full
Arise in True Freedom
Ever felt like you’re following all the right steps but still missing something deeper?
Many people walk through church doors confident in their faith yet quietly shackled to old habits, unhealed pain, or a fear of never “arriving.” Pastor Kevin describes this as the difference between getting wet and actually going swimming. Between being close to truth but not fully saturated by it.
Pastor Kevin unpacks why so many well-meaning people settle for surface-level Christianity, never realizing how much God longs to set them free. He reminds us that real change, doesn’t come from louder declarations or checklist spirituality, but from a daily, honest encounter with Jesus and his word.
Whether you’re brand new or wrestling with old doubts, you’re invited to belong, to try again, and to ask, “Do I really want to be free?” There’s space for your questions here, and a next step that’s actually doable. You don’t need to fix yourself first—just come prepared to move forward.
Scriptures Referenced
Psalm 16:6; John 5:1-8, 5:14-15, 8:31-47, 15:13; Galatians 5:1; Ephesians 6:12; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 John 4:7
Key Insights
- Settling for spiritual “proximity” leaves us dry and unchanged. Full immersion in God’s truth creates real transformation.
- True freedom is found within God’s boundaries, not outside them.
- Excuses and busy schedules often mask the reality of spiritual bondage.
- Everyone is welcome to start small and step into God’s freedom, no matter their past.
Key Sections
00:00:00 - Welcome & Announcements
Join us for an upcoming Instruments of Joy benefit concert.
00:02:09 - Owning Blind Spots and Love
It's easy to mistake attempted faithfulness for true spiritual maturity, particularly in areas like love, where most overestimate their own growth and miss the lifelong challenge of loving as God does.
00:07:29 - Exposing False Freedom
Many Christians often parade around believing they are free while quietly living in bondage, highlighting the cultural confusion between worldly and godly freedom, and why God’s limits are actually gifts that unleash joy and peace.
00:12:26 - The Discipline of God’s Love
Why God disciplines those he loves, how our avoidance of authority affects spiritual growth, and the uncomfortable but freeing truth that discipline and freedom go hand in hand.
00:14:37 - Lukewarm Living and Self-Examination
Lukewarm Christianity is where true transformation gets replaced by louder words or religious routines. The only real antidote is choosing daily to die to self and let God’s truth saturate every area of life.
00:17:49 - Do You Want to Be Free
Pastor Keven shares Jesus’ direct challenge to the man at the pool of Bethesda, paralleling it with our own reluctance to truly seek freedom; excuses often feel safer than risking change, but Jesus calls us to “get up” and act.
00:25:34 - From Proximity to Immersion in Truth
Knowing about God is not the same as surrendering to his truth.. It's like moving from standing at the edge of the pool to being completely submerged, where God’s voice finally becomes clearest and the old lies lose their volume.
00:41:48 - Concrete Next Steps for Real Change
Immersion in Scripture is not about religious head knowledge but letting Jesus’ words shape every decision.
https://springhouse.captivate.fm/episode/arise-in-true-freedom
Subscribe & Follow the Podcast
Gathering Times
- Sundays, 9:00 AM
- Sundays, 11:00 AM
- Thursdays, 6:00 PM
Contact Info
Springhouse Church
14119 Old Nashville Highway
Smyrna TN 37167
CCLI License 2070006
Transcript
Boy, it's a good day to be in the house of the Lord. He is
Speaker:good and he is God. And I am just
Speaker:reminded this morning that my failures, my mess
Speaker:ups, my lack of faithfulness is not a prerequisite
Speaker:to his goodness. He is always good. He
Speaker:is always on time. He is always God. And guess what?
Speaker:He knows your name and he knows my name. And he is
Speaker:faithful, is he not? Has he been faithful to you?
Speaker:He is so faithful. He's good. Welcome this morning. We're so glad that
Speaker:you are in the house this morning. As we
Speaker:continue our journey this morning in the Lord, I've got one
Speaker:quick announcement for you. I want to invite you to something real special
Speaker:that's taking place here on June 5th. And
Speaker:that is an Instruments of Joy
Speaker:benefit concert featuring Land of Color, Jeremy
Speaker:Casala and Cole Burkitt.
Speaker:And this is going to be a real
Speaker:wonderful evening. Now, Springhouse has always
Speaker:looked for opportunities prayerfully to sow into Global
Speaker:Missions. And Instruments of Joy, led by our very own
Speaker:Josh McLeod, has fingerprints all around
Speaker:the globe. You're going to hear a little bit more about that next Sunday.
