A Conversation In Three Movements Part One: Trust The Process

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Lord, we understand that uh your purpose for our life is your glory.

And so that's why the Bible says, whatever we do, whether we eat or drink, we're to do all for the glory of God.

Do what we do for something bigger than ourselves and our appetites and our social media status.

There's a bigger agenda, there's a bigger life out there.

That's why the Bible says if you do these certain things, you take hold of a life that is truly life.

And so, Lord, we want to take hold of life today.

We believe that the Bible is the truth.

It's not a religious whipping on paper.

It's the truth and it sets us free.

It doesn't call us to walk on some high-line wire, some tight rope.

It's like running through a meadow and just frolicking wildly as the liberated people of God.

Now, Holy Spirit, lead us to understand what the Bible is saying and what it means for us today.

We pray these things in Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat if you have a Bible.

I invite you to take it and open up to John chapter 8.

John 8 · chapter mention

If you don't have a Bible, you can bring one with you, relax.

There's a Bible in your row.

I'm on page 894.

Or if you're like, I don't like to follow that, it'll come up on the screen, okay?

Uh we're going through, we're preaching through the Gospel of John.

Uh and we're in John chapter today, we're going to John chapter 8, verse 31.

John 8:31

Before I start reading the Bible, let me just give you some random pieces of information.

There was a Russian expat composer.

His name was Igor Sravinsky, and his first major work that really got him really popular, he wrote uh a musical piece called A Symphony in Three Movements.

A symphony in three movements.

Now, a movement is a self-contained piece of music that's a part of a greater whole.

Now, sometimes they'll take a movement out of the hole and perform that separately, but in order for the entire uh piece or the whole composition, you have to do all the movements and you have to do them in succession.

Now, why do I tell you that, okay?

Here's why I tell you that.

Because Jesus is in a conversation with these religious people that the Bible calls Jews.

In John chapter 8, verse 31, it starts the conversation.

John 8:31

It's a instead of a symphony in three movements, uh, I want to talk to you today about a conversation in three movements.

Uh, you ever get in a conversation with your kids or with your spouse and you run out of time, and then you go, hey, we'll come back to this later.

Uh there is this three-part conversation that I want us just to slow down and get exactly what is happening here.

And so I want to talk to you this morning about part one, about trust in the process.

And when I say trust the process, don't think the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.

Amen?

Anybody?

Yes, there's a few people that got that.

Thank you very much.

The Philadelphia 76ers were horrible for the past five years.

They're like, win like 10 games a year.

And they kept saying, trust the process, trust the process, trust the process, because they kept getting the number one draft in the first or second draft in the NBA draft.

Now they drafted two or three superstars, and the process means they're a lot better than they used to be.

The same principles at play in the Bible.

And you say, What do you mean, the process?

We ended last week in verse 30, where Jesus was talking, and it ends by saying, and as he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Verse 31 of John chapter 8, the Bible says this.

John 8 · chapter mention

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

They answered him, We are offspring of Abraham, and we have never been enslaved to anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free?

Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

The slave does not remain in the house forever, the son remains forever.

So if the sun sets you free, you'll be free indeed.

I know that you're the offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you.

I speak of what I've seen with my Father.

You do what you have heard from your Father.

Now, I I read that whole little section there, but really I just want to preach from verse 31 and verse 32, because that's where the process is.

Hear it again in verse 31.

Jesus said to the Jews who had believed, if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Did you hear the process?

Jesus says, If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Let me begin with a question this morning.

What how would it shape the way you think you thought about and spoke about Christianity if you believed that the goal of this whole thing was freedom?

Let me say that again.

How would it shape the way you thought about Christianity if you believe that the goal and talked about it to other people?

If you believe that the goal of the whole thing was freedom.

Because that's what Jesus says here.

He says, Hey, you want to see who people that really believe in me, that have a relationship with me?

Not that they just believe that there is a God somewhere, but they have a real relationship with me.

Jesus says these people are marked by three things, this process, uh, this discipling process of abiding, knowing, and then freedom.

And that's the three words I want to talk about this morning from the Bible.

Number one, the part of the process, first part is to abide.

What do you mean by abide?

He says, if you abide in my word, if you abide in my word, that does not mean you become some mean, some some some person that believes the Bible and you're mad about it, you win every religious discussion at work.

No.

Abiding in the word means staying for, not because, not just attending, uh uh, but but engaging, tasting and seeing, delighting in, experiencing, enjoying, lingering in close proximity to everything that God says, just because he's God and it's right and it's the truth, not because you need forgiveness as much as you just crave presence.

You just want to be around him.

It's as J.I.

Packer says, it's digging deep and dwelling deep.

