Sermon
What If You’re Not as Free as You Think? | Easter at Islands
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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Welcome to the Islands Christian Church podcast.
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Subscribe to hear a new episode every week.
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Thanks for joining us. He is risen.
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Let's do it again. I'm going to say he is risen and
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you say he is risen indeed. You ready?
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He is risen one more time. He is risen.
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Amen. There are a lot of things in
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life that we assume are true until something exposes that
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they are not indeed true. One of the things I like to say
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is it's not what you don't know that gets you in trouble, but
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what you know that just isn't so.
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Sometimes we think we know something and we're wrong about
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it. We found out later.
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For example, think about your finances.
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You can think your finances are fine and everything is going
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well until something breaks. Something falls apart and you
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realize you weren't quite as good financially as you first
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thought. You can think all of your
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relationships are strong until something goes wrong, and then
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you realize that's not as strong as I thought.
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You can think your life is on track, it's going right where
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you want it. Everything is going smoothly
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until something falls apart. And in those moments what you
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realize is you can feel one way kind of inside and be completely
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wrong about reality. You can feel one way inside and
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be completely wrong about reality.
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And that's not just true about life like finances and
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relationships. Jesus says that's true about
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something even deeper, Freedom, the idea of freedom.
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Now, most of us sitting here today and watching online, you
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would say, hey, we're free, man. We, you know, we make our own
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decisions. We live where we want.
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We pretty much do whatever we want.
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But what if you are not as free as you think you are?
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What if we were wrong? And this is the tension that
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Jesus steps into in John chapter 8.
John 8 chapter mention
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He's talking to a group of people in John chapter 8.
John 8 chapter mention
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If you have your Bibles, you can go there.
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Around verse 31 is where we're going to be.
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He's talking to a group of people in John chapter 8.
John 8 chapter mention
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And Jesus is having this conversation.
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And these people, they are good people.
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They believe in him. They're good moral people.
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Actually, the Bible says in John that they were Jewish believers.
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In other words, they were, they were people who were Jewish, but
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they believed in Jesus. They're good people, they're
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moral people, they're religious people.
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And he tells them something they did not expect to hear.
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He tells them you need to be set free.
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And they respond the same way all of us probably would in the
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moment. What do you mean I need to be
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set free? What are you talking about?
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I am free. And this is where the
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conversation gets really interesting because what Jesus
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says next challenges how we define freedom.
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And it ultimately points us to why Easter matters at all.
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What this is all about. And this morning what I want you
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to hear is this. If you're a note taker, here's
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the big idea. True freedom can only be
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received, not achieved. True freedom can only be
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received, not achieved. And today we'll unpack that
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truth in the text of John chapter 8 with these three
John 8 chapter mention
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ideas. Number one, we think we're free.
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We all think we're free. Number 2, Jesus says we're not.
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Number one, we think we're free and #2 Jesus says we're not.
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And #3 Jesus sets us free. If you have your Bibles, John
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chapter 8, verses 31 through 33. So we're going to read 1st and
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let's take a look at this tension between Jesus and really
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good people. These are not bad people.
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These are good people we're reading about here.
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Starting with verse 31. To the Jews who had believed in
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him, well, that's the category. That's the group of people.
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To the Jews who had believed in in him, Jesus said, if you hold
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to my teaching, you are really my disciples, then you will know
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the truth comma and the truth will set you.
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What's that say? Everybody say free, free and the
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truth will set you free. Well, they answered him, we are
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Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone.
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How can you say that we shall be set free?
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So number one, we think we're free.
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We think we're free. Jesus offers these guys freedom,
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but they don't think they need it.
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They scoff at his offer. They're looking around and
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they're saying, hey, we feel free, bro, dude, we, we don't
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need your freedom. They're considering how they
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feel. They're considering what what,
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how they see their reality. And you all do the same thing.
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We all do the same thing. We, we look internally determine
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how we feel and we based on what we feel, we we decide that
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that's what reality is outside of us.
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So we use our feelings to determine what is reality.
