TD Jakes - The Cost of Freedom (06/19/2017)
This sermon, based on John 8:36, distinguishes between being conditionally «free» and being positionally «free indeed.» Using examples from early Jewish converts, parenting, escaped convicts, and the Exodus, it argues that true, lasting freedom—freedom from fear, shame, and looking back—comes at a great cost, ultimately paid by Jesus, and requires enduring struggle and commitment to secure.
Free vs. Free Indeed: The Cost of Lasting Freedom
You must understand that revival, and conversion, and ministry started amongst Jewish converts. Salvation comes first to the Jew and then to the Greek. It started amongst Jews, to convert them from one religious ideology to the next ideology. It started there, but it didn’t stay there. And the further in the early church period, in the early church age, the apostolic age, there was a constant decline amongst Jewish believers about Christianity.
In part, I believe, because of the pressure that was placed on them, that everything, when pressure is applied, you can tell what you’re made of. I’m gonna let this soak in. I’m talking about Jews, but I’m talking about life. I’m talking about people who start things and stop. I’m talking about the difference between being free and being free indeed. I’m talking about understanding that people will say things with their mouth, but when it comes time to pay the bill…
And so, you will find there is a decline so much in early… can I teach just a little bit? There is such a decline in early conversion amongst Jews in the first apostolic age period, right on up to the Nicene Creed and the establishment thereof. There is a constant falling away of Jews, part because when the pressure is applied… so Jesus is saying to them, «Yeah, yeah, you say you believe me now, but let’s see what time does to this.
Yeah, yeah, you say you love me now. Let’s see what time does to this,» because what you’re saying is wonderful, and you might be free, but there’s a difference between being free and being free indeed. There’s a difference between embracing a liberating ideology and really walking in total freedom, and wholeness, and deliverance. It’s one thing to talk the talk, and it’s another thing to walk the walk.
People are much better at talking good game than they are at playing good game. When they find out how much it costs you to really be committed, most people walk away. They like the idea of love, but not the reality of love. They like the idea of freedom, but not the reality of freedom, 'cause freedom is a messy business. Freedom is a messy business. There is no… there are no people in the world that became free without struggle.
Freedom is a Messy, Costly Business
Freedom is a messy, radical, flamboyant business. People don’t just set you free. They don’t just give you the advantage of freedom when they have enjoyed the advantage of your entrapment. Come on, stay with me. So freedom is a messy business, and you have to fight for it. It’s the same way with love. It’s really a tough business. It’s not tough on the honeymoon. Oh, it’s good on the honeymoon, it’s good in the dating process, but then, when you really get to working it out, it really gets to be a messy business.
It might not always have candles and music. Sometimes love is proven by hospital beds, and affliction, and test, and struggle. It starts out cute, but let me see how you continue. Just touch somebody and say, «It costs you something». That’s right. You will not microwave this. Some stuff doesn’t cook well in the microwave 'cause it’s too fast. Good food takes time. You can get it done in a hurry, and, yes, we can eat it, but if it’s gonna be good.
You can’t do a good pot roast in a microwave. It’s not that it won’t be cooked through, but really good food is slow cooked over long times. Jesus says… oh, I know what I’m talking about. Jesus says if you continue, you shall be free indeed. Are you hearing what I’m saying? And I started thinking about Independence Day in this country wasn’t about food. In 1776, they wasn’t sitting up, eating hot dogs, and ribs, and talking about, «Mama, bring the potato salad».
No, they were fighting against taxation and tyranny, trying to gain independence so that they could be free. And over blood, and pain, and killings, and shootings, freedom cost something, not salad, not baked beans, not corn rolled muffins. No, it cost something. Before you can celebrate, it cost something. And so, I started thinking about all of the innocent, innocent… because I fought back doesn’t mean I wasn’t innocent, because if you hadn’t took it, I wouldn’t have had to fight.
So I started thinking about all the innocent bloodshed that was necessary to get us where we are, that it cost something, and I thought, «Lord, can there be freedom without costs»? Which drove me back to the text, which said the freedom that would liberate these Jewish converts from the captivity of sin also required the bloodshed of the innocent. But the blood was the blood of… the blood was the blood of Jesus, who had to pay the price to earn the freedom so that we might be free.
Admitting the Cost to Protect Your Freedom
Now if you’re not willing to talk about what it cost, you’ll give it up easy. The problem with us never wanting to admit that we had to disrupt things, violate things, sometimes go against our own principles to get the freedom. If we can’t admit what it costs, we won’t protect what we got. Oh, God. Oh, God. So Jesus says to them, «I want you to be free, and free indeed». And I’m talking to you about what it costs to be free.
I know you’re up now as a person, as an individual. I know you’re up now. I know you’re stable now. I know you got it together now as a person, as a individual, but can I talk to you about what it cost for you to get up? Let me talk about it from a parent’s perspective. When your kids grow up and they mature, they end up okay. And when they end up okay, they really kinda forget what all they took you through.
Come on, stay with me, stay with me. And now, we sitting up drinking Kool-Aid, but it cost so much. It cost me giving up my time, and my freedom, and not going where I wanted to go, and doing what I wanted to do. It cost me buying for you when I couldn’t buy for myself. It cost me getting into fights with neighbors that I’d never had to fight with, if my kid and their kid… hadn’t I brought them into my life, they wouldn’t have been together.
It cost me sacrificing from what I wanted to do, to do what you wanna do. It cost me enduring your insults, and agonies, and aggravations to get you to the point that you now understand where I’m coming from. And even though you don’t remember how much it cost… oh, y’all ain’t gonna talk to me this morning. Look at you as a believer today. You’re settled out. You yourself, you’re settled out, but it cost something to get where you are.