It's getting to the place of Peter, one of the early disciples of Jesus.

After some people abandoned him, they said, Dude, this is too hard.

He turns to the 12 and he says, You guys want to go too?

And Peter looks at him with bread falling out of his mouth and says, Where else are we gonna go?

You have the words of life.

To abide in his word means that you come to the point that there's nothing you put on par, on level with what the Bible says.

Not a celebrity tweet or text or anything like, oh, well, that changes everything.

That's authoritative for me.

Like, like when some celebrity tweets out, follow your heart, you go, Oh, okay, that's not authoritative.

I don't I don't give that room and space in me.

Why?

Because I abide in God's word.

It's kind of the the the thing that that is preeminent in me.

It's now abiding in God's word doesn't just mean reading the Bible, it means exposing yourself to a place, consistently showing up at a church where the Bible is taught.

And not just, hey, we have experiences, things swing from the ceiling, smoke goes up.

That's not helping you abide in God's word.

You abide in God's word when you have this deep sense of exposure to the things of God.

Now, you say, well, there's a lot of other things that you could expose yourself to.

There's a lot of other religions, and they have different books.

Yes.

We had some Mormon elders in our church in our service a couple weeks ago.

And I told them, you're welcome any Sunday.

You're welcome to come anytime.

And because I said, Hey, I met some of your friends.

I was for a run in my neighborhood a couple years ago.

Ran into a couple of them.

And I said, Hey, how long has it been since you had a home cooked meal?

And they were like, Oh man, six months.

I said, Well, come, my wife's a great cook.

And they said, Well, if we come to your house, we have to teach a lesson.

I said, That'd be great.

I said, after you teach a lesson, can we ask questions?

And the guy goes, You can ask whatever you want.

And I'm like, Clearly, you've never met my kids.

Uh and it was great.

It did not go well for them.

The guy was like, Oh, that's a great question.

Uh, but I said, if you, hey, if you're ever around, I pastor this church, if you ever around, stop by for a cold bottle of water or whatever.

Probably two months later, one of them's bike broke.

Daddy got a flat tire.

And they rolled up here and he said, Hey, you said you'd help us?

Absolutely.

Help them fix their tire, gave him a cold bottle of water.

We sat in my office and talked.

And I said, How's your dad?

He goes, Oh, my dad still doesn't believe.

And I said, Well, you know, I don't believe, and you like me.

Your dad cannot believe what Mormonism teaches, and you can still love your dad.

Well, you know, so it's lots of things.

I have a friend named Muhammad.

He's a Muslim.

Uh we got to know each other when I first met him.

I said, Tell me your name.

He goes, Muhammad.

I said, Now, are you named after the prophet?

He went, Yeah, that's a kind of a big thing in my country.

I said, Where are you from?

He said, Pakistan.

I said, Well, what's that like growing up?

He said, Well, you know, I said, Are you devout?

And he goes, Oh, you know about?

I said, I know a little bit.

I'm not very religious.

I said, uh, but I know a little bit about religions.

And I said, Are you a devout man?

He goes, Well, I try to be.

And I said, uh, so how do you need and we got to talking and I said, have you ever considered the claims of the Bible?

And he goes, No, no, no, I just read the Quran.

Now let me say this.

One of the things I respect about my Muslim friends is the way they respect the Quran.

They will not, a devout Muslim will not hold the Quran below his waist because it's a sign of disrespect.

They all hold it up on their side like this because it that they give, they revere it.

And he said, Well, would you ever read the Quran?

He said, If I read the Bible, would you read the Quran?

I said, I wouldn't.

I said, I respect you in what you believe, but I wouldn't read the Quran for two reasons.

Number one, there's no prophecy, and number two, there's no assurance.

And he was like, What'd you say?

And I said, There's no prophecy in the Quran.

Uh, prophecy is like a promise God makes.

Like in the Bible, there's over 300 prophecies about Jesus as the Messiah.

And in the Bible, it it says, like 986 years before Jesus comes, it says things like, A virgin shall conceive and give birth to a child, and you shall call his name Emmanuel, because he will save his people from their sins.

And his name should be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.

Now, God said that 986 years before Jesus was born.

So if that God said that, if that didn't happen, it would disprove the truth of the Bible.

And he said, Oh yes.

I said, There's nothing like that in the Quran.

There's no prophecy.

And the second thing I would read is there's no assurance.

And he said, Well, what do you mean?

I said, you know that in your life, what happens?

He goes, Well, we walk across over this bridge over the lake of fire in hell, and if we've done enough good, Allah lets us get across.

If we've not done enough good, he knocks us in the fire.

I said, So your whole life you just have to try to do more good than bad.

He goes, Yeah.

I said, There's no assurance in that.

