SPEAKER_00: To the book of John.
SPEAKER_00: A couple weeks ago on Easter, we were preaching a message and we started a new series last week, Raised to Life, because the resurrection of Jesus was made to be lived out.
SPEAKER_00: And we were looking at different thoughts along the way.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we looked at, we were new with our new identity.
SPEAKER_00: And today we're going to look specifically in the Gospel of John and chapter number eight, and we're going to look at a thought, basically this, raised to new freedom.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to realize that we're free in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're free.
SPEAKER_00: We're not bound.
SPEAKER_00: We're not in chains.
SPEAKER_00: We're free.
SPEAKER_00: And in John chapter number eight, Jesus gives some very helpful words, some eloquence, eloquent truth as he's conversating with some followers.
SPEAKER_00: And I wanted to give the same help that I got.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: And as you find your place there, I'll read some verses here in a moment.
SPEAKER_00: But this week, as I was getting prepared and getting my heart ready to preach this message, I was watching this movie and it reminded me of exactly what Jesus is going to talk about here in a moment, Freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you may have watched this movie.
SPEAKER_00: It's an older classic movie, but the Shawshank Redemption.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good movie.
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting about the movie is one particular character stuck out to me.
SPEAKER_00: Brooks.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Brooks was an older guy, seemed harmless, but he obviously did something wrong.
SPEAKER_00: He's in there for like 50 years.
SPEAKER_00: He was a librarian that took care of a little bird.
SPEAKER_00: But what was crazy about Brooks is that the decades that he spent in prison, essentially, that's all the world that Brooks knew.
SPEAKER_00: He spent decades all he knew.
SPEAKER_00: And then one day somebody came and said, Hey, you are getting released.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when I look at that and think about being released, you would have thought he would be excited.
SPEAKER_00: You thought that he would run out of there, pumped up and looking forward to it, being ready to be free with the celebration.
SPEAKER_00: But what we find out is that he was actually terrified.
SPEAKER_00: He was scared and even said that he's nervous and he didn't know how he was going to live outside of the prison.
SPEAKER_00: Because the outside had changed.
SPEAKER_00: Everything moved faster than it used to move.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that he thought he knew before was different than what he knows today.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't know if he was going to be able to live on the outside.
SPEAKER_00: And as you watch his character, and even at the grocery store, he was not able to even keep up with bagging of the groceries because everybody wanted him to move a little bit quicker than he did.
SPEAKER_00: And something important made me, my eyes and my mind get to this and my eyes sort of fixate on this.
SPEAKER_00: And I started thinking about the prison door was open so Brooks could leave, but he still was living his life like he was trapped on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: And that's strange to me looking at it from my side.
SPEAKER_00: But from his side, I think it made sense to him in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: But then I started thinking, here's what's sad.
SPEAKER_00: How many believers today live just like that?
SPEAKER_00: They're saved, they're forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: They know that Jesus died on the cross and rose on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: They know that they were raised to walk in the newness of life, but yet they're living their life stuck, chained and bound, not appreciating what God actually has for us, but being held back by what they think they should or shouldn't do.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what Jesus is going to answer to you and I today.
SPEAKER_00: Last week we saw the new identity, but this week we're going to see this.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm a believer, I know I'm new, but in Christ, but why do I feel stuck?
SPEAKER_00: Why do I feel as though I'm still inside the four walls when I'm not?
SPEAKER_00: Just like Brooks did.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answers that question and a few more here in the Gospel of John chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Look with me in verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to those Jews who believed him, If you abide in my word, you are my disciple indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice in these two verses at the very beginning, as he's talking to these guys, he notices that notice that he uses the word, those Jews.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to Jews.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that you're either born Jew or you're not.
SPEAKER_00: So these people were born Jewish, but then he followed up by saying, Who believed him?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So they're following Christ, but there's something going on with them because they are essentially free, but they're living like they're not.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll get to why.
SPEAKER_00: Then he says in verse 31, if you abide in the abide is an interesting word that we'll get to.
SPEAKER_00: It's a verb, it's an action word.
SPEAKER_00: Abide means continue to remain in my word.