Speaker:But this, this is a unique, wonderful way to participate
Speaker:in Global Missions by attending this
Speaker:concert. And you're going to be entertained. It's going to be a great
Speaker:night. So I'm going to be here. My family's going to be here. I hope
Speaker:that you will make plans to come and enjoy this concert together
Speaker:as we sow into the kingdom. Amen. Amen. So mark your
Speaker:calendars on June 5th. Okay.
Speaker:Well, we are going to continue in our
Speaker:series today. Abide, arise
Speaker:in advance. We're in that arise section today. And we're
Speaker:going to read one verse of scripture. So as we read
Speaker:this today, my prayer would be that you would stand and read it
Speaker:from the pit of your stomach as if you actually believe what
Speaker:you're reading. Okay? Can we do that? All right, let's read together from
Speaker:Galatians, chapter five. Here we go. It is for
Speaker:freedom that Christ has spoken. Set us free.
Speaker:Stand firm, then. And do not let yourselves
Speaker:be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. You
Speaker:know, that's so good. Let's read it one more time. Here we go.
Speaker:It is for freedom that Christ has set us
Speaker:free. Stand firm then. And do not let
Speaker:yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of
Speaker:slave. Father, I'm so grateful for the freedom that we have in you.
Speaker:My prayer today is that our hearts would be open and our eyes would be
Speaker:open to know and to see the things Lord, that
Speaker:yout want to reveal to us, God, I pray, Lord, that there would
Speaker:be change for eternity as we lean into youo precepts and principles
Speaker:here. And, Lord, that yout would just speak through Me, anoint us to receive today
Speaker:in Jesus name. And everybody said, amen.
Speaker:Amen. Well, we're continuing
Speaker:on our journey, as I said in the arise section. And I don't know, maybe
Speaker:at the end of this, you guys can let me know if this was like
Speaker:a sermon or not. But I was struggling a little bit this week
Speaker:because what I felt like the Lord wanted me to do today was
Speaker:not necessarily preach at you, but
Speaker:instead illuminate our eyes to something that may
Speaker:be right in front of us, that we may not realize. Have you ever been
Speaker:looking for something and it's right in front of you, but you keep asking where
Speaker:it is? Hey, where's my cell phone? Has anybody seen my
Speaker:cell phone? I can't find my cell phone. And eventually somebody who's
Speaker:got a keen eye looks and says, it's in your hand right now. If
Speaker:they're kind, that's where the period happens. If they're not kind, they have a few
Speaker:other words that they'll call you afterward. But have you ever been
Speaker:looking for something that's right in front of you? I believe that there are
Speaker:some things at times because we become creatures
Speaker:of habit and we are products of
Speaker:the culture with which we live. I believe that there are
Speaker:sometimes that we are blinded to. And we're not necessarily
Speaker:intentionally blind, but they're there, these blind spots. And
Speaker:so as a pastor, this is not, Thus saith the Lord, what I'm about to
Speaker:tell you. But as a pastor, as your pastor,
Speaker:I believe that there are two very specific areas
Speaker:where we as believers miss the mark. And
Speaker:it's not that we aren't attempting to make the mark, but we
Speaker:miss the mark because we believe we have actually
Speaker:achieved the mark. And we're far away from the mark. We have
Speaker:almost fooled ourselves to believing that. We can kind of check that off
Speaker:the list because we've got that under control. Let us move
Speaker:on to some other things. The first one of those two things is
Speaker:this love.
Speaker:We have a propensity to believe that we've got.
Speaker:We just know how to do this. Like, we do this really well.
Speaker:We understand what this is. We can move on to some other things.
Speaker:In fact, in 2019, when,
Speaker:when it was solidified that I was going to be in this role, the Lord
Speaker:gave me three very specific things for our church. And that was this
Speaker:that we would be a church that loves big lives truth and operates
Speaker:as a healthy family. And right on the cuff, if you just
Speaker:look at that and then turn your head away, you might look and say, well,
Speaker:that's kind of a shallow vision. You know, love, big live truth. Okay?
Speaker:Everybody's trying to do those things, be a healthy family. No,
Speaker:I believe that these are some of the most challenging and hardest
Speaker:things that can be done. And apart from the
Speaker:Holy Spirit, we can't achieve any of this.