He said, So, so as you're talking here, you you you have assurance that you're going to heaven?

Absolutely.

And it doesn't depend on my good or my bad, it depends on my faith in Jesus.

And he said, So you have this assurance.

I said, Yes.

And Muhammad, you were created to have this assurance too.

And he said, Okay.

And I said, I know you're working.

I'm not trying to get you jammed up.

I just asked you your name, and I thought, I bet he's named after the prophet.

I said, I just want you to know I'll be praying for you, not at you like you're a target, but for you.

And one of my prayers is that Isa would come to you in a dream and reveal to you that this is the truth.

And he said, Oh, you know some of my language.

I said, I know about that much.

And he said, Thank you very much.

Now, I've been going into a place where he works for four years, and we're friends, and every time I see him, I say good morning.

I said, Hello, Muhammad.

He's like, Oh, there you are again.

And I told him, I said, My wife says the same thing every day when I come home.

Oh, there you are again.

Delightful man.

Now, what am I doing?

I'm just acknowledging.

Here's what, here's why I say that.

Look at me.

No disrespect to my Muslim friends whatsoever.

I had many of them, okay?

I'm not respect, disrespecting them.

I'm just saying, I'm acknowledging there's other things besides the Bible.

There's the Quran, there's the Book of Mormon.

You got all kinds of holy writings.

But when Jesus says, hey, you will, if you abide in my word, you're truly my disciples.

When I say it's not just, hey, some form of religious literature because they're all the same.

No, they're not.

No, they're not.

I love what Sinclair Ferguson said about abiding.

He said, in a nutshell, abiding in Christ means allowing his word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections.

In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles.

Hear that again.

Abiding in Christ means allowing his word to fill our minds, to direct our wills, and to transform our affections.

That's what it means to abide in his word.

It's not memorizing a few Bible verses so you can sound spiritual and pick up chicks.

It's just abiding.

C.S.

Lewis said this.

He said, reading the Bible is not about memorizing information as much as it is being steeped in a personality.

Being steeped in a personality.

My wife has hot tea every day.

Every day at about 3:30.

My wife has hot tea, puts a little bag in there, boils the water on the thing, pours it in there, and then sets a timer for four minutes.

That's called steeping.

The teabag sets it.

By the way, you don't pour the water, then throw the teabag on top because that shocks it.

And the teabag doesn't release its flavors.

You say, How do you know?

Because I got yelled at one time.

I thought bless my wife by fixing her some hot tea.

She's like, no, you don't do like that.

Heasy.

You may have talked to your first husband that way, but not this guy.

And so I said, what's a big deal?

And she goes, it doesn't.

My wife, I'm she's my first wife.

I'm her first husband.

Relax.

But steeping, steeping is you put the bag in there, you pour the boiling water on it, and it slowly becomes, it goes from being hot water to becoming tea.

To abide in his word is like steeping.

You become who the Bible says you really are.

And that takes time.

Jesus says, if you abide in my word.

So the first step of the process, we say trust the process, it's abiding in his word.

Secondly, he says, you'll know the truth.

That word know is the Greek word gonosko, and it means this.

And it means to learn to know, to come to know, to get a knowledge of.

You know what that means?

That means as you sit here in this room right now, you don't have to know everything.

Don't ever come to church and think, well, they said some words I didn't understand.

I must be stupid.

No, you're not.

No, you're not.

Christianity is not for smart people, it's for willing people.

So if you're willing just to abide, just to abide in his word and find you a church that teaches you the Bible in a way that you understand, and you just show up and you abide in that environment.

Pretty soon what happens, the Bible says, Jesus says, is that you get you come to know.

You learn to know.

Knowledge is a process, it's not a point, it's a process.

You learn to know.

You get this knowledge of, and you have to abide for a while in order to know.

There's some things that the Bible says help us to know, uh, to understand.

Let me list four or five of them for you.

The first one is affliction.

Affliction.

Yes, isn't that sexy?

Aren't you glad I said that?

You're probably thinking right now, I'm glad I shaved my legs for this.

Uh what do you mean, affliction?

I mean being afflicted, being stricken with some medical situation.

Uh, there's a guy in the Bible named David.

He said this.

He said, It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.

The law of your mouth is better than thousands of gold and silver pieces.

To be afflicted, uh, it slows us down and it robs us of these two illusions.

And they're this being central and being sovereign.

Being central and being sovereign.

So when I say, What do you mean?

You you why is that a good thing?

Why does that help us uh learn to know because we can't operate at full capacity like we always do?

Like my wife said this to me one time when I was sick, it was in bed for three days, which is miserable for me.

I am not a good patient because I got work, I got stuff to do.

