:40.819 they sound free. 00:18:41.619 --> 00:18:43.079 Your heart soars. 00:18:43.200 --> 00:18:46.359 It's this incredible example of something that just, 00:18:46.519 --> 00:18:47.460 it feels like, 00:18:48.339 --> 00:18:51.039 it sounds like what freedom should sound like. 00:18:51.399 --> 00:18:51.960 And yet, 00:18:52.059 --> 00:18:54.440 that is only the product of submission. 00:18:55.599 --> 00:18:56.059 And he says, 00:18:56.139 --> 00:18:57.440 It's the same with our lives. 00:18:57.519 --> 00:18:57.779 He says, 00:18:58.119 --> 00:18:59.839 We want to make music with our lives, 00:18:59.879 --> 00:19:01.339 and the quality of that music 00:19:01.339 --> 00:19:05.319 depends on our attention to the score of God's law. 00:19:05.319 --> 00:19:10.339 So God's law is like the sheet music for a free life. 00:19:11.359 --> 00:19:11.939 And he says, 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:14.639 You also see it when you fall in love with someone. 00:19:15.539 --> 00:19:15.859 You know, 00:19:15.899 --> 00:19:16.700 I remember, 00:19:16.980 --> 00:19:19.279 and this is over 20 years ago now, 00:19:19.339 --> 00:19:21.480 but I remember falling in love with my wife, 00:19:21.740 --> 00:19:22.200 Laura, 00:19:22.319 --> 00:19:23.939 way back when we were in college. 00:19:24.399 --> 00:19:24.679 And, 00:19:24.740 --> 00:19:25.460 you know, 00:19:25.500 --> 00:19:26.960 the thing about loving somebody is, 00:19:26.980 --> 00:19:28.259 when you fall in love with somebody, 00:19:28.480 --> 00:19:30.480 you want to know everything about them. 00:19:30.880 --> 00:19:32.980 You want to be with them all the time 00:19:32.980 --> 00:19:34.380 and spend all your time with them. 00:19:34.599 --> 00:19:36.900 And you want to know what makes them happy 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:39.259 because all you care about is doing what makes them happy. 00:19:39.579 --> 00:19:40.460 So if you think about it, 00:19:40.640 --> 00:19:44.180 loving somebody puts a lot of constraints on your life 00:19:44.180 --> 00:19:46.160 and on your time and your priorities 00:19:46.160 --> 00:19:47.799 and how you spend your money 00:19:47.799 --> 00:19:50.360 and what you think about day and night. 00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:51.880 And at the same time, 00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:53.839 you've never felt more free. 00:19:55.579 --> 00:19:55.980 Right? 00:19:55.980 --> 00:19:57.339 When you're in love with somebody, 00:19:57.519 --> 00:19:59.779 it makes you want to dance. 00:19:59.779 --> 00:20:01.039 It makes you want to dance in the streets. 00:20:01.139 --> 00:20:02.119 It makes you want to sing. 00:20:02.980 --> 00:20:03.119 Right? 00:20:03.220 --> 00:20:05.460 It lifts your heart up to the heights. 00:20:07.160 --> 00:20:09.119 And the Bible says that 00:20:09.119 --> 00:20:11.899 we were made to love God 00:20:11.899 --> 00:20:14.639 and we were made to love one another. 00:20:14.779 --> 00:20:16.839 The Bible says that's actually the purpose 00:20:16.839 --> 00:20:19.740 behind our lives and why we're here. 00:20:20.059 --> 00:20:24.220 And this is actually how Jesus summarizes the entire law. 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:27.720 He's asked about the law 00:20:27.720 --> 00:20:29.440 and he summarizes all of the law 00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:31.460 in the commandments to love God 00:20:31.460 --> 00:20:32.820 and to love neighbor. 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:34.700 He says this is what it's all for. 00:20:34.900 --> 00:20:38.840 The law is a manual for freedom 00:20:38.840 --> 00:20:42.140 and freedom is about doing what we were put here to do. 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:42.860 And what is that? 00:20:43.059 --> 00:20:46.860 It is to love and be loved by God and one another. 