Touch three people and say, «It cost something to get where I am». It cost something. I’m not just talking about school books and tuition. It cost something. It cost enduring some things. It cost overcoming some obstacle. It cost making some mistakes. Some of it I got, but it was a hostile takeover. I had to fight my way out. I had to cry my way out. I had to crawl my way out. I had to do things I wish I hadn’t done to get where I am today.
It cost… touch your neighbor and say, «It cost something». Cost, it cost, it cost, it cost, it cost years. It cost time. It cost hurt feelings and disappointments. It cost rejections and ostracization. It cost putting kids on my back, working a double job to get you to where you are. It cost something to get to where I am. It cost me some bad relationships, failed marriages, broken hearts. It cost… y’all not gonna talk to me. This, it cost me something.
The Escaped Convicts: A Picture of Conditional Freedom
That’s why when I get ready to praise the Lord, I don’t care how you look at me. You can’t stare me down and take my praise. It cost me something. It cost me to clap my hands. It cost me to lift him up. It cost me to give him the glory. It cost… I wish I had a thousand praisers that would give God a… Richard Matt and David Sweat taught me the difference between free and free indeed. You remember Richard Matt and David Sweat?
Yeah, these are the two escaped convicts, who were in prison wishing they could be free, and entering into a plot with a staff member, decided that «whatever we gotta do to get outta this, we will be free». So they plan an escape, and it works, and they got out, and they were free, but they were not free indeed. Because all the while they were shouting about being free, they were looking over their shoulder, wondering how long would the freedom last.
So it’s one thing to be free, and it’s another thing… Jesus said, «I didn’t just come to set you free, because you can be free and not be free indeed. I want you to be so free that you’ll never have to look back over your shoulder». Is there anybody who’s tired of living like a runaway, scared that your yesterday is gonna catch up with your today? Slap your neighbor and tell 'em, «I wanna be free indeed». I don’t wanna be, I don’t wanna be, I don’t wanna be free. I wanna be free indeed.
From the Exodus to Your Exodus: Pharaoh Must Drown
And then, when I got to talking to Brother Matt, and I went to the Word of God, it said it’s always been like that, said, «When I brought my children out of Egypt, I brought them out from under Pharaoh’s hand, and they escaped Pharaoh, and they were free». But they kept looking back over their shoulder, because what they were free from was still chasing them. And when they got down to the Red Sea, God said, «That’s when I took 'em from free to free indeed, because when I drowned Pharaoh in the Red Sea… "
Now I understand why Miriam grabbed her tambourine. She wasn’t shouting because she was free, because as long as Pharaoh lived, she was only free. But when she saw Pharaoh drown in the Red Sea, she said, «Not only am I free, but I’m free indeed». When the struggle is over, you can give God the praise for being free indeed. Free, but the drugs are chasing me. Free, but I still got a temper out of control.
Free, but I’m still fearful all the time, and my fear is chasing me. Free, but I’m running from a bottle of Gordon’s gin. Free, but I’m running from my history. Free, I’m free, but I’m not free indeed. The difference between a runaway slave and a free slave, the runaway slave is free, but not free indeed. Gotta change his name, gotta change his looks, gotta change his appearance, gotta live on the run.
We had a great-uncle that we never found, that ran away in the South and went up North. We never found him. He’s a runaway. He could never contact his family again, but he was free, but he wasn’t free indeed. So Jesus says, he says, «If the Son hath set you free,» he said, «you are declared free. You are documented free, because as the Son abides forever,» he said, «I can decree a judicial act that sets you so free that you don’t have to hide under bridges, nor run from your fears, for he whom the Son hath set free is free indeed».
The Life of Someone Who Is Free Indeed
And Paul got it in the New Testament and said, «There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus». You don’t have to run. You don’t have to hide. I’m trying to loose somebody in here. You don’t have to look back over your shoulder, because you are not a runaway. You are free indeed. You can walk past the fire that once burned you and not be scorched, 'cause you are free indeed. When you are free indeed, you shock yourself, because what used to get to you doesn’t get to you anymore.
What used to discourage you doesn’t discourage you anymore. Can I get a witness in here? When you are free indeed, people who knew you then cannot understand you now, because you don’t react the way you used to react, because you are free indeed. Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, you cannot win without a struggle. You cannot gain wisdom without mistakes. Mistakes give you wisdom. It is not what I did right that informed me.
It is what I did wrong that informed me. But if I can never admit that I did things wrong, then I never grow to the freedom that makes you free indeed. Are you following what I’m saying? I know this is heavy for Sunday morning. When you get to the point that you are free indeed, you are not just conditionally free, but you are positionally free. When those two convicts escaped the prison, they were conditionally free.
But because they were only conditionally free, they had to live on the run not being positionally free. They’re apprehended again because their freedom was not free indeed, but he whom the Son hath set free is free indeed. You know what I realized? They escaped jail, trading one prison for another. One of 'em had bars you could see, and the other one had bars you couldn’t see. Ooh, God. Sometimes I watch people escape this to get that, and that is worse.
At least in prison they weren’t being shot at. They could eat, they could sleep, but now, living on the run, you escape one hell for… you jumped out of one bad relationship to get into… you swapped the devil and went on with a witch. Mama would say you jumped out of the frying pan… but he whom the Son hath set free is free indeed. If your life has been a series of swapping one kind of prison for another, and if you’re tired of jumping from the frying pan into the fire, swapping the devil for the witch, maybe it’s time not to take your life into your own hands, and climb out the window, and sleep in the drainpipe.
Is that really free, when Jesus said, «If I declare you free, you are free indeed»? Miriam danced at the drowning of Pharaoh because she didn’t know what was in front of her, and she didn’t know what she would have to face, but she knew she wouldn’t have to look back anymore. Let freedom ring, let freedom ring, because it cost too much for us to walk away with being free when we could be free indeed.