My wife just kind of looked at me with this little smirky grin and she goes, I can't wait to see how you age.

And I'm like, What?

What kind of crazy words coming out of your mouth?

You work hard and you're a hard-working man, and I love that about you, but I'm concerned as you get older how you're gonna handle not being able to do all the stuff you can do right now.

Yeah, hush, hush, don't know that.

He's like eight o'clock in the morning.

I've been sweating out of fever all night, and I was like, oh gus, don't worry about old gus.

I said, Don't you worry if the mule's gonna pull, just load the wagon, lady.

She goes, Yeah.

I'll be curious when the mule gets a little bit older and that back hurts more than it does right now, and that arthritic hip starts breaking down.

What you're gonna do?

Hush, woman.

Hush, get out of here.

Now, why am I saying?

I'm saying the Bible says, David says, Hey, when I was afflicted, it was good for me.

Why?

Because it slowed me down.

Here's what affliction does it causes us to realize that our identity cannot always be found in what we can accomplish.

And we know some stuff, we learn some stuff.

Ladies, next time your husband's sick, ask him this: hey, what are you learning about yourself in this?

Because if my wife's gonna say crazy things to me, you may as well say it to your hunt, your man.

Affliction.

Here's another thing that helps us to know suffering.

Suffering.

I'm not being a masochist or a martyr.

I'm just saying in this world we're gonna experience some hardship.

The Bible calls it suffering.

Don't spit the bit and quit.

Look at me.

Christianity is not escapism, it's not a way out of this world.

It's a way to engage with the fallenness of this world and still be who the Bible says you are.

You don't give up, you don't get mad, you don't, you just realize, hey, we live in a fallen world, stuff's going to happen.

The Bible says this of Jesus in Hebrews chapter 5, though he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.

Hebrews 5 · chapter mention

Every once in a while you should look at your kids.

You you want to raise your kids, you want to really parent your kids.

Say to your kids about every three to six to nine months or a year, hey, what's the hardest thing you've experienced lately?

And what do you feel like God's teaching you through it?

You should ask yourself, that is a couple.

Because if not, you're gonna feel like you're being punished.

And when we feel like we're being punished, we reward ourselves with what brings us comfort instead of what makes us consequential.

Instead of saying, you know what?

The Bible tells us bad things are gonna happen to good people.

We don't look for that, we don't desire that, but when something happens that's not great, we don't go crazy and shake our fist at God and go, I don't believe in you anymore.

He's not the tooth fairy.

He's a little more durable than that.

And we should be as well.

Here's another thing that helps us to know modeling.

Modeling.

What do you mean?

We see other people living out behaviors for which we never had a real frame of reference.

And so once we see that, we no longer have an excuse.

And we're grateful.

It's what Paul says is uh in, I think it's 1 Corinthians 11 1.

He said to these people, he said, Follow me as I follow Christ.

Follow me as I follow Christ.

I am a better husband today because when I was 16, I started, I went to work for a man named James Sewell.

I was not a Christian when I was 16, okay?

That's when I was going to KISS Concerts when I was 16.

Uh and so, but I worked for a man, it was a godly businessman, very successful, and he put his money where his mouth is.

Here's what I mean when I say I'm a better husband.

Uh I walked in the office one day and he had a little trial-sized bottle of shampoo he'd taken love, and he was smelling of it.

And I was like, What are you doing, you freak?

And he was like, Oh, his wife's name was Carolyn.

He said, Carolyn's been gone to Dallas for a couple days, taking our daughter on a shopping trip.

I just missed the smell of her hair, and this is her shampoo, and I just want to be reminded of what her hair smelled like.

Now, here's my confession.

I had never been around a man that thought that way about a woman.

And I wanted to mock that, but it was so holy, I was just like, okay.

He was modeling for me.

Hey, it's possible to feel this way about a woman.

It's impossible to relate to a woman with more than sex in mind.

And I'm like, shut up, really?

I'm a better husband because that man modeled that for me.

Modeling.

You gotta be around some people.

Who are you around?

When you watch the way they live, you're kind of like, yeah, I might want to.

Here's another one dialogue.

Dialogue.

Dialogue's an essential part of spiritual formation, and it's also a lost art in America.

What do I mean?

I mean you should get together with other other Christians and talk about spiritual things in an intentional way.

Not have religious arguments.

Nobody enjoys that.

But be around people who stir your intellect, your curiosity, and your desire.

By the way, they talk about things.

Ask yourself this question: who do you spend time with on a consistent basis that nourishes you spiritually?

Who are you around?

And it's kind of like, man, I feel helped by this person.

I just, ugh, yes, this is good.

Because the Bible, by the way, calls us to be people of dialogue.

What do you mean?

Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 6 says this, and these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Deuteronomy 6:6

You shall teach them diligently to your children.

You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.

Hear that again.

And you shall talk of them.

That's the command.

Just talk about these things.

One command for context.

You shall talk about these things when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise.

This is what should be on your heart.

All these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.

Hey, mom and dad, you want to check yourself and your parenting?

Ask your kids this question.

Hey, when you listen to mom and dad talk, what do you think's most on our heart?

And by the way, you can't correct them for their answer.

I was talking to a friend of mine.

He said, Hey, how do you parent?

I mean, your kids seem to be, you know, I mean, there's not preacher's kids don't have a good reputation.

I said, Thanks, thanks, I appreciate that.

He said, But your kids are pretty normal.

And I said, Yeah, absolutely.

I went to the mall yesterday and came home with some jeans that had rips all down the front of them.

And I said, Did you get those on discount on sale because they're torn up?

And I realized, and don't bring this up to her, uh, uh, but I realized I kind of shamed her in that moment.

I didn't mean to, I was just joking because she kind of gathered herself up, went back to her room.

I went back there and I said, Hey, babe, look, look at dad.

Hey.

She's like, Yeah, listen to music.

Yeah.

I said, Hey, I don't I don't care about your jeans with with I know that's kind of the style.

I'll try to get your mom to wear those, but she ain't hip, but And I said, but look at me.

Don't ever think I gotta dress like a preacher's kid.

You're a modest young woman, okay?

You can dress stylistically, God doesn't care.

Just don't put all you don't show him everything.

And she goes, Dad, I would never do that.

I know you would never do that.

I just don't want you to think that I'm looking at you kind of like you're dressing like a Jezebel.

I I don't think that.

This is not a little house on the prairie.

And she's like, oh, thanks, Dad.

And I just walked away.

Because I don't want my kids to live under this burden of I gotta be a certain thing.

No, you just gotta be Madison and Sophie to the glory of God.

Forget that your parents are in ministry.

That doesn't add pressure to you.

I threw y'all under the bus.

I said to my kid last night, I said, hey, I don't care what those people think about how you dress.

Anybody says anything to you, you let me know.

I'll cut their tires while they're in church.

So if you've got a flight today, that means you popped off and I had to get you.

Because I'm a man of the cloth and everything, but I'm gonna handle my business up in here, okay?

Yeah, lickety split.

Uh here's another one.

Now, by the way, I told the guys this morning when we met for prayer.

Uh I didn't become a Christian until I was 18, and when I did, I went to a church.

It was a it was a good church.

The guy meant well.

He's a preacher.

Every Sunday he talked about drinking in the lottery, and about the that's all he pretty much preached about.

And we really didn't get into the Bible that much.

And but there was an old man that hung up by the water fountain in the lobby.

And he always stood there with a little white styrofoam cup of coffee blowing on it, and it would make his glasses kind of frost up.

And that cat said crazy stuff.

Like one Sunday there was a little kid who kicked the wall and it scuffed the wall.

And that old man walked over and took his thumb, got that kid by the neck, and put his thumb in this little hole right there and said, Hey boy, don't be an idiot.

You're in the Lord's house.

And then banged his head against the wall and said, Now, go find your parents and stop being an idiot.

And we were like, We're not worthy.

That was awesome.

Hey, this was 1982, okay?

I know that a lot of stuff, according to the news media this past week, a lot of bad stuff happened in 1982.

But this happened, and it was great.

After church, the parents walked that kid up with their hand gently on the back of his neck and said, Now you apologize to this man and tell him you know better.

Yeah.

They didn't sue the old man.

So me and my friends were just aware.

We would instead we could walk through the buildings and get to the church, and we would go around the outside to come in the front entrance just to walk by the old man.

Because the old man said crazy stuff.

Like one Sunday we were just loitering out there and he just stopped and he said, Hey, it ain't that good, but you know, you sometimes you just got to keep showing up.

Hey, it ain't that good.

He's earnest and he means well, but it's not very, very enjoyable.

But get in there anyway.

I went to the bathroom three times one Sunday and he stopped me and said, Hey, where are you hiding from, boy?

Excuse me?

Ain't no boy in the world gotta pee as much as you do.

You keep coming out here, what are you doing?

You stealing or hiding?

Neither one are good.

I remember thinking, this old man has power.

No, hey, remember that word modeling?

One Sunday we got the courage to ask him, hey, how'd you get this way?

We didn't think like that.

We just kind of said, hey, hey, what's what's one thing made real difference in your life?

Because we were talking about him in Sunday school.

Because our Sunday school teacher said, What do you like about coming to church?

And I'd been a Christian about two weeks.

I was like, nothing.

