"A Declaration of Independence?"
John 8:34-36
Allan H. Kircher
July 3, 2011
We rejoice at this time every year because in this country we are blessed with freedom
• Freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, to bear arms, of the press-
• we are free to do whatever we want in the United States as long as it does not infringe on the freedoms of others.
This weekend we celebrate our nation’s independence.
Over 2 half centuries ago/United States were born.
Nation based on the ideals of liberty, responsibility, Godliness, and the freedom to become what God intended us to become.
Celebration/nation’s birthday/celebration of freedom
Celebrate the precious gift of freedom we have because of the price others paid.
We must remember that freedom isn’t free.
Freedom is very expensive.
It has cost some people everything, including their lives.
• Freedom isn’t free, but it is infinitely valuable.
• We celebrate independence, as a nation, that is temporary.
• A day will come when/no longer enjoy/freedoms we have.
• Nonetheless, we celebrate our independence.
Should we not celebrate and discover the depths of an independence that will last for all of eternity?
Today, let’s celebrate our independence from/tyranny and bondage of guilt, sin, slavery….fear, and death; an independence won over 2,000 years ago
Jesus came/bring/freedom from all human afflictions.
Let’s look at our text, John 8:34-36 "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
For all who want to know freedom, Freedom comes simply through the truth.
But there are Christians bound by fear, resentment, jealousy and uncleanness,
• Who know full well/they are complete contradiction to the liberating gospel they profess----
But how to get free?
Jesus has provided that power to each and every one of us.
And so we submit that the truth is in Jesus Christ. That is genuine freedom.
• We are free-but so many times we don't live that way.
• We live as imprisoned, enslaved people.
• A Christian is a free man, sometimes he needlessly places himself under bondage to a system.
• I want us to learn how we can open the "cell doors" of our lives so that we can live as truly free people.
Many people-including some of us in this very room-are enslaved by the imprisonment of many things. Let’s look at a few today.
1. The Imprisonment of “approval addiction.”
List/symptoms of approval addiction, help you see what I mean.
You may find that you are affected/imprisoned by this particular mind set.
If you are hurt when/people express anything less than glowing opinions about your accomplishments,
• If you think /other people devalue you because of your weight or your height or your lack of hair or your lack of education...you could be imprisoned.
• If you feel that in order to prove your own worth, you have to degrade another person. I mean, if you find yourself constantly criticizing everyone but yourself...
• If you find that you always live with the nagging sense that you aren't important enough or special enough...
• If you get envious of others who get the spotlight more than you do. Well, then you probably are an approval addict.
And, what's more, if you worry that someone might THINK you are an approval addict, then in fact you probably ARE one.
When we are addicted to the approval of others we are NOT free, no matter what nation we live in.
• Instead we are slaves-always at the mercy of other people's opinions.
Even ministers have been known to suffer from this enslaving mind set. An old preacher once wrote this in his memoirs, "I was leaving my last church and a woman at the farewell reception was weeping. ’Don't be sad,' I said, 'I'm sure the next pastor will be better than me.' She replied, 'That's what they said last time Reverend, but they keep getting worse.'"
Many of us are like Sally Fields/academy awards/she won her second Oscar and then responded by saying, "You like me! You like me!"
Like Ms. Fields, many of us THINK we are good people ONLY IF we THINK other people THINK we are good people.
So many of us drag through life with a “ball and chain.” w/ this addiction.
2. Another CHARACTERISTIC of people who are approval addicts is that they are constantly COMPARING themselves to their peers.
And this is nothing new-basically this is why Cain killed Abel-because he felt out-sacrificed by his brother.
You ever talked/someone/TV program/watched/prefaced your comments with,
"I don't watch TOO MUCH TV but the other night I saw this show...."
We use/phrase because we're afraid people might think all we do is sit around watching TV and eating Oreos.
• And if people thought that-well, it would be unbearable for us.