00:20:47.019 --> 00:20:47.820 That's what it's all about. 00:20:47.819 --> 00:20:52.859 And only when our lives are aimed at that end 00:20:52.859 --> 00:20:54.279 can we be truly free. 00:20:56.079 --> 00:20:58.480 So let's bring all of this together. 00:20:59.059 --> 00:21:01.539 Most people in our culture think of freedom 00:21:01.539 --> 00:21:04.460 only in terms of personal autonomy. 00:21:04.460 --> 00:21:06.419 And most people don't realize 00:21:06.419 --> 00:21:09.439 what David Foster Wallace so astutely observed 00:21:09.439 --> 00:21:12.799 that in reality, everyone worships something 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:16.240 and chances are that thing is eating us alive. 00:21:16.720 --> 00:21:20.940 The net result of this is that there are many, many people out there 00:21:20.940 --> 00:21:23.079 who look like they are free 00:21:23.079 --> 00:21:24.960 and who believe they are free 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:29.519 who are nevertheless slaves to someone or something 00:21:29.519 --> 00:21:31.139 and they don't even know it. 00:21:32.420 --> 00:21:35.339 True freedom, which is spiritual freedom, 00:21:35.519 --> 00:21:36.319 freedom of the heart, 00:21:36.440 --> 00:21:39.779 is only possible if we are able to turn away 00:21:39.779 --> 00:21:41.920 from those false gods 00:21:41.920 --> 00:21:45.920 and give ourselves fully to loving and serving 00:21:45.920 --> 00:21:47.680 the God who made us 00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:50.519 and the people that he made on the earth. 00:21:50.700 --> 00:21:53.519 But that's only possible if we fall in love with him. 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:57.400 If we have what Thomas Chalmers once called 00:21:57.400 --> 00:22:00.139 the expulsive power of a new affection 00:22:00.139 --> 00:22:03.359 where we are so captivated by God 00:22:03.359 --> 00:22:04.819 and by God's love 00:22:04.819 --> 00:22:07.500 that it wrenches our eyes 00:22:07.500 --> 00:22:10.319 away from the false gods that have captivated us. 00:22:11.160 --> 00:22:13.259 And so our final question, how does that happen? 00:22:14.579 --> 00:22:16.460 Well, the psalmist says in verse 41, 00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:20.639 let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, 00:22:20.980 --> 00:22:23.339 your salvation according to your promise 00:22:23.339 --> 00:22:26.119 then I shall trust in your word. 00:22:26.259 --> 00:22:28.899 He realizes that he can't do it on his own. 00:22:28.959 --> 00:22:31.139 He can't muster up the power and the desire 00:22:31.139 --> 00:22:32.299 to love God like that. 00:22:32.339 --> 00:22:34.220 He says, your love's gonna need to come to me. 00:22:34.299 --> 00:22:35.319 I can't come to you. 00:22:35.459 --> 00:22:37.000 I'm gonna need you to come to me. 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:40.959 And this maybe didn't make as much sense to the psalmist. 00:22:41.139 --> 00:22:42.839 It makes a lot more sense to us 00:22:42.839 --> 00:22:46.079 as we read places like 1 John 4, verse 19, 00:22:46.299 --> 00:22:51.419 where John says, we love because God first loved us. 00:22:51.420 --> 00:22:54.779 And of course here, John is talking about Jesus Christ. 00:22:55.940 --> 00:22:59.279 The gospel says that Jesus is the only one 00:22:59.279 --> 00:23:01.560 who was ever really and truly free. 00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:02.820 He had all power. 00:23:03.120 --> 00:23:04.340 He had all glory. 00:23:04.660 --> 00:23:05.960 He had all sovereignty. 00:23:06.200 --> 00:23:07.800 Everything was under his feet. 00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:10.059 It says that he was truly free. 00:23:10.180 --> 00:23:12.519 Jesus is the only one who could do anything that he wants. 00:23:12.960 --> 00:23:13.899 Total autonomy. 