Church On The Square

The following program is sponsored by evangelical life ministries.

Welcome to engaging truth, the manifestation of God's word and the lives of people around us. Join us each week. As we explore the impact of his message of spiritual renewal from the lesson of forgiveness forged and the crucible of divorce, to the message of salvation learned by an executioner from a condemned killer to the gift of freedom found in the rescue of victims of human trafficking. This is God's truth in action.

Welcome to engaging truth. I have a guest, uh, on the line with Hemi this evening in the month of July, who is going to share with us some words that, um, only the holy spirit can create. And that is what is the true freedom that God has given us in, in Christ. Welcome to the mic, Brad Heen.

Thanks, David. Appreciate it. Appreciate the opportunity.

Who is Brad?

Wow. um, well, first and foremost, he's a disciple of Jesus. Um, he's someone who came to the Lord, uh, as an adult, as a 33 year old man who was incredibly lost. Um, I grew up in a Catholic family and I went to 12 years of Catholic school, but it was a very, um, I don't wanna speak unkindly, but it was sort of a theologically nominative, uh, or nominal sort of, uh, kind of Catholicism. So it wasn't really theologically robust. Um, and so by the time I reached high school, I was, I thought of myself as an agnostic, you know, the kind of, uh, not an Orry agnostic that says, I don't know, and no one else can know either, but more of the ordinary kind, which just says, you know, I just don't know. I don't know if God exists. Um, and so I went off to school on the east coast and everyone, there was an atheist that I knew and, um, and then I moved to Texas.

So, um, for a large chunk of my life, you know, from, from the time I was probably 11 or 12 until I was 33, I was an believer. And, um, as I said, I was very lost and confused. Um, uh, I had a lot of, you know, several existential crises that, uh, that I went through trying to find meaning in life and value in it. And, uh, because of God's mercy, I, I eventually returned to scripture. I sort of moved away from scripture as an option, cuz I thought I understood what Christianity was, cuz you know, I went to 12 years at Catholic school I should know. Um, but we rarely read the Bible. I mean it was mostly sort of moral teaching and the only time I read scripture was if I was unfortunate enough to get selected, to do the scripture reading at mass.

And so I didn't know the Bible at all. I thought, although I thought I did. So I really had a kind of a defeater belief for Christianity. I was exploring meaning and other face, um, and other philosophies. And so I finally just got to a point where I just surrendered to it and said, okay, well I'm gonna go back to Christianity and read the Bible for myself and see what it has to say. And I'd say in like within six months I was converted, it was, um, it was just so, so authentic. It was so genuine when I would read the text, I felt like it knew me on a very deep level and uh, you know, it was just a radical change in my life and my attitude. And um, yeah, so that was 15 years ago. This, this October would be 16 years. So,

And you became a pastor then, uh, when,

Well it's somewhat interesting. I don't know if this is, uh, right or not, but my sense was is as I got really close to, you know, surrendering my life to Christ, I felt not just that call right. The call to be a Christian, but I also felt a call to ministry. So it's weird. Um, but I felt like those two kind of came together. Like it was almost like it was, you know, that at least part of my life was going to serve in full-time ministry. And that part of my commitment to Christ, I know maybe that sounds, uh, theologically problematic, but that's, that was my experience. I felt like I had to, I was, this is what God was gonna call me to do. And so, you know, this is what it meant. If I committed my life, it would mean this. And so, uh, I gave my life to Christ at 33 and then by 36 I went through kind of a, an internship program, a and a mentorship program. And then by 36 I was in full-time ministry. So it's been 12 years, uh, a full-time ministry.

How delightful. And is it an experience of joy then for you in the last, especially in the last 12 years, correct?

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. It's uh, it's, it's one of those things where as time goes on, you look back and you don't know that other person anymore. Right? The, the person I was before, but sometimes I just, you know, like I'll, as I'm going up to the pulpit to preach, I get this moment for just a second. Like you're a preacher, you're a pastor. I mean, this is insane, you know, it's like, it was so not my course. I was going 180 degrees in the other direction. And so every once in a while, it's just, I get this sense of, wow, this is just amazing where my life has gone, but it just, you know, has transformed my entire, my entire family. I it's transformed my entire world. Um, you know, and so I do have the benefit of remembering what it was like to be alone in the world and without God. So that, that nightmare, that, that the trauma of that on, on some level is still with me, which is I think a real blessing because I just, there's just no part of me that wishes to go back in that direction. Right. I'm just so, uh, so pleased and grateful and filled with joy that my life has, you know, that the Lord has, has saved me and, and put me on the right path. And so, yeah, absolutely.

