FREE TO SHINE (3 OF 6)
Scripture: Philippians 2:14-18
This content is part of a series.
Free to Shine (3 of 6)
Series: True Freedom
Dave Gustavsen
Philippians 2:14-18
We're taking this spring to walk through Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul wrote this letter while he was locked up in a prison cell in Rome. True confession: the idea of getting sent to prison is a terrifying thought to me. Can you relate to that? I mean, it's not like I have a body buried in my backyard, and I live in fear of someone finding out. (Why would he even say that?) But we've all heard the stories of people who get accused of a crime they didn't commit, and the system fails them, and they wind up getting sent to prison. And I'm just saying: the thought of that is terrifying. When I imagine myself waking up every day in prison, with all my freedom ripped away, it feels confining and claustrophobic and panicky and just depressing. It's a terrible thought, isn't it?
And that's what makes this letter so powerful. Because the guy who wrote it was a prisoner. So when you look at it on the surface, how much freedom did Paul have? Zero. None. And yet, when you start reading the letter, you realize really quickly that this is not a man who's feeling claustrophobic and panicky and depressed. There's a largeness and a spaciousness and a fierce freedom to his soul that just spills out on the page. So as you go through the letter, whatever topic Paul is talking about, you have that reality as the backdrop, and it makes the whole thing more powerful.
And it makes the whole thing connect with our lives. Because I realize that my nightmare of getting sent to prison will probably never happen, and it will probably never happen to you. But we all have our prisons, don't we? Whether it's physical problems, or family problems, or work problems, or financial problems. Those can feel like prisons. And Philippians shows us that even with those outward chains-even if some of those things never change-there's this inner freedom that's possible. And that's what this series is all ...
Series: True Freedom
Dave Gustavsen
Philippians 2:14-18
We're taking this spring to walk through Paul's letter to the Philippians. Paul wrote this letter while he was locked up in a prison cell in Rome. True confession: the idea of getting sent to prison is a terrifying thought to me. Can you relate to that? I mean, it's not like I have a body buried in my backyard, and I live in fear of someone finding out. (Why would he even say that?) But we've all heard the stories of people who get accused of a crime they didn't commit, and the system fails them, and they wind up getting sent to prison. And I'm just saying: the thought of that is terrifying. When I imagine myself waking up every day in prison, with all my freedom ripped away, it feels confining and claustrophobic and panicky and just depressing. It's a terrible thought, isn't it?
And that's what makes this letter so powerful. Because the guy who wrote it was a prisoner. So when you look at it on the surface, how much freedom did Paul have? Zero. None. And yet, when you start reading the letter, you realize really quickly that this is not a man who's feeling claustrophobic and panicky and depressed. There's a largeness and a spaciousness and a fierce freedom to his soul that just spills out on the page. So as you go through the letter, whatever topic Paul is talking about, you have that reality as the backdrop, and it makes the whole thing more powerful.
And it makes the whole thing connect with our lives. Because I realize that my nightmare of getting sent to prison will probably never happen, and it will probably never happen to you. But we all have our prisons, don't we? Whether it's physical problems, or family problems, or work problems, or financial problems. Those can feel like prisons. And Philippians shows us that even with those outward chains-even if some of those things never change-there's this inner freedom that's possible. And that's what this series is all ...
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