00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:17.639 And yet he was willing to give up his freedom, 00:23:18.059 --> 00:23:20.859 to give up his power, to give up his glory, 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:22.579 and to become a human being, 00:23:22.639 --> 00:23:24.799 which meant he was willing to take on 00:23:24.799 --> 00:23:28.139 all of the constraints and the limitations 00:23:28.139 --> 00:23:32.740 and submit himself to being a finite human being. 00:23:32.740 --> 00:23:35.359 And then he was willing to go even further 00:23:35.359 --> 00:23:36.579 and to give his life, 00:23:37.180 --> 00:23:38.880 to die in our place, 00:23:39.279 --> 00:23:41.680 to pay the price for all of the ways 00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:45.180 that we will ever fall short of God's law. 00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:48.480 And yet because he did that, 00:23:48.819 --> 00:23:50.759 because he did that, 00:23:50.819 --> 00:23:55.000 it makes it possible for God to adopt us as his children, 00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:57.000 put his Holy Spirit in us, 00:23:57.000 --> 00:23:59.220 and then begin to work in us 00:23:59.220 --> 00:24:01.319 to make it possible for us to live out 00:24:01.319 --> 00:24:03.220 this great calling to love him 00:24:03.220 --> 00:24:04.480 and to love one another, 00:24:04.740 --> 00:24:05.880 the reason that we're here. 00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:08.680 And when you recognize this, 00:24:08.740 --> 00:24:10.500 when you see that Jesus Christ 00:24:10.500 --> 00:24:14.279 gave everything up for you 00:24:14.279 --> 00:24:15.539 because he loved you, 00:24:15.619 --> 00:24:17.579 because he was captivated by you, 00:24:18.000 --> 00:24:19.420 when you realize that, 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:21.160 that begins to melt your heart, 00:24:21.259 --> 00:24:24.799 and then you begin to fall in love with God. 00:24:24.799 --> 00:24:28.819 And that love is the one power in the universe 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:30.500 that is strong enough 00:24:30.500 --> 00:24:33.779 to dislodge our eyes and our hearts 00:24:33.779 --> 00:24:35.379 from those worthless things 00:24:35.379 --> 00:24:37.859 and to fix them where they belong, 00:24:38.299 --> 00:24:39.879 on the God of the universe, 00:24:40.019 --> 00:24:41.240 the God who loves you, 00:24:41.359 --> 00:24:42.779 and the God who made you. 00:24:43.759 --> 00:24:44.480 Let's pray. 00:24:45.899 --> 00:24:47.559 Lord, we thank you for this, 00:24:47.619 --> 00:24:49.879 and we know we are talking about spiritual things. 00:24:50.980 --> 00:24:52.899 Lord, we would be lost 00:24:52.900 --> 00:24:54.340 if these were merely ideas 00:24:54.340 --> 00:24:56.460 to apply cognitively and intellectually 00:24:56.460 --> 00:24:57.480 to our lives. 00:24:57.580 --> 00:24:58.960 We need your Holy Spirit 00:24:58.960 --> 00:25:02.340 to make true in us your power. 00:25:03.180 --> 00:25:05.080 We know that you desire our hearts, 00:25:05.360 --> 00:25:07.160 even as you have given us your heart. 00:25:07.720 --> 00:25:10.560 And we pray that you would inspire in us, 00:25:10.720 --> 00:25:12.660 kindle in us that great love, 00:25:12.759 --> 00:25:14.280 that great affection for you 00:25:14.280 --> 00:25:15.519 because of the gospel 00:25:15.519 --> 00:25:17.980 that would set us free 00:25:17.980 --> 00:25:20.240 to be lovers of you 00:25:20.240 --> 00:25:21.559 and lovers of one another 00:25:21.559 --> 00:25:23.299 and to be the human beings 00:25:23.299 --> 00:25:24.440 that you put us here to be. 00:25:24.620 --> 00:25:25.640 And we pray that all this would be 00:25:25.640 --> 00:25:26.319 for your glory 00:25:26.319 --> 00:25:27.440 and your son's name. 00:25:27.440 --> 00:25:27.940 Amen.