This is lame.

That fat guy up there screams at us every Sunday.

I know I'm screwed up.

I'm trying to get better.

But we all said, we like the old man in the lobby.

And he said, Why don't you ask him how he got that way?

And so we just come out that day.

I just said, Hey, we were talking about you.

We enjoy you.

We think you say things that are that are just true.

Uh, how'd you get this way?

And he said, Uh, well, boys, I've been in church a long time.

I've been loving the same woman a long time.

You need a good church, you need a good woman.

We were like, okay.

And he said, but when I first became a Christian, I wasn't a very joyful person.

I didn't enjoy all this as much as I do now.

Well, what happened?

He said, I read in the Bible it says, wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be.

Here's the fifth thing that helps you kind of grow in your knowledge.

It's giving.

It's what the Bible calls giving or tithing or whatever word you use for that.

And the man said this, he said, uh, the Bible, I read in the Bible it said, wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be.

I want my heart to be more for God and for for for the things of my faith.

So I started putting some of my treasure in my church.

I started giving like the Bible talks about.

And we were like, huh?

And he goes, hey, quote, you little idiots ain't smart enough to understand this today, but get yourselves in there, it'll settle in on you one day like the morning dew.

Now that's enough for now.

Go.

We were 18.

He called us little idiots.

And we thanked him for it.

We all would lie to him, shake his hand.

Thank you for going in now.

You know what?

The old man's right.

See, see, knowing when Jesus says, hey, if you abide in my word, you're truly my disciples, and you will know the truth.

A disciple, someone that really knows Jesus, they abide in his word.

And he says, and they know the truth.

Now that doesn't mean that today you got to know everything.

It doesn't mean today you grow in your knowledge of things and you continue to put yourself in an environment where growth can happen.

That's what the Bible calls for.

The third part is just this thing right here it's just freedom.

Jesus says this.

He says, Hey, if you abide in my word, you're truly my disciples, you'll know the truth, and what happens?

The truth will set you free.

Remember, I said a minute ago, at the very beginning, I said, What if the goal of all this is just Christianity?

How'd it shape the way you thought about it and talked about it?

If the goal of this whole thing was just freedom.

Look at me.

I'm going to summarize the whole Bible.

Back in the very beginning, in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, God said to them, Hey, you're free to eat of any tree in the garden.

Remember that?

The first thing God says to humanity is not, don't.

Don't do this.

That's not God.

God says, You're free.

But of this one tree, don't eat, because if you eat of that, you'll surely die.

We're called to what the Bible calls responsible freedom.

They didn't trust God.

They disobeyed God.

And so sin entered into the world.

And so humanity is no longer free.

We're under bondage to sin.

We cannot, we can say, I don't want to do it anymore.

We I'm going to try.

I'm not going to do this anymore.

Please forgive me.

But your will is in bondage to sin.

You say, what do you mean?

Let me just give you a little brief history lesson about the way humanity has thought about freedom.

Okay?

Way back, because this is the goal of it.

You need to understand it.

Way back in the Old Testament.

Start there.

They talked about freedom.

It was deliverance from slavery.

That's all it was.

We're slaves, God.

We don't be slaves anymore.

And so that's the way they thought about it.

A lot.

Nowadays, there's a lot of people, especially people that are, how do I say this, more socialists, more left-leaning or whatever.

They use a lot of language and a lot of motifs from the slavery of the Old Testament about being delivered and reaching the promised land, this, that, and the other.

The classical expression of freedom, when I say classical, I mean the Greeks, like the Stoics.

For the Stoics, it was inner freedom.

They believed that in this internal detachment from all of the world, it was this escapism.

We don't want to be around this.

It's very internal.

So nowadays, if someone feels they act kind of aloof or standoffish, they say, oh, he's very Stoic.

That's not a compliment.

The Stoics were these people that they were unphazed by life.

And for them, freedom was, I'm not going to be affected by this.

Along came two guys by the names of Aristotle and Plato, and they believed it wasn't internal, it was external.

It was this political freedom, not like we saw on TV last week, but but but people have the right to speak, to be heard, to vote, and you experience this freedom in the context of law.

Now, the third expression of freedom, understanding freedom is what I call cultural freedom.

It's the way our culture today understands it.

They think of freedom.

Now, by the way, don't try to write all this down.

Pull your phone out.

I think I'll put all the notes up here.

You just take a picture of that.

Think about it later.

Here's the way our culture thinks of freedom.

They think of it in terms of a lack of norms, laws, or restrictions, so people are free to do whatever they want, which leads to destruction both culturally as well as personally.

What do you mean?

By the way, the Bible predicted that.

The Bible predicted that.

Well, I don't know what you mean.