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That's exactly what they're doing.
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They're saying, hey, check this out, Jesus, we're good moral
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people. We make good decisions.
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We're Jews, we follow the law. We're descendants of Abraham.
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That means we are the right heritage.
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We are the right heritage. Jesus, like we are free.
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And this is the problem with freedom.
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Write this down. Freedom isn't always obvious.
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Freedom isn't always obvious. It just isn't.
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Think about this, when you were 16 or 17 years old at home and
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you could drive, do you remember getting your license?
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Who got their license right when they turned 16?
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Anybody. Yeah, me too.
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I turned 16. I got my license like the next
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day, man, It was an amazing moment, right?
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Just like do you guys remember that feeling of all of a sudden
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that I grew up, I was in high school in the 90s and so there
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was before cell phones, I didn't even have a beeper or anything
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like that. So like when I left home in my
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car, my parents didn't know where I was or when I was coming
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back or if I was coming back, right?
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You guys remember that Those are glorious days, right?
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I would never want to been a parent during those days, but
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they didn't know any different. Right now.
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My my kids are anywhere. I know where they are at all
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moments life 360 right? I just everywhere they go, I
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know. And if their life 360 isn't
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updating, I'm texting them, Hey, Jack, your life 360.
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Why is it not updating? Where are you?
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But do you remember that feeling, man?
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You, you, you could drive, you could go places.
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You could, you just, you would leave the house in the
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summertime and you might go to a friend's house and you might go
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somewhere else. You might go out, you know, go
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out to the beach. You know, you just, you didn't
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know where your day was going to take you.
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You know why? Because you were free.
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And one of the best things about that time when you were 1617
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years old, driving is most, most of us, I'm not going to say all
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of us, but most of us, our parents covered most of the
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bills, right? They paid the insurance.
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They put, you know, my dad gave me a little gas money.
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And there, now this was back in the day when you could roll
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quarters for gas, guys, remember that.
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And I would go and like, you know, I won't say steal, but go
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in the laundry room and find every quarter I could find and
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try to gather up $3 of gas because $3 of gas will get you
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through, you know, a couple days, you know, and I want you
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were so free back then. Do you know what I wanted more
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than anything else when I was 16 or 17, in the midst of all that
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freedom, do you know what I wanted more than anything else?
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I wanted to be free. Do you remember that?
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I want to get out of here. I'm ready to move on.
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Did anybody else have that feeling?
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You were 1617 and you were you were living like the most free
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you would ever live in your entire life.
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And all you can think about was I want to be free.
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I want to get out and be free. And then you, that happens,
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right? It wasn't long before you're
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out. At least this was true for me.
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I wanted to be free. I wanted to be out of my parents
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house. I wanted to be gone.
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I wanted to live my life and what is It wasn't long before I
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was gone, living my life and paying my bills.
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I wanted what to go back home. I wanted to go back home because
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like, it wasn't fun. It was freedom wasn't free.
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I wanted to be the I wanted to have the freedom of being a
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teenager again in a good home. And this is the thing.
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Freedom isn't always obvious. It just isn't.
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Think about partiers, people who drink heavily on the weekend.
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What do they tell you, man? I'm free.
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We're free, man. We just free living on the
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weekend, but later they acknowledge that they're
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Alcoholics, they're stuck. They thought they were free,
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they thought they were living free and they were actually in
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bondage. Freedom isn't always obvious.
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The same thing for like a driven, career minded person who
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sacrifices the time, the time with their children so they
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could create financial freedom. I'm trying to give them a good
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life and a good future, and the whole time they think they're
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free and they're providing financial freedom.
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And later they have to admit they're actually workaholics,
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and now they're in bondage to loneliness because they don't
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have a relationship with any of their family.
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Freedom isn't always obvious. Think about it this way.
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Here's here's an analogy I like about this.
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What if you jump out of an airplane with a parachute?
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That's defective. OK, And you don't know it's
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defective. In other words, when the guy
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handed you the parachute on the ground and you strapped it on
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and you clicked it on, you were thinking, what?
