Learning to Live Free

SUMMARY

Karl Ihfe opens his sermon with the movie "The Shawshank Redemption," focusing on the pivotal moment when Andy tells Red to choose between "get busy living or get busy dying." This sets up the central theme that while getting free from bondage is one challenge, learning how to live in that freedom is often much harder. Ihfe connects this to Israel's experience in Exodus and Numbers, where God rescued them from Egyptian slavery but then had to teach them how to live as free people during their wilderness journey.

Throughout the sermon, Ihfe demonstrates how fear consistently tempted the Israelites to romanticize their past bondage and retreat from the uncertain freedom God was leading them toward. When faced with challenges like lack of food in the wilderness or intimidating giants in the Promised Land, they repeatedly wanted to return to Egypt's familiar slavery rather than trust God's provision and promises. Ihfe emphasizes that this same pattern affects us today - we often retreat to familiar but unhealthy patterns when God calls us to new freedom. He concludes by challenging listeners to identify both an "Egypt habit" they need to confront and a "promised land" step of trust they need to take, reminding them that wilderness seasons aren't evidence of God's abandonment but of His transformative work in our lives.

TRANSCRIPTION:

In 1994, a movie came out, one of my favorites. I'm not necessarily recommending it to you. It's a pretty difficult film to watch. But it's based on a short story by Stephen King. It's called the Shawshank Redemption.

It's a story that centers around two main characters. A man named Andy Dufresne, who he thinks has been wrongly convicted of murder, and his buddy in prison, Ellis Redding, nicknamed Red. Red has been convicted of, and rightly so, of murder. It's a story of friendship, a story of hope, of finding grace and healing and forgiveness. There's a pivotal scene in the middle of the movie.

Andy and Red are sitting out in the prison yard. They're leaning up against a wall, and Andy turns to Red, kind of looks over at him and says, red, you ever think you're going to get out of here? And Red thinks about it for a minute. He says, well, probably one day when I've got maybe a marble or two bouncing around up there and I've got a long white beard, they might let me go. Andy says, well, if I ever get out of here, I know where I'm going to go.

Some of you may remember the name Zihuatanejo. It's this beautiful fishing village in Mexico on the coast of the Pacific. Says, I'm going to go there, and I'm going to get a hotel. I'm going to redo it, and I'm going to buy an old fishing boat that's worthless, and I'm going to redo it and take my guests out charter fishing.

He turns to Red and says, you know, Red, in a place like that, I could use a guy who knows how to get things. And that's kind of Red's talent in prison is he's a man who knows how to get things. Red says, I don't even know. I don't even know what I would do at this point in time. Andy's been in prison for 20 years, red, for well over 30.

Finally, red looks at Andy and he says, you know, Andy, I don't think you should do this to yourself. Mexico is way down there, and you're in here, and that's the way it is.

Andy sighs, and he says, yeah, that's the way it is. It's down there and I'm in here. I guess it comes down to a simple question, then, a choice. Get busy living or get busy dying.

That question kind of hangs in the air. It invites us to think about what's at stake. Andy says, you can live, I guess, in the mindset of prison is all there is. Or you might learn to live with hope that maybe there's another dream out there available. You can choose to live like freedom is actually possible.

Now, ironically, just a little while later in the movie, Red is released. He's paroled from prison, and he has this decision to make. How do I live free? We see it kind of living out in real time. After his release, he gets a job working in a grocery store.

And we get to hear at one point kind of the inner monologue going on inside of Red's mind. And here's what it says. 40 years I've been asking permission to go to the bathroom and I can't go without say so. There's a harsh truth to face. No way I'm going to make it on the outside.

All I do anymore is think about ways to break my parole so they'd send me back. It's a terrible thing to live in fear. All I want is to be back where things make sense, where I won't have to be afraid all the time. Only one thing stops me. It's a promise I made to Andy.

We'll get back to that promise here in just a minute. Technically, Red is free. He doesn't know how to live free.

You see, sometimes getting free isn't the hardest challenge we face. Sometimes it's learning how to live free. And that's exactly where we find Israel in this story here in Exodus and into Numbers, God has rescued the people from Egypt. He's delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh. And now getting out of Israel, God sets about the task of helping them learn how to live free.

See, it's an amazing story because overnight, Israel is liberated from Egypt. But as we're gonna learn, it's a lot harder to get Egypt out of Israel.

