Evidence of Eternity | Week 5 | Message

he unlocks it. Because that is one of the number one pushbacks against Christianity in our world, is that Christianity is anti freedom. That that that if you follow God, it's like and you believe that it's restricting you. It's control. It's not about freedom. In some terms, it's it's a crutch.

It's all of these things that that people don't wanna buy into it. And and the truth is some of these things that make us think Christianity is anti freedom, those of us that are sitting in here that say we believe in Jesus still have those same issues.

We carry them in. Like like, what do I mean by that? I got a list here real quick that shows what are the common pushbacks of why Christianity feels anti freedom. Personal hurt. You know, you've had controlling leaders. You've had shame heavy religion.

Call our cultural story. Right now, we live in a world that says freedom equals do what I want when I want. Live your own truth. You gotta be you. Be true to yourself. All of those terms. And then we think that's what freedom is. We're gonna see by then that's not what it is. That does not give freedom. That limits freedom.

Suspicion of power. That's not limited just to church. We just we live in a culture now that any authority is suspect. We think power is just used to control. And

then there's historical baggage. People like to look back and go, what about the crusades? What about they think it was this? What about this? What about all these stereotypes? All of these reasons. And here's the problem. Some of us that say we believe in Jesus have some of those issues that make us not believe Jesus.

You could say I believe in, but I won't believe. What does that mean? I I could say I I believe that Jesus is is is is Lord, but I'm not gonna believe how he says to live. I've disconnected my belief in Jesus from my believing Jesus for how life works.

And and that's a struggle. So I'm not talking just to people that don't believe in Jesus right now. This message is gonna be for all of us. For all of us. For example, if you really believed Jesus, you wouldn't come to this service. You would go to Saturday nights. Because some of y'all barely found a seat.

And and and and we keep leading people to Jesus. I'm telling you, this is the service that new people we get about fifty, sixty families a week. Guess where 40 of them come? This service. I promise you, if you switch, you will lead someone to Jesus.

I promise you. You want to appoint someone to Jesus? The easiest way is to go to Saturday night. I would say worst case scenario, if it has to be Sunday, at least go to 08:30 or 11:30, but you're gonna get there and they're filling up too.

And and and so I am just saying that right there. That's just an announcement squeezed into a sermon. Look how manipulative I was. Wasn't that nice? No. I'm serious. Every time if I said I I guarantee every time in our history,

if 200 people in this room left the service, within three months, 200 people will come to Christ. Guaranteed. We've already had another 100 and some odd come to Christ this weekend already.

And so yeah. Anyways, let me get back to the message or I'm gonna go too long and 11:30 service is gonna have to start 11:35 again, because that's my fault. So Jesus doesn't limit life, he unlocks it. In other words and I agree with that list. If Christianity really meant less joy, less life, less freedom,

I wouldn't wanna sign up either. But the reality is authority isn't the problem. Boundaries is not the problem. That's not the problem. Bad authority is. Bad authority steals freedom. Good authority creates it. We are built to worship. You can see it. Everybody picks something to go after.

And and the truth is good authority creates freedom. For example, a traffic light doesn't kill your freedom to drive, it allows everyone to arrive. If we didn't have traffic lights, which, you know, I know in the state of Arizona, we drive like there's no traffic lights,

but the reality is that's why we have the number one rate of people getting killed in red light running. Because the the the truth is if we didn't have any traffic rules, it would be a Mad Max movie.

It would be beyond Thunderdome. Two would enter, no one coming out. And and so you just go look that up. You'll think that's funny later.

So what I wanna do is look at John eight thirty one through 36 because I think it lands this whole what does that mean? What's this process? Why? Why do I need to just not believe in Jesus but believe Jesus and and really know that he is the way? And and and and and the truth is what's happening in this passage

is the setting is Jesus in the temple courts, he's teaching and he's arguing with these Jews, these Jewish believers, they believe in God, and many of them say they believe in him. The problem is they believe in him, but they won't believe him.

And he knows that they're eventually gonna fall by the wayside. They believe in him because they go, hey, make our life easier. Make it give us more options. They thought freedom is give us like, get rid of Rome, get rid of our issues, give us the financial stability. It was all what they liked him doing these miracles and stuff, but they didn't want to trust what he said is here's the way to live.

And so that's kind of the thing going back and forth. And here's what he says. I just want to read it and then point out this little pathway that what this what these verses are is is saying about this whole topic. He says, Jesus said to the people who believed in him,

you are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teaching. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. And they heard that and they said, but we're descendants of Abraham. They said, we have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean?

