Home Free

Home Free

John 8:32

http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/HomeFree.html

John 8:32

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

This week we celebrated freedom, and Steve is still celebrating it. He was an American thru and thru, and a very patriotic man, but today his is a freedom far superior to ours. He is free from this world, free from the pain, and free to run and jump with a new glorified body better than he had even as a child. He became instantly free in his mind as well. And it was all made possible because he came to know the truth that makes you free.

True spiritual freedom is ours when we trust in Christ and the bonds of sin and chains of death are broken, and we are home free. Jesus became our whipping boy as our sins were laid upon Him. He was the scapegoat and we are turned loose…free to live and never to have to fear death nor hell…we are home free!

Sure, in this world there is pain and suffering. This world is sin cursed and as long as we are in it we will have hardships and losses, grief and tribulation…but the point is that this world is not our home. Heaven awaits us, and we are as good as there once we are saved…we’re home free!

There are many bad circumstances in this world, but cheer up…for God is not responsible for our circumstances, rather, He loves us, and feels our pain with us, and wants to save us from our circumstances and help us thru them. Steve suffered a lot, especially in the last few years, but he didn’t blame God for it. He realized God wasn’t responsible for his ailments, but instead wanted to free him from those chains, and He did a few years ago when Steve got saved, and now physically, he is home and he is free indeed…and all because he accepted the truth and moved on with his life. And I knew the man well enough to know what he’d want me to say right now, that if he could know the truth and be free, so can you. If Steve could get saved and give his temporary sufferings to the Lord, so can you. If he could courageously continue to face life and its trials so can you. If Steve could submit to being baptized, so can you. And if Steve can faithfully go to church 4 services a week, as he did without fail, then the rest of us can, and as he and I joked and a few times, as people try to excuse themselves from going to church and following God, “they don’t have a leg to stand on”!

Bad things happen to us and often we cannot explain them, but we need to realize as Steve did that it doesn’t matter in eternity how your life was on earth…was it joyful or painful, was it a long life or short…it only matters that you accept God’s gift of salvation and have a home in heaven where you will be free eternally. It matters not to Steve now whether he had died when he was a boy, or at 65, or even if he had lived on to 100. It matters to us, sure, but not to him!

Whatever you are facing today in your life…whatever painful circumstances you may encounter tomorrow, remember that God didn’t do it, and quite the contrary, He cares and wants to save you from it. And then you can have a home in heaven, and you can be free…home free! And you can see Steve and other loved ones again who have gone on to that place, if only you get saved!

Ironically, when we consider the topic of ‘home free’, a ‘home’ in heaven is ‘free’ to us, but not cheap…it came at the highest price. It is given to us as a free gift, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t valuable.

[Share gospel…]

Home Free, eventually, at the ultimate healing, we will be home free!

Home Free, O I’ve got a feeling, at the ultimate healing, we will be home free!

http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/HomeFree.html