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This has been checked and rechecked and it's perfect.
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But what you don't know is that the parachute is actually
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actually defective. And you're in the plane the
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whole time you're in the plane going up and you're getting
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ready to skydive and you have this defective parachute on.
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What are you feeling? You don't know it's defective.
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So what are you feeling? You're feeling freedom when you
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jump from the plane. The moment of ecstasy when
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you're flying through the air, what are you feeling?
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You're feeling free. You are flying through the air,
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but in just a few short moments you're going to realize you are
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always in bondage to a defective parachute and you just didn't
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know it. And this is the thing about
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freedom. It isn't always obvious.
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We may feel free, but what's ahead oftentimes is destruction,
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regret, and death, and we just don't know it.
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Freedom isn't always obvious. You know, we're not the best
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judges of our freedom. And This is why Christians
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believe that Jesus is the one that defines our freedom.
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And that's what he's attempting to do with these guys.
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He defines their freedom and they don't like it because
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they're already convinced they're free and they don't need
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the freedom Jesus offers. And this is how many people are
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when it comes to Jesus still to this day.
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Jesus defines what freedom is for them.
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They don't like it, and they don't think they need the
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freedom Jesus offers. We should relate well with these
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men. So number one, we think we're
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free, but #2 Jesus says we're not.
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So number one, we think we're free, but #2 Jesus says we're
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not. Listen, let's keep reading verse
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34 and 35. Jesus replies to them.
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So they say, hey, we don't need to be set free.
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We don't need their. We don't need your freedom.
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Jesus. We're Jews.
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We're descendants of Abraham. We got the right heritage, we
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got the right lifestyle. What are you talking about?
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Listen to what Jesus said. Jesus replied, very truly.
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I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
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Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son
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belongs to it forever. And these guys are saying, hey,
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we're fine, we don't need your freedom.
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But Jesus says, no, you're wrong, you do need my freedom.
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He says here is your actual reality.
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Your actual reality is that you're not free, you're actually
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in bondage. You've jumped out of an airplane
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with a defective parachute and you don't know it.
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You're actually in bondage. And why does he say they're in
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bondage? Verse 34, Jesus replied, very
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truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
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Why are you in bondage? Because he says to them, you
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commit sin. And what Jesus is actually
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saying is everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
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Everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
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Now, let's hit the pause button here for a second because I
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know, especially if you don't go to church very often, it's kind
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of those things where you're like, this is one of the reasons
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I don't go to church is the preachers always talking about
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sin, right? And the word wigs us out and
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makes us feel funny. And some of that's for good
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reason. Like, you maybe have some
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stories to tell. And I would be like, yeah, I can
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understand why that word would wig you out, but the word's a
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biblical word. It's a word that Jesus uses.
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So we, we, we can't just throw the word out.
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It's a word that Jesus talks about.
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And you know, the word sin, it just simply means missing the
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mark. That's what the Greek word
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means. How about toya?
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It just means missing the mark. It carries the idea of like
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being an Archer, you know, where you pull the bow and you pull
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the arrow and there's a target and you aim and you aim and you
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aim and then you release and you miss widely.
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You know, you're, you barely hit the barn, the targets this big
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and you ain't where you, you hit way over here, even though you
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were aiming for the target. Sin just means missing the mark.
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To bring that into simple kind of terms for us, sin means not
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being morally perfect. That's all it means.
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It's not a big scary word. It just it means we are not
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perfect. We are imperfect.
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Now, most of us sitting here right now would probably argue
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that we're good people, right? I've never met a person who said
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I'm not a good person. I tend to say that regularly
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just to get shock effect. I'll say I'm not and I will say
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it publicly here from the from the platform.
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I'm not a good person. If there's anything good in me,
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it's because Christ is my king. If there's anything superlative
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about me, it's because I am surrendered to Christ.
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That's it, That's all. I'm not a good person.