We are we will be free. This is funny because they they were Jews. They have the old testament. They had the law. They did come to the temple. They did worship. They believed in God, but they're like, you're saying that that that we'll be set free. We've never been slaves. Now, first of all, they don't even remember their history. Go read your own old testament. I think a guy named Moses would beg to differ that you were ever slaves.

You know, he he he led them out of slavery. They're currently being overruled by Rome, which makes them pretty much slaves, and and they're saying we weren't ever slaves. Because Jesus wasn't talking about outside slaves. He's talking about your slaves the worst slavery is the slavery in our own heart, in our own life.

But they said, but we're the children of Abraham. Meaning, we're fine. We're okay. We don't need to listen to you in that sense. We'll believe in you, but we're just not gonna believe you. And then he goes, but Jesus replied, I tell you the truth. Everyone who sins

is a slave to sin. That's what he was trying to get to. Not the outside in, the inside out problem.

A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever. He's using an illustration there about slavery and about in the home. In Rome, this was a common thing they would have understood with Rome there is like a slave. They're the home, but they're not really a part of the family. And he's kinda saying that's what your problem is, that you're in the home. You're coming to the house of God. You're coming here, but you're not a part of the family.

But you know who can free you? A son can free you. And he's implying himself, I'm the son of God. I can come, and I will free you. And he says, and if so, if the son sets you free, you're truly free. So he was trying to get to the heart of the issues, like you're coming to here, you're coming to church, you say you believe in God, you say, but you won't believe me.

That you are trapped, That just come into the temple, having the rules, having this, just doing that is you are still so far away that that you are enslaved. You are in chains that you cannot break.

And they continue to argue with him. Go read the rest of it. Go on. There's a great rest of the story. But I just wanna focus on that part to say, here's the problem that Jesus was saying, I'm not limiting your life. I'm trying to unlock it for you. And he still is trying to do the same thing for us today.

So what is this? There's four things I think out of here that shows the pattern. The first thing we understand is he says truth frees. You will know the truth, which is him, but also you can live live the way he said this is how life works, and it'll unlock life for you. But so truth frees. It protects freedom.

It's it's it's not relative. Real freedom is living aligned with how life actually works, and God's the one that created life. So living aligned with him is where you find real freedom. And and here's the thing. We live in a world that some of the thing is live your own truth. You do that. If truth is relative,

nothing is really wrong. See here's the problem. Christianity is not a feeling based religion. It's a fact based, truth based, logic, intelligent, philosophically consistent, and sound. And we live in a culture right now that wants to say, I'm gonna live my own truth.

If I wanna be Superman, you're gonna call me Superman, and I'm Superman, and and and not believe in any absolute authority on life. The problem is if you play that out, it doesn't work. It ends life. It ends life. Because if if if truth is relative, then nothing's really wrong.

So if I came up to like this guy right here, because he's looking at me funny, and I go, if you made me mad, if I came down there and punched you in the face, you'd probably say I hit like a girl. And then we would offend this whole crowd for saying that. But if truth is relative, they can't be offended.

And you can't say, oh, that hurt. He couldn't say, wow, that you just violated my rights. What rights? My truth was I wanna punch you in the face.

You know, that and and and guys, that is consistent. You can't say, but what we live in a world that tries to act like, well, okay. There are some things that are right. There are some things. It's not some or not. Either there's real absolute truth, there is a right and wrong, there is an ultimate authority that establish it, or there's not.

Can't have it both ways. And you know the only cultures that ever go down this road is cultures that have been absolutely had freedom, which is a good thing in in our ways of free to live and think how we want, but also we've had relative ease, protection,

and wealth. Every time you get a society like that, we start to act like we can just do whatever we want. That's what ends up crumbling societies that have wealthy. You know why? Because we start to be so safe from everything. We can start dancing around with nonsensical ideas because we can act like truth is relative in our own life, and we are coasting on history that's established

these truths that's kept justice, and it takes a while for it all to crumble. And we're watching it crumble.

Because if truth is relative, even injustice is not wrong.

And we have no right to claim that wasn't just, that wasn't right. The fact that we even try to say that's not just proves there is a power beyond us, because if you look and believe in evolutionary scale, you watch the animal kingdom, there would be no evolutionary reason for justice to evolve. Ever. And

if you are a skeptical, you have to answer that. You know what else it wouldn't involve? Creativity would never have involved. Not talking about creativity on how to get a tool or get to make something, but the idea that right right now, think of a pink elephant.

Can you all think of a pink elephant right now? Do you see it? Do you see the picture? Why would we have the ability to do that if we're just things that evolved? There would be no evolutionary reason that we would be able to think of crazy things that have no application to life.