Speaker:Apart from the Holy Spirit, we can't achieve any of this. And I believe
Speaker:that the most challenging things of these three is not the live
Speaker:truth and not the healthy family part. It's the love, big part.
Speaker:Love. As we find in the book of Galatians,
Speaker:love is a fruit of the Spirit. It's the fruit of the
Speaker:Spirit. And so in order for us to. We don't manufacture love. In order
Speaker:for love to be evident in our lives, we have to be walking
Speaker:with the Spirit of God. Over in First John, we
Speaker:also see this in scripture. It says God is
Speaker:love. Well, anybody who says I've got a handle on
Speaker:love is kind of saying, I've got a handle on God. And
Speaker:anybody who says they've got a handle on God, I'm going to step back a
Speaker:few steps, right? No,
Speaker:it takes a lifetime to even begin
Speaker:to scratch the surface on something as enormous and extraordinary
Speaker:as love. Jesus even said, no greater
Speaker:love has anyone than this than to lay down one's
Speaker:life for one's friends. Not family, not
Speaker:spouse, friend. And
Speaker:of course, Jesus was the embodiment of the truth that he rendered here when he
Speaker:laid his life down for us. Now, this is not what we're going to talk
Speaker:about today. That's the one of the two that I believe like
Speaker:are glaring misses when it comes to believers in the kingdom. The
Speaker:second of the two is freedom.
Speaker:It's freedom. It's not that we don't understand
Speaker:some of the concepts and principles of freedom, but
Speaker:instead rather it's we parade around like we are free
Speaker:while we live in bondage. We parade around and
Speaker:masquerade as free agents, as free people in
Speaker:the kingdom. Yet we have very little understanding
Speaker:of what freedom in the kingdom of God looks like. It's so easy
Speaker:to take the attributes of freedom as they're portrayed in
Speaker:the world and assign those attributes to freedom
Speaker:in the kingdom. I don't believe that those are the same things.
Speaker:Over in Psalm 16:6 it says this. The boundary
Speaker:lines have fallen for me in pleasant
Speaker:places. This Is a life verse of
Speaker:mine. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant
Speaker:places. Now, some of us. Are anybody here a rebel?
Speaker:You know, we tend to be creatures
Speaker:where somebody says, don't do that. That's the one thing we wanna do.
Speaker:And take that all the way back to the garden. God said, don't do this,
Speaker:don't do that, don't do this. You can name this, you can name this, you
Speaker:can eat this, you can do this, you can, you can, you can, you can,
Speaker:you can. Don't do that. What's the one thing we
Speaker:focus on? The one don't. Right? It's testing
Speaker:the boundaries. It's testing the lines. But I have
Speaker:found in my life that freedom is
Speaker:found within the boundaries that the King of the
Speaker:universe has set for my life. Freedom, true
Speaker:freedom, is found when I obey his
Speaker:principles, when I operate within those boundaries.
Speaker:Jesus said, narrow, narrow is the road and
Speaker:very few find it. But here's the thing that I've come to
Speaker:believe. When you find the narrow road, you get to really
Speaker:experience how broad it is. There's a lot that you can do
Speaker:in the kingdom when you are free. When you are free.
Speaker:And so there's this misunderstanding or
Speaker:misattachment to freedom that I believe that
Speaker:we wrestle with. And that's where I wanna camp today. This is
Speaker:my daughter, Hadassah. And I had a better picture for this story,
Speaker:but I couldn't find it this morning. And some of you have heard this story
Speaker:before, but when she was two years old, you know that one and two
Speaker:year olds, sometimes before they actually start forming words,
Speaker:they actually can understand what you're saying. And
Speaker:I came to realize that Hadassah could understand what I was saying
Speaker:one day because we were at our house and we brought in groceries, and I
Speaker:had asked Hadassah to pick up a can of beans and put it
Speaker:in the pantry. And don't you know, she walked right over there and grabbed the
Speaker:beans and put them in the pantry. And I thought, she can understand me.
Speaker:So a little bit later, we had cooked a meal for dinner, and that
Speaker:meal was spaghetti. And so she
Speaker:had spaghetti on this tray, this high top of hers. And
Speaker:just like all toddlers, she was sitting there priming proper and eating her meal
Speaker:just the way that she should. No,
Speaker:she was taking her spaghetti and she was playing with it and moving it all
Speaker:around her tray, all across the way, and she took a handful
Speaker:of the spaghetti and she did like this, and she threw it on
Speaker:the floor. Now, I realize now that my toddler
Speaker:Understands what I'm saying. And so I look at her and I
Speaker:say, no, we do not throw
Speaker:spaghetti on the floor. No, ma'. Am. And
Speaker:do you know that she, without hesitation, looked
Speaker:me eyeball to eyeball, grabbed a handful of
Speaker:spaghetti, stretched her arm out over to the
Speaker:side, and it was me against her
Speaker:and threw that spaghetti against the wall.
