Introduction:
Knowing His Freedom (John 8:31-38):
- Freedom Comes from Abiding in God's Word. (John 8:31-32)
- Abiding is how I Love Jesus
John 14:15 - If you love me, you will keep my commandments...
John 15:10 - If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
- Abiding is how I Love Jesus
- Abiding is Proof I'm a Disciple of Jesus.
Matthew 10:22 - But the one who endures to the end will be saved. (Matthew 24:13)
- Abiding is what sets me Free .
- Slavery comes from Abiding in Sin. (John 8:33-38)
Three Signs That You Are a Slave:
- Slaves try to be Self-Sufficient . (John 8:33)
- Slaves are controlled by their Sin the truth. (John 8:34)
- Slaves aren't at Home with Jesus. (John 8:35-38)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open up your Bibles with me please to John 8.
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And we will be picking up in verse 31.
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Our theme, our ministry theme this year is knowing Jesus.
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It's nothing fancy, nothing super creative sounding, but it is important because the Bible says that it is knowing Jesus that brings us to eternal life.
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We want to move from knowing about Jesus to knowing Jesus, and the title of today's message is "Knowing His Freedom." Freedom!
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Love that word.
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Go ahead, say it.
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Just go ahead, don't be shy.
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Just go ahead and say it.
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Freedom!
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There's just something about that word that, oh, it just fires us up.
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Freedom!
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I mean, in our country, we have so many holidays about freedom.
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And let's be honest, when we watched Braveheart, we all got the chills when he said, "Freedom!" And this is an issue that is really in the forefront of a lot of people's minds right now.
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As we are currently in the middle of the COVID lockdown and we're wearing masks and gloves and all of these social distancing, sanitation things happening. You've heard it so many times haven't you, as I have. This is a violation of our freedom!
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Freedom!
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That issue and that issue alone really has become bigger to many people than the actual virus itself.
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It's become bigger than the issue with the economy.
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It's really become bigger than every issue surrounding this COVID-19 pandemic.
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Freedom!
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You get emotionally charged just thinking about it.
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We're going to talk about freedom today.
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How do you define freedom?
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Well, for most people, I think people would consider that freedom is, "I can do whatever I want." But if you think freedom is about living an unrestrained, "there are no rules" lifestyle, I'd like you to ask the prodigal son about that.
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Remember that story in Luke 15?
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Here is a young man who did whatever he wanted to do, and he found, like so many people today, that this lifestyle eventually becomes becomes the worst kind of slavery.
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And that is what is so fascinating, because the people who decide that freedom is, I do whatever I want to do, those people always end up in bondage, every time.
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I'm going to be intimate with whoever I want.
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I'm going to drink whatever I want.
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I'm going to smoke whatever I want.
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I'm going to eat whatever I want.
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I'm going to do whatever I want And every single one of those things will end up controlling you.
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But you see, the ironic thing is when you abide in the Word of God, which the world would say is restrictive, but when you abide in the Word of God, you find true freedom.
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So if you're taking notes, today we're talking about knowing His freedom.
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Number one, freedom comes from abiding in God's Word.
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Let's look at verse 31, John 8.
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"So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in Him, 'If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'" Stop there.
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It says that Jesus was speaking to the Jews who had believed.
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These people were only surface believers.
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They weren't true followers of Jesus.
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And that's going to be very clear as we progress later in this passage.
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But these weren't real believers.
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These were people that were kind of hearing Jesus, and they weren't really opposing Him, But they were kind of curious as to what He was going to say.
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But I want us to look at verse 31 again.
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Jesus said, "If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples." Verse 32, "And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." I want you to look at it backwards.
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Jesus said, "You are free, and you are truly My disciple if you know and you abide by My Word." So according to this passage, what is Jesus' description of what makes a true disciple?
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Very clearly, He says, "If you abide in My Word." According to Jesus, that's what a true disciple is.
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Someone who abides in His Word.
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Abide. That's a word we use very often.
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Abide. It's where we live. It's where we dwell.
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It's the place I make my home. It's my very lifestyle.
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And abiding in the Word means I read His Word, and I'm constantly thinking about His Word.
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and I'm pondering His Word.
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What does it mean?
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Why did He say that?
