Allowing Our Freedom To Become Our Foolishnes

WESTSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH

PASTOR: TERRY VAUGHAN

SERMON TITLE: ALLOWING YOUR FREEDOM TO BECOME YOUR FOOLISHNESS

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” John 3:16-18 KJV

TEXT VERSE: JOHN 8:36 “If the son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

GALATIANS 5:13 “For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.”

Aren’t you glad you’re free tonight? Aren’t you glad you don’t have to worry about going to hell anymore? We don’t have to worry about sin killing us anymore or the old devil controlling us anymore because Jesus said, if the son hath made you free, you shall be free indeed. I believe he was talking about salvation. That new birth into the family of God. But Paul said in Galatians not to use your liberty to an occasion of the flesh. The word liberty in some sense means the same thing as the word free or freedom.

I want to preach to you on allowing our freedom to become out foolishness.

Christ didn’t make anybody get saved when he died on the cross. The word says that whosoever will, let him come and take of the water freely. Christ provided salvation but it’s up to every individual as to whether or not they accept it. When you reach the age of accountability (the age when you know right from wrong and you’ll able to feel God speaking to you.), then Christ through his spirit starts speaking to you. He’ll knock on your hearts door and whosoever will open the door, he’ll come in and sup with them and they with me. That tells me that it’s our choice as to whether or not we accept Christ as our savior. He don’t make anybody get saved. He don’t force anybody. But thank God he provided a way. Thank God when he spoke to me, I made the right choice. It’s the greatest thing that has ever happened to me in my life. Now after we accept Christ into our hearts as savior we’re stilled free indeed. He gives us a lot of freedom to go where we want to go, to say the things we want to say and to do the things we want to do. He also gives us the freedom to not want to do certain things or say certain things or go certain places. He gives us that kind of freedom. A lot of Christians have taken the freedom that Christ has given them and they use it in the wrong way. They use that freedom to where it becomes foolishness unto them. Christ let’s us make our own choices. A lot of people tonight made the decision not to come to church. A lot of them made the decision to come. But that’s our decision and Christ gives us the freedom to make our own choice. But we need to keep one thing in mind as being free. We don’t want our freedom to become our foolishness. One verse we need to keep in mind is 2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.” There’s a lot of people that are self righteous. They don’t do the things that God wants them to do. They do the things that they want to do. They have the right to make their own decisions. Freedom can be a wonderful thing when it’s used in the right way and it can be a wasteful thing when it is abused in the wrong way. We need to use our freedom the right way.

2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

We have a lot of freedom here in America. But there’s countries out there that don’t have that kind of freedom. They’re actually killing Christians for proclaiming to be Christians.

1 Peter 2:16 “As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.” That’s what our freedom is supposed to be used for. We as Christians are faced with numerous choices today that will not only affect our lives but the lives of others.

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man. but the end thereof are the ways of death.” What seems to be right to you may not always be right. So when we’re making our decisions we’re either going to make a good decision or an evil decision. A lot of times we’re faced with the possibility that no one can make the decision for us and it’s our decision alone. You can mark it down in your book that you’ve either made a good decision or an evil decision. There is no in between. When it comes to good and evil look at Romans 12:9 “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” But still how many Christians in the world do you see that make the wrong decisions. I know I have many times. We’ll either make the better decision or the worse.