The Meaning of Liberty | John 8:36 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | 07/05/2026

Well, this morning, if you don't have a

sermon outline, there's some guys that

are running to the front to give one to

you. Just simply lift your hand and

they'll give one to you. Today, we come

to a oneoff sermon, a sermon that stands

by itself, and I've entitled it the

meaning of liberty. The meaning of

liberty. So, if you would um take your

sermon outline and have your Bible in

hand and this morning we're going to be

looking at this beautiful thing called

liberty. Well, I have really really

enjoyed watching

the rest of the world including and

especially Europeans cuz I used to live

there. I've enjoyed watching them

discover America. How many of you have

looked and noticed and seen these videos

and seen these posts and everything else

of all these people discovering America

for the first time? Have you Have you

noticed any of those? It's been

hilarious. I mean, it's really funny,

especially because we kind of understand

the mindset of Europe a little bit and

we know what that's like from having

lived in France and traveled a lot to um

a lot of different countries in Europe

uh in our work there. But we've enjoyed

watching this and help me out and help

me remember what are some of the key

things that they have been so astonished

by over the last few weeks since they've

been here. Could we say air

conditioning? You know, they're just

amazed. And you guys, it's true. I mean,

I'm about to be in in uh Europe next

week uh or week after next for some

mission meetings, and Marcy and I are

kind of dreading it because we know

there's no air conditioning where we're

going to be staying. Um we never lived

in a house in Europe with air

conditioning when we lived there. Um and

uh you know, they they it's really kind

of funny, but anyways, they come here

and they say, "This is so awesome that

they're not hot." They they are amazed

at the size of the meals. Um now we did

say well the size of the people too but

the size of the meals. Yeah. I mean but

they're amazed at unlimited refill

refills. Um they they can't believe

that. I mean free chips. They're trying,

you know, the Japanese were here trying

to pay for the chips. They would say,

"Well, it's not right for us to take

something we didn't pay for." And

they're like, "No, no, no. It's free

here. Really? No, no, no. Here, you

know, they're trying to pay for it." So,

what about the size of our roads?

They're amazed. Listen, I I remember

every time I came back after being there

for a year or two, and I would get on

the highway, and I just remember going,

"Man, we got all the space in the world.

We're used to riding around and very

narrow roads and everything else. Even

the interstates there are not anything

like ours."

But more importantly,

some of the things that I've been

blessed by the fact that they have

commented on is how on the street, how

warm and hospitable typically Americans

are.

Now, I know we live in Miami

and um I know that Miami and New York

and LA probably aren't the typical

Heartland experience,

but people have been amazed that in

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and in

Boston and in Dallas and in places all

across the the nation, they have been

amazed at how hospitable and the fact

that Americans smile and are kind and

are willing to talk about anything with

anyone. Now, I remember that when we

moved to France and we were in language

school, having just arrived there, one

of the things in language school that

they said to you was, "Now look, um, if

you smile at people on the street,

they're going to think something's

wrong.

They are going to think one of two

things. either you're a con man who's

about to try to steal from them or

you're you're a little you're a little

crazy because Europeans don't typically

look at one another and smile.

They're thinking, "Okay, he you know

he's coming on to me or he's, you know,

going to steal from me or he's

something's wrong with him." Um that's

not the demeanor of America. In America,

it's we can say hi simply by smiling.

We often do.

One of the things that they noticed and

they've been amazed at is they have been

told for years by the media in Europe,

which like the media here is often

terrible and just, you know, remember

this, if it smells, it sells. So the

media always runs to negative. negative

news travels seven times faster than

positive news. And so that's true in the

media. That's true in everything. It's

it comes down to to some degree a money

thing. But um they have heard horrible

things about America. They only see the

worst of our images. They only see the

worst moments and the worst

neighborhoods and the worst things. And

so they have been amazed that this is

actually kind of a nice place.

and um amazed that with noted

exceptions,

most of America is quite a safe and

lawful place.

But if you look beyond the World Cup

fans and listen to those who have come

here and have actually decided to try to

live here,

their reasoning goes much deeper than

air conditioning and free refills.

Their reasoning goes to something far

greater. And very often more than ranch

dressing,

they are seeking after a greater

freedom,

a greater in many places of the world do

not literally have the liberties and the

freedoms that we have.

They are very often seeking to escape

oppression

and servitude

and many of them are seeking to escape

tyranny. I was speaking with someone

this last week who actually works in

this industry of immigration and he was

telling me that there are provisions in

the United States code for people um

that have money that want to get out of

a dangerous or oppressive situation

where they can immediately run to one of

about five or six different countries,

usually without hindrance, and they can

apply there along with a large sum of

money to come into the United States.

Now, there are a lot of restrictions on

how they do it. There's a lot of

restrictions on what happens with that

money. That money must be invested and

the government follows up. That

investment must produce jobs and they

must be sustained. And the government is

very very meticulous in making sure that

it's not just simply a pay to get in the

door. It is a legitimate investment.