Well, the, the joy of, of ministry is for me is 60 years doing this. And it's, uh, um, my daughter, my oldest daughter who turned 60 today, uh, she sat down here a couple months ago. She says, dad, let me use your phone and record everything that I can for the family's sake, not only family things, but what has happened in ministry. And there's so many wonderful stories of spiritual transformation that just comes back that I have long forgotten that. Thank you for your story. I, I just, I, I appreciate that because I can't go back and say my life was ever different. My dad was a pastor, you know, our, our, our direct and our indirect family were all Christian people. So I, I don't know that side of it, but red, thank you for sharing that with us. This is the month of, of, um, July. And during the month of July, we share some of the thoughts that surround July 4th for 250, almost 250 years. Tell me, what is it about this freedom that is this freedom that we have today that is so, so compelling to keep in its wholesomeness.

That's a great question. I think, um, well, one thing is, I think there's a, there's a significant amount of confusion in our current culture as to what that freedom really is. And I think there's a distorted view of freedom that is taken over many of the cultural centers, right? Many of the, the sort of culture forming centers and that threatens perhaps take over our entire nation, which I think will be the ruin of our, our nation. Um, so defining freedom, I think is incredibly important in the age in which we're living in. Um, and maybe one thing to say about freedom, cuz it is a complex idea, right? It's sort of a multi Valent term. It can, it can, there's different kinds of freedom. So sometimes it's helpful to distinguish between them. Yes, because I think it's really about, it's not about denying one kind of freedom or another.

It's more about where we place the emphasis. If you place the emphasis in the right place, then the various forms of freedom have value. But if you misplace the emphasis, then I think they can no longer, they no longer have value. So it's, it can be that sort of, sort of a subtle difference. So maybe the problem is, is that the emphasis is off, but maybe the first thing to say about freedom in a general sense is to say that it's a good thing, right? That it's a, a desire that every human heart, uh, has. Right. We all long for freedom. In other words, you're never gonna walk out on the town square and see someone protesting against freedom, right? Like what do we want less freedom? When do we want it now? Right. That's you're never gonna see that. And what's interesting is that even if, if somebody were to do that, the, that kind of protest is, is self-referential, it's it sort of defeats itself because by engaging in that kind of protest, you're exercising the very freedom that you're trying to suppress.

Right. And, and yet what we find in our country today is the kind of freedom that we talk about that, that sort of, you know, fills all the discourse and seems to be on the forefront of everyone's mind is this sort of limitless kind of Liberty, right? It's what philosophers call absolute negative freedom. So negative freedom is the kind of freedom. It's, it's the one that probably comes to the fore of all the listeners' minds, which is a freedom from right. It's a freedom from restrictions, from regulations, from law, right. We, we tend to in the west, in, in the late modern west, we tend to think of freedom as the only kind of real freedom is the, is the freedom of having no restrictions whatsoever in a really limitless kind of way. That's why it's called absolute negative freedom. And this is true. Not just, you know, cons you know, it's the oppositional stance that we take, not just towards the government, but of course, towards God's law, divine law.

So many people take it towards that, really any institution which wants to bring any kind of restriction at all, we bristle it. We wanna, we wanna cast off those restrictions and even we've come to such an extreme point where people are denying natural law, right. They're looking at natural law and they're saying, no, no, that's too restrictive. Like the binary nature of gender, right. People are saying well, for some people, the idea that there are just, there's just male and female is, is oppressive for a certain group of people. And there therefore should just be, we should, we should cast it off. Right. It's like, who are you to say that a man can't give birth, right? Who are you to say that we, you know, that you can define what a woman is? So this kind of limitless Liberty or, or Federalist freedom has become dominant in, in the thinking of so many people today.