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But most of us when asked man on the street, hey, do you think
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you're a good person? What do you think most people
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would respond with? Yes.
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Everybody responds with yes, I'm a good person.
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No one would say they're not a good person.
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But there's not a person in this room who would say they're
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perfect, right? Is there anybody that would say
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they're perfect? Now?
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Almost, almost all of us would be like, I'm a good person.
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Because when we say we're a good person, what are we comparing
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ourselves to? Other people we feel better than
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you never compare yourself to someone that you feel like it's
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better than you, right? It's like, I, I mean, I'm a good
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person. I don't do anything bad.
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Well, let's set you. Let's set you beside Mother
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Teresa. How you feeling now?
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You feeling like a good person? I don't know.
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I don't know if you feel like a good person now.
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I I mean, I know some people personally that when I'm near,
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I'm kind of like, I'm not even sure if I'm saved.
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Do you know what I'm talking about?
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So this feeling of I'm a good person is a kind of all about
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like who you compare yourself to, who you're standing about.
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But nobody would say, nobody sitting here would say I'm a
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perfect person. Nobody would say, hey, I've
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morally got it all together. We all willingly admit we're not
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perfect. And so Jesus is simply saying
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that sin is just not as being morally imperfect in which we
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all admit. And so we can all say
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collectively, yeah, you know, I've, I'm a Sinner.
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Like I, I commit sin to use Jesus's words, because I'm not
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morally perfect. Here's the problem.
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Because we're all quick to say I'm a pretty good person.
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I mean, I'm not perfect. We're all quick to say that.
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But here's the problem. We think our imperfection is
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just, our moral imperfection is just not a big deal.
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We kind of look around and go, well, everybody's imperfect.
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So it's just, it's not a big deal.
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It doesn't really matter. Jesus says it is a big deal.
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He says the opposite. Jesus actually argues here, to
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be morally imperfect is a big deal.
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Jesus says when we miss the mark of moral perfection, also known
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as sin, it isn't just like, oh, I'm a bad, I'm not always good,
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I'm a good person, but I do some bad things.
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That's no big deal. Jesus says no, no, no.
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Here's the problem. When you are morally imperfect
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and when I'm morally imperfect, we are in bondage.
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That's what he links it to. We're in bondage.
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We may not recognize it, but all of us when we commit sin are in
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bondage. Because remember, freedom isn't
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always obvious. It isn't always obvious.
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What Jesus is trying to make clear to these guys and to us
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today is that bondage to sin is a big deal because our
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committing of sin puts us in bondage and that impacts our
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relationship with our heavenly Father.
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That impacts our relationship with our heavenly Father.
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Let's look at verse 35 again. Jesus said these words in verse
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35. Now a slave has no permanent
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place in the family. Do you see that?
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And what I just said to you was that Jesus is trying to say that
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when we commit sin, we're in bondage and that bondage is
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impacting our position with our heavenly Father.
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And here He is saying it in verse 35.
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Now a slave has no permanent. The keyword in that verse is
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permanent, permanent place in the family.
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Jesus is saying that if you and I and I do and you do, and we
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all do, if we commit sin, we are in an unstable position with our
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heavenly Father. Jesus is saying that our moral
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imperfection is actually a big problem.
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And anyone who commits sin is a slave.
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And a slave is not a resident in the house.
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A slave is a slave is there temporarily a slave can be
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discarded. The slave has no security in the
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future. And what Jesus is saying is that
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my moral imperfection has kept me from being a son or a
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daughter and it's made me a slave and I'm in bondage and I
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do not have a secure future in the Father's house because of my
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moral imperfection. We like to think our moral
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imperfection is not a big deal. Jesus is saying no, it is a very
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big deal. It is a serious problem.
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It changes your status in the family.
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Jesus in this text is explaining that our moral moral failure has
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eternal consequences. Eternal consequences.
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Our sins have the potential to jeopardize our future.
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And that's what he's talking about there in verse 35.
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Now a slave has no permanent place in a family.
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If a slave has no permanent place in the family, who does
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have a permanent place in the family?
