Statistics show that brokenness, dysfunction and addictions occur almost just as much in the church as they do in the world. There are many Christians who are saved but not fully freed. Why is this the case and what can be done about it? You’ll learn in this message you’ll learn about true spiritual freedom and how to start the process.

<p>Statistics show that brokenness, dysfunction and addictions occur almost just as much in the church as they do in the world. There are many Christians who are saved but not fully freed. Why is this the case and what can be done about it? You’ll learn in this message you’ll learn about true spiritual freedom and how to start the process.</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Freedom Health Ministries

Gabriel Arruda

Prisoners in the House of Freedom

So the title of this message is, Prisoners in the House of Freedom.

It's kind of a contradiction in terms, yeah?

How could you be a prisoner and free at the same time?

But I want to share with you, Scripture brings out that that's exactly what happens too many times.

And I see you're translating, I'll try to speak slowly for you.

Let's go to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 61.

We want Isaiah 61, and we're gonna read verses 1 and 3.

Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 and 3.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek.

He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to who?

The captives, to the opening of the prison to them that are bound." Now this is a prophecy and who applied this prophecy to themselves in the New Testament?

This was a prophecy of Christ and what His ministry would look like and as He said He came to let the captives loose, to let people out of prison.

Now, isn't that a nice thing for Jesus to say about the Gentiles?

In Zion, to give them a beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

And he says, I've come to do this in China, in Russia, in Greece, in Zion, in my hometown, in Jerusalem, in the church.

And so what Christ is saying here is, I've come to set people free.

There's people bound, there's people in chains, and they're in the church.

This thought is repeated in the book of Psalms.

And we're going to read verses 19 through 21.

For he, speaking of God, has looked down from the height of his sanctuary from heaven.

Did the Lord behold the earth to hear the groanings of what kind of people of the prisoners to loose those that were appointed to death to declare the name of the Lord and where in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem So again the Bible brings out that there are people in Zion, there are people in Jerusalem, there are people in the church, in the house of freedom, and they're in bondage, they're captives.

And so it's this really interesting idea that you could be in a house of freedom and yet a prisoner at the same time.

A lot of the idea for this sermon came from this really great book that a friend gave me about 3 years ago after my wife passed away.

It's called The Hidden Half of the Gospel.

It's written by a Seventh-day Adventist minister, Pastor Paul Condiff, and the beginning of this book, he starts that when he began his ministry and he started working with churches, with people, he was shocked, he was floored, and he was actually confused as he began his pastoral ministry as he found just as much brokenness in the church that he found in the world.

And what he found is there were Christians who have been saved, but not freed.

Now, honestly, when I heard this concept, that kind of sounded wrong to me.

You know, Christians were people of freedom, right?

We're, you know, we've been saved by Christ.

He just makes this very provocative case in the introduction of his book.

He says, Unfortunately, statistics show that believers and non-believers alike struggle with the same kinds of brokenness, including alcohol, drugs, trouble with money, food addictions, sex addictions, sexual abuse, depression, and domestic violence.

In the cases of divorce and pornography addiction, the statistics say that Christians struggle every bit as often as the rest of the world.

But I have found through over 25 years of pastoral ministry, there's 1 main difference between the 2 groups.

So he says, You know, outside the church, we have people dealing with, you know, drug abuse, the depression.

We got that inside the church to not as much, but we still have it.

And then when it came to things like pornography and divorce, he said, it's just the statistics say it's just as much.

It's just as prevalent in the church as it is in the world.

But the people in the world, you could say, are a little better off because they don't have as much guilt about it.

And the fact is, when people find the church, when people find Christ, they learn the truth, they believe the truth, they're baptized, and this is a beautiful thing, but they still carry a lot of pain in their hearts.

People in the church still struggle with fear, they still struggle with anxiety, depression, phobias, eating disorders, harming themselves, cutting themselves, That stuff happens in the church.

And then we have all these socially acceptable addictions like workaholics, rageaholics, shopaholics, gossipaholics.

I'll never forget my friend, he used to be my partner in crime back in the day, the Lord touched both of our lives, and he actually went into pastoral ministry.

After he graduated from Andrews, he was assigned his first church district and as a good pastor does, 1 of the first things he did is he started visiting with his church members and getting to know the church members and 1 of his very first visits he sits down in a home with a husband and wife and he sits down brand new pastor 1 of his first visits and he says so I'm your new pastor and I just want to know how can I serve you guys the man looked at him directly in the face and said without batting an eye I like wearing women's clothing excuse me he said I was so shocked he says I didn't know what to say I didn't know to say and this guy actually held a position in the church?

I think he was a deacon or something like that.

He says, I, We didn't have that class in Andrews, you know, like what do I do with that?

And this was the beginning of, hey, welcome to pastoral ministry.

We're just as broken in here sometimes as we are out there.

I was in Arizona because I was attending a friend's wedding.

And tragically, 2 days before my friend got married, his mom passed away, 2 days before his wedding.

And so he actually asked me, he messaged me, and he said, you know, I would really like for you to share during the wedding reception about grieving, how to grieve in a healthy way, how to deal with losses.

And I agreed to, I said, of course, if you really want me to do that, I would.

And then came time for the wedding reception.

And we're all there at the wedding reception.

And as the wedding reception kept going, I started getting really uncomfortable.

And I just started getting really self-conscious about this.

I thought, I'm gonna talk about death at a wedding reception.

This is really weird and I started feeling really like I don't know this isn't appropriate and the order of events kept going and I wasn't getting called up and I thought I think he forgot about me and I thought maybe if I just kind of like hide in the back like he won't see me and you know we'll just look I'll go and he'll like you know text me later I'm so sorry and I'm like oh it's cool I really didn't want to do it I started getting cold feet and then towards the end the the MC came up to me and he grabbed me, he says, Tim has let me know that he has not forgot about you and he definitely wants you to get up there and to share.

I'm like, okay, well I guess this is something God wants me to do.

So yeah, they called me up and I went up in front of everybody and I was like, felt kind of awkward, you know, I'm like, well, as we know, Tim's mom just passed away and I'm here to talk about how to grieve in a healthy way.

And so I began to share, I only shared about, I don't know, 5 to 7 minutes.

My first point was that there's only 1 way out of grief, and that's through it.

There's only 1 way out of grief, and that's straight through it.

And what I shared, the point I shared, is what can be tempting for some people is to not allow themselves to grieve.

And what I encouraged my friend Tim to do, and anyone else out there who I didn't even know if anyone could relate to this, I said, don't let it come.

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Prisoners in the House of Freedom

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