This person works in the industry and he

was saying in fact there's a 2-year look

back. They can get an immediate

residency card for a very large sum of

money, but the government looks back

over the next two years. they will they

will wait 2 years and they will look

back and they'll continue to evaluate

where that money was invested and if it

does not hold true to the principles

that are there the person's residency

card is pulled.

Now why would people go through all

that?

Because you my friends tyranny

and a lack of liberty and oppression

are very very real. In fact,

you could almost say that a much higher

level of scrutiny and a much higher

level of restriction from what America

experiences is experienced throughout

the world.

Even in Europe, even in Europe, there

are aspects of their code and there are

aspects of their lives that are

extremely restrictive that Americans

when they move there have a hard time

with.

They say why why is this why am I not

allowed to do this why am I not allowed

to do that there are many many people

who would say I would love to be engaged

in I would love to try new education I

would love to start a new business but I

simply can't the restrictions are too

great and they come here even from

Canada very often we've had several

people then there's some in this room

right now that have moved here from

Canada because they said we tried to

start a business a great business and we

just simply could not do it. But in

America, it's wide open. If you have an

idea and you're willing to risk it and

you're willing to work hard, you can do

it.

Now, for those of you who were born here

and you've lived your whole life here,

and maybe for those who haven't traveled

very much,

you're not very aware of what I'm

talking about.

It's easy to take America for granted in

these things. So when we talk a lot

about liberty, when we talk a lot about

freedom as a nation, that is a

legitimate thing to speak of.

And when we are looking at the birthday

of our nation, it's appropriate that we

give thanks to God for a land that is

known as the land of the free. In the

home of the brave, the brave, the people

who are willing to try.

My friends, people are seeking to escape

oppression and servitude and tyranny.

They're trying to get to a place where

there's opportunity

and there's freedom of belief, freedom

of conscience,

and freedom from restriction.

And this cry of the human heart that

we've seen in recent days

is really indicative. It's pointing to

something

that's far more. And that's what I want

to look at is where does our liberty

really come from? Where does it really

come from when we consider our lives and

existing here? I've put one line of

scripture at the as the main guiding

text this morning that we come to and I

want you to see it here with me in John

8 and verse 36. And we're going to we're

going to look at this line that is here

and then we're going to look at it again

in a few minutes in its context in a

greater way. But Jesus is speaking and

Jesus makes this statement. Let's read

it out loud together. It's in the box on

your page right there. Let's read it out

loud. So if the sun sets you free, you

will be free indeed.

>> So what does that mean? What does that

mean? What does that look like? And this

is if this is such a desire, if this is

such a need that we have,

what does that mean? Well, there's some

words that are here and and really when

even in his prayer, Aaron mentioned this

that the opposite of liberty

is tyranny. And so, I want us to look at

these concepts this morning of what this

sermon is really all about and where

this goes and where it goes

all the way to its sources of these

things. There's liberty and there's

tyranny.

There's freedom and there's bondage.

There's justice and there's what?

>> Injustice.

There's opportunity versus

>> oppression.

And there's happiness

versus sorrow. And it all comes down to

really life

versus death.

That's really what it all boils down to.

Can you put a big circle around life and

death? Put a big circle around that

because that's where everything winds

up. You see, at the very beginning, God

said, "The moment that you eat of this

tree, you shall surely die." And of

course, we ate of the tree, Adam and

Eve, both. And the human race falls into

what we call the fall into sin. And when

we fall into sin, we see that death

ensues

and all of the sorrow and the pain and

the struggle of of that great fall. And

so really from the beginning of the

Bible to the end of the Bible is this

picture of either life or death. And we

see that over and over again in the Old

Testament. In fact, we see the people of

God leaders stand up and say, "Choose

this day." Joshua would would say to the

people, "Choose this day whom you're

going to serve.

Either you're going to serve the God of

life or you're going to serve the gods

of the pagans around you that wind up in

death.

We had numerous other prophets in the

Old Testament say, "Choose life.

Choose life."

And the one who can give eternal life.

And so when we look at this slogan of

the land of the free and the home of the

brave, when we talk about liberty for

all,

when we talk about the the great ideals

that are often heralded in the patriotic

songs that we sing, we need to look

deeper

than just the patriots and the

forefathers that talked about these

things in the tidbits that we catch here

and We need to see the source.

And part of this is to understand that

when we look at the word tyranny, I have

this on here comes from the Greek word

tyrannos. Um, and it's meaning a ruler

who seized and holds power without

lawful right.

Now, I want us to be careful with that

word lawful right there. We're not

simply talking about whatever the laws

of the land are. where that where that

um ruler is. We can go beyond the laws

of a nation and go to the laws of God

because that's really the issue here and

that's really what I'm we're going to

see here. That's really where true

liberty and true true freedom come from.