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Not a slave, but a child, a son, a daughter.
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Let me say this super simply so you can hear me say it.
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Jesus is saying because we have missed the mark, because we have
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missed the mark, because we have sinned, because we are not
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morally perfect, we do not have a secure future with God.
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I cannot say that more clearly than that.
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But Stephen, I'm not that bad. I just, I have a few bad things
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in my life. Bondage, freedom's not always
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obvious. This is what Jesus is saying.
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I like to say all the time, I don't write the mail.
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I just read the mail. Friends, today I'm just reading
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the mail to you. This is true for every single
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person in this room and everyone who's attending online, whether
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we acknowledge it or not. Even if you think, here's the
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thing, Steven, what you don't know about this, I hear people
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tell me it's kind of crazy stuff all the time, man.
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What you don't know about me, Steven, is me and God, we good,
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we good. We I'm like, what is what is
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this? Does he know that you and God,
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Does he know who made the decision that you and God were
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good? Like how did he send you a
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e-mail? Like how did you get word?
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People say this to me, man, me and God are good.
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Now listen to what I say. I know some of you, you think
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this way. I don't need this Jesus.
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I don't need this religion stuff.
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I don't need Jesus. I don't need faith.
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And you're just like these guys going, hey, we don't need to be
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set free. We are free.
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Me and God are good. Here's the thing, listen to me
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carefully. It doesn't matter.
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If you and I doesn't matter if we make up a God and then think
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as our own judges that we're doing pretty good, that God
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doesn't exist, the God that exists is the one Jesus is
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talking about. This is the real God, and to
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this God our moral imperfection is a big deal.
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It guarantees that our parachute is defective.
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Our situation as imperfect humans, though, would be
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hopeless except while as slaves we are temporary residents in
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the family. Our situation would be hopeless
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except the Father has a son, He has a son.
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And that's our third idea. Jesus the Son sets us free.
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So number one, we think we're free.
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Number 2, Jesus says we're not free.
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Moral imperfection. And then #3 Jesus sets us free.
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The son. Listen to verse 30.
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All of verse 35 and 36, listen to this.
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Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son.
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Listen, belongs to it. Everybody say it forever,
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belongs to it forever. The sun belongs to it forever.
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And then verse 36. So if the sun sets you free, you
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will be free indeed. Now you see this, stay.
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Look at this think Jesus is making this argument.
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I'm not making this argument. Jesus is saying that if we have
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moral imperfection, if we have sin, if we commit sin, then we
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are, we're in bondage. We don't have a permanent place
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in the family, but the Son who belongs to the family, who has a
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permanent place in the family, he's there forever.
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That son is in his home and Jesus is the Son and Jesus,
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Jesus has the insight to define what freedom is.
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He's the one that comes alongside us and says you're not
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as free as you think you are. Freedom is hard to see.
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It's it's not obvious. Listen to me.
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I'm telling you what freedom actually is.
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Jesus has the the insight to define freedom and he has the
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authority to offer you freedom. He has the authority to offer
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you freedom. The Son has the unique authority
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to declare people free from the bondage of sin even though they
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remain imperfect. Now that is the best news you
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will hear your entire lives. The Sun has the unique authority
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to set people free from the bondage of sin even though they
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remain imperfect. That is our hope.
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If that statement is not true, we're all done.
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He has the authority to declare people permanent members of
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God's family, even though they are imperfect, even though they
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still morally fail. He has the authority to secure
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your future in a home you did nothing to earn or deserve.
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He has the this is what This is why he says the son belongs to
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it forever. This this idea of sonship.
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This is authority. Jesus is saying I have authority
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to set you free. I have authority to make you
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into a son. And I know we have the whole
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gender thing is a confusion here, but you got to you got to
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remember that in in Jewish culture and Roman culture,
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sonship came authority, It came privileges, it came rights.
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And so, yeah, to transfer that into the modern culture for
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sure, right, Sons and daughters. But the point that Jesus, Jesus
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is trying to make is not just you're a member of the family.