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Why did He say that the way He did?
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How do I live this way?
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How do I reflect these truths in my life, in every arena that I find myself, at work, at home, at school, wherever?
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I'm abiding by the Word of God.
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Abiding because the Word of God is truth, and it blesses me, and it protects me, and it grows me, and I love it.
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And when that's your attitude, you're abiding in the Word of God.
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I want to talk about abiding for a few minutes.
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And I'm not going to tell you for a second that abiding is somewhat important into Christian life.
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The truth is, abiding is absolutely the most important thing about being a follower of Jesus Christ.
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I want you to jot three things down about abiding.
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It's going to come up again later as we continue to go through John.
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But Jesus talks about it here.
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And I can't underscore enough how important it is.
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Abiding - letter A - abiding is how I love Jesus.
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Abiding is how I love Jesus.
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You know, we show love different ways, depending on who the recipient is of the love that we are expressing.
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Here's what I mean by that.
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If I want to let my dogs know that I love them, I'll throw a piece of meat at them.
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If I want my kids to know that I love them, I'll spend time with them and do things with them.
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If I want my neighbors to know that I love them, I'll stop by and check on them and see if they need anything.
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Of course, my wife Erin, there are ways that I show her that I love her.
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When you think about all these ways that we show love, you don't ever want to mix those up.
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I can't come home from work and think that I'm going to show love to Aaron by throwing a piece of meat at her.
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I'm not going to show love to my kids by opening the door to their room and saying, "Hey, I was just checking on you.
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Do you need anything?" As I would my neighbor.
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So the question is, How do we show Jesus that we love Him?
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What's Jesus' love language?
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How do we show Jesus?
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Well, John 14, 15, Jesus said, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." John 15, 10, Jesus said, "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love." "I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love." Jesus said, "The way we express our love for Him is through keeping His Word." Abiding in His Word.
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And you see, this is all based on the relationship that Jesus Christ modeled with His Heavenly Father.
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In other words, if I were to ask you, "Do you think Jesus Christ loved God the Father?" You would say, "Absolutely." Well, how did He show that?
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Jesus showed His love for the Father by obedience to what the Father called Him to do.
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And according to Jesus, we demonstrate our love to Him through obedience to what He called us to do.
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Do you love Jesus?
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I mean, do you really love Jesus?
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Well, how do you show it?
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Jesus said His love language is abiding.
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So abiding is how I love Jesus. Letter B.
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Abiding is proof I'm a disciple of Jesus.
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Again, Jesus said, "If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples." The evidence of being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not some act of the past, okay?
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Like, if I said to you, "Are you a follower of Jesus? Are you a disciple of Jesus?" And you said, "Well, you know what? I was baptized in this church when I was little, or I went through confirmation classes at the Methodist church when I was 12.
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You know, I became a member of the Baptist church." Hey, all those things are wonderful, I'm sure, but the evidence of you being a disciple isn't what happened in the past.
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The evidence is your obedience in the present.
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Am I abiding in Jesus Christ today?
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Am I abiding in His Word?
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Because Jesus said those who do abide in His Word are truly His disciples.
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Abiding. Living there.
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Continual pattern of the Word of God being a very part of my life.
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The Word of God being the very foundation of my life.
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Over time, right?
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This is about perseverance. This is about endurance.
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This is, "I abide in the Word of God no matter what." Abiding leads to finish line faith, right?
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Jesus made this comment twice, at least, in the book of Matthew 10.22, again in Matthew 24.13.
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Jesus said, "But the one who endures to the end will be saved." Nothing can stop true faith.
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Not trials, not hardship, not persecution.
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Nothing can stop true faith, because the person that has true faith says, "Jesus Christ is truth, and I'm walking in His light, and I belong to Him, and He bought me with His blood.
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I have nowhere else to go." Are you abiding?
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Are you abiding in Him?
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That's your proof that you belong to Him.
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Let her see.
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Abiding is what sets me free.
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Abiding is what sets me free.
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Everyone wants truth and freedom, right?
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Jesus said, "And the truth will set you free." How many times have you heard people use that verse?
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Even in movies, or used in a secular sense, "The truth will set you free." Everyone wants truth and freedom.