They don't come from a document called

the US Constitution.

As important as the US Constitution is,

that is not what guarantees our freedom.

>> Amen.

>> Where our freedom comes from are the

values and the reality. And listen to

this, the biblical world view upon which

that document was written.

>> And so it's a it's a very very important

question. So number one, I want us to

see why generous liberty for humanity is

so fill it in uncommon.

It is not common.

What we have is not common and what we

have isn't perfect. There are aspects of

of

restriction and there are aspects of

oppression even in our society because

like all societies, there's no society

that's perfect. There's no society

that's perfectly biblical or grounded in

those things. And so wherever we're not

biblical, it creates problems.

Wherever

sin reigns, there is problems. There's

dysfunction. There's pain and eventual

death.

More sin, more of that. Less sin, less

of that. That's simply true.

I can tell you that there are places and

I have I have worked in places and I

have lived in places where

there's lots of sin.

Lots of sin. There is I mean and it's

because of that it is hard and it's

dangerous and it's difficult and it's

dark and it's sad.

I've sat at restaurants before in

countries where people come to me and

they say you're from America. Is that

true? Yes. Oh, my dream would be to go

there. Why? Why is your dream to go

there? You live in a great country. I

love your country. Why do you why do you

want to leave here? And here's what I

heard over and over again from young

men. They would say, "There's no hope

here.

I can't do anything here.

I graduated from university and I have

no job." I mean, I'm I'm I'm waiting

tables. Look what I'm doing. I'm As if

that's a bad thing. That's that can be a

very noble thing. But for a guy who's

ambitious,

a guy who wants to move out of his

parents' apartment, a guy who wants to

have a family, have his children, go on

and do other things, and he's sitting

there and he the economyy's stuck.

It's broken. Everything's broken.

And he was ambitious enough to get a job

in a decent restaurant.

And he's there saying, "Oh, how I wish

there was hope."

Friends, that's the norm around the

world.

Generous liberty for humanity is so

uncommon. Why? Letter A. In a fallen

world, power leads to corruption and

tyranny.

Unless influenced by something greater

than sin.

We're going to look at that. In a fallen

world, power leads to corruption and

tyranny unless it is influenced by

something greater than sin. Now, here's

here's some statements. I have several

quotes here, and I I think that you'll

resonate with these, but you've heard

some of these before. If you haven't,

this is very educational for you,

especially young people. These are these

are good things for you to kind of

really start to get in your life and

under in your understanding. What What

about this first quote that is here?

Power tends to corrupt and absolute

power corrupts what?

>> Absolutely. So more power there's more

danger for corruption. That was stated

by John Emir El Edward. Um and he was

the first Baron Actton and that was

written to a letter who was a bishop

Mandal Kiton who was a real proponent of

personal liberty.

That pastor in England was a proponent

of personal liberty and he was saying

our personal liberties are removed when

power men and women have power that is

undue. Look at the next statement here.

The greater the power, the more

dangerous the abuse. Now, our American

founders, this was what they were

concerned about. They agreed with this

sentiment. In fact, James Madison wrote,

"If men were angels, no government would

be necessary.

You wouldn't need to govern.

To govern is to hold back." When I was a

kid, we had a go-kart. And the go-kart

would only go so fast because the

carburetor had a governor on it. And the

governor kept the engine from running

too fast. Because if the engine run too

fast, it would blow up. It wasn't

designed to go that fast. And so the the

little machine would come apart. And so

that governor holds it back. Well, in

that case, that was a good thing.

Friends, in a fallen world, we need

government because without government,

we're not held back. We're unrestricted

and our sinful nature will destroy

everything.

So government is not a bad thing. It's a

blessing from God to keep us from

destroying ourselves

because there is no end to what the

human heart is capable of doing in an

evil way.

Notice this. James Madison's point was

that because rulers are fallen human

beings, power must be restrained

by constitutional checks and balances.

And that's one of the reasons that

America still exists today is because

there are checks and balances. We hear

about that very often. When a court

oversteps its bound or when a when a

president oversteps the bound or when

Congress oversteps the bound, the court

can say no. or the court or the

population eventually can say no by

voting people out and voting others in.

There is a check and a balance. My

friends, that's not the case in many

countries. In many countries, a ruler

leads and stays and

dominates with no check and no balance.

Some of you are from countries that are

like that.

When 1975

was going on, there were many there were

thousands of Romanians trying to leave

Romania.

Um, all through the Soviet Union,

thousands [clears throat] of people that

were seeking to get out of the

oppression of communism.

Even today, many that would love to

escape the oppression that has been the

case for many years in Cuba

or in Venezuela

or even the oppression in all of the

problems of Haiti.

People died. People risking life. People

swimming

with sharks and waves and dehydration

to get to our shores right here

to escape.

Why?

Because true liberty and true stability

are not there. Because of why? Evil

people.