SPEAKER_00: You are my capital M, disciples indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 32, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 33, and they answered him.
SPEAKER_00: Now notice the answer that the Jewish people, the belief, the ones that believed in, answered back.
SPEAKER_00: How can you say, You shall be made free?
SPEAKER_00: So these people are asking Jesus a question, saying, How could you tell us that you're going to make us free when we have not been in bondage to anybody?
SPEAKER_00: And what's interesting, in the moment of this actual conversation that was taking place, the Roman Empire had their iron foot on the Jewish people.
SPEAKER_00: They were essentially in bondage then.
SPEAKER_00: I can take you to the book of Judges and read time and time again where they were in bondage.
SPEAKER_00: I can take you to a lot of places in the Old Testament, even in Genesis, where they were bound in slavery because of everything.
SPEAKER_00: The tribes were taken off time and time again.
SPEAKER_00: So these guys were so oblivious to the conversation.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, man, what are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00: We're not, we're Abraham's descendants.
SPEAKER_00: We're not, they're speaking in a political sense, and he's speaking in a spiritual sense.
SPEAKER_00: Because what does he say in verse 34?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered them, Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, guys, because you're sinning, you are a slave to that sin.
SPEAKER_00: You may be free on the outside, but you're bound on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: And think about their mindsets like, uh-oh, what's going on?
SPEAKER_00: Verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: And a slave, look what his comparison he makes to a slave and a servant to a son.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 35.
SPEAKER_00: And a slave does not abide in the house forever.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying a servant does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever to his household.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36, therefore, because of everything I've just stated, if the son, capital S, son Jesus, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Man, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: These six verses are very powerful.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is going to answer some questions here.
SPEAKER_00: I'm free, I'm saved, but yet I feel stuck.
SPEAKER_00: Let me show you the first thing that it come to my mind in the first two verses that we read together.
SPEAKER_00: Here it is.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom begins with truth.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 31 and 32 lets you and I know that the freedom begins with truth.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that right off the bat.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom requires abiding and not just hearing.
SPEAKER_00: So you think about this word truth that he uses.
SPEAKER_00: Now we we hear a lot of things in the day and age that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I learned a long time ago you can't believe everything on the internet.
SPEAKER_00: There was a commercial about that, I think.
SPEAKER_00: But yet we do.
SPEAKER_00: There's many things that are not real, but we think they are real.
SPEAKER_00: Just a couple weeks ago, I remember sitting at my mom and dad's house, and my mom shows me this video.
SPEAKER_00: She said, Derek, I really want you to make these flowers in my flower bed.
SPEAKER_00: I said, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And you can ask her after church.
SPEAKER_00: She'll amen the story here.
SPEAKER_00: She says, look at this video.
SPEAKER_00: And it was a pretty, pretty flower.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this was five feet off the perimeter of the house that the video shows them digging it out and laying the seeds, just throwing them out and laying the bed of mulch and the nutrients and the soil and the and then the pine straw.
SPEAKER_00: And then it rained, and then all of a sudden these beautiful flowers popped up symmetrically perfect, all the same size, layers.
SPEAKER_00: And she said, Can you do that?
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Nobody can do that, mom.
SPEAKER_00: That's fake.
SPEAKER_00: And she's like, What do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: I said, It's AI.
SPEAKER_00: She wanted to know who AI was, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I said, AI is artificial intelligence, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's made up.
SPEAKER_00: And I we I laughed at her and she laughed at her, and we all laughed, and we had a fun time.
SPEAKER_00: But there are so many things that we see on TV and in the news, and AI.
SPEAKER_00: Is it real or is it not real?
SPEAKER_00: Is it true or is it not true?
SPEAKER_00: Is this fake or is this real?
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said that his truth will make us free.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So I know that the word of God is truth.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture tells us that over and over again, and he uses the word truth in verse 32, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
SPEAKER_00: Now that sounds so very simple, and yet we overcomplicate things as we often do.
SPEAKER_00: But he shows you and I that freedom begins with truth because this freedom requires us to abide and not just here.
SPEAKER_00: So in verse 31, he uses the word abide.
