Intentional Freedom - Sin, Slavery and Freedom

Many of us live in a "free world." But, is it possible that our freedom is only external and superficial? This sermon explores briefly the concept of sin and a radical method of freedom.
https://www.anushjohn.com/post/intentional-freedom

Cover Picture: From Shawshank Redemption, 1994 https://img.moviesrankings.com/t/p/w1280/4azlwV1nBCtJXGtZssKltv5HwjS.jpg 

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Transcript

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thank you. Good morning. Good morning. Human history has consisted of numerous kingdom. And over these kingdoms, there are empires that hold sway over these little kingdoms. And for many years there were these huge empires that controlled much of the world's population, the most recent one was the British Empire that ruled between the 16th to the 19th, 20th centuries. At the peak of its power, in 1913, the British Empire controlled close to a quarter of the world's population. And in 1928, controlled close to a quarter of the world's geography. But, since the, 1775, American Revolution, both, France and Germany opposed the British Empire over the next couple centuries, but it was after World War II that the, power of the British Empire started to wane. It was in the 20th century that they had anti-colonial movements that in 1945 with. And which ended in 1997 with Hong Kong, where, um, there was freedom finally proclaimed to millions and millions of people. But this freedom was not an accident. It was an intentional, arduous process of obtaining freedom. This morning in a sermon entitled Intentional Freedom, I want to look at the concept of sin, slavery, and freedom. Not very popular topics, but we are gonna look at it this morning. our sermon text is from John chapter eight verses 30 to 37. And if you have your Bibles, please turn to it and keep the Bible open to this passage and we will refer to it multiple times over the next, 30 minute. there is a QR code. If you have your phones and you wanna scan the QR code, all the sum notes are available. and it'll be completely updated by the end of today. But the sum notes are available if you want to look at it. I've divided this sum into three parts. In the first part, we will look at the next step from belief. In the second part, we will look at the grip of slavery, and in the third, We will look at intentional freedom. Alright, first, let's look at the next step from belief, and I will read for us verse 30 and 31. Even as he spoke, many believed in him to the Jews who had believed him. Jesus said, if you hold onto my teaching, you are really my disciples. So many people believed in Jesus, but Jesus wanted to test it. How is their belief? Was their belief genuine or not? You see, belief is good, but not good enough. And this, situation happened earlier in John chapter two, where Jews believed in Jesus after they saw the signs. So in John chapter two, verse 23 to 24, it says, now, while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name, but Jesus would not entrust himself to them for he knew all people you see. People believed in him, but Jesus didn't, think that their belief was genuine. in James chapter two, verse 19 said, you believe that there is one God? Great. Even demons believe that there is one God. there needs to be something more than just belief. What happens after we believe shows whether our belief is genuine or not. What is the next step after believing? And Jesus says here in verse 31, if you hold to my. It is holding on. It is abiding in the teaching of Jesus. It is abiding in the Bible. at the end of John chapter one. John the Baptist says, look the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And then as soon as he says that, his disciples, Andrew and Peter leave him and go to Jesus. And they go to Jesus and ask him, rabbi, where are you? What does Jesus say? He says, come and see. You see, from the beginning, Jesus has been inviting us to abide in him. Why is it that we, those who believe, don't abide in Jesus? I wanna give you three reasons why we do not abide in his teaching. First is because we have a passing curiosity. The Christian faith is just a passing curiosity. Our belief was shallow to start with. And, uh, you know, if, if you go to a, let's say a street food, festival or a food court or the state fair, you know, there are so many things on offer and we just first just walk around and we look at all the rides. And, we look at all the food offerings. I mean, they're all garbage, but we look at all the food offerings and if it's a food court, we look at different, uh, cuisines of food and then something in it picks our interest and we go there and we, and we, consider. The, menu. And then we decide, you know what, it is not interesting enough for me. Um, you know, Korean food is not what I want today. I'm gonna have, mac and cheese or something else. But it was a passing curiosity in the marketplace of ideas. Christianity has become just another idea that we are momentarily interested in, but it just picked our interest for a little bit, but we are not ready to commit to. Or people may come to believe in the Christian faith for superficial benefits. There are some benefits we get out of the Christian faith and once those benefits are done, we are done. This happened, uh, two chapters ago in John chapter six, where Jesus. Fed 5,000 men, women, and children with five loaves of bread and two fish, and this is what it says after that. In John chapter six, verses 25 to 26, it says, when they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, rabbi, when did you get here? Jesus answer. Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because of the signs I performed, but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. And later on in the chapter he goes on to describe how he's the bread of life. And in verse 60, after his whole discussion, this is what it says on hearing it, many of his disciples said, this is a hard teaching. Who can accept? And six verses later, it says, from this time, many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. You see, superficial attraction is easy. It is abiding in Christ and following him that makes us disciples. A second reason why people don't abide in Christ is because of Distrac. There are numerous distractions from Monday morning till Sunday evening. Your life and my life is packed with stuff. There's so many things, whether it is your own stuff or your spouse's stuff, or your parents' stuff, or your kids' piano practice and swimming and soccer and violin and everything else, it's completely packed. And if I ask you, well, which of these are the most important? You'll say, well, all of them are the most important because I can't do without any of'em. But the issue of distractions and priorities is not a new problem. It's been there from the time of Jesus. So in Luke chapter 10 and verses 38 to 42, we hear the story and Jesus and his disciples are on their way. They came to a village where a woman named, Opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said, but Martha was distracted. By all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and said, Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me. Martha. Martha, the Lord says, it's a, it's not a great sign when God has to call you twice. Martha, Martha, the Lord answered. You are worried. And upset about many things, but few things are needed, and indeed, only one Mary has chosen what is better and it'll not be taken away from her. You know when your retired parents come to your home to spend some time with you, and you are still busy with these thousand things that are on your schedule. And, uh, your parents just hang around because they've got more time now they just hang around for a little bit, but you are just running around, running around trying to get stuff done. And after some time they realize, well, my kids are not gonna spend much time with me, and so they pack up and go away. The analogy is not perfect because When we have to spend time with God for a Christian, that should be the most important thing A third reason why we don't abide in crisis, because of troubles. We all face troubles, and sometimes when we face troubles, we question our faith is God. If God is with us, why is this happening to us? Or it may be an unanswered prayer, even if it's a prayer that you think would bring God glory. We say, well, Lord, what, when you answering this word? But everybody has unanswered prayers. I think I have about 15 unanswered prayers right now. troubles may cause us to question our belief in God and prevent us from abiding in Him. In Judges chapter six, verse 13, Gideon replied, pardon me, my Lord, but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened? The proof of genuine belief is in abiding in Christ and in following after him. Secondly, let's look at the grip of slavery and let me read for us, John chapter eight, verses 32 to 34 and verse 37, and you can follow along in your Bibles, then you will know the. And the truth will set you free. They answered him. We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Verse 37, I know that you are Abraham's descendants, yet you are looking for a way to kill me because you have no room for my. This is a very interesting conversation because of what Jesus did not say. Jesus didn't say, what on earth are you talking about? Because they said, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. And Jesus could have said, are you serious for 400? You were slaves in Egypt, and then 40 years of wandering in the desert, you came to the promised land, you were overrun by your neighboring countries for decades and centuries, and then because of disobedience, uh, Syria came over and captured Israel. And then a hundred years later because of disobedience, again, Babylonian empire came over and they took people from Judah to exile. And then there was the Persian Empire. And then during the inter testament period, there was the Greek empire started by, by Alexander the Great. And then as they are talking to Jesus, they are being ruled by the Roman. But Jesus doesn't say that because he understands what they meant. You see, they were talking about pedigree. They said, we are Abraham's descendants. So even if we are slaves, we will not bow down. That is their attitude. They were talking about an ancestry. Abraham is our father, and they were proud in being Jewish. Jesus recognized their ancestry, but focused on their character, and that's why he says in verse 37, I know you are Abraham's descendants, yet you are looking for a way to kill me. You may be Abraham's descendants, but you don't have Abraham's faith. That's