You see, it's a truth based thing and truth frees, and there is absolute truth. I love how it says Tim Keller said, freedom is not the absence of restrictions, but finding the right restrictions that set us free, like my mom. No way. That's what Jesus does. And you don't believe me. Here's the crazy part. In 2021,

Pew Research did a study and they found out that narcotics it's actually gone up since, but I couldn't find a more recent one. Seventy one percent of young adults say being true to yourself is the highest good.

Seventy one percent of young adults. Now what's a young adult? I don't know. The older I get, young adults becomes older. So I'm like, right now in the days, if you are 54 or younger, you're young.

But I think they're really talking about people about 35 and younger, and really that that that 25 and younger crowd is really having this problem. And it's and it's they were raised in this culture that said, to be true to yourself is the highest good. So you got a guy choose your identity, pick this way, you're gonna be you, you're gonna be what you are, everyone has to agree with that. And if everyone doesn't agree with everything, then it's bad, and that is the ultimate truth. The truth is I'm gonna find my way and find my truth. That's what they believe.

Well, then the American Psychological Association is linked constantly now. They have overwhelming proof that that view is the number one cause of of of high levels of anxiety, loneliness, and fear, and hopelessness for the future, and the lack of ability to grasp on and really find meaning in life, and you feel stuck.

Any young adults in here willing to say that's how I feel?

The very thing you think is supposed to give you the hope is what's actually driving your struggle.

The idea of having unlimited options, the idea of choosing your own sexuality, choosing your own voice, choosing here's what marriage is, here's what life is, here's what this is, here's what I am, here's all of that absolute choice is what's driving it. You're not gonna find the hope in that. You're not gonna find the truth. You're not gonna find the peace. You're not gonna find these are secular studies that are proving

what the Bible says. Almost as if God's real, the Bible's the word of God, and the writer of it, who is God, knew what he was talking about because he's the one that created life itself. We just get stuck. Truth frees. But we live in a world that feeling is driving the bus.

And a wise woman who I've been married to for over thirty three years always says this, feelings are real, but they're not always right. Just because you feel something doesn't make it right. So if you're a young adult or any adult in this room,

we've got to learn to disconnect from feelings being the thing that's taking you decide. I feel this way, it must be true. Or I feel this way, life must be hopeless. Feelings don't drive life. Truth does. Trying to live your life by trying to control feelings is like trying to herd cats.

It ain't gonna happen and you're gonna have a lot of scratches.

Truth freeze. Ask yourself this question. Where have I been treating my feelings as truth instead of letting God's word define reality? And I'm talking to not even I'm like, a lot of us that believe in Jesus in this room don't let God's word define the reality. We let other things do. You know why?

Because the second thing he pointed out to these people that said they believed in Jesus. He said, you're you're slaves. To what? To your sin.

Truth threes, but sin enslaves. Sin enslaves us because the lie is thinking I'm fine. I'm in control.

But sin always over promises is under delivers. At first you think you're choosing it. At first it feels but then starts to choose you. It the problem with sin is going ignoring God on how to live in in in certain ways always leads to something. It feels great at first, but eventually the bill comes due. Sin is like credit cards.

You can go do whatever you want when you want, it feels great. It's like having money. Like, I can have this right now. And all of sudden, if you don't pay attention to it, wow. It adds up, and now the bills start coming due. And now what you thought you had freedom by buying all this stuff now has enslaved you.

And we just don't get it. We're like, you know, and we keep wanting to be in our little world of my truth and what I think I need like a little kid. Don't I think we ever grow out of the little kid phase when it comes to this. I mean, it it it in the end, it causes more pain. When

I was a little kid, like, know, little bit something about the same age as when I was trying to jump off the roof.

Back when we were young, my my mom and dad, we'd take us down in my, and we'd spend two weeks with my grandma in the summer. Now now I used to think it was like they just want us to connect to our grandma. I now having had a parent, been a kid parent and having grandkids,

I realized they were just needed a break, and they dumped us off at grandma's for two weeks. And and my grandma lived in Ajo. Anybody know where Ajo is? If you've been to Rocky Point, you drive through it all the time. If if you don't know where Ajo is, it's it's it's two blocks past hell on the right hand side. And

no. It was a great place. It was just kinda boring for a little kid.

But my grandma would let me go out in the backyard, and she had this little patio, and she all was small enough. She lived in the outskirts. So her backyard, once she got off the patio, it was like deserty mountain stuff. And and there was everything out there wanted to kill you or hurt you. It was filled with cactus. We found a rattlesnake

every time we were down there. And so she would say, hey. You just you have to stay on the patio. You can't go into the desert.