SPEAKER_00: Abide is a verb, an action word, it's a continuation.
SPEAKER_00: So to abide into something means that I would remain into something.
SPEAKER_00: I can take you to John chapter 15 about the vine and the and how we have to abide in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't, you won't bear fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The word abide is used all through Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's telling you and I, as believers, as followers, he's saying, abide, abide, remain, uh, continue on into this.
SPEAKER_00: So abiding is not just mean hearing, because I can hear something.
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was told growing up it goes in one ear and out the other, and I don't figure out how that can happen until I had my own kids.
SPEAKER_00: And then I realize how it goes in one ear and out the other.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So there's times in my life where I can hear something, but it doesn't hear.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the difference in life.
SPEAKER_00: So he tells us in verse number 31, and Jesus said to those, if you abide in my word, he didn't say if you hear my word, because you are a hearing his word today as I read it.
SPEAKER_00: But are you hearing his word?
SPEAKER_00: See, he says abide, it doesn't say attend, it doesn't say agree, because you and I can all agree that the word of God is real, but if we don't abide in it, if we don't stay in it, if we don't continue in it, then we're gonna be just like Brooks, free outside of the penitentiary, but he still lived his life as if he was locked on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that, and I don't want you to do that either.
SPEAKER_00: Abiding means living in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Abiding means staying in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Abiding means to let the word of God shape you.
SPEAKER_00: How does that happen?
SPEAKER_00: I love in James when it talks about the word of God as like a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: Now you look at the mirror, and what do you do?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you turn the lights off, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Some of you look in the mirror and don't like what you see.
SPEAKER_00: Do you buy a new mirror?
SPEAKER_00: That's an idea.
SPEAKER_00: No, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00: We fix whatever we've gonna fix, we change whatever we want to fix.
SPEAKER_00: Let me see.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is a mirror.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't change.
SPEAKER_00: I have to let it shape me.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's telling you and I to abide, to remain, to stay in the word of God and let the word of God shape you and change you.
SPEAKER_00: Something else that comes to mind is freedom begins with truth.
SPEAKER_00: It shows you and I that truth must be known personally, because if you look in verse 32 of our text, it says that you, you, you shall know the truth, meaning you individually.
SPEAKER_00: I can't know the truth for everybody.
SPEAKER_00: I can only know the truth for me.
SPEAKER_00: Now I can use the truth that I know and help you.
SPEAKER_00: I can help my, again, I can help the kids, but if I don't know the truth personally, then what happens?
SPEAKER_00: That I'm gonna walk around, believer saved, but feeling bound and held down.
SPEAKER_00: See, to know him personally doesn't just have head knowledge of him.
SPEAKER_00: It's heart-level conviction.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: Head knowledge, heart-level conviction to things.
SPEAKER_00: I love when Paul said in Romans 12, 2, it says, Do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: I love that word because as you get to read Romans and then you get to chapter 12 and you start reading those first two verses, and he gets to verse number 2, and he says, Do be conformed to this world.
SPEAKER_00: And I think what what he's saying is by default, if we're not abiding in the Word of God, if we're not renewing our mind with Scripture, we are going to conform ourselves to the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: So the only way to fix that is to let the Word of God renew this.
SPEAKER_00: And when it renews this, everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: Renewing of our minds.
SPEAKER_00: How does your mind get renewed?
SPEAKER_00: By being in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: You know what else I find in these verses to be helpful?
SPEAKER_00: Is that truth is not an effort.
SPEAKER_00: I can't try hard.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do it better.
SPEAKER_00: Truth is not effort.
SPEAKER_00: Truth is just, it just produces freedom.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he says in verse 32, the latter part, the second part of verse number 32, the truth shall make you free.
SPEAKER_00: The truth will make you free.
SPEAKER_00: That freedom doesn't come from doing things hard, uh working better, trying harder.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, in life, what does it, what does life teach us?
SPEAKER_00: If I work harder at this job, I might get up in the uh work my way up in the ladder.
SPEAKER_00: If I if I work at if I practice my catching ball, I'm gonna catch better.
SPEAKER_00: If I practice this, I'm gonna get better.
