The Freedom of Christmas
Jude 1:24-25, Rom 3:26, John 19:30, Isa 43:18, Jude 1:20-21, John 8:36
August 15, 2004
I. I know that it is not Christmas time, but maybe it is time that we find the real meaning of Christmas. The real meaning of Christmas is THAT WE ARE FREE. And, after seeing some of the ways that Jesus is able we should be ready to live in freedom and joy.
A. But, there is one thing that tends to trip us up where that is concerned.
B. We trip over the fact that we trip. That makes sense right. Well really it does.
C. The memories of our previous failures haunt our minds.
1. If we could just get those past failures behind us. Or as Pumba says put our behind in our past.
2. Our previous failures are just one more reason that we feel that our lives are out of control.
3. And they are more proof that we need Jesus to be in control of our lives.
D. And again the bible tells us that He is able.
(Jude 1:24-25 NIV) To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy– to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
E. What Jude says sounds too good to be true, but if we pay attention to what the bible says we realize that it is too true to ignore.
F. Our stumbles in life keep us from being able to run the race of life with the joy that God intended.
1. As a matter of fact, they tend to make us stumble through life even more, or trip because we have been hurt, or walk cautiously because we are afraid to try to run again.
2. God has the power to deal with our past stumbles, but how does God do that?
II. Well, first lets talk about what stumbles are.
A. Most of us don’t flat out fall, we just trip and have to catch our balance again.
1. Our failures, the times that we refuse to live the grace that we have been given.
2. The times that we don’t be to others what we should.
3. They are our sins.
4. Our sins are the things that we think in our minds, or carry out in our actions, that we know that God has not approved of.
B. Some involve what we have said or done with other people.
1. Some are things that we know we should do but we have refused to do.
2. Some are reactions to what other people have done to us, or the way that we are continuing to react.
3. We’ve gotten mad or we have gotten even!
4. And sometimes it is just the natural obstacles in our lives that we have tripped over.
5. Like grumbling or getting unsettled when life doesn’t go the way we wanted.
6. Then we complain or blame God, or others when things don’t go our way.
7. And then there are those times that we just stumble over that fact that we have stumbled.
III. Broadcasters like radio and television news people understand this better than most of us.
A. If a broadcaster makes a mistake in what they say the odds that they are going to make another one get a lot higher.
B. They allow their minds to focus on the mistake they made and they loose concentration on what they should be dealing with.
C. So, they make another mistake, because they are focusing on the one that they made before.
D. Then they can get really tense and make more mistakes.
E. The secret is when they make a mistake they have to get past it and move on, because staying focused on the mistake will only bring on more mistakes.
F. Do you see where I am going with this?
1. When we stumble we have to put it behind us and go on because hanging on to the sins of the past will blur our focus on what we should be doing and make us more likely to sin again.
2. Trying to keep us focused on our past sin is just another ploy by satan to get us sidetracked and to try to get us to take control.
IV. When Jude says "He is able to keep us from falling" the word that He uses for falling means "to be sure footed".
A. It is meant to be a positive thing. Jesus is able to make us sure footed in life and that’s because he is our foundation in life.
B. Because he died to provide forgiveness, HE IS ABLE to help us over come our obsession with past failures , and transform our self image into forgiven people who are forgiving people.
C. Jude tells us that HE IS ABLE to keep us before His presence WITHOUT FAULT.
D. Jesus is our mediator who shows us that through what He did on the Cross HE IS ABLE to provide forgiveness and we are in God’s eyes faultless.
1. The word faultless here is the same Greek word that is used to describe the unblemished lambs that were sacrificed in the temple in the Old Testament.
2. Jesus is called the Lamb of God, He is the unblemished Lamb of God that died for our sin, and He transfers His faultless, pure status to us when we accept Him as the only way that we can be right with God.
3. And we are kept in his presence and presented to God as faultless, in Jesus’ image.
4. When God looks at us, He sees the pure sinless image of His Son and he relates to us in the same way that He relates to Jesus, because when he looks at us that pure sinless image of Jesus, is what He sees.
E. For so many people that seems too good to be true.
1. But, either God has forgiven us or He hasn’t, and He says in the bible that He has forgiven us, so He sees us as pure.
2. (1 John 2:12 NIV) I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name.