why you're looking to kill me. You see in the Christian. Pedigree doesn't matter. In the Christian faith, ancestry doesn't matter. The thing that matters is character, and Jesus talks here about sin and being slaves to sin. Alex Murdo was a lawyer from a family with probably the best pedigree in for a hundred years in South. But that doesn't matter, does it? As a result of his character and his actions, he's sitting in jail for two consecutive life sentences without parole. The contemporary concept of freedom is interesting. We think we are free. If we are free to do whatever we. We think we are free. If we are free to do whatever we want, freedom of an unrestrained self. If there are no rules around me, I am completely free. We think that that is freedom. In the 1985 Song, everybody wants to rule the world. British Band, tears for Fears, writes these words. It's my own desire, it's my own. Help me to decide, help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure. Nothing ever lasts forever. Everybody wants to rule the world. Help me make the most of freedom and of pleasure. We think that freedom means having the most of pleasure, the freedom to do whatever we want, but Jesus says that if we are under the control of our. We are not free. We are slaves. Let me ask you a question. Is there a sin that you have regretted doing and yet repeated, is there a sin that you have regretted doing and yet you went ahead and repeated it? You see, ladies and gentlemen, if there's even one sin like that, We are slaves of that sin because that sin has a power over us, that we don't want to do it and we yet keep doing it. Jesus here is not talking about the occasional sin. He's talking about a pattern of sinful behavior. There are three things that we can be, slaves or. Is slaves of culture and materialism, the desire to have things. We are constantly bombarded by advertisements of things that we need that we didn't know we needed, and then we always attracted to buy these things. Desire to buy something is one thing, but actually following up and buying that thing is quite another matter. We buy things that we don't need and we can't. I understand that sometimes we have to buy things on credit. Like when you're investing in a house, you don't probably have all the money to pay up front you. You do it on credit, that is an investment, or there's an emergency and you have to use your credit card and you do stuff on credit. But do we have a pattern of living beyond our. Do we have a pattern of living beyond our means? Do we have a pattern of buying things that we don't need and we can't afford? Because if we do that, then we are slaves or materialism. Second, we can be slaves of sin patterns. There are numerous kinds of sins. There are numerous sin. Sometimes we pick up sins in our youth, And those sins stay with us. That's why we, try to protect our youth. If there's a message that we can give to our youth, Don't exercise your freedom to try stuff. Don't explore stuff that are obviously questionable because those things that youth get into that we got into that stays for. You think, well, I'm married now, it's, that's gone away. Or I've got kids now that's gone away. No. Those things, those habits that you accumulate in your youth, they stay in your house, in your closet, and when the time is appropriate, it raises up its head. Doesn't it? And you wonder, wow, it's been years since I thought about this particular sin. And here we are doing it again in the 1991 song, enter Sandman, Metallica sings these words. Hush little baby. Don't say a word. And nevermind that noise you heard. It's just the beast under your bed, in your closet in your head. He might as well be talking about a youthful sin that is raising its head again. Third, we can be slaves of temperamental weaknesses. Slaves of temperamental weaknesses. We talked about slavery. To culture. We talked, of, slavery to sins that we picked up in a youth, but I wanna go further than that slaves to our temperaments that we are born with. We all are born with certain temperaments and those temperaments have their own weaknesses. But if we are not careful, those weaknesses exacerbate over time. So let me give you some examples of different temperaments and different weaknesses. Maybe you are the temperament where you have the weakness of indiscipline and lust, and maybe you're the temperament that has impatience and. Maybe you are of the temperament that has the weakness or the sin of fear and perfectionism. Yes, perfectionism can be a sin. Just like there is healthy fear, there is healthy perfectionism, just like there is significantly unhealthy fear, there is also significantly unhealthy perfectionism or maybe your weakness, your temperamental weakness. something to do with passivity where you are so passive that you don't do anything for anybody around you. You're selfish and lazy. You don't do anything for yourself. You don't do anything for anybody around you, and you don't do anything for God. Maybe that is your temperamental weakness. Maybe we have a variety of sins that we do, and if we do, we are slaves to all. One by one, you can list out the things that you are a slave to, a slave to lust, or a slave to anger, a slave, to impatience, a slave, to fear, a slave, to whatever. We can identify the things that we are slaves to. Unfortunately, we are sons