SPEAKER_00: But scripturally, spiritually speaking, I can't try any harder to feel free except abiding in him.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from believing what God said is actual truth.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking, looking back in some of the Old Testament scriptures, I was reminded about Adam and Eve in Genesis chapter number three.
SPEAKER_00: Now, prior to the first sin, the world was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: There was no problems, there was no anything negative.
SPEAKER_00: Everything was perfect.
SPEAKER_00: In Genesis chapter number three, uh, the devil was there and began to tempt Eve.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what I find when I read that is Eve wasn't forced to sin.
SPEAKER_00: She made the choice.
SPEAKER_00: Eve was not bound with a chain right there by the tree that she ate from and said, Hey man, you better do this.
SPEAKER_00: No, that's not what happened.
SPEAKER_00: What we find in Genesis chapter number three is that the devil took on the persona of a serpent, a snake, and he was very slick and subtle.
SPEAKER_00: And he shows up, and what did he do?
SPEAKER_00: Did he force her to sin?
SPEAKER_00: Of course not.
SPEAKER_00: There's choice from the there's choice today, just as there was choice then.
SPEAKER_00: What does she do?
SPEAKER_00: He convinced her of a lie.
SPEAKER_00: So in our text, we're learning about the truth shall make you free.
SPEAKER_00: The office of the truth is a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And so what we know in in the Old Testament, in Genesis chapter number three, is think about how Eve was deceived.
SPEAKER_00: She was convinced.
SPEAKER_00: She wasn't bound in change.
SPEAKER_00: She was convinced of a lie.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that lie, sin came into this world.
SPEAKER_00: And I start thinking to myself, what lies have I believed?
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I meet with people and talk to people and through all walks of life.
SPEAKER_00: And I hate it when somebody will tell me, preacher, I'll never change.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning their self, they're so hard on their selves.
SPEAKER_00: They're saying, I'll never change.
SPEAKER_00: And that's a lie.
SPEAKER_00: The reason why I know it's a lie is because of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But oftentimes people will tell themselves, listen, I am the way that I am, I'll never change.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I people may lie to their self by saying, this is just who I am, and there's nothing I can do about it.
SPEAKER_00: Actually, that's not the truth because we were born into sin and I was quick and I was made alive per Ephesians, right?
SPEAKER_00: So everything changes after I got saved.
SPEAKER_00: And so, yes, you are who you are, but because of him, everything changes.
SPEAKER_00: There could be other lies that we believe like I've always struggled with this or that, so therefore I always struggle with this or that.
SPEAKER_00: And that just isn't the case.
SPEAKER_00: You'll never, listen to me, you'll never live free if you keep believing lies.
SPEAKER_00: Those are even lies that you tell yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Let me leave you with this and then we'll move on.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom begins when you start believing the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go to verse 33.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 33 is going to show us that sin promises freedom, but it produces bondage.
SPEAKER_00: 33 shows you and I that sin will promise us freedom, but what actually happens is bondage.
SPEAKER_00: If you look in the text, I'll read 33 and 34 here.
SPEAKER_00: They answered him, We are Abraham's descendants.
SPEAKER_00: We have never been in bondage to anyone.
SPEAKER_00: How can you say you will be made free?
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we went through this in the introduction.
SPEAKER_00: They were bound, but he's speaking spiritually here.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 34, they answered, Most assuredly I say to you, Jesus said, Whoever commits sin is a slave of it.
SPEAKER_00: See, sin doesn't show up looking like bondage.
SPEAKER_00: You understand that sin doesn't show up like it's gonna lock you down.
SPEAKER_00: It shows up looking like freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Every sin out there is shown you this, yeah, yeah, this is fun, this is great.
SPEAKER_00: You'll be free if you do this.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, sin always presents itself as freedom.
SPEAKER_00: It says, if you do this, you'll be in control of your life.
SPEAKER_00: It says uh you deserve this.
SPEAKER_00: You ever heard that one?
SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00: This will help you.
SPEAKER_00: Just do this.
SPEAKER_00: Sin always promises freedom, but it always delivers bondage every time.