And and then would let me kinda play out there. And the one thing she let me do that I thought was crazy now looking back is she let me waste water because what I love to do was I would take the hose, and she had one of those nozzles, and you you hold it. It looks like a gun. It'll spray the water. I don't know where she got this thing. It was the greatest one on the planet. Ours at home never worked like this one. It shot the farthest, greatest little laser like, and it looked to me like a phaser from Star Trek.

And so I would play Star Trek. And now I'm not Superman, I am Captain Kirk. And I'd get out there and be shooting at stuff. Like, I I'd be like I'd be like, Scotty, I need more power. And I'm like, and I was like, oh, no. Spock,

we're in trouble. Back up. And I'd be shooting at Judith, and she'd don't go. And I would ignore it because the freedom was I wanted to run off into the so I would get into the desert spraying this thing like, you

know, and also I was backing up with him, and I ran into something, and I bumped into my eyes so I just sat down, and it wasn't a rock, wasn't a tree stump, It was a barrel cactus. One of those cactus that has those really long spines.

The problem is where I sat, the spines weren't that long anymore. You can only see about that much of them because the rest were in my rumple region. And and as I sat there, I was like, McCoy, I need your help. I've made a terrible mistake.

And I was like, my grandma, because I stand up, and and and the problem was now I was butt porcupine.

I'm gonna be honest, like, bam. I I had all these things sticking in me. I was like, god. My grandma's like, we gotta go to the doctor. We had to go to the medical clinic. And you know what's worse? When he said, how do you sit in a car?

It's really embarrassing to lay in the back seat with the your your your your butt up in the air driving.

And then we had to go there. We had to wait. I had to wait like I couldn't sit down in the waiting room. I'm just like, ah. And then they call us back. And then even more embarrassed, they put you on this gurney. They have the giant lights like it's a stadium. It's like I'm about to go play Monday night football. All

these nurses and a doctor come, they're all looking at your your rumble stiltskin area, and then they come in and basically what they had to do was painful. They took like $2,000 pair of pliers

62 times.

And the worst part, I couldn't sit for the next day or two, and the and you know what's so sad is as we're leaving, my grandma looked at me and goes, I can't believe you did that again.

That wasn't the first time I had done it. That's what sin is. We can't believe we did it again. We're stuck. It enslaves us. It chains us. We are stuck to slaves to our sin of where we believe that original lie that Adam and Eve fell for, that I trust my feelings, and I and and and I might believe in God,

but I will over and over again do what they did when Satan comes and will go, but do I believe God? When he said, this restriction,

this lack of freedom, don't touch this one thing. And we believe, you know what? I think to really be content I need to ignore him on that. I need to go around him. That's what sin is. And we are trapped in that. We can't not do it. We keep doing it again. We're like, Spock. I don't know what I'm doing. Sin in slaves.

Ask yourself this question, what freedom in my life is actually chaining me up and how do I keep pretending it's not? What is the thing where and I'm talking to us believers here. What is something that God's word clearly says, don't go that way?

And not only don't go that way, usually the way we go that's wrong is because we ignore him on the way he tells us to go. And

the only way we can even do that is what he said, if the son sets you free, you're free indeed. Truth frees sin and slaves, but Jesus breaks what I can't.

Only he could break that chain. That's what this crowd was missing. They would probably agree with these they had a hard time agreeing they were slaves,

but what they thought is we could do it right. We have the law. We can live this out. We can live for God's love. The reason they ended up taking a problem is like, hey, we're doing all the right things, so now we're good. And he's like, no, you're not. You're

enslaved to the sin, and you need me. Only I can set you free. I'm the son. I break the chains that you can't break.

That's the gospel. That's why he came and lived that perfect life, then got on the cross and died a death we could never come back from and came back. He took the penalty. He took the way. He bought our freedom. He freed us from slavery. And what's interesting in 2022,

Barna did a study. I've met I know of George Barna. I know his son. And what they used to do is they'd ask church people. And that's where you get these stats that says, why are church people no different than value? Well, then he found out, you can't just ask people to say they go to church.

What he started asking was he he asked people with a personal relationship with Jesus. He got really specific about what that meant. Do you trust Jesus? Do you believe in him? How regularly at church? Do you pray? Are you in community? Are you and when he found people that actually listened to God, like what Jesus is saying, they were disciples that actually followed his teachings,

then asked them questions, it found out that that group had a significantly higher level of resilience, hope, forgiveness, and and well-being than any other humans on the planet.