And it's just, we're taking it to the absolute extreme. If you had said to somebody even five years ago, that they would be making these kinds of arguments that you would've thought the person's nuts, no one would ever deny the idea of male and female. I mean, the it's a, a foundational distinction of creation distinction that if you were to deny it, you know, the consequences of it, it may not be immediate, but soon the consequences of that kind of denial would be catastrophic. So that kind of limitless Liberty is, um, is just, it saturates our, our, our culture right now. And it's incredibly dangerous. Um, and so it's, or maybe another thing we could talk about too, is where it comes from, right. Where, where that kind of Liberty comes from that. Do you, do you want me to talk about that or, yeah. Sorry,

What, what is it, what is it about not only the negative freedom, but the positive freedom that, that, that surrounds us today?

Yeah. So positive freedom is the, not the freedom from, but the freedom to it's the freedom to a higher level of being right. It's what the founding fathers talked about when they had this idea of, uh, freedom of self mastery, right. That if you're gonna have a, a constitutional Republic, a kind of democratic Republic, like we have, um, you know, the famous words, what kind of government have you given us as a Republic? If you can keep it is the idea right. In that kind of government, the people have to be self-governing right. It will not work if they're not, self-governing when they say self-governing what they mean is the positive kind of freedom, which is the kind of freedom that comes in obedience to moral law, right? It's in James, he talks about the law of Liberty, right? The law that when you obey it, it sets you free from a Western point of view.

We look at that and say, how does that make any sense at all? Because you have law on one side and freedom on the other, right? There's these things are mutually exclusive restraints and then freedom. And the deeper level of freedom, the one that's more satisfying. And the one that has to be foundational or the, or the higher level is, is pointless. This positive kind of freedom says that freedom comes not in the throwing off of all restrictions, but in being conformed to the right restrictions, right? It's about being transformed as scripture would say into the image of Christ, right? That's why the, the Salter in Psalm one 19 goes on and on exalting in the law of God. How, how I delight in your law for modern people. That just is it's nonsense. It's like, no, no, we don't want law. Law just restricts you and prevents you from becoming who you are meant to be. But from a traditional standpoint, from the idea of our founding fathers from scripture, clearly the idea is no, if you have the right law, that's what conforms you into who you were meant to be. So yeah, that positive law has to serve as the foundation for the negative law. Right? All of these freedoms that, that we hold. So dear, like the freedom of speech, right? Or the freedom of religion, all of these things, they, they lose all their value. If they're not undergirded by a, a positive notion of law,

Why is there, if there is a positive freedom that we experience, why is that erosion taking place even within the church?

Huh? Well, I mean, one answer to that question is that this isn't new, right? It's this, this appeal correct to a Federalist freedom goes back to the very beginning, right? In Genesis chapter three, the lie, the serpent whispers into Eve's ear is the promise of autonomous freedom. Right? You can be like, God. Right, correct. And he says to her, you know, did God really say that you can't eat of any tree in the garden? In other words to say, oh boy, is he a tyrant? Right. God is a task master. Right. I can't believe he oppresses you like that. And she says, well, no, it's only one tree that we're not supposed to partake of. And then he's, you know, I'm, I'm paraphrasing obviously. But the idea then is, oh, well, the reason why he doesn't want you to eat that is cuz he doesn't want you to become who you really are.

Right. Who you meant to be. You are a God like he is. So this appeal to the idea of there being no restrictions, right. We are obviously very susceptible to it because even Eve who's in the garden, right. Who has thousands of yeses and only one, no only one, no is enough for Satan to come to whisper in our ear and say, oh, you're being oppressed. Right. You're to create us that kind of, uh Discontentment, which then leads to resentment and entitlement and all of the kinds of things that push back against law in general. And in particular, what it's really pushing back against is divine law, right? Because our country has, you know, um, a relative authority, parents have a, a relative authority, meaning that it's not absolute authority, but it's given to them by God, but God has absolute authority. So at the end of the day, when people bristle under authority, when they kick against the God it's it's God's law and his authority ultimately is what they're pushing back upon.

Because, um, like I said, it's absolute. So in one sense, this has been there from the beginning. And so we shouldn't be surprised that it's it's, it's um, it's showing itself we're revealing itself, but in another sense, it's, this is sort of the big lie of Satan, right? This is his big line. He appeals to us. Correct. Because we have this natural desire to be free. Right. Um, and so he, he uses that and distorts it like he always does and appeals to us. So in every culture, then it takes a different shape or a different form. It seems to me because if it was the same form every time, then we would spot it immediately. Right. He, his ability to deceive people, I think, counts on him changing the form. And so in our, in our modern context, I think, um, you can talk about the, the antied of it, right?