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The problem is that people look for it in the wrong places.
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And they look for it in a way that suits them.
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Jesus said, "The truth will set you free." Free from what?
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Well, first of all, free from enslaving sin.
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We're going to talk about that in a minute.
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You understand that the truth of Jesus Christ, the truth of His Word, sets us free from religion.
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Yeah, that's what I said.
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We are set free from religion.
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Religion is Satan's favorite word.
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Religion is all of the performing that we think that we need to do to make God happy.
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And that's how we are by nature.
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We think that we have to do certain things in order for God to accept us.
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When the truth of the Word that sets me free is that Jesus Christ died to take away my sin, God accepts me based on the blood of Jesus.
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Not my performance.
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Do you understand how freeing that is?
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That I'm not accepted based on my performance, but I'm accepted based on Jesus Christ's performance.
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I don't have to wonder if I'm loved.
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I don't have to wonder if I'm forgiven.
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I don't have to worry that if I mess up, God's going to be angry with me.
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I don't have to worry that I could lose my salvation.
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Jesus Christ took care of that once and for all and forever.
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So I'm free.
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I'm free from that.
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Knowing is freedom.
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Freedom comes from abiding in God's Word.
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Number two, slavery comes from abiding in sin.
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Look at verse 33.
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Their response to Jesus when He said, "The truth will set you free," they answered Him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.
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How is it that you say you will become free?
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They got what Jesus was driving at.
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And their response is, "Hey, hey, I'm not a slave, pal, alright?
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What are you talking about?" They understood Jesus' point, but they misdiagnosed their own condition.
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And that is a truth that resonates with people that are listening to this message.
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You understand what Jesus is saying, but maybe you too are misdiagnosing your condition.
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You need to ask yourself, am I a slave?
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And I don't mean in the good sense, a slave to Christ, a slave to righteousness.
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In the context here, Jesus was talking about being a slave to sin.
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That God doesn't control you.
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Sin does.
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Am I a slave?
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Three signs that you are a slave.
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Three signs that you are a slave.
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Letter A - slaves try to be self-sufficient.
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Look at verse 33 again.
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They said, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone.
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How is it that you can say you will become free?" When you first read that, it's kind of funny.
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Like, "Oh, you've never been enslaved, child of Abraham.
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You mean to tell me Jews have never been enslaved?
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Off the top of my head, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, the Medo-Persians, I don't know, Rome?
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These people knew their history.
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They weren't talking about that kind of slavery.
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They meant freedom before God.
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In other words, they were saying, "Hey, no one tells us how to worship because we are part of the chosen race." And church, that is a major obstacle.
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That if you buy into this, you are always going to remain a slave.
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Always.
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The obstacle is self-sufficiency.
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It's this belief like these people, it's this belief that says, I'm okay how I am. I'm okay how I am. I'm good enough." We do the same thing. We do the same thing.
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We might not say, "I'm a child of Abraham." We say things like, "Hey, I go to church.
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I'm a good person. I would never intentionally hurt someone.
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Surely I'm good enough.
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And you won't really think you need Jesus, and you won't see your need for the cross, you won't see the need to abide if you're too full of yourself.
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Slaves try to be self-sufficient.
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Letter B, three signs that you're a slave.
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Slaves are controlled by their sin.
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Jesus responds, "When you follow wrong attitudes and wrong actions, you're a slave to those." Look at verse 34.
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Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin." Wrong attitudes and wrong actions, and you make that your lifestyle, you become a slave to it.
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And you get to the point that you are no longer able to control it, but it controls you.
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And that's how all sin is.
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Pick a sin, any sin, it's enslaving.
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You can't stop doing it.
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You never get your fill of it.
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You never say, "Well, you know what?
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I sinned so much last week, I'm full, I'm probably not going to sin at all this week." You never get your fill of it.
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Ask the drunk how easy it would be to stop drinking.
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Ask the porn addict how easy it would be to throw away his computer.
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Ask the gossip how easy it would be to refuse to talk about other people.
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And without the Holy Spirit and the power of abiding in Jesus' Word, you have no power over your sin.
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I just want you to take a moment and think about your life the past week.
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Think about some things that you did, some places you went, some people you were with, attitudes that you had.