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It's not that you now have a permanent place in the family.
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No, you have rights and privileges as a member of this
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family. You belong in this family.
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You can't be kicked out of this family.
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This is what he's saying. He's saying, hey, the son has
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the authority to make you now a permanent member of the family,
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even though we still have moral imperfection.
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I don't think you get how big of a deal this is.
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He has the authority to the secure our future in a home that
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we did nothing to deserve. That's the freeing authority of
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the sun. And He has that authority
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because of what we celebrate on Easter.
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Jesus didn't just talk about freedom.
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He accomplished it on the cross. He paid the price for your sin
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and my sin. Not just the obvious things, but
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all of it. The failure, the guilt, the
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brokenness. He carried all of our sin with
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him on the cross. And when he died, it looked like
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sin and death had won. But three days later, Jesus
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resurrected from the dead. And when Jesus walked out of
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that grave, he didn't just defeat death for himself.
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He proved that sin, my sin, my moral imperfection, my moral
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failure, my bondage. He proved that my bondage had
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been fully dealt with. It had been accomplished.
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He proved that payment was accepted.
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So when Jesus resurrected, the proof was, hey, payment has been
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accepted on behalf of these people, that their sin is now
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paid for. Because when he resurrected, it
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was the proof that death no longer has the final say on
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God's people. People.
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He proved that the thing that enslaves you and the thing that
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enslaves me has been broken off of us.
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It no longer defines us. My moral imperfection no longer
-
defines me. My the fact that I commit sin no
-
longer defines me. What defines me now is that I
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and A son or a daughter with full rights and privileges in
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the House of the Father, and I'm no longer a slave.
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And that's what the resurrection acquired for me as a gift.
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And now, my friends, by faith in Jesus Christ, that victory can
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become yours. It's just that simple.
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We need Him to do for us because we had no way of doing it for
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ourselves. We could not undo our sins.
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We could not overcome death. Jesus is our only hope.
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We could not become permanent residents in the home because we
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tried really hard, or because we weren't that bad, or because
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we're pretty good people. That was never going to make us
-
permanent residents in the home. We had to be set free.
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So now this is what this means. This means that you are not
-
perfect. But the sin that you.
-
Battle against no longer has the ultimate authority over you.
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It means that your past, which we cannot undo, no longer
-
defines your future. It means that death which.
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Comes for. All of us, death which comes for
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all of us, no longer has to be feared because death is not the
-
end of the story. This is why Jesus.
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Can say, This is why Jesus can say if the sun sets you free,
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you are free. Indeed.
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He says it because he secured the freedom through his death
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and through his resurrection. And I think this is where it
-
becomes personal. Some of you don't feel free.
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You feel stuck. You feel like no matter how hard
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you try, you end up in the same cycle again and again.
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Or maybe some of you are here and you're like, I don't even
-
know what real freedom would look like.
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But this is where the. Resurrection speaks directly
-
into that. It tells us that freedom is not
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something that you achieve, it's something that you receive.
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You receive freedom, but. Here's the problem.
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You guys know? What the problem is right?
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The problem is Jesus made the same offer to the people in John
John 8 chapter mention
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chapter 8. And how did they receive it?
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They didn't. Receive it very well.
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Who are you to say we need freedom?
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You see the freedom. And the security Jesus offers
-
you. It can only be received.
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By those who recognize they commit sin, are in and are in
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bondage, and they actually realize they need it.
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If we don't see that. We need the freedom Jesus
-
offers. We'll dismiss it.
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That's silly stuff Christians believe.
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But more than dismiss it, we'll get like these guys in John 8.
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We'll get offended and get angry.
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Who are? You to tell me that?
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Because I sin, God will not let me be a permanent resident in
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His house and that I have to put my faith in Jesus in order to
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have that permanent residency in God's.
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Who are you to say that to me? You see how we tend to.
-
Respond to the offer of freedom. I recently watched a documentary
-
about people living in North Korea and as you know, it's one
-
of the most restricted places in the world.