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me show you how sin goes from a choice to then it controlling you.
SPEAKER_00: It always starts with a choice because you choose, then it controls you.
SPEAKER_00: How does it start?
SPEAKER_00: A choice.
SPEAKER_00: You have a decision to make, and that choice then goes from a habit, and then it goes from a habit to a pattern, and then it goes from a pattern to control.
SPEAKER_00: And many times it just started with one little choice, and then the habit, then the pattern, then the stronghold comes, and you feel like you cannot get loose of it.
SPEAKER_00: So what you choose today will control you tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Every time, even with something small.
SPEAKER_00: I was reminded what Peter said in 2 Peter chapter number two.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to the believers there about some false teachers that had came in and tried to get them off their stride.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter said this in verse 19: while they promise them freedom, while they promised them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to believers saying, Hey, the people that have connived you have promised you something that'll never come true, because the corruption that they live in is actually controlling every bit of them.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter goes on to say, For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he brought into bondage.
SPEAKER_00: It's always shown as freedom, it's always shown as great and perfect.
SPEAKER_00: But what happens in the end, it always produces bondage.
SPEAKER_00: I was meeting with a uh somebody that I've met over the years.
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't necessarily call him a close friend, but just somebody I was trying to encourage and had reached out and wanted to talk.
SPEAKER_00: And interesting, as we sat across the table from each other and ate, conversating about life and what was going on.
SPEAKER_00: He said something to this effect.
SPEAKER_00: I never thought that I would be here.
SPEAKER_00: And I started getting a little confused because I wasn't sure what he meant.
SPEAKER_00: I thought we were just eating a hamburger or something.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes, No, no, no, I'm talking about life.
SPEAKER_00: He goes and lays some things out that had been going on in his life, and he said it so good that I hate not to use it.
SPEAKER_00: He said it's similar to this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Derek, it started out small.
SPEAKER_00: And then something that was super casual turned into something that actually controlled me.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Well, what'd you do then?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I kept telling myself I could stop when I felt like it.
SPEAKER_00: I kept telling myself, if it was up to me, I could stop, but I just didn't really want to.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't stop, but I felt like I could.
SPEAKER_00: And then it got to the point where I felt like I feel right now.
SPEAKER_00: I said, How was that?
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm stuck.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to get loose.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to get out of this.
SPEAKER_00: He's a believer, maybe not as strong as he should be.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody that I've, you know, tried to help over the years, but I said, brother, I don't know how to help you other than the way this has happens, it happens slowly, casually.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that just happens overnight.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, sin promises freedom, but it produces bondage.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that's going to happen overnight.
SPEAKER_00: It's a slow process.
SPEAKER_00: And the danger is oftentimes you don't realize it.
unknown: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: You're stuck before you realized it.
SPEAKER_00: And I was thinking about this as I was talking to him and I was reading and preparing.
SPEAKER_00: I started thinking about Sam.
SPEAKER_00: And the life of Samson is an interesting life.
SPEAKER_00: I think one of the saddest verses in all of the Old Testament would be Judges 16, chapter 16, verse number 20, when God essentially is talking to Samson and talks something like this.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know that the Lord had departed from him.
SPEAKER_00: And I started thinking, how could you ever get to the point where you didn't realize that you no longer had the Lord upon you?
SPEAKER_00: And I start thinking about the conversation I had with that fella and this and all that we're reading.
SPEAKER_00: I started thinking, you know, think about Samson's life for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Samson from birth was set apart.
SPEAKER_00: Samson from birth was called.
SPEAKER_00: God had a purpose for him to live.
SPEAKER_00: And God gave him physical strength to do and conquer and be a leader.
SPEAKER_00: What did Samson do?
SPEAKER_00: A man that was set apart.
SPEAKER_00: The scripture says that.
SPEAKER_00: He was set apart, he was called, he had a purpose, he was physically strong, and Samson was listening to the Lord, got as close as he could get to not living right, and then one day that choice started to control him.
SPEAKER_00: And as it controlled him, what happened?
SPEAKER_00: He didn't even realize, and this is what's sad.