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Just think about your general conduct over the past week.
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Were you being controlled by the Holy Spirit?
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Are you being controlled by your desire to sin?
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Slaves are controlled by their sin.
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Three signs that you are a slave.
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Letter C.
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This is the most serious.
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Slaves aren't at home with Jesus.
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Look at verse 35.
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Jesus said, "The slave does not remain in the house forever.
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The Son remains forever.
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So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
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Here, Jesus is ultimately talking about eternity.
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Because right now, we all dwell together.
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Even in the same church, you're going to have true disciples of Jesus, and you're going to have people like this, surface disciples of Jesus.
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So right now, we're all kind of dwelling together.
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And even though we don't see it, Jesus Christ always does.
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See what?
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This line of demarcation.
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And understand, from His perspective, there's no gray area.
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You're either a slave, or you're a son.
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Both are in the house right now.
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The end game of being a slave to sin is eventually you get thrown out.
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Maybe, in this life, your sin causes you to fall away, but definitely, when the day of your death comes, and you're thrown out of the fellowship forever.
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But you see, here's the good news.
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You don't have to remain a slave to sin.
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Do you see v. 35?
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Jesus said, "The Son remains forever." This is the beautiful thing.
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Jesus Christ makes you into what He is.
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Which is what?
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A Son.
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A child of God.
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And when you become a son, Nothing can ever take that away from you.
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You remain a son or a daughter, a child.
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You remain a child of God forever.
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Verse 37, Jesus continues, "I know that you are offspring of Abraham, yet you seek to kill Me because My Word finds no place in you.
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I speak of what I've seen with my Father.
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And you do what you've heard from your Father." Jesus continues, "Oh, oh, and as far as being Jewish..." Jesus was like, "Yeah, I know you are.
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But it's not doing you much good.
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Because your hearts are still evil." Did you see that?
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"Hey, for all of your righteous lineage with Abraham, I know what's going on in your heart. You want to kill me." Being Jewish hasn't cleaned up your inside.
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Why hasn't it, Jesus?
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The same reason He's been saying.
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He says that His Word isn't at home in you.
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Jesus knows your heart.
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No matter who you think you've been fooling.
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And Jesus knows if His Word has a place in you.
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So as we close, I just want to ask you, what place does the Word of God have in your life?
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If Jesus' Word isn't at home in you, then you aren't at home in Jesus.
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Jesus said, "If you abide in My Word." Do you abide?
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Do you sort of see the Word of God as being like your house?
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That's where you dwell?
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Or maybe you don't.
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Maybe you see the Word of God like summer camp.
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I stay there for a short time, once a year, but I don't live there.
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Or you see the Word of God like a hunting cabin.
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I visit occasionally, but I don't live there.
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Maybe you see the Word of God like the gym.
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I'm not there as much as I want people to think I'm there.
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But I don't live there.
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Or maybe you see the Word of God like mom's house.
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I go there once a week, every Sunday.
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But I don't live there.
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Or, is the Word of God your home?
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You abide in His Word.
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You say, "Yeah, you know what? This here, this is where I live." The old saying rings true.
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A Bible that's wearing out is usually the sign of a life that isn't.
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Are you abiding in the Word of Jesus? Pray with me.
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Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ in His passage proclaims something that we're all looking for.
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That's truth and freedom.
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And I pray, Father, that despite circumstances, maybe I should say especially in light of the circumstances around us, We would look for truth and freedom from You and from Your Word.
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And it all circles around, it all centers around our attitude towards the Word of Christ.
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So Father, if we have been living as slaves to sin, I pray that You would grant repentance.
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If we've been finding our homes in vain philosophies and foolish thinking, let us come back and find our home in the Word of Christ.
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Thank You, Father, for the freedom that You've given us in Christ.
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Father, give us the power.
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Give us the grace to walk in it.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 8:31-38
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
How is abiding in the Word the proof of being a true disciple (John 8:31)?
Jesus said “the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). Explain what exactly Jesus meant by freedom in this often-misquoted verse.
How “into the Word” are you today, on a scale of 1-5? (1 = not at all, 5 = I’m in it constantly)
Breakout
How well have you been abiding? Are you “at home” in sin or in the Word right now in your life?