3. WE ARE FREE!
F. Yes we have to ask for forgiveness, but that’s not to change God’s mind it is to change ours.
1. When we ask for forgiveness it is to accept as a free gift the forgiveness that God has already provided.
2. Confessing our sins is not to change God’s mind with our begging and pleading, its to get straight in our minds that we receive forgiveness that is already there and waiting for us.
3. Paul says it like this (Rom 3:26 NIV) he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
4. At the CROSS God judged sin and JUSTIFIED sinners!
5. When Jesus said it is finished when he was hanging on the cross, IT WAS FINISHED!
G. If we know that because of what Jesus did on the Cross we are forgiven and we accept Him as our Savior, then we need to learn to look at ourselves the way God does.
1. And any attempt to hold on to our guilt or make our forgiveness dependent upon our pleading with God for it is nothing more than a well disguised attempt to be in control!
2. Because if we try to make what we do, determine what God does, we’re trying to put ourselves in the drivers seat again.
3. And as I have said a lot lately, trying to be in control is what gets us so out of control.
4. And focusing on our past sins will just make us more likely to fail again.
H. You see the ultimate loss of control is to accept Grace.
1. But, truly accepting Grace makes us FREE!
I. Our problem is not with God’s forgiving us, it is with us forgiving ourselves and others.
1. And when we refuse to forgive ourselves or other people that is the ultimate in arrogance.
2. Because we are putting our opinion of the Cross and what was accomplished there in a higher place than God’s opinion.
V. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we have a license to sin and not care.
A. Sin has consequences and we create problems for ourselves when we sin.
B. We can’t do what we want when we want with no concern for what God wants or says about it.
C. Grace gives us the freedom and the ability to live up to the requirements of Holy Living.
D. Our response to the unbelievable love that God shows us should be to try please Him out of our gratitude for what He has done. Not to be worthy of His love.
E. I was never a real great student in Highschool, because I didn’t use the abilities that I had.
1. I think I was on a list that circulated among teachers, and when I came into some of their classes they were going to get me under control, and at that time, getting me under control was out of the question.
2. The more they pushed me the worse it got, but I had a Sophomore English teacher who just accepted me, and had patience with me.
3. He let me know that he cared and gave me some room.
4. He set boundaries for me, and if I crossed them I knew about it. But, I knew He cared.
5. I was never really impressed by English classes as you can tell, but I made the highest grade of any student in His class.
6. You know why? Because the things that he did for me made me want to do the things that pleased him.
7. That’s the way that it should be with God.
8. God freed us from the sin and accepted us as His children and our gratitude should make us live to please Him.
F. And then the real test of whether we have accepted Grace or not shows up in our attitude toward the people who have stumbled themselves.
1. Especially when their stumbles hurt us!
2. Have you ever heard someone say "I’ll forgive but won’t forget"?
3. We’re back to that word again, CONTROL!
4. When we say that we won’t forget, or when we just don’t forget, we are trying to hold a control club over the other person’s head!
5. We try to control the relationship by not letting go of the leverage that we have to control the other person.
6. And we are saying that we will not forget what God has said should be forgotten! (Isa 43:18 NIV) "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
VI. Jesus is able to free us from our past failures, BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT WE ARE FORGIVEN.
A. He is able to free us from the guilt of our past failures, BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT WE ARE FORGIVEN.
B. He is able to forgive us from the anger created by the hurts of others stumbles, BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT WE ARE FORGIVEN.
C. And he is able to make us sure footed in life, BECAUSE WE KNOW THAT WE ARE FORGIVEN.
D. In Jude 20-21 Jude gives us some guidelines for seeing those things happen.
(Jude 1:20-21 NIV) But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.
E. Build yourselves up in your faith.
1. Make your relationship with God a priority!
2. Study your bible and see what God wants to say to you!
3. Take the time to get to know God!
F. Pray in the Holy Spirit.
1. Acknowledge the place of God’s Spirit in your life.
2. Get to know the presence of God that lives in you, and take advantage of the fact that God lives in you to talk with Him!
3. Communication is only communication if it goes two ways, and communication is the only way to have a relationship.
4. Read your bible and listen to God, Pray and talk to God, make your relationship with God a priority.
G. Keep yourself immersed in His love as you wait for God’s mercy to one day take you to directly in to the presence of the one that you have a relationship with.
1. And, don’t let you past failures break the focus of your relationship with God.
2. He has forgiven us and WE ARE FREE.
(John 8:36 NIV) if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
3. I hope that you will find the real meaning of Christmas...IT’S FREEDOM!
