Free Guy with Paul McDonald and Britt Mooney
Paul McDonald and Britt Mooney jump back into video games with Free Guy. We have the capacity for change and growth, but it’s only activated when we experience our creator. The truth of the gospel is that you could be more. Your life could be fuller. And we’ve been given our freedom for a reason—to become love letters from God to a world in need. Put on the sunglasses. Step out of the background and become a player as we discover God’s truth in this movie.
Quotes
Other people get to go live meaningful lives, but I’m stuck doing the same thing every day.
We have the capacity for change and growth, but something has to activate it.
We get desensitized to the chaos and trauma because we feel powerless and we just accept it as a part of normal life.
“My whole life I felt like there had to be something more and then I saw you, and I knew I was right. And for a second, I felt amazing.”
Seeing a sermon is way better than hearing one.
That’s the truth of the gospel. You could be more. Your life could be fuller.
The status quo is comfortable.
Most of us live as if life just happens to us.
Even when Jesus was on the cross, He was not a victim.
We’ve been given freedom for a reason.
We can redeem what is temporary and make it eternal with love.
When you believe people have intrinsic eternal value, you do not use them, you appreciate and empower them.
You are an outpost of heaven because God is within you.
The enemy doesn’t own my heart.
I can’t control what the world does. But I can control how I respond.
Themes
We desire to get out of a life of stability, with a sense of “I should be happy with this life, but I’m not” because of a longing beyond this world. We want to be a part of a great story, and we were created to be a part of one.
Our lives can feel like we are stuck in a loop. But we weren’t mean to live in a loop. The original design was a life of fun and adventure that was corrupted by the antagonist.
We get desensitized to the trauma of our world, and it becomes a loop.
Feeling powerless vs being powerless.
We were created with a specific design but have something that can trigger us to life—the Creator entering the picture.
Jesus went out and experienced people in their loops. When we break our normal patterns, we impact other people
The point of church is not to get people to come to church to hear more talking, but to encourage one another to go out and be the sermon. The plan is not to bring everyone to a pastor, but to take heaven out into the world.
Guy goes from being a slave to the system to being a free agent in the story.
Millie is out to expose the reality and injustice, and Guy wants to help her. He can’t level up by hurting people, so he does good things to grow. As he came alive by treating them as if they have value, others saw it and became more alive as well.
What makes life real and makes it matter
The enemy is after our heart, and the only way to defeat him is to use the vision of heaven. We can’t fight in our own strength.
What is unseen (the paradise we’ve longed for) is revealed to the world.
God sends us love letters every day, so we may be a love letter to the world around us. We see creation and know that someone made that.
Resources
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” -C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity
“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. 25 And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.” -Hebrews 10:24-25 (NLT)
“If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.” -I Corinthians 13:1-3 (NLT)
Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
Questions
Where were your favorite video games growing up?
Do you still play video games today? What are your favorites? What do you love about them?
Where do you feel like there is more?
Where do you feel stuck in a loop?
Where have you been desensitized to the trauma and chaos? Has it faded to the background?
What catastrophes and explosions grab your attention? Worldwide? Local? Personal?
What is real? What matters in your life?
How does God send you love letters during the day?
How can you be God’s love letter into the world?