Same's true for us, isn't it? I mean, when Jesus rescues us, that freedom, that forgiveness, that grace, it comes immediately. But learning how to live with that, learning how to re enter our lives once again to interact with the people that we've been interacting with, to live and to work, that's a whole different story. It takes a lot longer learning how to live free. You see, God doesn't just rescue us from slavery.

He also wants us to learn how to live free. And often that kind of education happens in the wilderness. At least it did for. For Israel. Not long after Egypt, Israel finds itself in the wilderness and things are getting uncomfortable, right?

Food is scarce and existence is uncertain. That path forward, it doesn't seem very clear. And so fear starts to show itself, as it often does through complaint. And so in Exodus 13, we hear in that desert, the whole community is grumbling against Moses and Aaron. The Israelites said to them, if we had only died in the hands of Egypt, in the Lord's hand in Egypt, rather.

There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted. But you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death. Now, for any of you who've ever taken a trip with young kids, you've had some version of this conversation, right? We had all we could eat at home. You brought us out here.

I mean, it's an unbelievable moment. We should be back in Egypt. I mean, it wasn't like Egypt was this resort that they happened to be spending some time in. In fact, it wasn't even a golden corral. We were sitting around pots of meat.

Egypt was slavery. Egypt was oppression. Egypt was forced labor. Egypt was crying out to God, pleading for rescue. God, would you save us?

Would you restore us? And then suddenly, face of uncertainty, fear creeps in. Egypt starts to look good again. Why is that?

Well, if you've ever been trapped and trapped long enough, freedom starts to look a little scary. What would life look like out there? I mean, slavery is terrible, but it's familiar. Freedom is good, but it's unknown. And when life gets hard in the wilderness, people start rewriting the past.

Have you noticed that, man? Remember how good we had it in Egypt? Pots of meat.

Now, before we judge too quickly, we do the same thing, don't we? And we can look back at old patterns of sin and we start to romanticize them. I know that relationship wasn't healthy, but at least I wasn't lonely. I know that pattern of sin or that habit wasn't good for me, but it helped me cope with the anxiety and the stress that I feel. You see, freedom introduces uncertainty, and uncertainty often triggers nostalgia, often for the very things that enslaved us.

Notice how God responds here when the people are crying out against Moses, you just brought us to starve us. God doesn't explode in anger. I remember those trips in the car when my kids are complaining, and I'm like you, I'll give you something to complain about. That's not what God does. Then the Lord said to Moses, I will rain down bread from heaven for you.

The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way, I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they're to prepare, excuse me, what they bring in. And that is to be twice as much as they gather on other days. Daily bread enough for each day.

God isn't just feeding them, right? He's training them. He's teaching them how to live free, training them to trust him, training them to trust and to depend on him. Training them to live differently than they lived in that country of Egypt. And so every morning, they wake up to the same lesson that God provides.

God provides for his people. You see, freedom learns, means learning how to trust in a new way. And so this question kind of lingers throughout this experience. Will Israel learn the lesson? Will they learn to trust?

Will they learn to depend on God? And if we have ears to hear, maybe that's the question God's asking us. Will we. Will we learn to trust? Fast forward in the story a little bit.

Israel's now traveled through the wilderness and arrived at the edge of the Promised land, right? This land filled with milk and honey, this land of abundance, a land of flourishing. And they're standing there looking in. And Moses sends 12 spies in to check out the land. And they come back with this incredible report, right?

All 12 of them say, we went into this land to which you sent us, and it flows. It does flow with milk and honey. I mean, here's its fruit, right? And they show Israelite community the fruit. All 12 of them agree.

It's just the way God said it would be. Except 10 of them say there is a downside. You know, the people there, the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev.

The Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country. And the Canaanites live near the sea along the Jordan. The land is amazing. The people, yikes. The people are formidable.

They're giants. We can't do this. And once again, fear rears its ugly head. But there were two who would not agree, who wouldn't go along with this report, right? We're told then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, we should go up and take possession of the land.

We should go up and take possession of the land. We can do this, Church. We can do this. But the 10 who were afraid immediately respond. We can't attack those people.

They're stronger than we are. And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land that they'd explored. These 10 were so convinced the mission was impossible that they worked to make sure everybody in the community felt the same way. And so as chapter 14 opens up, we find Israel standing at the precipice once again of a situation. Fear is spread throughout the camp.