Speaker:I had an out of body experience.
Speaker:See, I had been an educator for 15 years. I wasn't used to
Speaker:teens and kids telling me no, let alone my own.
Speaker:I grabbed our kitchen table. She was in a high chair. I grabbed our kitchen
Speaker:table. I'm telling you guys, I do not have muscles, but I could have picked
Speaker:that table up at that moment and thrown it across the window. I. I
Speaker:mean, I was. And I told Shari, come in here and take care of the.
Speaker:I've gotta go process these feelings that I have going on
Speaker:inside.
Speaker:We discipline our kids because we love them.
Speaker:And for some reason, we believe that
Speaker:we operate in this realm of freedom with a king who's not
Speaker:going to discipline us. The God of
Speaker:the universe loves you. And so that means he is willing
Speaker:to. To discipline you. Aren't you glad you came today?
Speaker:You are free to be disciplined. This morning, God
Speaker:wants us to become like him. Not just because
Speaker:he's God, which he is. Boy, he saw. I was thinking, I was pacing and
Speaker:praying down here yesterday, and I was like, lord, forgive us
Speaker:because we have so diluted all the vocabulary words I could
Speaker:come up with to give ump to describe your sovereignty,
Speaker:your bigness, your greatness. How wonderful. Even
Speaker:the word king we don't understand. We live in America, after all.
Speaker:We. Boy, the
Speaker:words go into my mind, I can't say out loud. We basically said no to
Speaker:the king. And we came over here and we said, we're not going to come
Speaker:under authority. Right. We just don't like coming under
Speaker:authority. But true freedom in the kingdom is
Speaker:a willingness to come under an authority that
Speaker:knows what's best for us, knows what's better for us than we
Speaker:do. And it doesn't look like the authority
Speaker:that we find in the world. And so what happens? And this is here's where,
Speaker:you know, I might step on some toes today.
Speaker:I believe that there are some lukewarm Christians in this church,
Speaker:lukewarm Christians in the big church, capital C.
Speaker:There are seasons where those of us who have the best intentions
Speaker:find ourselves in lukewarm waters.
Speaker:And a lukewarm place is not a place that we want.
Speaker:We want to find ourselves. And so
Speaker:what we do is when we find ourselves in places where we may be
Speaker:skirting the line of being lukewarm and being too
Speaker:comfortable. What we think is the antidote
Speaker:to being lukewarm is to shout louder
Speaker:the biblical principles that we think we've got a handle on
Speaker:to let other people know how they should live their life as
Speaker:an excuse or a banner to say, I just want you to know that I'm
Speaker:in my word. But the
Speaker:antidote to being lukewarm is not volume.
Speaker:The antidote to being lukewarm is dying
Speaker:to yourself is a willingness to
Speaker:die to yourself. We are celebrating, as I mentioned before, Memorial Day
Speaker:tomorrow. And, guys, I can't tell you,
Speaker:cannot express to you how
Speaker:grateful I am that I can stand on this stage
Speaker:and publicly proclaim the Gospel of
Speaker:Jesus Christ without worrying about somebody coming through those
Speaker:doors with an automatic weapon to take me out, because
Speaker:it's illegal to stand here and do it. I
Speaker:celebrate the liberty to freely proclaim
Speaker:Christ. And there are men and women who gave their lives so that
Speaker:we can have that privilege. And I'm so grateful for it.
Speaker:But Scripture says in the book of Ephesians that our fight is
Speaker:not against flesh and blood.
Speaker:It is against rulers and authorities and
Speaker:powers of this dark world.
Speaker:Our world is not full of light. It is full of
Speaker:darkness. It is our fight is against
Speaker:the powers of this dark world and the spiritual forces of
Speaker:evil. So the greater war that's going
Speaker:on in our lives is the war against our souls.
Speaker:It's the war against our souls. And so
Speaker:I want to take us to John, chapter five today.
Speaker:If you own a Bible, a Bible is a good
Speaker:thing to bring to church. Bringing a Bible
Speaker:to church is like bringing a fork to your spaghetti
Speaker:dinner. It's a necessary part
Speaker:of the experience.