Jesus said, Broad is the path that leads to destruction, and many there be that find it.

And narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there be that go between.

That doesn't mean that we be narrow-minded about things.

We should be able to think robustly about everything.

I have a friend that is uh very um undisciplined in the area of his appetites.

Did I say that PC enough?

See, I could be PC.

Some of y'all didn't believe I could.

Uh he's very undisciplined in the area of his appetites.

And about three years ago, he contracted a disease.

And he calls me and he says, You've always told me that there was a God and God was good.

How could a good God let this happen to me?

That's humanity.

We want to, the Bible says, hey, where we throw off restraint, where the people throw off restraint, they perish.

Now I understand, my friend, the diagnosis isn't good.

Uh and I said, I can understand what you're saying.

I do not agree with your logic, but let me just ask this question.

Are you saying that God is responsible for your sexual behavior over the past 15 years?

Well, no, that's not what I'm saying at all.

So you engaged in this behavior knowingly and celebrated it and mocked me because I'm a one-woman man, and now that the consequences are coming home to roost, you want to get mad at God?

Well, I'm not saying it makes sense.

Now look at me.

I'm not, we're about done.

That's good news today, right?

You can beat the Methodists to the good restaurants today.

Here's what I'm saying.

Look at me.

I'm not making light of my friend.

I'm just saying you can't throw off restraining and kind of say, hey, freedom is no norms, no laws, no restrictions.

People free to do whatever they want to do.

You think you want to live in that world, but you don't.

Here's the way the Bible are.

Oh, by the way, I'll give you a little history.

There's a guy named Jean-Paul Sartre.

He's an atheist existentialist uh philosopher.

By the way, when you say a name like that, y'all start thinking 1700s.

No, he died in 1980.

He was born in 1905, died in 1980.

I bring up his name because he's very influential to Hollywood people.

A lot of people, he was of God, he and this woman who was also a philosopher, they had a torrid love affair, and they just said, we don't care about societal norms or anything.

And people kind of worshiped him and said, Oh, that's awesome.

He affected a lot of people because they in Hollywood, because they started reading his writings, and people were like, Man, this is awesome.

He doesn't care.

We shouldn't care.

Here's what I loved about Sart, okay?

This will help you understand a lot of Hollywood mentality nowadays.

He said this: He said, if God exists, humanity could never be free.

God would be because if God existed, then he's like this cosmic voyeur.

He's always looking through the keyhole, watching every little thing in our lives.

So in order to be free, we have to do away with God.

Hear that again.

In order for humanity to be free, we have to do away with God, which is why you see so much hostility to Christianity in our culture, especially in Hollywood, watching an award show.

They mock Christianity every chance they get.

Because what they don't tell you is if for them to be free, God has to not exist.

Because if there is a God and they're going to give an account for all of their life, all of their morality and immorality, that's a very depressing prospect of a future.

And so what do they do?

They just kill God and they mock Christianity.

And I'm not saying, well, let's just sit by and go, oh, no.

You should intellectually engage those people.

You should say to them, hey, I uh you you sound like Jean-Paul Sartre or or Frederick Nietzsche, who believed in nihilism, nothingness.

Uh and and and I think that that's sexy at a party, it makes you look like you don't care when you're 19.

Like, look, I'm do whatever I want.

Free love, free everything.

But ultimately, the chickens come home to roost.

Are you prepared to live with the consequence of this worldview?

What do you mean?

And then we just have a conversation about it.

But that's their idea of freedom.

I'll tell you somebody that that Sartre really influences a guy named Woody Allen.

He wrote a movie, a bunch of movies, not many of them are great, but he had a movie called Crimes and Misdemeanors.

And the whole movie is an ode to Jean-Paul Sartre and this idea that God's this eye in the sky always watching, and you got to do away with that.

Why?

So you can do whatever you want.

Here's why.

Because the human psyche and conscious knows there is a God.

And so you have to shield yourself from that belief with something.

And a lot of people, it's people like this.

Here's the New Testament.

Last one uh the New Testament uh view of freedom is this.

It's a predominant note all through the New Testament.

It's not political freedom, it's freedom in Christ from the bondage to sin.

Human beings by nature love darkness and hate the light.

And because of this, we live in a state of unreality.

It's not real, it's not sustainable.

So here in John 8, is in all through the Bible, God is simply saying this: this is what you were created for freedom.

And the byproduct of this biblical freedom is flourishing.

It's flourishing.

You flourish personally, your city flourishes.

That's the goal of all of this.

And so when Jesus says to these people in John chapter 8, very religious people that didn't have a relationship with God, he says, here's the process.

John 8 · chapter mention

Trust the process, guys.