But what made it, it was he found very different numbers. If you just ask people to say, oh, yeah. I believe in Jesus. I go to church, you know, but weren't really connected, their numbers were no different than anyone else. So there's something about when you truly lean into the fact that Jesus broke the chains,

that changes. You now have unlocked freedom. You've unlocked real life. What real what freedom was meant for. Ask yourself this, where am I still trying to fix myself with rules instead of letting Jesus free me as his child?

Now you think, well, you just said it's not about there's about him freeing, and he just started this passage in 31 with, if you really might suffer, you do what I say. The point is this, what the Jews he was talking to in this crowd and what many of us struggle with is they thought the rules make us right.

You're gonna have a very different attitude when you think that what God asked us to do is just these arbitrary things to make yourself I'm gonna work for God's love. It's different when he says, no. You're not living for my love, you live from it. In other words, him breaking the chains was not

the end of it. It's not I freed you just from death. I just didn't free he freed us not just from something, He freed us for something.

And that's what He meant when you truly be free, and that's what He meant in verse 31 when He started with what He meant to get to, and that is the last point what Jesus is saying here is freedom isn't the finish line.

Freedom isn't the finish line. Look Oswald Chambers said it this way, freedom is not liberty to do what we please, but the liberty to do what we ought. Paul says it really clear in Galatians five thirteen when he says, for you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters,

but don't use your freedom to satisfy your own sinful nature. Instead, your freedom to serve one another in love. What is he talking about? He's talking about that even though we can believe in Jesus, we can still chase after that false freedom.

We can still sin. We can still go back this other way. And that's where a lot of us get stuck. And that's why so many Christians come to church and go, why is my life not why do I still feel hopeless? Why do I still feel lost? Why do I feel struggle? Because

we don't really understand that what Jesus freed us to do. The chain he broke is now we can repent. And repent is not just, okay, I'm glad you forgave me for that, Jesus. Thanks for saving me. And we think repentance is, I'm going this wrong way, and now I realize, and Jesus died for me. I'm like, okay, I can stop.

Because of you, Jesus, I know I don't have to go this way, so I just stop. Repentance doesn't mean stop. It means go. Another direction.

When we think of repentance and Jesus dying is that we just think about I have to stop this, stop this, stop this. You're gonna miss the whole point of what the power of Jesus did for us. He didn't make a stop. It allows us to go. The word repentance means to turn around and go the other way.

So what it means when Jesus died for us is, yeah, repent. The freedom of now we're we're not in our death, we're not responsible. He forgave us of our sins. He bought us out of that. He made us right. Yeah. He gave us the freedom from that, but also freedom for. I now have the power to realize

and not just stop going that way, but turn around and start. And I guarantee the number one problem we have in this room with people who say they believe in Jesus is you don't turn and go the other way.

The number one problem I have is when I try to say, I'm sorry for doing that, God, but I back off. The real problem is it's not that I keep going this way, it's that I refuse to go that way. It'd be like like chips and salsa. We all know there's a problem with chips and salsa.

Because if with chips and salsa, the question is always this, when is enough enough? Is when the restaurant runs out or when I die? It's always this dilemma.

But chips and salsa, we know they taste so good, but they absolutely do nothing nutritionally for us. They don't help us. They're not healthy. They're not good, but we just keep going for it and going for it and going. And the problem is we before Jesus,

it's like it's almost before Jesus, we are powerless to stop that in our lives. I've been that way. I've actually eaten so many chips and salsa, but I love Mexican food. Do realize I've eaten to the point that I feel sick and I go, I have got to stop doing this.

I can't believe I'm doing this. That was at lunch, and then I had a dinner meeting with someone and it was also at a Mexican restaurant. Four hours later I go, can we get more chips and salsa over here? I'm like, it didn't even last four hours.

Because that's the problem with sin. It overpromises and underdelivers. It tastes so good, but it doesn't give you anything. And in the end, you take more and more and more to get less and less and less, and now you have a problem. You feel sick. You have high blood pressure. You get diabetes. It shortens your life.

What we view a lot of us that we get stuck is we're like, sin is like chips and salsa. Could you imagine If I go, I have got to stop eating chips and salsa, but I keep sitting at the Mexican restaurant and staring at it. You know what you need to do? Eat a salad. A healthy protein. If I just chose to not eat bad stuff,

but didn't actively turn any good stuff, I'm gonna starve to death, but I won't usually let myself starve to death. You will sit there long enough till you're just gonna eat it again. That's the problem with when we we think of repentance and Jesus dying for us is, I will believe that you died to save me for eternity,

but I won't believe that you know how I should be living my life right now.