Speaker:If you don't bring a fork to a spaghetti dinner, all you get
Speaker:is mess. If you don't bring your Bible
Speaker:to your Christian walk, all you get is
Speaker:mess. A Bible is important.
Speaker:I can't afford a Bible. See Barbie, she will get you a
Speaker:Bible today. Is that true? Today we will get you a Bible today.
Speaker:It's a matter of life and death. This book, John,
Speaker:chapter five. Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of
Speaker:the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem,
Speaker:near the sheep gate, a pool which in Aramaic is
Speaker:called Bethesda, which is surrounded by five covered
Speaker:colonnades. Here a great number of disabled
Speaker:people used to lie. The blind, the lame, the
Speaker:paralyzed one who was there had been an invalid for
Speaker:38 years. When Jesus saw him
Speaker:lying there and learned that he had been in his condition
Speaker:for a long time. He asked him a question, and the question
Speaker:was, do you want to
Speaker:get well, sir? The
Speaker:invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool
Speaker:when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in,
Speaker:someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to
Speaker:him, poor baby,
Speaker:I see you're having a hard time getting up.
Speaker:Oh, well, let me sit by you and put my arm around
Speaker:you. That's not what my Bible says.
Speaker:Jesus said to him, get up.
Speaker:Explanation point. Get up.
Speaker:Sometimes we need someone in our life to say, get up,
Speaker:pick up your mat and walk at once. The man
Speaker:was cured. He picked up his mat
Speaker:and walked.
Speaker:So this man has been laying here for 38
Speaker:years, lame and paralyzed,
Speaker:and he wants to be healed. That seems to be what he needs.
Speaker:He needs to be healed. And Jesus comes on the scene
Speaker:and he asks him a very direct question, question.
Speaker:And the question is, do you want to get well? I'm
Speaker:going to ask another question today that can parallel that question, and it
Speaker:is this, not this. Do you want
Speaker:to be free? Do you want to
Speaker:be free? And this is the question that I am
Speaker:laying a foundation with in our church today,
Speaker:this morning. Do you want to be free?
Speaker:So Jesus walks up to this man and he says, do you want to get
Speaker:well or do you want to be free? And the man
Speaker:replies, and his reply is not an answer to
Speaker:the question. This here is a yes or no question.
Speaker:It is a yes or no question. And the man
Speaker:who has the authority and the ability
Speaker:to heal is the one asking the question.
Speaker:And so we ask this question, and what we find
Speaker:that the man gives is a bunch of
Speaker:excuses. And what I
Speaker:want to suggest to the church today is that
Speaker:we may have believers who have found
Speaker:themselves in a season of complacency.
Speaker:And God is saying, do you want to be healed?
Speaker:Do you want to be free? Free? And we say, well,
Speaker:You see, there's not been anybody here that's been able to pick me
Speaker:up and put me in the water.
Speaker:Jesus is asking, do you want to be free? And we say, well,
Speaker:God, you don't really understand how that
Speaker:individual hurt me, what that person
Speaker:did to me. God, do you want to be set free?
Speaker:Says the Lord. And our response is, well,
Speaker:God, in order for me to be set free, you're gonna have to expose some
Speaker:things that I don't know if I want those people around me to see
Speaker:those things. God, in order for me to
Speaker:set free, be set free, it's gonna require me to
Speaker:do something that I'm not quite ready to do.
Speaker:And so what happens is, is we get very
Speaker:comfortable and we set up residence in
Speaker:the bondage that the blood of his salvation
Speaker:saved us from. And our excuses.
Speaker:Our excuses are the decorations we use for the
Speaker:residence with which we live. And so we've got
Speaker:a comfortable bed, We've got a comfortable couch. And
Speaker:Jesus comes along. And here's the danger.
Speaker:Jesus comes along and he says, do you want to be free?
Speaker:And you know what our reply is? Free from what?
Speaker:I don't even recognize that I need to be free because
Speaker:I've spent more time in my bondage
Speaker:than enjoying the freedom that's ready at my
Speaker:hand from you, Lord. Do you
Speaker:want to be set free? I'm asking you that question today.
Speaker:And I believe the Holy Spirit of God is asking you today, do
Speaker:you want. Want to be free? Are you sick and
Speaker:tired of being sick and tired? Are you
Speaker:ready to move on from that thing that you have
Speaker:chosen to shackle yourself to?
