The Big Idea of Freedom Season
Here is the first half of the Big Idea, the Freedom Rhythm we focus on during Freedom Season:
God is proactively working his campaign strategy to free everyone from the dark side of their past so they can enter his arriving future. Jesus launched that strategy with his Freedom Declaration, and he is continuing it today.
Many people assume God is basically a killjoy, making rules and holding people to them. When people think of the Bible as the rule book, they don't read it much. Or if they do read it, they feel guilty getting reminded of all the rules they broke.
The Bible would stop looking like a rule book and start looking like a friend if people would catch on to the Big Idea of Freedom Season. The Bible is really one long story of liberation, not a patchwork of oppressive rules.
In this biblical super-story from Genesis to Revelation, the victims get delivered from their cruel master by the liberator, the rightful heroic king, but not as in a predictable fairy tale. The Bible's story is more of a down-to-earth thriller with some amazing twists and turns in the plot.
Freedom Season celebrates the biggest twist of all. Jesus, the spearhead of God's Freedom Campaign, was condemned as a fake liberator and executed by the establishment of the day. They thought that his execution would prove that he was nobody and his Freedom Declaration was null and void, resulting in the collapse of his liberating campaign.
Wrong! Jesus's execution advanced his freedom cause. God accepted his voluntary self-sacrifice, his life, as the one and only thing that would free people from the guilt of their past. (More about this during Mercy Season).
Then God raised Jesus from the grave, proving that the Freedom Declaration was valid. Jesus really is the Messiah, God's chosen ruler of the world, the Future-bringer. To this day Jesus frees the world from itself. His death, resurrection, and presence turn prisoners of the past into People of the Future (POTF).
Here is the other half of the Big Idea of Freedom Season:
God's strategy is for the news of his arriving future to go viral. The free citizens of his kingdom will spread the news and infect others with their freedom until the whole world is drawn to Jesus, the Freedom King.
When someone is freed from prison, addiction, illness, or danger, there is always a huge sense of relief and joy. There is also gratitude to anyone who helped free them. God's strategy for his campaign to save the world depends on that relief, joy, and gratitude.
As people accept the Freedom Declaration of Jesus and honor him as their King, they experience his deliverance. Often this is so thrilling and life-changing that they never get over it. It is like being "scarred for life" but in a good way. They are permanently relieved and full of joy, and they keep trying to pay off their debt of gratitude to Jesus.
How does he tell them to pay it? Pay it forward! Become freedom activists, telling your freedom story so that other prisoners of the past want in on the relief and joy you have. Your freedom will infect them. They will join Jesus's kingdom, experience his freedom, and tell their story so that the freedom news spreads exponentially.
What works against God's strategy for exponential growth? Self-quarantine, that is, saying "Yes" to the freedom of Jesus but not getting to work as freedom activists. In self-quarantine we are out of SYNC with the essence of God's strategy. He wants the freedom to spread. That can't happen if we bottle it up for ourselves.
Self-quarantine is extremely dangerous. God has a strategy, and we know what it is, so why are we working to sabotage it? Instead of looking like free citizens of Jesus's kingdom, we look more like traitors. At the very least we are being nonchalant about something Jesus died for. But we will excuse our behavior if we do not accept the Big Idea that God wants his Freedom Declaration to go viral through us.
Bottom line of the Big Idea of Freedom Season:
We see ourselves in Christ as freedom activists, calling the world into the new era of freedom that Jesus declared. We live in SYNC now with the magnificent, free future that began with the Freedom Declaration of Jesus.
In SYNC with Jesus, we are part of the kingdom he created when he issued his Freedom Declaration (Luke 4.18-21).
When you SYNC, when you See Yourself iN Christ as a freedom activist, you realize you are participating in that new era of the Messiah, spreading the word so others can enter it, too. That freedom is for everybody, but not everybody has received the word yet, bought into it, activated it, experienced it.
That is your cause: Give everybody a chance to get free in Christ. You are caught up in that cause, energized by it, and delighted every time you have even a small success.
You want a freer world? So does God. Why not get on board with the new era of freedom that Jesus has already announced instead of trying to work some other freedom plan?
Of course, you have to get over your view (if it is your view) that God is an enemy of freedom. If you are stuck there, read the story of Jesus for yourself. See if Jesus looks like a person who is restricting freedom or spreading it, and go from there. (Mark 1-16; 30-min read, leave this site)
How does this Big Idea actually work?
Jesus-freedom works differently than most freedoms. It doesn't liberate you by changing your circumstances or crushing the people who are ruining your life. Jesus-freedom liberates you by drawing you into Jesus's freedom campaign as an active participant. The more you participate, the freer you are.
Participation comes naturally once you are clued in to the flow of the story of Jesus and his freedom campaign.
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Before the dawn of time God the Father appointed his Son Jesus as the Future-bringer, the leader of the campaign to save the world (leader = "Messiah" or "Anointed/Appointed One").
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At the appointed time God sent Jesus from heaven to earth to issue the Freedom Declaration about his arriving kingdom, his new era of freedom.
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All Jesus's teaching concentrated on unpacking that Declaration for people.
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Jesus's followers were eager for him to take power and implement his Declaration, launching the new era of freedom; his enemies killed him to prevent that.
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God raised Jesus from the dead so he would continue to lead the way into his new era.
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From then till now Jesus has kept sending out freedom activists, empowering them by his Spirit to recruit more citizens for his new era/kingdom.
No wonder we are celebrating Easter! In the flow of the story of the world, we are the current freedom activists, taking the news of the resurrection of Jesus to the world. And enrollment in the new "kingdom" or era is still open to all. Because of the sacrificial death of Jesus, no one is disqualified by their past if they now freely choose to embrace Jesus as the Messiah, the Risen King. All we are urging people to do is to exercise that free choice.
If they do, they will start living in the new era of freedom and discovering what it feels like to be free and under external control at the same time. They become like synchronized swimmers or ballet dancers, totally controlled by the music but not feeling at all enslaved by it. They are not free from the music, free to make any move they want at any time. They are free IN the music. They love the music and concentrate on it intensely, never wanting to miss any of it by even a fraction of a beat.
If you told freedom bringers they are slaves of the Messiah's music and should break free from it, they would laugh at you. They would say that extreme concentration on precisely syncing with the music is not burdensome but exhilarating and fulfilling. It sets them free to experience and display beauty and unity.
That is what SYNC says about the rhythm that Jesus set in his Freedom Declaration. It liberates us by capturing us! And in this case, we love being caught and captivated. The more intensely we concentrate on our captivating Messiah, the freer and more beautiful we become as People of the Future.