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.
1 Corinthians 11:17 Paul said, “I praise ye not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse.” A lot of people in the Corinthian church we’re coming together for the better. They were coming to the worse. They were coming to church for the wrong reasons. They weren’t worshipping and praising God they were coming for some other reason. You say preacher how can you make the wrong decision to come to church? If you’re coming to just be around your friends and to make an impression on someone, you’ve made a bad decision. Once you make a decision you almost can’t undo it. No wonder the writer in proverbs said there’s death and life in the power of your tongue. You can help somebody or hurt somebody with your decisions. When we make a decision it will either be a wise decision or a foolish decision. Ephesians 5;15 “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” In Matthew it talks about two men who heard God and one who was a wise man built his house upon the rock and his house prevailed and withstood all. But the foolish man heard but built his house upon the sand instead and the winds came and the rain and his house fell and great was his fall. I want to build my house on the rock. The rock being the Lord Jesus Christ.
When we make decisions it will either be a spiritual decision or a fleshly decision. That is what gets Christians in a lot of trouble. Romans 8:5 “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit; the things of the Spirit. There is no in between. Here’s the hard part. When our freedom becomes our foolishness we end up choosing the evil over the good, the worse over the better, the wrong over the right, the foolish over the wise and the flesh over the Spirit. And that’s what causes confusion and God’s not the author of confusion.
Now I want to share four things we must always exercise in our freedom.
NUMBER ONE: We must make sure we’re led by the Spirit. Ya’ll know about the trinity. I’ve preached on it before. You’ve got to have all three to make things work right. So we’re going to start at the bottom tonight and work our way up. Romans 8:14 “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” Catch that? As many as are led....by the Spirit of God. You know why Paul said it like that? Because there are many that are not led by the Spirit of God. Anytime we make a decision or a choice, no matter what it is, we always have to make sure we’re led by the Spirit. Galatians 5:18 says “But if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” You can mark it down in your book that if you’re led by the Spirit, you’ve made the right choice.
They told Daniel that he couldn’t pray except to the kinds God of gold and if they did and got caught they’d be fed to the lions. They came knocking on Daniels door and told Daniel of the new law and Daniel shut the door and went to his window and opened it up and got down on his knees and started praying to the God of Heaven. He was led by the Spirit. He knew who he was praying to. Then they try to kill the three Hebrew children for trying to worship their God. Stand up for Jesus tonight.
NUMBER TWO: We need to make sure we’re laboring for the Lord.
After the Spirit is Jesus., the second in the God head trinity. A lot of people forget who their serving and they labor for self instead of for Savior. If you’re laboring for yourself, you’re not going to get very far. Your labor will be in vain.
Colossians 3:17 “And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” Whatever you do, do it to glorify God. If God doesn’t get glory or get edified, we shouldn’t do it anyway. He’s got to be number one in our lives. He’s got to be first not last. A lot of people put him as number one when things are going good. But the minute they get down in the valley they forget about him.
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
Are we doing it for the Lord tonight?
NUMBER THREE: We need to make sure we’re limited to the will of God. Ephesians 5:17 “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”
Know what God says. Do what God says. Limit your freedom to only include the will of God tonight. Most Christians work and labor outside of the realm of the will of God. When our freedom becomes our foolishness we start acting outside of the will of God. What happens to you outside the will of God is not God’s fault, it’s your fault. We were sitting around the table the other night talking about “Lord Willing.” My dad used to say that all the time. Someone would ask him a question like, are you coming up Saturday to pick up your car? And he’d says, Lord willing I am. That’s what we’re supposed to say, if the Lord will. If we’re not in God’s will, we don’t need to be doing what we’re doing or saying what we’re saying. We need to limit ourselves to the will of God. Sometimes the will of God is not always an easy way. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane he prayed, “Father if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.” God gave Jesus that kind of freedom to make a choice. he could go to the cross or he could call twelve legions of angels to come for him. That was his choice, not God’s choice. He said, father not my will be done, but thy will. If he had called twelve legions of angels, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now. Thank God he decided to go to the cross.
We look around and we say, why isn’t the church growing? Why aren’t more people coming? It isn’t the lost people’s fault. It’s the Christians fault. If we’re not going to live it how are they going to see something they might want? Christ gives us such freedom and Christians are using that freedom to fulfill their flesh and their making the wrong choice and it’s affecting a lost and dying world. We could be causing lost people to die and go to hell instead of keeping them from going to hell.
NUMBER FOUR: We need to make sure that we have long suffering until heaven.
You say, preacher I’m getting old and feeble and I can’t do the things I used to do. You get to be 25 and you can’t do some of the things you used to either. I’m not looking for old age, I’m not looking for retirement. I’m looking for the kingdom of heaven. I’m looking for the Lord to come back in the clouds of glory. The Bible says he will. I’m not letting death bind me my entire life. I’m letting heaven inspire me. Death is the last device the devil can use against us. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. Thank God Christ already went through death and hell for us. He came out of the tomb three days later and ascended up to his Father and said if I live, you shall live also. We need to make sure we’re long suffering unto heaven, however long that is. That could be any day. He could call me home tonight as bad as I feel. None of us is promised tomorrow. But while I’m here I’m going to have long suffering until heaven. People say, I get tired of being a Christian, I get tired of going to church, I get tired of being a Baptist. Listen are you tired of Jesus too? You want to take him off like an old shoe and throw him away? Not me. he is my life and I won’t put him off for anything.
Lamentations 3:26 “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.”
This world is not going to get any better. But Heaven will be. There will be no devil there, no false prophets, no sin, no death, no hurt, no pain, no blindness, no sickness.....it’s going to be a land of no mores. I’m looking forward to it.
2 Timothy 4:7 Paul said this “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”
He said I have fought a good fight. Tells you right there he was in a battle his whole life. If you’re in the will of God, you’re going to fight some battles. Then he said I have finished my course. We’ve all got an appointed time to die. And then he kept the faith. That’s the long suffering until heaven.
We’ve gone from the Spirit to Jesus to God to Heaven. Told you we’d work our way up. Christians are the richest people on the face of this earth. You’ve got more than money could ever buy.
May God Bless You This Week and Always.