and the family of God that live like slaves. Thirdly, let's look at intentional freedom. How can we be free from the bond? Of sin. What do other worldviews say? If you look at atheistic humanism, they say you are the center of the universe, so you can do whatever you want. If you look at any one of those karmic religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, they all believe that it's through good works that you can go to heaven. But if that were. A culture would be holier today than it was a hundred years ago. If we are all trying to be holy, and if we can all pick ourselves up by our bootstraps, our culture would be holier now, but it is not. What does a Christian faith say? It says exactly the opposite. It says, we cannot change ourselves. So trying harder doesn't work. And what does the Bible say about freedom from slavery? Verse 36 is this powerful verse. So if the sun sets you, You will be free indeed. If the sun sets you free, you will be free indeed. Verse 37, I know you are Abraham's descendants, yet you are looking for a way to kill me because you have no room for my word. The Bible talks about having a relationship with Jesus, abiding with Jesus and his word, making room for Jesus. And his word freedom is a slow, intentional. Progressive process. You know, we want instant stuff and the stories we hear are dramatic and instant. So for example, I was an alcoholic today. I'm not an alcoholic tomorrow. Right? That kind of a story is very, Or I had anger issues today. I don't have anger issues. Tomorrow we prayed and the anger issue has gone away. Or I had fear, overwhelming fear, and we prayed, and next day it's gone away. Ladies and gentlemen, that is the exception, not the rule. That's not how it normally works. How does it normally work? It is a constant slow healing. We are born with temperamental weaknesses that we've carried on for 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years. it is an exception for it to change overnight. It is a long, slow process. One of the ministries that we do is called Life Challenge International, where we. rehab centers for drug and alcohol abuse. So we have about seven centers in India and we are expanding to Nepal and Sri Lanka and Burma, and couple countries in Africa. So the way it is done that we do this ministry is students come who were former drug. And alcoholics and they come to US centers and they stay there for a year in which we teach them the Bible all year long. They have devotions all day, study the Bible all day, and they abide with Jesus. And after a year, They are completely free. It's amazing to see how they were drug addicts for 30 years, and after a year of spending time with Jesus, they are completely free. If we are slaves to sin, there is hope for freedom, and it is only through the intentional, continuous abiding with Jesus Christ. We need to have intentional quality time with God. And I use the word quality intentionally. If you've been in the medical field or if you know there's anybody in the medical field, you have to be CPR trained, right? You need to know, okay, if somebody collapses, all of a sudden you need to know what to do. You do cpr, you do chest compressions, and you give respirations. You give 30 compressions and two breaths, and, and the word that's used to describe the compression is high quality cpr. What does high quality CPR mean? It means you do a hundred compressions a minute and you have to depress or push down the sternum by two. If you are trying to pump the heart of a person that's lying flat on the floor, you need to compress their sternum. This bone that's sitting in the front of your chest by two inches, that's a third of the chest height of a person. And if you don't do that, if you don't do high quality cpr, you are not fulfilling the task of compress. And the patient will die underneath your hand because you are doing poor quality cpr. I recommend high quality abiding with Jesus. What does that mean? That means that as you're reading your Bible, You don't have your phone with you with your sports notifications, or when you're reading your Bible, you don't have the TV in front of you on mute. You remove every distraction possible because you're trying to have high quality time with God. I recommend. At least 45 minutes per day of high quality time with God. That includes probably about 30 minutes of Bible reading and about 15 minutes of spending time with God. There is no other way that we can get freedom. This 45. I recommend that you regiment it. If you wake up in the morning and think, okay, I'm gonna spend 45 minutes right now, and it's, you know, six 30 in the morning, you're dragging yourself out. You'll think, you know what? I'll do it as soon as I come back from work. As soon as you come back from work. Your kids have done a whole bunch of mischief and you're cleaning up after them, there's no time. You think, man, I'm gonna do it as soon as the kids go to sleep, just before I go to sleep, I'm gonna spend quality time with God. And then you know that that's not gonna happen because as soon as the kids hit the, bed and they're asleep for real, then you have to sleep for real So I recommend a regimented time. When you say tomorrow, From 8:15 PM to 9:00 PM and everybody in the house knows Daddy and Mommy are gonna be reading the Bible and spending time with God and