And the same arguments that came up at the Red Sea, the same arguments that came up in Exodus 13. Out in the wilderness, they come up here again. The community's grumbling Israelite grumbled against Moses. And the whole assembly said, if we'd only died in Egypt or in this wilderness. Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword?

You ever noticed how fear is contagious? It spreads. Moses and Aaron fall down. They don't know what to do. But it's an amazing thing.

Fear is not the only thing that can be contagious in a community. So can courage. And so we hear these words from Caleb and Joshua. They were among those who'd explored the land and they tore their clothes and they said, we can do this. The land we pass through, it's exceedingly good.

If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, the land flowing with milk and honey. And he'll give it to us only. Don't rebel. Don't be afraid. Because we will devour these people.

Their protection is gone. The Lord is with us. Don't be afraid. You see, God's people stand once again on the edge of something huge. On the edge of something unknown and uncertain.

How are we gonna survive? I'm not sure. It looks kind of scary. It's bigger than us. It's more than we could have imagined.

And I don't know. I don't know if I can make it. Maybe we should just go back to what was familiar. I know it wasn't good. I know it wasn't healthy.

But at least I knew what I could expect here. I don't know what to expect.

And that command comes once again. Don't be afraid. Right. We heard it with Abram in the call of Abram. We heard it with Moses in the burning bush.

We hear it in the prophets and with the angels who showed up at Jesus birth. We hear it in Jesus own teaching to his disciples. We saw a couple weeks ago, walking on the water in the midst of a storm, don't be afraid. Over and over again, when God's people are facing a challenge or uncertainty or something new, the first thing he tells them is, don't be afraid. Not because there isn't anything to fear.

Because if we give in to fear, it turns us back into slaves again. Even after God set us free, that's exactly what happens in Israel. They've been rescued from Egypt and provided for in the desert. But when the new challenge shows up, when things seem uncertain, when they're unsure and fear shows up, they immediately start thinking like slaves again. Let's just go back to Egypt.

Let's just go back to what's familiar.

See, fear has a way of convincing us that familiar, the familiar chains of the past are safer than the uncertain and unknown freedom that God is leading us into in the future. See, part of learning to live free is learning to trust God more than we trust our fear. See, fear is always going to tempt you to retreat into something familiar. It's always going to try to get you to question and to wonder, to doubt and to move backwards. But God's leading us toward abundance.

See, Israel's fear convinces them that they're safer in bondage.

Once again, it's not just their story. This is our story, isn't it, Church? I mean, fear.

Fear tries to convince us, too. You see, sometimes God is calling us to something new. He leads us to a new calling, a new opportunity, a new chance, a new way of living. And standing on the edge of that new life, it can feel scary. It can feel intimidating, uncertain, unsure.

What's this gonna look like? You see, the promised land, it always requires trust. God doesn't tell them exactly what's gonna happen. He just says, I'll be with you.

See, living in a new way requires us to. To believe that God's bigger than the giants that we'll face.

But the people couldn't see past their fear, so they kept wandering in the wilderness. Centuries later, Paul would reflect on this very moment to the church in Corinth. He would write about it to them. And here's what he tells them. He says, I don't want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.

They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and they drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them. But that rock, that rock was Christ. You see, it turns out Jesus was present with Israel in the wilderness before Bethlehem, before the cross, before resurrection. Jesus was there.

He was present. He was providing and sustaining and leading his people. Even when they complained, even when they doubted, even when they feared Christ was still with them.

Which, if we're listening this morning, I hope that says something to us. You See the wilderness seasons of our life. Not evidence that God has abandoned us. It's evidence that God is at work in our lives. He's transforming us.

He's changing us. He's teaching us.

See, if the testimony of scripture is true, wilderness is where God teaches people how to live free, how to live free from the slavery that he's rescued them from. You see, rescue isn't just about bringing us out of something. It's about moving us into. Into something.

And so there's this question the story begs of us, if we're willing to ask it. What parts of Egypt are still living inside of us?

What habits or patterns or ways of thinking are still at work in us? You see, sometimes we've been rescued, but we're still thinking and living like we're enslaved. We still believe lies, like, I'm not enough and I'll never be enough, or I can never change, or this is just me. This is just who I am.