He says, hey, you say you believe, but hey, if you abide in my word, you're truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

I love what Alec Motire said.

He said this.

He said, When we come into bondage to the word of God, we come into freedom.

Because the word liberates us from the lustful pool of our own nature and brings us on via the pathway of hard obedience into the realms of living for God.

It is the law of liberty.

D.A.

Carson said this.

D.A.

Carson is a professor at Trinity Seminary.

He said, true freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought.

And it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us.

Hear that last part again and think about it for a minute.

It is true freedom.

It is genuine liberty or true freedom because doing what we ought now pleases us.

Here's an indication that you have you really have a relationship with God.

Doing what you ought pleases you.

You don't feel punished when you do what you ought to do.

You don't feel like, oh man, that stinks.

I don't want to do that.

But I guess I should.

It's in the Bible.

Look at me.

That's not biblical Christianity.

It never has been, never will be.

You cannot make somebody love something.

But if you abide in his word, you'll know the truth.

And the truth sets you free.

Okay?

One of the things we like to do here, we like to teach the Bible, then we like to give you some soul space to think about it.

And sometimes we'll put questions up on the screen.

And so some questions will come up right now.

Here's all we ask you to do.

Clyde's going to come, he'll just play for about a minute or so.

And just think about, hey, think about what we heard today against the backdrop of these questions.

Let me let me start a prayer for us while we think.

Father, thanks for the Bible.

It's the truth.

It sets us free.

Sometimes it frustrates us because uh it speaks to our appetites.

It speaks to what we want to do versus what we should do.

But here's how we know we're really free.

Because doing what we should do pleases us.

It's not like an arm wrestling match.

No.

And so, Lord, we want to think about in this process that you said adorns the lives of people who truly believe.

We abide in your word.

We know the truth.

And we become the freest cats that anybody knows.

Brood over us, Lord, as we think about this for just a minute.

Father, there's a place in the Bible where Jesus, you got on to these religious people because you said they they tie up these big burdens and put them on people's backs and they don't do anything to help them.

They just weigh people down with religious guilt, and that ticked you off.

And so you had to get after them.

And we're glad you did because it reminds us today that coming to church is not like getting a 90-pound backpack of religious guilt and carrying it through the week.

This is where we come to get the backpack taken off and to be lighter and freer, to be freed up to be who the Bible says we really are.

So I pray freedom over everybody here.

I pray for people that have never begun a relationship with Christ, that they'd begin to ponder that.

Lord, over all of this, we just uh we want to hear the first movement of the symphony that you're playing today that says, Hey, abide in my word, and you'll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

We hear you today, God, Lord.

We hear you loud and clear.

And for that privilege, we say thank you in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen.

Amen.

There's a lot of things going on in our church.

Let's take a moment to be reminded of a few opportunities for spiritual formation that exist for all of us.

Here's a look at what's happening at Grand Parkway Baptist Church.

Our men's retreat is coming up on October 19th and 20th.

The cost is$50, and registration is open online and in our lobby.

This Friday, October 5th, our ladies are meeting at the Black Walnut Cafe at First Colony for brunch and fellowship.

Come anytime between 10 to 11:30 a.m.

to enjoy some food and to enjoy each other.

Monday, October 22nd, is preschool day in the country at the Vemets Farm.

This is a highlight every year where parents of preschoolers can make some fall family members.

You can grab a fishing pole, make a craft, or jump on a hayride while Mr.

Owen pulls you around on his track.

The cost is$5 per family, and registration is open at grandparkway.org.

As always, for more information, check out our website at grandparkway.org.

Thanks for your presence today.

If you're a guest, hopefully you take an opportunity to pull one of those guest cards on the seat back on your row.

If you filled that out, if you would just drop it on these wooden boxes by the doors on the way out.

That's all we ask of you today.

Uh if you're part of this church, then that's where also you would practice obedience and generosity.

Uh on your way out when you're dismissed here in a few minutes.

Meet some people you don't know.

I met two people today I've never seen before.

One of them was named Emily, and one of them was named Nathan.

Uh and so meet some people uh that you don't know.

Just the next time you see them, you can call them by name, okay?

If you have any questions about anything you heard today, myself and some of our pastors will be available down front.

We'd love to answer your questions.

If you're going through something, you say, hey man, I need somebody to pray with me.

We'd love to pray with you as well, okay?

Stand to your feet.

We'd like to finish our services with a spoken blessing.

So hold your hands out if you would.

Come on, even the cool guys.

Hold your hands out.

For God so loved the world that he did not send an algebra quiz.

He said profound things in simple ways like, hey, just abide my word.

You'll know the truth.

The truth will set you free.

Depart now and be the freest person anybody knows.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Bless you.