• My point is that all of us reveal our "jail cells" with this kind of behavior-
We show that we are indeed "imprisoned" by the opinions of others when we constantly comparing things
Our houses or jobs or vacation plans or our children's achievements, or our success at work.
This attitude has enough enslaving power to make us FEEL like a failure even we accomplish GREAT things.
3. Another thing-this enslaving attitude can steer our AMBITIONS in life.
• If having money/popular sign of real freedom, then we need to get lots of it.
• If knowing all the right important people proves my worth-then I have to do this.
• I do all I can to get in the inner circle of all the "right" people.
Do you see what I mean? And-be honest-can you relate? I mean, wouldn't you say that many of us do in fact live inside the "jail cell" that this attitude creates?
We need to remove the veil of our cell to experience the Beauty of God.
• How can the veil be lifted from our minds we/see
• The surpassing Beauty of God in the new covenant?
When a man turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.”
• That veil maybe nicotine, it may be sarcasm, it may be envy, it may be rudeness.
• The veil shall be lifted.
• You will be set free/experience the beauty of God.
• You will be set free/see the presence of God.
And when we do, our chains, our cells, whether heavy or light will vaporize into the wind like dust.
You see, it is only through Christ that the veil is lifted.
When you turn to the Lord, you turn to the spirit, to open up to the spirit, to seek the spirit in its fullness in your life.
For where the Spirit Lord is, there is freedom
Well, wouldn't it be great if/were some way/we could make our own PERSONAL declaration of independence
And in so doing free ourselves from this addiction to the approval of others?
• Imagine being able to consider the criticism of others as a small thing.
• Picture what it would be like to be liberated from the need to impress people.
• Think how truly free we could feel if our sense of self-esteem no longer rested on whether someone noticed how smart, or attractive, or successful we are.
• Imagine being able to feel love toward someone who constantly disapproves of us.
When we have the grace to be free in the presence of those who judge our lives and evaluate our actions, we have Christian freedom."
Now, in our text for today, Jesus said that as Christians we CAN experience true freedom.
I want to point out three things that will help push open the doors to our "jail cells" and to be as Jesus said, "...FREE INDEED."
• Think of them as three "lock picks"- three things we can do that will make it possible for us to live as people who are free of the enslavement of our jail cells.
1. The first is the practice of SECRECY.
This counteracts the affects of approval addition
• It involves doing good for others w/out anyone knowing about it.
• Helps us learn to do good without seeking the praise of other people.
Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 6:1-4 when He said, “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Our Lord says/we miss a BLESSING/we do things be seen by others.
• There is a reward that we FORFEIT when we neglect the practice of secrecy.
• I think Jesus was referring to not just ONE reward but TWO.
First, Jesus was saying if we do things that only God knows-
• if our motive is to please God and not just to be seen by others
• Then some day when we die and approach the gates of Heaven we'll hear God say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant!" And that will be quite a reward won't it!
I mean the best compliment we get on earth gives only a shadow of the joy that will come from hearing those words uttered by God...
• Jesus is saying if we do things just to be seen by others we'll forfeit this.
• Our Heavenly Father won't say these words to us.
The Second reward we forfeit /do good deeds to be seen by our peers
• PRESENT reward-something we give up in the here and now.
• Acts of servant hood done to impress others-well they tend to lose their intrinsic power to help us grow spiritually, don't they?!
For example, if we give money away anonymously, we become less enslaved by it and experience freedom and joy.
• Money/no longer our master/we give secretly to help others.
• Doing this helps us/discover that God will meet our needs-
• That it feels good to genuinely help others.
• We begin to experience the abundant life that Jesus promised with this practice.
But if we choose to impress people by making sure they know of our generosity-well then the nature of our action changes.
• We settle for the narcotic of the approval of others.
• And instead of becoming a little more free, we become a little more enslaved
one way/TRULY free ourselves and at the same time experience abundant life by doing good things for others SECRETLY is by believing that it is enough to know that God sees. And it works.
youth books, column, projector example.
The happiest Christians I've known live for an audience of One.