You see, notice this. Robert Caro said

this.

Power reveals rather than corrupts. In

fact, his famous quote is this. Power

doesn't always corrupt, but power always

reveals.

Power will reveal what's there. Nearly

all men, Next one, nearly all men can

stand adversity, but if you want to test

a man's character, give him power.

>> Then you'll know what's there.

The wise Abraham Lincoln said that.

How about this next one? Those who seek

power are the least suited to possess

it. Now, some of you are fans of Douglas

Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the

Galaxy. My daughter um often would quote

that book. Very in interesting insights.

Certainly not a Christian, but um a lot

of insights. Here we see that. And

notice that quote up there again, those

who seek power are the least suited to

possess it. Douglas Adams would say

this, "Anyone who is capable of getting

themselves made president should on no

account be allowed to do the job."

Well, that's virtually all of our

presidents except the first one.

How about this? Plato, Aristotle, Cicero

said, "Power intoxicates."

That's what it does

for many. Power intoxicates. Later

Christian leaders all warned that

unchecked authority easily feeds

pride and tyranny. Usually feeds easily

feeds pride and tyranny. Now there are

some noted exceptions to this. I'm going

to go through them very quickly. Um it's

very interesting um as we look back

through human through human history and

we even go back to the Greek Empire and

the Roman Empire. But notice this first

one, Lucius Quitinius. Um, do you notice

his last name? Cenatus.

Cenatus. In case if you're wondering,

yes, Cincinnati was named after this

ancient world leader.

And I want you to see uh a little bit

about him. He was an interesting

character that loved to farm. That's

what he was.

He loved the very basic things of life.

He did not want power. He didn't want

any of those things. In fact, um he was

perhaps one of the greatest examples of

someone who would leave power behind.

When Rome faced um invasion, Catus was

called upon from his par from his farm

and he was appointed dictator

and the legal office granting him

unlimited authority for 6 months. They

said you have 6 months

to to fix the problem surrounding Rome.

He defeated Rome's in Rome's enemies in

16 days.

He immediately resigned and returned to

farming.

That's what he did. He had the problem

solved. What he's holding there in that

bronze statue is an ancient plowshare

and he's standing next to a plowshare

because that's what he wanted. He wanted

to be a farmer. Well, they had trouble

again. And so what did they do? They

showed up at the farm and they where he

was working, they showed up with a robe.

They showed up with a white horse for

him and they said, "You're going back

to Rome." And he said, "No, I'm not."

He did not want it.

Washington, George Washington admired

him deeply. Many Americans called

Washington the American Catis.

Society of Cincinnati is, as we said,

named after him. What about this?

There's another ancient ruler, ancient

leader that was there. And um it's kind

of interesting. He did he look like

this? Um I don't know. Um uh you know,

was it Maximus Desimus

Meridius? Um is that who it was? Well,

actually

Russell Crow's character in Gladiator

was actually made after this man, Marcus

Nonus Mccrenus.

Marcus Nonus McCrinis was indeed a Roman

general commander of the armies of the

north and a friend of Marcus Aurelius.

He's a true person. It's not fictional.

And his life is similarly came to bring

about great power

um to Rome and to deliver Rome. But then

when it was all done, as soon as he

could, he returned to be with his

family. That's where he wanted to be.

There's a few others in history, not

many.

William Wilburforce was one of those

people in England. He was a British

politician. He was wealthy. He was a

philanthropist. He gave a lot away a lot

of his wealth, but he was the leader of

the movement to abolish the slave trade

in the Atlantic region. That's what he

wanted to do above everything else.

He was notoriously elevate, excuse me,

he notoriously elevated reform over his

own personal advancement.

There's a great film that is made um

Amazing Grace um and it and it traces

William Wilburforce's

great quest to end the horror of

slavery.

Well, this little country had come

along. Declaration of Independence is

what we just have been celebrating.

Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin

Franklin worked tirelessly working on

that declaration

that would that would make the statement

that we're not going to continue like

this. And then there was the Continental

Congress that got together and they

worked very very hard. They slave

through the summer months

to come up with

a constitution eventually. This was

years after the declaration of

independence. This was after we had won

the revolutionary war. So this

continental congress was gathered in

this new nation and they had one wise

old knot named Dr. Benjamin Franklin. He

was very often the one that everybody

would turn and look to

whenever there was a debate and nobody

could seem to find a solution. The only

one that would speak more profoundly

than him was George Washington.

But it was there at Independence Hall

where they labored very very hard. And

eventually through various meetings in

other cities they came to the place

where they had established the

constitution of the United States and it

was not yet approved.

But there was a socialite woman who was

very involved in political things. Her

name was Elizabeth um Willing Powell.

And she came have they as those men

finally came out of that meeting and

they said she said Dr. Frank Franklin do

we have a republic or a monarchy?

Do we have a republic or a monarchy? Do

you know what he said? Here's what he

said.

