Here's the notes of this Sunday morning's message. I told the flock that I would post them and especially the LIST OF ADDICTIONS below. God bless you and let's be FREE INDEED!
+++
FREE INDEED!
(John 8:31-36)
INTRODUCTION – Everyone wants to be free. There is a cry of freedom that is ringing throughout the land and that extends all around the world. People are oppressed. They feel burdened. They feel browbeaten, broken, demoralized, exploited, and defeated. From the inner city to the outer hinterlands. From the high-rise to the hut, from the highlands to the lowlands, from the black man to the white man, from the upper-class to the other side of the tracks. From the rich to the poor, from the haves to the have-nots, from the educated to the subjugated. This search for freedom has left our world in bondage because of cheap substitutes and false messiahs who have reneged on their promise of liberty and left their followers destitute and in despair. In the midst of this anguish a voice comes cracking through the air, cutting through the subterfuge and deception and offering hurtful but healing truth. It's the true liberator from heaven. He is Jesus the Son of God sent from the Father who will take mankind's sins to the cross and who will rise again to proclaim liberty throughout the land. He will set men free and they will be FREE INDEED!
NEED
• Jesus began to talk about being truly free. The Pharisees put off Jesus' comments by saying they were never in bondage to anyone. Didn't they realize that their history was full of instances of their being dominated? They had been slaves to the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and now the Romans!
• "The power of self-deception in the unconverted man is infinite." (Ryle) But what they didn't know was that their truest bondage was the sin that lay in their hearts. (34)
• Paul used the same illustration of slavery to sin (Rom. 6:6-23).
• There is a need for freedom today like never before. Mankind is bound in sin that manifests itself in hopeless afflictions and addictions. As people search for the cure they find themselves even deeper in bondage than before.
o (2 Pet 2:19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
• Here is a LIST OF ADDICTIONS that fall into categories:
o Feeling Addictions: Anger, Rage, Hate, Guilt.
o Thought Addictions: Obsessive-Compulsive thinking, Perfectionism, Rigid thinking, Worrying, Repetition, Fantasy.
o Activities Addictions: Buying/expending, Gambling, Crime, Hobbies, Exercise
Work.
o Substance Addictions: Alcohol, Drugs, Nicotine, Caffeine, Food.
o People Addictions: Relationships, Love/sex, Sex, Codependency, Groups, Power,
Violence.
FREED
• Jesus said some interesting things about freedom. First He said that you will know the truth and the truth shall make you free (32). The Word of God will truly set you free!
o (Psa 119:45) And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.
• Then Jesus said the Son will make you free (36). He came to save sinners by His death on the cross. The truth is Jesus (John 14:6) and only He can make a person free!
FREE INDEED!
(John 8:31-36)
INTRODUCTION – Everyone wants to be free. There is a cry of freedom that is ringing throughout the land and that extends all around the world. People are oppressed. They feel burdened. They feel browbeaten, broken, demoralized, exploited, and defeated. From the inner city to the outer hinterlands. From the high-rise to the hut, from the highlands to the lowlands, from the black man to the white man, from the upper-class to the other side of the tracks. From the rich to the poor, from the haves to the have-nots, from the educated to the subjugated. This search for freedom has left our world in bondage because of cheap substitutes and false messiahs who have reneged on their promise of liberty and left their followers destitute and in despair. In the midst of this anguish a voice comes cracking through the air, cutting through the subterfuge and deception and offering hurtful but healing truth. It's the true liberator from heaven. He is Jesus the Son of God sent from the Father who will take mankind's sins to the cross and who will rise again to proclaim liberty throughout the land. He will set men free and they will be FREE INDEED!
NEED
• Jesus began to talk about being truly free. The Pharisees put off Jesus' comments by saying they were never in bondage to anyone. Didn't they realize that their history was full of instances of their being dominated? They had been slaves to the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, and now the Romans!
• "The power of self-deception in the unconverted man is infinite." (Ryle) But what they didn't know was that their truest bondage was the sin that lay in their hearts. (34)
• Paul used the same illustration of slavery to sin (Rom. 6:6-23).
• There is a need for freedom today like never before. Mankind is bound in sin that manifests itself in hopeless afflictions and addictions. As people search for the cure they find themselves even deeper in bondage than before.
o (2 Pet 2:19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
• Here is a LIST OF ADDICTIONS that fall into categories:
o Feeling Addictions: Anger, Rage, Hate, Guilt.
o Thought Addictions: Obsessive-Compulsive thinking, Perfectionism, Rigid thinking, Worrying, Repetition, Fantasy.
o Activities Addictions: Buying/expending, Gambling, Crime, Hobbies, Exercise
Work.
o Substance Addictions: Alcohol, Drugs, Nicotine, Caffeine, Food.
o People Addictions: Relationships, Love/sex, Sex, Codependency, Groups, Power,
Violence.
FREED
• Jesus said some interesting things about freedom. First He said that you will know the truth and the truth shall make you free (32). The Word of God will truly set you free!
o (Psa 119:45) And I will walk at liberty, For I seek Your precepts.
• Then Jesus said the Son will make you free (36). He came to save sinners by His death on the cross. The truth is Jesus (John 14:6) and only He can make a person free!
o (John 3:14-17) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
o (1 John 3:8) He that commits sin is of the devil; for the devil sins from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
INDEED
• Notice how Jesus said if the Son makes you free you will be free indeed. The word "indeed" (ontos) means; truly, in reality, in point of fact, as opposed to what is pretended, fictitious, false, and conjectural.
• We do not have to be the servant of sin. Many Christians accept defeat and failure as a normal Christian life.
• Are you free indeed? Or have you allowed yourself to slip back into some bondage? God told Israel to kick the Canaanites out of the Promised land but they failed at this task. This compromise came back to bite them.
o (Deut 7:1-5) “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.
o (Josh 17:12) Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.
• Notice how Jesus said if the Son makes you free you will be free indeed. The word "indeed" (ontos) means; truly, in reality, in point of fact, as opposed to what is pretended, fictitious, false, and conjectural.
• We do not have to be the servant of sin. Many Christians accept defeat and failure as a normal Christian life.
• Are you free indeed? Or have you allowed yourself to slip back into some bondage? God told Israel to kick the Canaanites out of the Promised land but they failed at this task. This compromise came back to bite them.
o (Deut 7:1-5) “When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 3 Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. 4 For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly. 5 But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.
o (Josh 17:12) Yet the children of Manasseh could not drive out the inhabitants of those cities, but the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that land.
• God never intended us to live like slaves. He intends us to live for Him by the power of the Holy Spirit. (35)
o (Zech. 4:6) ...‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’...
• The truth will set you free and the Son will make you free!
o (Gal 2:20) I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
• Then you will be FREE INDEED!
o (Rom 8:37) Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
CONCLUSION – Do you sense your need for freedom? Jesus can set you free!! And when He sets you free you will be FREE INDEED!
+++
1 comment:
Praise God Pastor Louie!
My son is 22 years old, addicted to heroin, and homeless. Today as I was driving into town on an errand, I felt the Spirit telling me to pray! So driving down the freeway I began to claim my promises as a child of the Living God. I claim the blood of the Lamb for my son and bound the spirits of darkness that want his soul. Sitting at the red light on the off ramp, I KNEW my son was near and that I needed to lay hands on him and pray. Sure enough, two more lights and I saw him in a strip mall parking lot. I don't know what God has in store for my son, but I know that if the Son sets him free - he WILL BE FREE INDEED!I was looking for that scripture online and found your sermon. Pray for my boy, his name is D.J. and our Lord wants him to be free!
Post a Comment