Speaker:Because God, his desire for your life is not
Speaker:for you to be living your life beneath the
Speaker:call, beneath the call of a
Speaker:son and daughter of the most high God?
Speaker:And so this interaction happens. He gives excuses and
Speaker:Jesus says an imper. And actually it's an explanation point
Speaker:in my Bible, but it's an imperative, too.
Speaker:Get up, Barbie Kate, get up.
Speaker:When it's time for my daughters to go to school and we're running out to
Speaker:get up, it's not a negotiation. It's
Speaker:not a conversation. It's not. No, it's a get up,
Speaker:Rich. Get up, Val. Get up, Jonathan, get
Speaker:up. And Jesus is saying, do you want to be free? And we're going,
Speaker:wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. And he's saying, get up. Pick
Speaker:up your mat. Pick up your mat and
Speaker:leave this place. In other words, forget the
Speaker:decorations. Forget all the stuff that you forget,
Speaker:all of those things. Pick up your mat and move. In order to
Speaker:be free, it requires you to do something.
Speaker:Now it says immediately the guy's cured. He gets
Speaker:up and he walks away. Amazing. Miracle of miracles. Wonder
Speaker:of wonders. Isn't that a musical fiddler on the roof?
Speaker:Look a little bit deeper into the chapter here, verse 14.
Speaker:Later, Jesus finds this guy at the temple
Speaker:and says to him, okay, where did he find him?
Speaker:Where? Okay, so Jesus found him going to church.
Speaker:He found him going to church. Hey, I got healed, so I'm at church.
Speaker:That's where I'm supposed to be. I got the T shirt. I got
Speaker:the. Hey, I got. I Got some Christian friends. I'm giving my
Speaker:tithe check. I'm giving like I'm supposed to. I'm showing up at the church. I'm
Speaker:at the church picnic. I'm at all of the things. And then Jesus says this.
Speaker:I see that you are well again. Stop
Speaker:sinning or something worse may happen to you.
Speaker:What? I mean, he was
Speaker:strolling up on Jesus like he was the home dog. He's like, hey, what's up,
Speaker:man? Thank you for healing me. I'm so glad. I'm so glad to be
Speaker:here. And you know what Jesus says? Stop sinning
Speaker:or something worse may happen to you. You know what this
Speaker:tells me, guys? It tells me that Jesus was far
Speaker:more concerned with his spiritual sin condition than he
Speaker:was with the ailment that he healed him from.
Speaker:See, our excuses have everything to do with the ailment that he's
Speaker:already set us free from. Why are we being set
Speaker:free? We're being liberated so that we don't have to be entangled
Speaker:in the sin that wants to kept us in bondage.
Speaker:But yet there's something attractive about that sin.
Speaker:There's something that just lures us right back
Speaker:that way. Do you want to be
Speaker:free? And
Speaker:so I want to show you this morning what I believe this looks like.
Speaker:This here is the pool of Truth.
Speaker:And it is God's desire for
Speaker:us to be far more than
Speaker:just well acquainted with his truth. And so we get
Speaker:into the pool of Truth,
Speaker:and it starts with a wading of the water.
Speaker:But the ultimate goal is not that we would be wading in this water.
Speaker:The ultimate goal is that there would be full immersion into
Speaker:the truth of God's word. Now, I don't know about you, but when I go
Speaker:swimming, I don't wear a blazer.
Speaker:When I go swimming, I mean, who
Speaker:jumps in the pool with a blazer? I don't wear jeans
Speaker:when I go swimming. You know what I'm saying? I mean.
Speaker:I mean.
Speaker:And see, here's the thing.
Speaker:Now I'm not gonna take this sweater off because I don't want you to stumble,
Speaker:okay? But I
Speaker:sure enough don't wear socks in a pool.
Speaker:When I'm around the pool, I wear flip
Speaker:flops,
Speaker:right? And so here I am
Speaker:enjoying the benefit of freedom for being
Speaker:in the truth of God's word.
Speaker:The truth changes things. When the truth comes
Speaker:into our life, we have to shed those outer garments, those
Speaker:outer. That filth that we've been in, so that he can
Speaker:get in and do a work on the inside of Us. Us.