SPEAKER_00: As he was doing the things that he was doing and not listening to the Lord, he would get away with it periodically.
SPEAKER_00: A couple times he didn't lose his strength, he didn't lose anything, but he continued on, living the way that he chose to live.
SPEAKER_00: And then finally it gets to the end where Delilah had connived him enough and kept talking to him that he fell asleep, and he divulged to her that his strength came from his hair.
SPEAKER_00: And so what did she do?
SPEAKER_00: She gets the scissors out and sharpens them up, cuts his hair while he was asleep.
SPEAKER_00: He wakes up from his sleep and says to himself, he thought that there was nothing changed.
SPEAKER_00: But what he came to find out was that his strength was gone.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the saddest thing that I think anybody could ever live close enough and then finally start living a certain way, and nothing over here ever changing.
SPEAKER_00: So because it never changed, you continue on, and the next thing you know, whatever you were doing is now controlling you, affecting you.
SPEAKER_00: And you get to Judges 16 and verse number 20, and the Bible says, And he, talking about Samson, didn't even know that the Lord had departed from him.
SPEAKER_00: He lost his strength and didn't even know it.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to live that way.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want that to happen to you.
SPEAKER_00: So you might think, as you're processing all of this, you don't think that you're in bondage.
SPEAKER_00: Neither did Samson.
SPEAKER_00: The habit that controls you, you may not realize that you're in bondage, but neither did Samson.
SPEAKER_00: The anger that controls you, you may not realize that you're in bondage, but neither did Samson.
SPEAKER_00: The thought pattern that controls your mind.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't realize that was bondage, but neither did Samson.
SPEAKER_00: Just like Brooks, he was out of prison, but yet he still lived like he was bound.
SPEAKER_00: You may even be telling yourself this, I can stop anytime.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're honest with yourself, I bet you've already tried.
SPEAKER_00: And you couldn't.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, we don't have that strength, but I know who does.
SPEAKER_00: That's why he told us how to abide in his word and get the truth.
SPEAKER_00: And essentially, he'll go from verse 38 all the way to the end of the chapter, talking about how to get a hold of the word of God and let the word of God change you.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the difference is.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you this, and then I'll move to my last sort of thought we have together today.
SPEAKER_00: You think you control you.
SPEAKER_00: What you think you control can eventually control you.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You may think it, but eventually it's gonna control you.
SPEAKER_00: Let me look at the last thought that we have together before your stomachs begin to growl a little too loudly.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 34 and 35 are gonna show and 36 are gonna show us Jesus is the only one who can set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the only one who can set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 34, Jesus answered them and said, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 35, and a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36, therefore, because of everything I've just laid out, if the son, if Jesus makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the only one who can set you free.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus explained to me in this last few verses together the difference between spiritual freedom and bondage is a matter of a servant and a slash slave and a son.
SPEAKER_00: And if you notice in the text and the way it's laid out, is the servant, the slave, may live in the house of his master, but he's not a part of the family, and he's not guaranteed a future.
SPEAKER_00: But I'm a child of the king, and I am.
SPEAKER_00: That's way different.
SPEAKER_00: You see the difference here.
SPEAKER_00: And what I love about verse 34 is he says, Jesus says, Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_00: And I was really meditating on this verse, and I've got a literal thought here.
SPEAKER_00: A literal translation of what verse 34 says to me is whoever keeps practicing sin is a servant of sin or is a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_00: So the moment that I sin, even that little white lie, that sin now controls me.
SPEAKER_00: And then it controls me.
SPEAKER_00: And so although I am free, I'm outside the prison's walls, I still feel like Brooks.
SPEAKER_00: Still feel like I'm bound in a cell, unable to escape.
SPEAKER_00: That's why when you sin and you feel bad, the greatest thing you can do is give it to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: God, I need you.
SPEAKER_00: And so we know spiritually we're free because of Jesus, but why do I not feel free?
SPEAKER_00: It's because I've got to abide in the word.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is gonna change all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom is given, not earned.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 36 as if the Son makes you free.
SPEAKER_00: You don't fix yourself in freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives it to you and he gave it to you when he died on the cross and rose on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't pick and choose who was gonna get saved and who not.