• They don't work to gain the approval of others
• Instead they yearn for the approval of their Heavenly Father.
• They agree with the Apostle Paul who wrote the Corinthians and said, "It is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends."
How many times have you taken your little children to the park and when they climbed to the top of the monkey bars or when they first got the hang of a two-wheeler they said, "Look at me mom! Look at me!"
• They did/because they wanted/achievement to be noticed-and there's nothing wrong with that.
• It is normal for little children to do this.
• But when adults live for the praise of others something is wrong.
• Their maturity has been stunted. They're still acting like children.
One way you free yourself of this immature attitude is by doing good deeds in a way that no one but God will ever notice.
I mean, try it. Every once in a while do something good and make sure no one finds out about it.
Pick someone in your life and immerse that person in prayer and don't tell anyone.
Make a lavish donation to a missionary or send a sacrificial gift to a person in need and keep it anonymous.
Live so deeply with a portion of Scripture that it becomes etched on your mind and heart and don't tell anyone you have studied and memorized it.
Mow your neighbor's lawn while they are gone on vacation. Wear a disguise so your other neighbors won't recognize you.
Giving in secrecy helps us/learn/really is better to give than to receive.
So, one way to open the "cell door" of your life is by thinking of yourself as "The Lone Ranger" secretly doing good deeds in Jesus' name and people will say, "
Who was/masked man who did/wonderful thing for me?"
* Do good things-great things-but do them in secret so that only God sees.
*When you do, I believe you will hear the "lock" click and the door to your cell starting to open.
And then, a second thing that will break the chain of imprisonment.
2. ...remember that other people's opinions can only enslave us if we LET them.
We are not the passive victims of other people's opinions.
* Their opinions are powerless until we validate them.
* No one's approval can affect us unless we grant it credibility and status-and the same holds true for disapproval.
Comments on preaching style…
In Galatians 1:10 Paul writes, "Am I now seeking human approval or God's approval? Am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ."
MATURE, genuinely free, Christians don't live to please people.
* They live to please God. They DO play/audience of One.
* They don't care what others think-unless they know God would care what they think also.
Which leads us into the third thing we must BELIEVE if we are to break our chains of imprisonment, and it is this:
3. The only opinion about our lives that really matters is GOD'S opinion.
And we will be set free.
In Luke 12 Jesus alluded to this fact when He said, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But fear Him Who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell."
Our Lord was saying the only DISAPPROVAL we should fear is GOD'S!
Paul understood this as well, because in 1 Corinthians 4:3-4 he said, "I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord Who judges me."
• He "cared very little" so little that their opinions were not able to enslave him.
• Paul's self-worth rested on his acceptance by a higher court.
• He knew that "it was the Lord" Who judged his life.
When we try to find our place according/world's standards rather/God's we get bent and scratched and hurt-and stuck.
But-when we devote our lives to God's purpose, then we find fulfillment AND FREEDOM.
1. Freedom from Guilt……..our past can’t haunt us
• Have you been dragging around your past?
• You’ve done things in the past that have hurt others and have hurt you?
• You’ve failed miserably in the past.
• You’ve failed at marriage.
• You’ve failed at parenting.
• You’ve failed financially because of your own irresponsibility.
• You’ve failed at religion – it’s/too hard/keep all those rules.
• You’ve failed and failed and failed and the guilt of your failures and poor choices is dragging around behind you, keeping you from soaring.
• Your past sins are an anchor that keeps you earthbound when your heart longs to be more to reach to the sky.
How would you like to be free from that guilt?
Your FORGIVEN! Freed.
Because of the work Jesus did in winning your freedom, you don’t have to carry your guilt around with you.
You can release it and be free.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know that you don’t have to drag your past around with you?
• Wouldn’t forgiveness be a breath of fresh air?
• You can have that forgiveness. Jesus, the Son, offers it to us.
Free from guilt. We celebrate freedom from guilt.