Speaker:But here's what happens in American
Speaker:Christianity and in the church, in our culture and
Speaker:civilization. We get. We get here and we get in the pool and we get
Speaker:about knee deep, and we feel like we've got a
Speaker:handle on the truth of God's word. And so what happens
Speaker:is we begin
Speaker:to exchange what we can see with
Speaker:some other things. And we end up stepping out of the pool
Speaker:and setting up camp
Speaker:in the bondage with which
Speaker:we once lived.
Speaker:And so we find ourselves in this place
Speaker:and we say to ourselves, you know what?
Speaker:I'm just fine being in proximity to the Word but not immersed in it.
Speaker:Now, here's the thing. When I got out of the pool. When I get out
Speaker:of the pool, I'm wet. So I've
Speaker:got residue of truth on my body.
Speaker:True. So I've got this residue of
Speaker:truth on my body, okay? Now, when I took off my jeans.
Speaker:This is the scripture, okay? Foolishness.
Speaker:The world calls it foolishness. What it looks like when
Speaker:you're in. You're in the pool.
Speaker:But what we have to understand is that proximity
Speaker:to truth is not the same as surrender to truth.
Speaker:And so I've got this residue on me that is truth.
Speaker:And for a little bit of time, I can get by with that. But
Speaker:there comes a point when that water dries
Speaker:because the water hits the elements of what's on the
Speaker:outside. Are you with me? And so all of
Speaker:a sudden, I've got the truth mixed with all of this
Speaker:other stuff out here. And all of a sudden I just become
Speaker:damp. Got a damp short. And I become
Speaker:dried up. And so
Speaker:here I am in proximity to. But
Speaker:I'm not fully surrendered. And so with that, I want
Speaker:to take us to John chapter 8.
Speaker:In John chapter 8, Jesus has spent a
Speaker:discourse with the Jews trying to convince them of who he
Speaker:is. And so he does this by
Speaker:explaining who he is. And they're going back and
Speaker:forth. And then we land on verse 31.
Speaker:And it says this to the Jews
Speaker:who had believed him. Jesus said,
Speaker:now let's look at the word Jews there for a moment.
Speaker:Is Jews singular or plural? What
Speaker:is it? Plural. That means there's more than one
Speaker:Jew. There's multiple people here.
Speaker:Okay, so it's to the Jews who had what
Speaker:they did. What? Okay, so he's talking to
Speaker:multiple believers. That is a very important
Speaker:point as we move forward in this passage. Jesus is
Speaker:talking to Jews who believe. Are you
Speaker:with me? So he says this to the
Speaker:Jews, multiple Jews who believe. He says this.
Speaker:If you hold to My teaching. You are
Speaker:really my disciples, then you
Speaker:will know the truth and the truth will set
Speaker:you free. So in other words, he's saying this. He's saying,
Speaker:if you hold on to my teaching, then you
Speaker:will be my followers. And if you'll hold onto
Speaker:my teaching, if you'll be immersed into my teaching,
Speaker:then you will know the truth and the truth will
Speaker:set you free. Free. Now, they respond
Speaker:to this, and they say this. We are
Speaker:Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves
Speaker:of anyone. How can you say that we
Speaker:shall be set free? Now, I don't know about you, but I have
Speaker:read the Bible, okay? There are
Speaker:multiple occasions where I see the Jews in
Speaker:slavery. And their response, not
Speaker:one. Multiple Jews. Are you listening to me?
Speaker:Multiple Jews who say they believe what Jesus is
Speaker:saying. They are saying back to Jesus, we ain't never
Speaker:been slaves. Follow me.
Speaker:Multiple Christians in today's church
Speaker:looking at the truth and saying nonsense
Speaker:and not no one stopping the nonsense.
Speaker:Because everyone, everyone has been
Speaker:succumbed to the bondage
Speaker:that each is in. And the whole community has
Speaker:been deceived. God does
Speaker:not want his bride to be deceived.
Speaker:In other words, what should have happened is one of the Jews should have said,
Speaker:hey. Could have said, hey, Jesus, we ain't never been slaves. Somebody else should'
Speaker:said, wait a second, that's not true. That's not true.
Speaker:Didn't nobody say a thing. We ain't never been
Speaker:slaves. Let me ask you a question. How do you know that
Speaker:you're not being deceived this morning?
Speaker:How do you know the words coming out of my mouth
Speaker:are truth?
Speaker:Listen, I'm asking a question that we
Speaker:need to ponder and consider and think about
Speaker:because we could very well be a group saying,
Speaker:we ain't never been slaves. And I'm
Speaker:connected to 300, 400 people. We ain't never been slaves.