You have a republic

if you can keep it.

They didn't want a monarchy. They didn't

want a tyrant. They didn't want a king.

They wanted to be represented in their

government. And they wanted this means

that they wanted liberty and they wanted

freedom

that they could help choose

in a democratic republic.

And wise old Benjamin Franklin said,

"You have a republic

if you can keep it.

It's not a given that we can keep it.

You can lose it.

Many have lost it.

Not everything always stays the same.

Trends lead to places.

And this is very important for us, not

only as a nation, but this is important

for us as a church. You see, in biblical

history, there were also these

characters who wound up

not being that. Well, George Washington,

how about this one? George Washington

was indeed that last one on our list.

George Washington comes in and he first

is a farmer. He's a land surveyor

and he has military ambitions.

He wanted to be a gentleman. And by the

way, if you haven't seen it, I would

encourage you to go see The Young

Washington. Marcy and I watched it

yesterday. Anybody get a message from me

yesterday talking about that? And some

of you did. If you don't get those, um,

sorry about that. But I I encourage you

to see that. But the young Washington, I

I understand that it may be the first of

a trilogy. So they may make two more

films on his life. But there is a reason

he was called the father of our country.

You see,

after the revolutionary war, it was

General George Washington that resigned

as the commander of the Continental

Army. And he went back to Mount Vernon.

And look what the king of England said.

It's right here on the bottom of the

slide. The king of England um George III

said that he heard that Washington was

going to step down from power. And he

said if Washington does that, what does

it say there at the end?

>> He will be the greatest man in the

world. And that's exactly what he did.

You see, people couldn't understand it.

People wanted him to be king. In fact,

after the the uh the declaration of

independence and the successful fighting

off of the British, people wanted him to

become their first king and he refused

to be king.

They elected him without opposition to

his first term. There was no rival. They

the electoral college voted for him

unanimously. He became our president. At

the second term, there was no rival for

him. Everyone was convinced. Thomas

Jefferson was the only one that might

run against him. But Jefferson said,

"Ah, he's the only one that can hold

this country together."

Um, others as well. They came to the

third president, I mean the third term.

They asked him to serve again and he

said, "No, I'm going back to Mount

Vernon."

And he moved back to Mount Vernon.

um where he would eventually die. Um

it's very interesting all of those

things that occurred. In fact, listen to

this. When he went to become the

president for the very first time, he

wrote this. My movements to the chair of

government will be accompanied by my

feelings, not unlike those of a criminal

who's going to a place of execution.

He didn't want to be president.

He didn't want to be president because

he was afraid he was going to mess it

up. He did not want to dis to disappoint

our country. That was his greatest

concern.

That's what his friends say. And so when

we when we look at these, we see that

this actually is very rare because this

is not the experience of most of the

world. But when we look at biblical

history, we see something beautiful.

Look at this.

Moses said, "Let someone else do it.

Please, God, let someone else do it."

David said this, "I will not kill King

Saul." Over and over, he had the

opportunity to kill the king. And he

said, "I'm not going to do it."

John the Baptist. When the crowds were

looking at G looking at John the Baptist

and looking at Jesus and the crowds were

really really starting to go Jesus's

way, people came to John the Baptist and

said, "Aren't you jealous? More people

are going to listen to him than listen

to you." And you know what John the

Baptist said? He must [snorts] increase

and I must decrease.

Well, then there's the beautiful example

of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord Jesus

Christ is the one who would eventually

show us what liberty and freedom are

really all about. So this morning, flip

your page over and I want to move very

quickly here

um through this next very important

section.

Letter B under this is that God's word

never says power corrupts because it

recognizes a greater reality.

It's not that power corrupts, it's that

sin corrupts.

You see, sin's corruption leads to

bondage, injustice, tyranny, theft,

oppression, violence, suffering, and

death. That's what it does.

It leads to all sorts of injustice. It

leads to all sorts of tyranny.

And when we see theft here, that's not

just someone breaking into your car.

That's someone coming to your property

and saying, "No, it's not yours.

It's ours."

That can even go beyond a normal

taxation to a redistribution of wealth,

which is theft. It's also called

socialism and communism.

>> And that is wrong. Ask the people of

Venezuela. Ask the people of China. Ask

the people of Cuba. It has never worked.

It never will work. And so what I want

you to see here is that these things

play out into our experience on the

street, into the experience of our

lives.

Sin [snorts] is what corrupts.

John 10:10, Jesus said this, "The thief

John 10:10

comes only to steal, kill, and destroy.

I have come that you might have life and

that you can have it abundantly.

This is where Jesus is going with his

freedom. Life, not death. Remember that

we talked about life versus death.

That's what happens. And it's not just

life now, but it's life abundant. A good

life now. This is what God has in. And

I'm not talking about prosperity

theology. I'm talking about the things

that your soul really needs like freedom

from forgiveness, like power to obey,

power to have relationships, power to

forgive, power to love,

the wisdom for life.