But I think in 18th century, there's a number of things that happen that really leads to this, this, this kind of thinking, obviously, one thing, uh, that takes place in 18th and the 19th century is the death of God. As it said, right. People move away from their belief in God. And they think that they've evolved past it, right? They sometimes they call this a subtraction theory, um, or a secularization hypothesis, but essentially says that religion was great when we were in our infancy as a species, right. It serves certain functions. It kept us away from things that might, uh, destroy the species. But now that we've grown up right now that the scientific revolution has happened. And now that, you know, our ability to reason is, is, has become so refined that we don't need religion anymore. So it's time to put on our big boy pants and, um, you know, and, and, and put away all this childish, these childish things, this, these superstitions, right?

It's just a foolishness that's bound up in the heart of the child and it needs to be dispensed with, and we have to become, you know, men and, and accept the reality of it. And that's a thesis, you know, that's sort of a story, a narrative that's been told for a long time in the modern world, and it's proven itself to be an abject failure. I mean, one of the benefits of the sort of madness that's going on all around us is the people who, and this is a, this is a group that my ministries in terms of evangelism, that we really targeted this particular group of people who were before sort of anti thes, they mocked religion. They thought it was stupid for weak people. And, you know, for dumb people, ignorant people. And, and so they had no need for, for it. Um, but they were very much based in reason and logic, you know, things like that to a certain extent.

Um, although I think Luther would critique their use of, of reason, certainly, but, but now with all the madness that's taking place, it's sort of forced them to realize, wait a minute, we actually, you know that what religion, what Christianity was giving us. We can't just cast it off. I mean, it seems like, like at the very least the moral foundation of society has eroded and now all of society is collapsing. And so there is sort of a, a reckoning that's happening with a number of people who were, uh, very hardened atheists. They've softened to this incredibly. And now I'm able to have conversations with people who before would just blow me off. They're not interested at all in Christianity, but now they see the benefits of it. Even if they think, well, I don't believe in it, but we need a society that believes in it. Cuz we have to have a, a, a real foundation, a firm foundation upon which society must rest this idea of positive Liberty, right? This some kind of standard that people must conform themselves to otherwise, you know, freedom and speech and all the rest of it's meaningless. Right. It's it just it's, it, it won't, it won't sustain a, a society as, as our founding father said time. And again, the constitution, all these documents, the government we're creating is meaningless unless there is what they would say is religion and morality, which undergirds it. So

I guess for today is pastor, um, Brad Heson of church on the square in Georgetown. I'd just like to say, thank you that you're willing to be here, but something special happened to you a couple weeks ago kind of emphasizing, uh, how the erosion of the, the freedom that we have had and, and experience was really put up against you. Brad, would you share that information?

Yes. One of the things that Georgetown has been doing, it's a grow. I, in fact, it was just announced that Georgetown is the fastest growing city in the United States. If you can believe that we've grown like 10% in the last year, just incredible. It's a suburb of Austin, right? So that's part of the reason people are really moving to Austin, but they're living in Georgetown cause it's a Northern suburb, but a number of, uh, weeks ago, um, the arts and culture board for the city, it's a board that's appointed by the city of Georgetown. Their responsibility is the public art. So the sculptures you see downtown. So they've been doing a lot of things to improve the aesthetic of Georgetown. And, um, one of the things that they've been doing is, uh, painting murals. They paint murals on the sides of businesses downtown. So we have the old, the old town square, you know, with the, the historic, uh, courthouse and the center.

It's a beautiful downtown area. And so they've been painting murals on the sides of buildings and they decided that one of the, one of the walls that they're gonna paint the murals on, that they would use Georgetown ISD students to paint the murals. So it's a long wall along the back of a business. And so they're gonna go through and put a series of murals back there. And so the first mural that they put up, um, the, the words on it, uh, that, that first sort of, uh, raised a red flag in my mind is it said that it was, um, everyone deserves kindness was the first mural. So I had mur with two people. I think they were holding hands or something like pen, everyone deserves kindness. Now I think most people would just walk by that and say, okay, you know, that sort of makes sense.

