Freedom Series

INTRODUCTION

- FREEDOM: In September 2016, Lawrence Ripple was willing to give up his freedom to be free from his wife.

- The Kansas resident handed a Kansas City bank teller a note demanding cash and warned that he had a gun.

- After receiving $2,924, he sat in the bank lobby waiting to be arrested.

- He later explained to investigators that he told his wife he’d “rather be in jail than at home.”

- The judge sentenced him to six months of home confinement…with his wife.

- The freedom we seek may not be the freedom we ultimately want or actually get.

- That’s an important lesson for America today. NYPost.com, 6/14/17

- Freedom.

- We hear a lot about freedom.

- Our country fought a war so we could be free.

- In the United States, our Constitution guarantees our freedoms.

- In other countries, people fight for freedom or come to the United States looking for freedom.

- Our passage today is nestled in one of the most beautiful sections of the New Testament.

- I could preach many messages out of chapter 8, but today, we will focus on Romans 8:1-4.

- The memory verse is verse 1.

- One of the most difficult struggles I experienced in my faith and relationship with Jesus early on, probably the first couple of years, was believing what the Bible said concerning my freedom from condemnation.

- I lived under the strain of a great deal of anger and guilt over my past when I came to Jesus.

- I knew what the passages said in the Bible concerning being forgiven and being freed from my slavery to sin.

- For various reasons, I held on to my guilt and shame, it was hard for me to experience freedom in Christ, when was holding on to what God had forgiven.

- Today, we will begin a new series within Core 52 entitled Beyond Belief.

- There are some things that even Christians have a hard time believing.

- If you can believe it, you can receive it: Freedom from guilt, freedom to change, freedom to know God’s thoughts.

- Ultimately, we are promised the freedom from this body through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

- Believe it.

- I believe that many Christians really never get off the ground with their faith because they do not grasp the significance of this freedom.

- Our hearts want us to hold on to the past transgressions because we feel like we deserve to be condemned for what we have done.

- Satan tries to keep our past in the forefront of our thoughts.

- Many people feel paralyzed by feeling condemned because of guilt.

- I pray that if you are struggling with guilt and shame, that the Word of God will break that guilt and shame so you can experience freedom in Christ—ust as Jesus wants you to experience!

- Let’s turn to Romans 8:1

Romans 8:1 (NET 2nd ed.)

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

SERMON

I. The foundation of freedom.

- Chapter eight has been called the triumphant hymn of hope.

- Most of us understand the concept of serving time for a crime, but in Christ, the time has been removed for the crime.

- Condemnation is a real thing; condemnation is not some lofty theological term that is some theory. Condemnation.

- It is real and can be a destructive force in our lives.

- When we live in condemnation, we will never experience the freedom we can enjoy in Christ.

- Condemnation is defined as a legal decision to be guilty in a criminal case, often with the ensuing punishment understood.

- We are all condemned before God.

Romans 3:23 (NET 2nd ed.)

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

- Sin has condemned us, but what effect does sin have on us?

Romans 6:23 (NET 2nd ed.)

23 For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

- The wages, payoff, or paycheck for sin is death, physical death as a result of Adam, and spiritual death as a result of our own sins.

- Once our own sin condemns us, there is nothing we can do on our own to reverse the verdict.

- However, Jesus has done something to allow the verdict of condemnation to be overturned!

- The weight of sin is heavy upon us.

- The wages of sin is death!

- Once our own sin condemns us, there is nothing we can do on our own to reverse the verdict.

- Humanity has been trying to fix the issue of condemnation since almost the beginning of human history!