And it is clear in scripture of what God said when he says, if you're truly my disciples, you listen to my teaching, there's the great commandment, great commission, all these one another, there's the whole new testament. You can spoil it down to what does he mean by that. He goes, you know what really unlocks the life

that he died to give us? Is when we choose to know, grow, and go. It's that simple. Are you doing that? Because if you're a believer and you're not know, grow, go, you're basically saying, I'm just gonna try to stop doing this without starting to do what he says that is the actual life he built us to live out.

To know that you think that just means, you know, put my faith in Christ. That's meet Jesus. You came to know him. But to know is just like in any relationship, you got to continue to get to know someone. Because guess what? The people you know the least is the people you trust the least.

And so when you get to know Jesus, Paul said this, he goes, my desire is to know him more. The word for know in the Greek is intimacy. Meaning, we need to continue to learn more about his word, who he is, because the living word is found in the written Word by the power of the Holy Spirit. And

there's two primary ways in scriptures that that it says, here's how we get closer to Jesus. There's a corporate one, and there's a private one. There's public worship, what we're doing now, and private practices. Those are the two main ways.

There's something the Bible says about when we gather as the body in this way. Here, God's teaching as a group because we are a body of Christ,

and we're all supposed to not just get individual stuff, give me something I want. We are supposed to come together and hear the word of God in a way that says, who are we supposed to be as the body of Christ united? And

there is something that Bible says that the way God wired us that when we choose to worship through song and sing, there is something he does when we surrender to it. But if I as a Christian say, I don't like music, so I'm not gonna sing, that's like saying, I don't like happy birthday.

Nobody likes that song. It's the dumbest song in the world.

But what if you went to a party where a guy can't walk anymore? He threw himself on a landmine or in front of a car for you, saved your life, and it's his birthday. Would you walk into this guy that's in his wheelchair and stand there with your hands in your pocket and go, has everyone singing happy birthday and just do this?

Or maybe you're like some of y'all, I'm gonna come late so I don't have to sing. Hey, did you guys do happy birthday yet? Alright. I'll be in in a minute. Why would you do that? Because you know the song's not about you. It's not about personal preference. It's about the person you're singing to. That

is what singing is. Guys, I say guys because we're the worst. Probably because we have the worst voices. I know it's embarrassing. I just sing a little lower because I I I actually feel bad for the people in the row in front of me.

But it's not about that. And the Bible says there is something that the Holy Spirit does in those moments that grows our relationship in knowing Christ. So if I'm gonna turn and do what he freed me to do, you make coming to church a priority, especially coming on Saturday.

And then you make that personal time of being in the word private practices. That's critical to knowing him, but then God knows that we are not we need help. We need others around us. We have an incredible power of self deception,

so we need other people. That's what growing community is. We need to be in real community where people can know us, accept us, support us, but also push us and develop us. And and and what do you do it? Or you're like, I don't have time. What you're saying is, I want I believe in Jesus, but I'm not gonna believe Jesus.

Believing Jesus is you turn and go the other way. If you're too busy to be in community, you're doing stuff you shouldn't be doing. Plain and simple. It's unhealthy. If you're eating chips and salsa till you're sick, you're too full at the moment to eat the salad.

And then finally, because you know what? What growing does together helps us know Christ. That's the ultimate goal. So doing this now helps us know Christ more. Then ultimately he says, and now you go. As you go out into the world, you go live intentionally. Is what he even says, go make disciples.

We're supposed as it that's the passage I read in Galatians says, our goal, our real purpose in life is not to discover some weird identities, just find my identity in Christ and live out that mission that he allows us to go be fishers of men. He allows us to go point people to Jesus by loving like Jesus. With what? Our time, our talent, our treasure, and our testimony.

If he wants us to take our time if you're a Christian and you say, I believe in Jesus, do you know what your spiritual gifts are? Do you serve? Are you actively on a team serving in your church? Do you do you share your testimony? Do you do you think about how I can pray for my friends and family and people of my world so they'll come to Christ?

Do do do I do I do I care about wanting to take my treasure, my finances, and align it in being a part of something bigger that goes to the kingdom of God, or can you not do that because you're spending $30,000 a year on your kids travel baseball team?

I'm telling you, if you can't do what God asked, it means you're doing something else with what he asked. And we're slaves do it, and I get it. You know why? Because some of the things we do, they tricks us and they go, but I'm a good parent if I spend this. I'm a good

you're a good parent if you point your kids to Jesus.

And I think the number one problem we have, and I have, maybe not you, I know I've disconnected is when I start getting really lax on believing Jesus. I never waver on believing in Jesus.

