Freedom is Better than Free

READING FOR STUDY GUIDE: Numbers 11: 4-6

Text: Numbers 11: 1-35

Thesis: As we recognize and celebrate the birthday of God’s servant, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, it is important to maintain clarity regarding God’s plan for God’s people in a world that has substituted what is “free” for “real freedom”.

1. Numbers 11: 4-6 –“…remember…we ate in Egypt at no costs…
   1. Egypt of the Old Testament represents for the Christian a place of bondage, slavery, and servitude to the enemies of God by God’s people.
   2. What was “free” was given to keep the Hebrew people in bondage.
   3. The rabble desired to have the food of Egypt that was “free” over the fruit of the Promise, which is God’s “Freedom.”
      1. Exodus 12: 38 – The rabble represents those who were not of God’s people but came along with God’s people.
         1. They were offered freedom when the Lord broke Egypt’s chains.
         2. They were the beneficiaries of God’s blessings even though they had no faith in God.
      2. Numbers 11: 1-3 – God’s anger burned against them.
      3. James 1: 13-15 – Those who were not God’s people appealed to the evil desire of God’s people to crave things other than what God had for His people. And God’s people “cosigned.”
   4. The enemy will always present a cheap counterfeit to distract us from God’s best, “The will of the Father for His people.”
      1. Material riches have become the god for so many.
      2. Power and control over things and people drives the aspirations of confused leaders.
      3. Being my own god, choosing a moral direction based on my desires and appetites destroys countless lives.
      4. A religious spirit vs. a spiritual relationship with Christ has infiltrated the Church Jesus died to have.
2. Numbers 11: 4-6 – “…we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”
   1. Manna represents God’s divine supply and supernatural provision for His people while on their journey to the Promised Land.
   2. The Hebrew people asserted “their right” to have something other than God’s divine supply and provision and God gave them over to their choice.
   3. Matthew 4: 1-11 – The central citadel for the Devil’s attack on us and on Jesus is “my right to myself.”
      1. “I should be free to choose for myself what I want!”
      2. Romans 6: 15-18 – Satan works through selfishness on my part as we assert that our situation is the exception to God’s commands. This robs us of our freedom, puts us back in bondage and damns us to hell on earth and in eternity.

3. John 8: 31-36 – “Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free…We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves…”

   1. Beware of any proposition that presents deliverance, freedom, or justice that is external or resides outside the individual beneficiary.
      1. Such propositions are often counterfeits for true freedom.
      2. True freedom comes only from within.
   2. Romans 12: 2 – There must be transformation for there to be freedom.
      1. Transformation means change.
      2. Change costs the beneficiary.
   3. Matthew 16: 21 – Jesus paid the costs for our freedom
      1. Romans 5: 9-11 – Christ works in us that we may receive reconciliation.
         1. Reconciliation means “change.”
         2. There is a change in relationship because our trespasses are not counted against us.
      2. God changes us from enemies to family.
      3. From slavery to freedom.
      4. There is a difference between things that are free vs. the freedom that was purchased through the blood of Jesus Christ.