2. But there is another freedom that he offers to us.
We no longer have to live in fear
“But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation” Colossians 1:22
• How nice/not/to run and hide?
• How nice/not/worry/what someone else will find out about you?
How nice would it be to be free/accusations and fear that your sins are going to be discovered?
• That would certainly be a freeing experience.
• How would it feel to be free from all accusation?
• Would you have a sense of relief?
• Would you have a sense of release?
• Would you feel as though a weight had been lifted from your shoulders?
• Would you feel free?
• How would you feel to know that there was no accusation that could be brought against you?
There is a reason that Jesus sets us free from accusation.
It is because, when we surrender to him and let him have control of our lives, he makes us blameless.
Because of what Jesus did for us upon the cross, we are blameless before God when we know his Son, Jesus.
Blameless means free of guilt; not subject/blame.
We can stand before God/our fellow man/not fear accusation.
Now, being free of accusation does not mean that no accusation will come.
We will face accusations of all sorts in this life.
• Many are well deserved because of what we have done in our past.
• People have seen our sins/our mistakes and they want know why we now claim to be different.
• This shouldn’t threaten us.
• It should be an opportunity to share with them the transformation that Jesus brings to our lives.
But we need not fear accusation.
We are now free of guilt. We are no longer subject to blame.
The account has been laid to rest/we can live without fear/ hidden past being brought to light.
• It has already been brought to light and dealt with.
• when we don’t turn to Jesus and confess our sins and allow him to cleanse us,
• We are slaves to our past/slaves to our guilt and we are susceptible to accusation.
• But once we come clean, we are free from accusation. We are no longer a slave.
2 Corinthians 3:17….Where the Spirit/Lord is, there is freedom.
Free from guilt.
Free from the ultimate consequence of our sinful lives.
This week we have celebrated/freedom of our nation.
More than that, we celebrate the sacrifice necessary to give us the freedom we so deeply love.
there is a greater freedom than that of political freedom.
There is a freedom we can have in Jesus Christ if we will place our trust in him, if we will surrender to him.
Jesus bled and died; he gave his life, so that you and I could be free.
We serve a God of mercy, who sent his only Son to atone for everything we’ve tried to get away with in secret.
• We have nothing to hide!
• And nothing to fear if we sincerely repent.
• Set me free from our imprisonments.
• Take off the chains of sin…..
We are set free/power of God’s grace and love.
Soar like an eagle/enjoy the flight the Lord has given you.
Our emotions in response to sufferings may, like Job’s, run the gamut; our abiding faith will glorify God and be remembered by those who watch us overcome.
Faith that you are free from bondage
Faith that you are free from guilt, from anger, from fear of witnessing.
Faith that you are free from death and delivered to eternal rest with the Father.
Faith that the power of God is in your life.
Faith in the name of Jesus Christ….the name above all names…..
When you have true saving faith you are set free….and the power of God is so heavy upon your soul/you soar like an eagle in flight.
Set free from problems instantaneously.
When we are set free…we will soar like an eagle.
Soaring free from folly and sin is to have the shackles removed from our limbs and the heavy burden lifted from our hearts.
WE ARE SET FREE WHEN WE Experience that our neediness drives us to God.
God says to you today. , “ if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
He will heal us and set us free.
When you do experience the prevailing power of the Lord Jesus you are set free…and you feel like an eagle in flight….spread out your wings in excitement God’s work in your life.
So what is the result if we are freed by the spirit?
“And we, who with unveiled faces, all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”2 Cor 3:18
When a person turns to Jesus Christ as Lord and opens himself up to the liberating rule of the Spirit of the Lord the eyes of his heart sees the captivating and satisfying divine Beauty of the Spirit.
And you are set free.
You are set free from oppression/bondage/sin and slavery.
Then you begin to be changed by it
And are transformed by the Power of God
Your unveiled face reflects the Lord’s glory.
You finally exhibit the fruit of the Spirit.
You finally elate in joy in all situations and trials.
Then you see the riches of His glory.
You finally become like him.