It's when that sin grabs me again, that fear grabs me again, my feelings grab me again. I buy into the world's process of what I really need. And that's when you start asking, if God's so loving, why isn't it? If God's so loving All those questions come from the wrong perspective. That we think life owes us something.

The truth is we owe life a response to God because he's the one that gave it to us. And when you sit there go, well, why did God not do that? It's usually because we have our view of what freedom is, and God's not giving us that. And that's our biggest struggle.

And that's why the world you go, well, this is so clear, why does everybody think this way? Go read Romans one, like I said. The

Bible's smart enough already called it out. It's like we know truth, but we try to suppress it. Don't wanna believe it. Know why? Because what Adam and Eve did, what we continually do is we make God in our own image. We turn ourselves into the object of worship, and then we run after all the other things

instead of focusing back on the God who loves us, the one who broke the chains. Freedom isn't the finish line. It's the launch pad.

They actually the Harvard study of adult development found out they did a study on well-being. When they went well-being is I got content. I got peace. I got this. And they said, what are the circumstances? Is there anything that drives people just feeling well-being?

And you they went and even think it's probably because people love freedom, is probably to have wealth because wealth gives you that ultimate freedom. If you have wealth, can go where you want, do what you want, all that. That was the lowest thing. That was never the indicator. That was actually the opposite. They found that people with a lot of wealth and and a lot of freedom actually have higher levels of depression. Higher levels of anxiety. Oh, higher levels.

They're like, that's not gonna give you that. Now I know you're thinking the same thing I did. I wanna prove that myself.

But the reality is it's true. The number one thing was committed loving relationships and committed to something beyond yourself. Number one. And that was the indicator of well-being regardless of any other circumstances. It's as if God made us. Ask yourself, am I using freedom for myself

or am I using it to love, serve, and build something bigger than me? In other words, what Jesus is saying here is every time you say yes to the slavery again, you're really saying no to the freedom.

And that's why so many of us as Christians are struggling so much. And I know this because what I just said is no, grow, go. A lot of you says, that didn't answer my question. But here's the truth. It is the answer to your question. It is. You can fight God your whole life

or you can surrender to that and all of a sudden you're like, I never thought that that produced that. Because when you first start eating kale it's not as good as chips and salsa.

But where does it take you? Where does it take you? Because the thing that starts tasting so much quick and fast and easy always ends badly. It doesn't end good. So, hey, take those four questions. I'm gonna throw them up on the screen again. This week, I would say,

get alone and ask yourself these and be honest with yourself on these four things. And if you're married, after you do that, maybe talk to each other about it. Maybe talk to your kids about it. If you're in a small group, I would ask that this becomes your this week's small group questions. And just get real.

Be real with this. It's not that these questions make you

earn God's love. That's the problem these Jews saw. They they they saw something that they thought they were trying to earn, that the work would set them free. Right? The reason they didn't think they had a problem is like, hey, we're doing this work. It's the other way around. The freedom

allows you now to go trust God in this way, and then you start to unlock life and experience well-being and peace and joy. It says that's the fruit of the spirit. When you trust the Jesus, you trust his way, the fruit of the spirit show up, and those are the things we all want.

But we keep thinking more money, more time, more of this, more of that. It's not what it is. You're never gonna find it that way. It's not about try harder. It's trust more. Well, you just said do these things. When you trust more, you'll do these things. And Jesus said, my yoke is easy.

He didn't say it wasn't do something. He says, when you go that way, it'll actually start showing results. You'll start getting those things you wanted, and you'll be like, wow. Who knew? Who knew that trusting God with my money is what really solved my fears about money? It wasn't get more money.

It was trust him with what you have. Same with time. Same with relationships. It's the secret to the freedom. Ask those questions. Because the reality is we we we if we don't, we can't just apply point 1.2, and point four without really knowing point three, that Jesus is the one that breaks what we can't. My wife was in Poland

just a little while ago, and on a missions trip, and they they went to Auschwitz. The concentration camp, one of the most brutal ones where people just dehumanized

torture. They were worked to death at Auschwitz. There was a slave labor camp, and then they would also kill them with gas and all that, but they were just they tried to get as much as they out, and and and if you know at the gate as you go in Auschwitz, in German it says, work sets you free

or work makes us free.

And what that was was they were trying to trick these people showing up that if I just listen and I put up with this and I work myself so hard, they're saying that I will eventually be free because of that. When they know they're gonna die. You realize that's what sin is, and that was the problem these Jews had. They didn't want to listen to Jesus because they thought our work will set us free. They believed that lot.