We still return to coping mechanisms that once helped us survive, but now they're just keeping us stuck. We still trust control instead of trusting God. And God waits patiently to help us unlearn those patterns. Not through instant transformation, as much as we might, and I might want that, but rather in the wilderness, through a long obedience, as Eugene Peterson says, in the same direction, through daily bread, in moments every day where we learn God is faithful, God will provide. God is with us.

He's leading us somewhere.

I love how the Shawshank Redemption ends after Red has been released from prison. Actually, in that same little story in the prison yard. Get busy living, get busy dying. Andy turns to Red at one point, he says, I want to promise. I want you to promise me.

If you ever get out of here, I want you to go up to this hayfield up in Buxton, Maine. It's on the north side of town. And there's going to be this rock wall. And I want you to find that rock wall and go to the oak tree that's next to that rock wall. And at the bottom of that oak tree is going to.

At the bottom of that wall, rather, is going to be this. This rock that has no business being in a hay field in Maine. I buried something there for you, and I want you to dig it up. And so as this movie ends, Red's released and he decides to go and find this wall. And he does.

He finds the rock and he unearths this little box. He opens up the box, and inside is a letter. And that letter is a bunch of money, a bunch of Cash and an invitation from Andy to join him down in Zihuatanejo.

And Red makes a decision. He's going to go. Once again, we get a little insight into the narration going on inside of Red. This is what he for the second time in my life, I'm guilty of committing a crime. Parole violation.

Of course, I doubt they'll toss up any roadblocks for that. Not for an old crook like me.

I find I'm so excited I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel. A free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it's been in my dreams. I hope.

Maybe the invitation this week for us Church I want you to name two things, two things in your life. Number one, what's one Egypt, habit or mindset that God might be asking you to confront this Lenten season. Maybe it's fear. Maybe there's fear that wells up in you that's trying to tempt you to go back into slavery. Maybe it's control.

Maybe it's an old coping mechanism that you're just wanting to return to. Maybe it's believing a lie about yourself. What's one Egypt and habit or mindset that God's asking you to confront?

Number two, what's one promised land step of trust God's inviting you to take this week? Maybe it's to forgive somebody. Maybe it's to begin that road, that work, to say, God, I want to be free of this. Would you help me to learn to forgive? Or maybe it's stepping into a new opportunity that you're standing on the precipice of a new life and just wondering, God, are you there?

Will you be with me? Maybe it's trusting God in an area of your life that you tend to hold pretty close to the chest, right? You don't want to give that up. Maybe God's inviting you. Would you let go?

Maybe it's choosing obedience when things seem uncertain.

I think of my. I think of him as my friend. I've actually met him, but he would not call me his friend. But I think of him as my friend had a huge impact in my life. John Ortberg he said, when things are uncertain, uncertainty is uncertain.

Be faithful to what you already know to be true. Maybe God's inviting you to return to the things you already know to be true. And be obedient. The wilderness is not where God abandons us.

It's where he teaches us patiently and faithfully to live with hope, to learn how to live free. God, would you teach us this week how to live free once again? Would you confront those habits that are deep inside of us, those lies that have been told to us once again that you don't care or that you couldn't work in a life that and a person like me, that you don't love me, that I've got to clean everything up before I can come to you. All those lies the evil one tries to tell us. God, would you confront those this week?

Would you ambush us once again with your amazing love?

God, would you remind us that you've not brought us this far to stop here?

That you have a plan and a dream and a hope that each of us would be a part of your kingdom and that each of us would take our place helping to bring that kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, just the way that Jesus, you taught us to pray.

God, would you give us the energy and the excitement that only free people can feel? Free people who are at the start of a long journey and whose conclusion hasn't quite been written yet?

God, would you help us to be people who hope? Who hope that we too can get across the border of the land that's kept us enslaved?

You'd help us to live with the hope that we reconnect with the life that you created us to live?

Yeah. That we could hope just like red, that the Pacific would be as blue as it is in our dreams, that your kingdom on earth and us living in it would be as wonderful as Jesus promised it would be? God, would you help us to live without fear?

Would you open our eyes and our ears to what it is that you want us to confront this week? God, that mindset or that habit that's just keeping us down or maybe that step of trust that's keeping us from stepping into the promised land? Oh, God, would you open us up to whatever it is that you have to say and give us the courage, God, to go together, teach us to live free. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.