Jesus is saying, "You don't have to

destroy your life by trying everything

out. If you'll come to me and try me

out, I will give you life abundant.

I will show you something better.

But Satan just wants to destroy your

life. Young people, listen to me. Listen

to me. All the cool stuff that the that

the world offers you, all the stuff that

even our young lady this morning was

talking about, the media stuff, all of

the things from the media that were in

Titans, all the promises that that makes

is is really ultimately exactly what

Jesus is talking about here. The thief

comes to kill, steal, and destroy. It

looks so good, but quite honestly,

it goes down so bad.

Jesus says, "Come, do it my way, and

you'll have life abundant." Jeremiah

Jeremiah 17:9

17:9 shows us the real root of this

problem, the issue of sin that destroys

our liberty. Look at Jeremiah 17:9. The

Jeremiah 17:9

root of the problem is the human heart.

And here's what the human heart is. The

heart is deceitful above all things and

desperately sick. Who can know it? Some

of you say, "Well, pastor, that's just

such a negative message. Why do you say

that? Why would you want that?" Look, I

didn't say it. God said it.

Don't blame me.

The fact of the gospel is is that we're

broken

and our hearts are wicked and they'll

say and think wicked things. The motiv

motives of our heart are so distorted

and so what that's why we need someone

to fix our heart and that's exactly why

Jesus Christ came

Mark 7 20-23

sin comes from within Jesus said notice

this what comes out of a person is what

defiles him from for from within out of

the heart of man there it is out of the

heart of man come what

evil thoughts thoughts, sexual

immorality, theft, murder, adultery, and

it goes on, pride, and foolishness.

That's what comes out of our hearts. You

see, look what he goes on to say. All

these evil things come from where?

>> From within.

>> This is the condition of the human

heart. This is why we need a savior.

Genesis 6:5, "The Lord saw that the

Genesis 6:5

wickedness of man was great on the

earth, and every, look at that,

underline that. Every intention,

every intention of the thoughts of his

heart were only evil continually."

God doesn't say civilization became

corrupt, but man's heart was corrupt.

So it's not all about power being evil

within itself. Power is really what we

see here is that our rebellion against

God that sin is what makes power so

dangerous. Just ask Froto Baggins,

right?

Ecclesiastes 8:11, the heart [sighs] of

Ecclesiastes 8:11

ch the children of men is fully set to

do evil. The heart of the children of

men is fully set to evil. Let me just

ask you a question. Have any of you had

to work very hard at teaching your

children to do the wrong thing?

Do you have to work at that for them to

disobey? For them to have temper

tantrums? For them to steal things,

break things, scream, scratch, kick,

bite.

You don't have to teach them that,

right? They they they got that all on

their own. You know why? Because they're

little evil people.

You think they're so innocent.

They're not. You are, too.

We That's why we need Jesus. I'm not

kidding.

That's why we need Jesus. Marcy says it

all the time. She go, "Marcy, I don't

like Marcy loves being with your

children. She loves being at children's

event. If we're all together, she'll

always go hang out with children." Well,

she always just says I, you know, she'll

tell me about something that happened.

She goes, "Yeah, so and so said this or

did that or whatever the little kids and

she goes, it's so interesting. You can

just see that sin come out. It just

comes out.

This is what steals this is what steals

our liberty.

Let's skip down that statement at the

bottom there. The whole problem both

personally and societ society for

humanity is our bondage of sin and

death. So Roman rule number two is very

important. See that our first and

greatest need is the liberty and the

freedom that only Christ can bring.

This is where it all starts. This is the

source

of true liberty. It doesn't begin with

the constitution. It doesn't begin with

Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin,

John Adams, or George Washington. The

true source of freedom doesn't begin

with the Magna Carta.

The true source of freedom begins with

Christ, the principles

in the heart of God's son. Look at Luke

4:es

16- 21. Jesus begins his ministry. This

is very important. Notice that statement

up there next to Luke 4. Jesus begins

his ministry by reading the Old

Testament by reading Isaiah 6:es 1-2. So

he's invited into Nazareth. Look what

happens in verse 16. He came to Nazareth

and while he was where he had been

brought up. And as was his custom, so

his habit, he went to the synagogue on

the Sabbath day and he w he stood up to

read. Verse 17. and the scroll of the

prophet Isaiah was given to him. He

unrolled the scroll and found the place

where it is written. Now, here's the

quote from Isaiah 61.

Look what it says. The spirit of the

Lord is upon me. Because he has anointed

me to proclaim good news to the poor. He

has sent me to proclaim what?

>> Liberty to the captives and recovering

sight to the blind. to set at liberty

those who have been what? Oppressed.