Well, was a guy that was in Auschwitz named Viktor Frankl. He was an Austrian. He was a devout Jew. He believed in God. Just like he was like this crowd Jesus was talking to. Exactly like this crowd. And he was a psychiatrist. He survived, but his brother, his parents, and his pregnant wife all died at Auschwitz,

and he made it through. Well, his experiences there watching how people responded to this lack of freedom all the way to the point of being dehumanized. And he wrote a book called Man's Search for Meaning. And he showed that the idea of freedom, I just talked about that what we think freedom is radical autonomy.

Being able to have my truth, do what I want, is a lie that does not help us. It actually leads to despair. As you watch people that were had no autonomy that thought that's the only thing that is real freedom, died quicker without even being worked to death or put or gassed.

And and and he discovered watching it is that doesn't bring freedom. That I can do whatever I want, the radical freedom autonomy,

it leads to despair. And here's some quotes from what he discovered in his research and he wrote in his book. Everything could be taken but one thing, the last of the human freedoms, to choose one's attitude.

What he said is the bottom line is is real freedom isn't having endless options, it's choosing how to live in the truth even when the options are gone. He said freedom degenerates unless it's lived in the terms of responsibility.

He discovered that freedom without direction shrinks into emptiness. Freedom with responsibility grows into life. He said what man needs is not tensionless state. We think freedom is I don't have fears, and I have struggles, I don't have problems,

and that's why we say, God why do you let something bad happen? Because we think real freedom and real love is you don't have tension. And he discovered that it's not being tensionless, but being having a goal worthy of you, beyond you.

In other words, we think freedom is ease, but true freedom comes with living for something bigger. And then lastly, he said this quote, life does not owe us, we owe life a response to God. I already quoted that earlier. Came from him. The bottom line is freedom isn't demanding more from life. It's answering God's call

to live the life he died to give us. Now he didn't say that part. I added. And the reason he didn't say that part is he did believe in God. He was just like this crowd of Jews, and you know what most of these Jews walked away from that? They still believed in God. They liked his miracles,

but they never trusted that he was the one that broke what they can't and allowed them to do what he wanted. They didn't turn around and become followers. And here's Viktor Frankl who went through this horrible experience and and found all of this biblical truth.

He had three of the four points and missed the most important one. He never would have connect that to Jesus. He said all of these issues are true and you find meaning in it, but he wouldn't say that meaning is found only through Christ. You know why? The sign that he walked under that he hated,

he lived by. He stayed a faithful Jew that says, I don't need Jesus because I have God and I have the law and I do my work and I'm a better person. And he thought work would free him. And you know why he wouldn't accept Jesus?

He actually said this. There's no way. He wouldn't even look at it because it goes back to what I said is why do people think Jesus is anti freedom is the historical baggage. He said Europe was a Christian and Christian Europe is what did the Holocaust.

He had it wrong, and he has so close in all those other ways. But he missed that Jesus broke the chains and freed us for life. He didn't rob freedom from life force. And I don't want any of us to make that mistake.

So let's pray. And what I wanna do is I pray. If you already know the Lord, you know that, just talk about maybe the way you've might you've gone back for the chips and salsa.

But I wanna pray with this group that's that many of you, you've never done that first step. Have you surrendered to the love of Christ as the breaker of chains?

And it's easy. You just confess that we're a sinner. We are enslaved to sin. We can't break it. But he did when he died for us, and you you turn to him and put your faith in him. And I wanna pray with you. If that's you, you can be adopted into the family of God right now.

And it's it's simple. Just pray with me. But I'm gonna ask you to do the same thing I've been asking for weeks, Symbolic for you, and this is I want you to hold your hand up as we pray. If you wanna pray with me and I see those hands going up, just put that hand up and say, want Jesus.

And what you're doing is you're holding the chain up and say, Jesus, thank you. Break this chain, and then take my hand for life.

So with all these hands raised, pray something like this, dear Jesus, thank you. Thank you that you love me more than I love myself. Thank you that I know now I've been enslaved. I I am in chains that I can't get out of that's caused by my own sin.

But right now in the best way I know how I turn to you. And I trust that you broke those chains when you lived a life I couldn't live. You died a death I couldn't come back from, and you loved me that much. So thank you for breaking that chain.

And now please take my hand and help me know what life means from here on out. Thank you. And I pray this in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. Hey. Bunch of hands went up again. Couple 100 again this weekend. That's awesome. So

hey, just as you go, if you need to pray with someone, we got our prayer room over here. Other than that, remember this. I love you, but God loves you more. Thank you so much for joining us online today. Be sure to stay connected all week long on our social media.