kids, a, B, and C are gonna be doing the same thing, or you do it from nine to 9 45, whatever it is, make a schedule so that everybody knows and regiment the time. Otherwise it'll never. And do it in such a way that if you miss one day, you catch up on the weekend. If you have to catch up on the weekend, then you'll make sure you'll do it on the weekday, right? If you miss three days and you have to do two and a half hours, then you're gonna do it during the day, during the week. Regiment it. Make sure it gets done because that is the most important thing, spending time with God and we cannot wait for time to come because available. Time will never come. How can Jesus set a person free from the bondage of sin? It's because he himself took the full bondage of sin. About three weeks ago, I went to Israel for a trip of the holy land to see where Jesus walked and taught. We went from north to south of Israel and we were in Jerusalem, and one of the places that we went was to the Palace of Caiaphas. And if you know, The story of Jesus Last week, he was arrested by the entourage that his, disciple Judas brought to the Garden of Emin, the Mount of Olives. And from there he was arrested. And it's interesting that the Bible says he was bound, he was bound and taken to the house of Annas who was the father-in-law to the high priest. The Bible is silent on what happened at the House of Annas, but from the house of. He was sent still bound to the Palace of Caiaphas. He comes to the Palace of Caiaphas and I went to the Palace of Caiaphas and there is this building that's there, obviously it's, not an old building, but it's been broken down and, rebuilt multiple times over the two millennia. But in that building somewhere was. Standing 2000 years ago, and outside on the courtyard was the courtyard where his disciple, his most vocal disciple, in a time period of more than an hour, denied him three times and Jesus was there in this building. 2000 years ago, and he, went through the, trial of the Sanhedrin in the middle of the night. They called an emergency Sanhedrin, and they came and they had a trial there where they condemned him to death. They beat him on his face. Pulled out his beard and they slapped him, the Bible says, and then after that, they had to wait for daybreak to ratify the fact of a death sentence. during this time, in the very late hours of Thursday night and early Friday morning, Jesus was taken, still bound down to a pit at the bottom of Caiaphas Palace that is still there. And that is the. That we all went down and we knew that Jesus himself was there after he was slapped and, beaten with rods. He was down there. And what was he thinking? Was he thinking about his disciples that ran away? in a few short hours, Jesus would be flogged within an inch of his life and in a few short hours he would be crucified for your sins and mine. And it is ironical that the great high priest was like a slave in the pit of the palace of an earthly high priest. Ladies and gentlemen, we enjoy freedom. Because Jesus intentionally became a slave. I'm gonna give the opportunity for three groups of people to respond to the sermon. If there's anyone who does not believe. That is the first step. It's not the last step. It's not the only step, but it is the first step. Maybe there's somebody who does not abide. we have been believers for a long time, but we have no time to abide in the teaching of Jesus. Or maybe there's somebody here who is still a slave to sin and you know, and I know. Specific sins are. If there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life, I'm gonna ask you to stand up and we will pray together If there's anyone here, Who wants to commit to 45 minutes of abiding with Jesus every day? I'm gonna also ask you to stand up and we will pray together. If there's anyone here who's never invited Jesus into your life, the second person of Trinity go, God became man. And became a slave became treated like a criminal for your sake in mine. You can pray this prayer after me. It's not a magical prayer, but if it's a prayer that comes from the bottom of your heart, God will answer it. You can pray something like this. Dear Lord Jesus, I am a sinner and I cannot save myself. Thank you for. Life. Thank you for your sacrificial death and thank you for your resurrection that gives us hope. I ask you to come into my life and make me complete. Help me to live a life that's worthy of you. Thank you for the promise of eternal life, heaven. Father, I pray for the rest of us who have already believe. Many times we believe in name and our actions don't show that we believe. We say we love you, but our actions don't show that we love you because we have no time to spend with you. We say we worship you, but it's only in our words, Lord. As we are deciding now to intentionally set apart time to spend with you, I know that the evil one will bring a lot of distractions along the way, especially this first week. I pray that you would give us the strength to stay focused and help us as we spend time with you Lord, to learn more and more about Jesus. There is so much to know about you. Help us to learn more about you because you are the focus of our attention. Give us a strength to seek after you Lord. And we know that our lives will be changed with each passing day. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.