SPEAKER_00: He died for all.
SPEAKER_00: His blood was sufficient for all people.
SPEAKER_00: It just is a matter of us choosing him, the free gift of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I can't earn it.
SPEAKER_00: I can only choose to accept what he's already done for me.
SPEAKER_00: There's many people in this world that try to earn it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't try to earn itch.
SPEAKER_00: No, he makes you free.
SPEAKER_00: Give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom is complete.
SPEAKER_00: What I love about this verse when it says free indeed, meaning it's not partial, it's not temporary, and it's not limited.
SPEAKER_00: It's real.
SPEAKER_00: Real freedom.
SPEAKER_00: I love how Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 3, where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
SPEAKER_00: There is freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that the Spirit of the Lord is amongst us because my Bible says where two or three are gathered, there he may be also.
SPEAKER_00: I understand that as crazy as it might boggles my mind that the Spirit of God is big enough to control everything, but yet small enough to fit in my heart and big enough to be here and to draw us and to convict us.
SPEAKER_00: Yet it's small enough to live here.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells us where the spirit of the Lord is, there may be freedom, there may be liberty.
SPEAKER_00: He's here, he's with us, he's amongst us.
SPEAKER_00: And it's just me and him and the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The spirit of the God is of the Lord is there as well.
SPEAKER_00: Letting me feel free and trusting in all that he's done.
SPEAKER_00: I love how the word of God encourages us.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, freedom has got to be lived out.
SPEAKER_00: Freedom must be lived out.
SPEAKER_00: You're free, but you've got to walk in it.
SPEAKER_00: Think about it.
SPEAKER_00: You scripture teaches you're free, but you're not living like you're free, so therefore you're not living it out.
SPEAKER_00: How do I do it?
SPEAKER_00: Like I can tell you all this, but if I can't let you walk away with a little help, I'm gonna, I don't want to ever leave you confused.
SPEAKER_00: How do I live in freedom?
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, the word of God answers those questions for us.
SPEAKER_00: He lets us know when we obey the Word of God, we grow in spiritual knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: And as we grow in spiritual knowledge, we grow in freedom, meaning I'm gonna feel the freedom that I have as I gain spiritual knowledge.
SPEAKER_00: It's a never-ending process.
SPEAKER_00: The more spiritual knowledge I understand, the more spiritually I'll grow, and the more I'll feel free like I am the whole time.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to live and walk in my freedom.
SPEAKER_00: Life leads to learning, learning leads to freedom.
SPEAKER_00: How can a slave of sin be set free?
SPEAKER_00: How can a slave of sin be only by the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Only by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: How can you be free, say Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How can you be free?
SPEAKER_00: Through the power of Him.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God is so good it gives us all the help that we need.
SPEAKER_00: And I love from verse 38 to verse 47 gives emphasis on how to do this.
SPEAKER_00: Now listen to me, I know that it would be so easy for you that if I laid all that out for you too, but I like to leave you wishing you had a little more rather than less wishing you had a little less.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And so what I want for you is to spend some time over the next days reading out the rest of this chapter.
SPEAKER_00: Because he shows you and I in this text that he has what he's already told them is the truth shall make you free.
SPEAKER_00: What truth?
SPEAKER_00: The word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He lays it all out to these individuals.
SPEAKER_00: If they would not make room for the word of God in their heart, they're gonna feel as if they're trapped.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, Man, make room for the word of God in all that you have.
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking about the Exodus when Jesus took the Israelites out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what I love about it is to some people it looked impossible.
SPEAKER_00: Because they were in bondage and God came to deliver them, and they had an impassable body of water that they physically probably couldn't get over without God's help.
SPEAKER_00: And God not only delivers them out of bondage, but then makes a way by opening up the sea and getting them through.
SPEAKER_00: So God takes an impassable uh area and makes it possible for them to pass.
SPEAKER_00: And they get physically out of Egypt, but Egypt doesn't get out of them because what happens?
SPEAKER_00: They live as if they're bound.
SPEAKER_00: They're free, but they don't live like they're free.
SPEAKER_00: I know that because God did the impossible.