To proclaim the favorable year of the

Lord, to proclaim the year of the Lord's

favor. Now look at verse 20. And he

rolled up the scroll and he gave it back

to the attendant and he sat down. And

that's what a rabbi would do. He would

sit down when he was ready to teach. And

the eyes of all the synagogue were fixed

on him. And he began to say to them,

"Today, this scripture has been

fulfilled in your hearing."

[clears throat]

All right, fill it in.

Kaboom,

[laughter]

>> you guys.

He just said, "God's salvation's here

and I'm it.

And they, you know what they did? They

ran him out of the synagogue. They took

him over the cliff and they were going

to throw him off the cliff because he

would, he had just said in their mind

something blasphemous. And no, he was

the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords,

God in the flesh, who had been come who

had been sent to come and to lay down

his life

to save us. And so Isaiah 61 was all

about him.

You guys, the Bible fits together like

lock and key. There's no way this was

possibly made up. Put together by 40

different authors over a 1500-year

period. That's impossible.

This is beautiful.

This is God's incredible design

and his incredible outcome. I know time

is fleeting. Let's go fast. Roman

numeral number two.

see that our first and greatest need is

the liberty and freedom that only Christ

can bring. That is our first and

greatest need.

The US Constitution is great, but that's

not our greatest need. The Supreme Court

is wonderful, but that's not our

greatest need. Somebody who lives in the

White House, orange hair or not, that is

not what we need.

He makes a lot of great decisions and he

says a lot of stupid things,

right?

But he's not our savior.

Far from it.

John 8:31, Jesus gets to the heart of

John 8:31

our greatest need. And what is our

greatest need? Verse 31. So Jesus said

to the Jews who had believed him, "If

you abide in my word, you are truly my

disciples and you shall know the truth

and the truth shall what?"

>> Free. You circle that. This is about

freedom.

So when we talk about freedom as a

nation, here's the source.

It's coming from the truth.

Verse 33. And they answered him, "We are

offspring of Abraham." and have never

been enslaved to anyone. How is it that

you say you will become free?" And Jesus

is looking at them saying, "Yes, you're

Jewish and you think that you're God's

chosen people and that's true in a sense

and you've but you you don't realize the

bondage that you're actually in. You're

so self-righteous. You think you're just

God's chosen and you think that you're

not you're free men in that regard." But

friends, you don't see your sin.

Look at this verse. V verse 34. 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

slaves come and go, but the father's

son, he's the one who stays forever. I

mean, that's that's it's his house.

Verse 36. So if the son sets you free,

you will be free indeed. Amen.

>> So the picture is all of our liberty

actually goes back to Jesus. Jesus

brings in stark contrast, fill it in.

Jesus brings in stark contrast the

bondage of sin and death and the freedom

of his sacrifice that brings truth and

life.

There's the great contrast.

You're either living in bondage to your

sin or you're living in freedom

because he has set you free.

Galatians 5:1 is just beautiful. It

Galatians 5:1

gives this picture. It's so powerful.

Look what it says. Paul reveals that we

are finally free to do what? To live

holy lives

for those who are in Christ. You're

finally free to do the right thing. You

have the power and the strength. And

we're going to see where that power

comes from. Look at verse 13 or verse

one. It says, "For freedom Christ has

set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and

do not submit again to a yoke of

slavery. He's saying, don't go back to

the law. Don't go back to sin.

Stay with Christ. Stay with the

sacrifice of Christ. Look at verse 13.

We skip down there. For you were called

to freedom, brothers. Only do not use

your freedom as an opportunity for the

flesh. It's like don't live in license

and do your own thing, but through love,

serve one another, for the whole law is

fulfilled in one word. You shall love

your neighbor as yourself. You see, this

is where a society can have freedom

because we start acting like we should.

This is where a nation, this is where a

government can encourage us to do the

right thing,

but founded in the word of God, founded

in the salvation of Christ.

Look at verse 15. But if you bite and

devour one another, watch out that you

are not consumed by one another. He

said, you're you're just going to you're

going to destroy your lives by ignoring

what Christ has offered. Verse 16,

here's how we do it. But I say, walk by

what?

>> Circle it. Walk by the spirit and you

will not gratify the desires of the

flesh. For the desires of the flesh are

against what?

Circle it. And the desires of the spirit

are against the flesh. For these are

opposed to one another to keep you from

doing the things you want to do. Verse

18. But if you are led by the spirit,

you are not under the law. Now the works

of the flesh are evident. sexual

immorality, impurity, sensuality,

idolatry, sorcery, emnity, strife,

jealousy, fits of anger, rival. By the

way, fits of anger. Some of you think

your anger is okay. We It's listed here

with porna, which means fornication.

It's listed here with everything. You

know, sometimes we whitewash our sins,

jealousy, strife. You're one who stirs

up trouble. It's listed here with

adultery.