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But what? What struck me was this.
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Most people who live in North. Korea actually believe what
-
they've been told. They believe their country is
-
great. They believe the rest of the
-
world is jealous and envious of the life they get to live there.
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They believe the rest of the world is worse off.
-
One young woman who. Defected shared that when she
-
was a child, her father secretly modified a radio to pick up
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South Korean broadcast and at first she was scared and did not
-
want him to listen because she did not want him to get caught.
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But eventually she began to listen to the broadcast and
-
later began to read some literature from South Korea.
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And what she realized and listening and learning was that
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everything she had been told was a lie.
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And this is what she said. The more I listened, the more I
-
realized what we had learned wasn't true.
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I had been fooled. And that made me want to become
-
free. She just needed.
-
Not new information. New information doesn't cause
-
you to receive. She needed to believe the
-
information. She needed to believe that she
-
was indeed in bondage and needed freedom.
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And maybe that's where some. Of you are today.
-
Maybe you've started to question.
-
Things Maybe you've began to wonder if the life you're living
-
is really all that free. Maybe there's a moment.
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In you, a quiet sense that something isn't right, that the
-
parachute might not work. Maybe you're beginning to
-
question reality. And you have questions you?
-
Have questions about faith, about what all of this means
-
about this Jesus stuff and you just don't understand it you
-
just it's weird to you and you don't know where to start.
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Maybe that's where you are. That's great.
-
I'm so glad that's where you are, because that's why we're
-
here. This.
-
Is why islands exist. Our mission is simple.
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We want to help people connect to Jesus and to each other.
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We want to help people just take a step towards the freedom that
-
Jesus is offering them. So if.
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You're not sure where to. Start this whole church thing,
-
Jesus thing. You're just confused and you
-
kind of want this freedom Jesus offers and you're not sure where
-
to start. Let me tell you where to start.
-
You ready? Start here.
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Just come back. It's just that simple.
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Just come back next week and then keep showing up and this is
-
a cool church. This is a cool place.
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You can. I know you're like, well, of
-
course you would say that. You come for a few weeks and.
-
You will agree. Isn't it a cool church, those of
-
you who come, right? It's cool, right?
-
It's a cool place. Reeling them in, baby.
-
It's, you know what's a cool church?
-
Because we're not afraid of questions and we're not afraid
-
of people who are doubting. We're not afraid of people who
-
are confused. We're not afraid of people who
-
think. We're not even afraid of people
-
who think it's all a bunch of hogwash.
-
We actually love it when they show up because we get to see
-
the biggest transition. The people who think this is all
-
a bunch of junk, this is stupid. I don't know why we can go to
-
church like 6 months later they're up here singing on
-
stage. Like so if you're not.
-
Sure, where to start? Here's the thing, this is a
-
great place. Just start here.
-
Just come back and take a step towards the freedom that Jesus
-
offers you and see where it leads, friend.
-
We are not. As free as we think we are.
-
But through his death and. Resurrection.
-
When Jesus got out of. The grave He secured, freedom, a
-
permanent residence in the Father's house that cannot be
-
taken from us. Oh, what a gift is the
-
resurrection of our Lord, that though I remain imperfect and I
-
remain morally missing, the mark He.
-
Has paid for my sin. And he treats me as a son and a
-
daughter because of his resurrection.
-
Will you stand with me? I want to say a blessing over
-
us, and then we. Will go and eat the.
-
Deviled eggs. As you head out.
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Today, Fran, my brother and sister and my friend who isn't
-
quite sure what they believe about Jesus yet, my prayer for
-
you is this that you. Would see your life.
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Clearly that you would recognize that you need freedom.
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And that you would trust. Jesus enough to take a step
-
toward him and. That you would know this.
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Because Jesus resurrected from the grave, you do not have to
-
figure this out on your own. Freedom has already been secured
-
for you. So take a step toward Him this
-
week. And see what he does.
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Amen friends, we love you. Happy Easter, have a great day.