Although from a scripture point of view, it would really be everyone deserves damnation, right? And that Christ extends you as kindness. And the idea of kindness is not something you deserve, right? It's a gift that's given to you. So theologically it's problematic, uh, from a Christian point of view, but I, but knowing the culture and knowing the direction we're going in, it made me very nervous. Cuz I said, this seems to be the foundation, cuz this was going to be the theme that all the other murals are based upon. And I just said, wait for the next mural, because it's, this is likely going to be a very progressive agenda where they're gonna be pushing this new system of sort of Federalist, as we said, sexual ethics. So the next mural that was painted and this was painted by a middle schooler. So we're talking about someone who's 12 to 14 years old had uh, some clouds and then a field of poppies.

The red poppy is the city's flower and the red poppies and in the clouds, it said be your own person in rainbow colors. And then a number of the poppies were painted in the exact colors of the L G B T pride flags. So they have a series of flags that represent things like, I'm sorry to bring these things up, but bisexuality, um, you know, uh non-binary right. Um, I mean just a list of sexual behaviors, right? They have a flag that represents each of these, the flowers are painted in the exact flag colors, right? So, so what the, what the mural is saying is, is be your own person, right? If, and this is the spirit of the age, you need to look inside your heart at these waring desires that are within you. And then you have to decide which of those desires are the real you and which of those are not right, which are authentic and which aren't those which are authentic.

You must express those things and those which are not authentic, you don't, so you're not using an outside standard like scripture, but anyway, it's saying be your own person. So we're supposed to just affirm this entirely. So this is a middle school student who has painted this particular thing. So it was being presented at the city council meeting. And so I went and I expressed my disdain that this was a, that a middle schooler painted this, that it was on a public mural. And I talked about how, I think it represents an ideology, this, this kind of thinking of, you know, the throwing off of all standards, it's gonna, it's undermining Western civilization. It will eventually lead to its destruction. And so I spoke at that meeting that was on a Tuesday, the a week from not that Friday, but the next Friday I received notice we were renting the palace theater, which is a theater, right.

Downtown the church on a square, right. So we're renting the palace theater. We've been renting it for a year and a half. And so within a week and a half, I received a notice, an email, uh, from the creative director saying that our lease is terminated effective immediately. And that it was, um, the reason they gave was resource management issues. Right. And no further explanation just said, come and get your stuff. And you're done. And they would not respond to any my phone calls or texts or, you know, emails or anything like that. And so what seems to have happened is, you know, so either they saw it or someone complained right. And said that I had spoken out against this mural. And um, yeah. So they, it was what they call cancel culture. Right. I was, or we were canceled. We were kicked out of our, and you know, it was Friday, mother's day was Sunday. Right. So we have all this stuff planned, uh, for Sunday and it's Friday, you're done. You cannot come into our building again other than to get your stuff. Yeah. So what we've been doing is we've been, we have been literally meeting on the lawn of the courthouse and this is, we've been there for three, three Sundays so far as we look for a new place. But yeah. So that's, that's, what's happened to us in the last, uh, four weeks. That's what we've been, we've been dealing with.

I wanna say, thank you, Brad, for being bold and confident that the Lord Jesus Christ is in charge. Uh, it's his ministry, it's his word. I want you to close with prayer and just say, thank you for just being willing to share the issue of freedom, the erosion of freedom and the negative and positives of freedom itself. Would you close

With prayer? Yes, absolutely. Father God, we thank you for this time that we've had. And we thank you for this ministry that puts the truth out before so many father. And we just ask that you take the words that are, have been spoken and, and to do with them as, as your will sees fit father. And we thank you for this country that we've been given for all those who've sacrificed their lives so that we can live in a blessed place, such as his father. And we see it eroding. And we just ask that you intervene in that and help us to be a voice, a, a voice of sanity in this insane world. And that all these people are pushing. This agenda might turn from it, that they might be saved by the gospel and that we might bring real renewal, real revival to our nation father. We need it. And, uh, we want to be a nation that exalts you, that lifts you up, that blesses you one that is righteous and help us all to conform ourselves to your law of Liberty so that we might experience real freedom in your truth, because we know it's truth that sets us free. It's in your son's name that we pray. Amen.

Thank you for being our guest this evening, Brad, and also thank you guests for being with us on engaging truth. Come back next Sunday night. Thank you. Goodnight.

Thank you for listening to this broadcast of engaging truth. Be sure to join us each week at this time to help support our ministry, contact evangelical life ministries, post office box 5 68, Cypress, Texas 77, 410. Or visit our website@elmhouston.org, or find us on Facebook at evangelical life ministries. Thank you.