So this is all of our sinfulness,

dissensions, divisions, envy,

drunkenness. It's listed with orgies

and things like these. You see, it's our

our sin. The flesh is all for those

things, but the spirit is not. Look what

it says. I warn you as I warned you

before that those who do such things

will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Then he contrasts it verse 22 but the

fruit of the spirit. So instead of the

fruit of the flesh that's that other

list now we see the list of the fruit of

the spirit. So the fruit of the spirit

is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,

self-control. Against such things there

is what?

>> No law.

>> No law. Verse 24. And those who belong

to Christ Jesus have been have crucified

the flesh with its passions and desires.

Verse 25. Read it out loud together. If

we live by the spirit, let us also keep

in step with the spirit. This means walk

in the freedom that you have in Christ.

And if you walk in the freedom that you

have in Christ, you're not going to be

doing all the other things that will

destroy your life.

So our freedom as a nation

is first and foremost founded

principally in the freedom that God

wants for us in Jesus Christ.

Notice this. For those who have been

freed from sin and death, they now have

the spirit

that empowers them to treat others

rightly and live a holy life. You're

right. You can't forgive your coworker.

You can't forgive your sister. You can't

forgive that annoying person. You can't

forgive the person who abused you. You

can't forgive all of these things in

your life that have happened to you in

your own strength. That God never

intended for you to do that in you.

Romans 5 says, "The love of God has been

poured out within our hearts through the

Holy Spirit that was given to us that we

may love one another.

You can forgive because you have the

spirit if indeed you are in Christ."

This is how true forgiveness happens.

You see, it empowers us. It empowers us

to treat others rightly and to live a

holy life.

Um, I met with somebody this week and

they said, I before I became Christian,

I just thought there was no way to live

sexually pure. She said, I I I thought

that's impossible. There's no way I, you

know, I've been so steeped in this for

so long. There's no way I can I can let

all that go. And she said, then she

became Christian. The Holy Spirit came

into her life and she said, he changed

everything. Now I want to be pure. I

want to live true. I want to be clean.

He changed that. He changed what I

couldn't change.

That's freedom.

>> Freedom from bondage to sin.

No longer no longer bound by that.

Come to Jesus. That's what he does. You

see, all freedom and liberty in the

world flows from this source of power

and selflessness.

This is where humans learn about

freedom. It comes from God. The greatest

influence toward freedom and liberty in

the world has been the gospel.

It is by far the greatest um source of

that. I have a bunch of books here, but

two that I'm going to show you. One is

Dominion right here. This is not a short

read, but it is a profound and powerful

read as Tom Holland walks through the

impact of Christianity on the world.

and he deals with the issues of

economics, he deals with the issues of

women, he deals with the issues of

slavery, he deals with the issues of

just all kinds of issues in talking

about how Christianity has changed the

world. What about the other one? A much

shorter one um that's probably more

manageable for most is the air we

breathe. This book also deals with

similar issues, but it's showing us that

the gospel of Jesus Christ has had a

gloriously

freeing effect

wherever it has flourished.

Just look at these last two statements

here. Where the gospel has flourished,

freedom has flourished.

That is verifiably true. It is

empiricably empirically true. You can go

and you can look at research. You can go

and look at the realities of it. Freedom

comes through the gospel. Look at the

last statement here. Um where the gospel

waines, freedom eventually fades.

And Marcy and I have seen that in

Europe. We have seen that in various

other places. But we have seen that

where the gospel was very prevalent at

one time after a time

that can be lost. How do we apply this

to our lives? First way we apply it is

this. Number one, come to Christ where

true freedom will save and restore. Some

of you have never surrendered to the

lordship of Jesus Christ. I want to call

on you this morning to repent and

believe in Jesus. I want to say to you

that you can do that through faith. If

there's something that's my in my voice

and the things that I'm saying, if

something is ringing true and you're

realizing, I need to I need to finally

repent and believe in Christ.

Friend, that's what it that's what Jesus

calls us to do. Those were his first

words that he gave us when he was about

to be baptized. Um or excuse me, after

he was baptized by John the Baptist, he

stood up and he said, "Repent and

believe. The gospel is at hand. The

kingdom of God is here. That's what he

calls us to. Number two,

what can we do? Maybe you've already

repented and believed you're a

Christian. Pray for a spiritual

awakening in America for the glory of

God and the good of people.

The more we get close to God, the more

we turn back to God, the more we run to

him, the freer we will be.

And we will finally be in the place to

pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit

what?

>> Of happiness.

This is the meaning of liberty. And I

hope and pray that you cherish it, that

you pray for it, that you embrace it.

Amen.

>> Let's stand together as we pray. Father

in heaven, thank you this morning for

your word. Thank you for the source of

liberty. Thank you for our nation. Thank

you for the joy that there is in knowing

the one who sets us free.

I pray that as we sing this great hymn,

my country is of thee, this land of

liberty.

To thee we sing. [music] Lord, we thank

you. I pray that you would speak to our

hearts now in Jesus name. Amen.