SPEAKER_00: God delivered them from slavery.
SPEAKER_00: God allowed them to cross the Red Sea after it was parted on dry ground, praise the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He allowed them to get past and then the sea then closed, so the enemy can't come after them.
SPEAKER_00: They're now free, but every time life gets hard, what do they do?
SPEAKER_00: We could be back in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't have nothing to eat.
SPEAKER_00: Well, we could have just died in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: You bring us out here to the wilderness to die.
SPEAKER_00: What happens?
SPEAKER_00: They left Egypt, but Egypt didn't leave them.
SPEAKER_00: They were walking around free physically, but bound internally.
SPEAKER_00: On the outside, they were free.
SPEAKER_00: On the inside, they were bound.
SPEAKER_00: And some of you are saved in the house today.
SPEAKER_00: You know the Lord as your Savior.
SPEAKER_00: You know that you've accepted him and you're free, but yet you feel bound.
SPEAKER_00: You are saved, but yet you feel like you're bound with chains.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me, you're not fighting for freedom.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to learn to live from it.
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: You're not fighting for your freedom spiritually because he's already fought and won all that when he died on the cross and rose on the third day.
SPEAKER_00: You've just got to reprogram your brain to learn to live from that freedom because you're free.
SPEAKER_00: So, what makes me feel bound when I sin and not read the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: What makes me feel free when I don't sin and read the word of God?
SPEAKER_00: It's that simple, but yet it's not that easy.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because I am human.
SPEAKER_00: It's the internal battle of the spirit and the flesh.
SPEAKER_00: The MMA fight of the Bible is the spirit and the flesh that you and I can read about.
SPEAKER_00: It's a constant battle.
SPEAKER_00: And you know who wins?
SPEAKER_00: What you feed.
SPEAKER_00: I want to feed the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: How do I feed the spirit?
SPEAKER_00: The word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God changes all of that.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't just forgive you, he freed you.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta remember that.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you this.
SPEAKER_00: The word of God is so good that if you allow it to get a hold of you, it could change everything about you.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is 66 books of inspired, in error, infallible truth that's alive, that's sharper than any two-edged sword that I know that if I would allow it to just come into my abide in it.
SPEAKER_00: Remember verse 31?
SPEAKER_00: Abide, remain in it.
SPEAKER_00: It will change the trajectory of my future.
SPEAKER_00: It'll change everything, and it'll comfort me in a way that I'll not feel bound.
SPEAKER_00: I'll feel free because it changes the thought pattern and the processing.
SPEAKER_00: It essentially lets me not want to sin and encourage me to live for the Lord and to tell others about him.
SPEAKER_00: It changes everything, but you have to abide in it.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, you'll walk around free but feeling bound.
SPEAKER_00: As we get ready to close in a prayer in a moment, I want to give you something.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, there's something about the story that I began with with Brooks that kind of stuck with me.
SPEAKER_00: He was free.
SPEAKER_00: The door was open.
SPEAKER_00: He could have walked out.
SPEAKER_00: But he didn't know how to live free.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't know how to live free.
SPEAKER_00: This morning I'm wondering something.
SPEAKER_00: How many believers are living the same way?
SPEAKER_00: You're free, but you don't know how to live free.
SPEAKER_00: You're saved, you're forgiven, you're set free.
SPEAKER_00: But you still feel like you're bound, still living like you're stuck.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, if the Son makes you free, you should be free indeed.
SPEAKER_00: So let me ask you this.
SPEAKER_00: The door is open, why are you still stuck?
SPEAKER_00: You've been set free.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you not living like it?
SPEAKER_00: The door is open, the question is, will you walk out of it?
SPEAKER_00: That's the difference.
SPEAKER_00: How do I do that in the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give you a challenge and then I'll close in prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the challenge this week.
SPEAKER_00: Look at your life.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you still living like you're bound?
SPEAKER_00: And give it to God.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us to cast all our cares upon him because he careth for us.
SPEAKER_00: Where are you still living in your life bound?
SPEAKER_00: Take it and give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: Live free for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Would you pray as I pray, God, I praise you and I thank you.