Speaker:So he's having this. They're having this interaction. And Jesus
Speaker:responds. He says this
Speaker:very truly. I tell you, everyone who sins is a
Speaker:slave to sin. Now, a slave has no
Speaker:permanent place in the family, but a son belongs
Speaker:to it forever. So if the Son sets you
Speaker:free, you will be free indeed.
Speaker:I know that you're Abraham's descendants,
Speaker:yet listen to this. Yet you are looking for
Speaker:a way to kill me. Listen to this,
Speaker:because you have no room for my word.
Speaker:Selah,
Speaker:We literally could be believers
Speaker:wearing the shirt, attending church, paying
Speaker:the tithes, serving in the ministry, but at the same
Speaker:time killing the truth because we don't have room
Speaker:for the word.
Speaker:I am telling you What I have seen in the father's presence. And you are
Speaker:doing what you have heard from your father. Abraham
Speaker:is our father, they answered. If you were Abraham's children, said
Speaker:Jesus, then you would do what Abraham did. As it is, you are looking for
Speaker:a way to kill me, a man who has told you the truth. That I
Speaker:heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the works of
Speaker:your own father. To which they respond,
Speaker:we are not illegitimate children. Now,
Speaker:let's camp there for one second. This discourse is
Speaker:taken between the Jews and Jesus. In human
Speaker:reasoning, which of the two parties might be an illegitimate
Speaker:child? In human reasoning, which of the two parties?
Speaker:Jesus. Remember his story. Mary's
Speaker:pregnant. Wait, y' all aren't married? What?
Speaker:And so think about this.
Speaker:We're not illegitimate children. We're not
Speaker:illegitimate children. We are descendants of Abraham. And I
Speaker:laugh at this next line. It says this. Where is it? They
Speaker:protested. The only father we have is God
Speaker:himself. They're talking to Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Somebody say stupid.
Speaker:But here's the thing.
Speaker:When we don't know the word of God,
Speaker:we say the most idiotic things.
Speaker:We execute what we believe the truth to say in
Speaker:the most idiotic, destructive ways.
Speaker:They're talking to Jesus. He said,
Speaker:if God were your father, you would love me. For I have come
Speaker:here from God. I have not come from my own. God sent
Speaker:me. Why is my language not clear to you?
Speaker:Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong. Listen to this.
Speaker:You belong to your father, the devil,
Speaker:and you want to carry your father's desires. He was a
Speaker:murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth. For the truth was
Speaker:not in him. He speaks lies. He speaks his
Speaker:native language. For he is a liar and the father of
Speaker:lies. Here's the thing. When you are immersed in the truth,
Speaker:if this was water in here and I was immersed in here, I can't
Speaker:hear anything. But when I'm out here,
Speaker:and I'm only in proximity to the truth, I can hear the
Speaker:Father of Lies all day long, combating and
Speaker:challenging the very truth that I say I believe in.
Speaker:Do you want to be set free?
Speaker:That's the question on the table this morning.
Speaker:Here's what this looks like. We are
Speaker:to be immersed in the
Speaker:truth. When we are immersed in the truth,
Speaker:you can no longer see me.
Speaker:All you see is Jesus. When you
Speaker:are immersed in the truth, he
Speaker:becomes bigger and you become less than
Speaker:when you are immersed in the truth. All of a sudden,
Speaker:your words and your actions evolve and
Speaker:change and look like the Savior who
Speaker:saved your life. All of a sudden you begin to
Speaker:love people in a way that. That you've never loved them before.
Speaker:All of a sudden you are generous in a way that you have
Speaker:never been generous before. Turn the other cheek.
Speaker:Jesus says you turn the other cheek. Forgive. 70
Speaker:times 7. Not a problem. You are
Speaker:immersed in truth. And because of your immersion
Speaker:in the truth, the ripples of your life
Speaker:speak so much louder than the person who's sitting
Speaker:outside of the truth yelling out what they believe. They
Speaker:the Bible says on how to live. Are you with me today?
Speaker:We are supposed to be immersed in
Speaker:the word of God. It changes our lives.
Speaker:It causes us to not see anything or hear
Speaker:anything outside of the truth. And we feel
Speaker:and know and recognize his presence. We learn
Speaker:about ourselves. Do you know that God, the breather of
Speaker:stars, has so many incredible, wonderful things
Speaker:to say about you? The Father of lies
Speaker:also has some things to say. But when you are immersed into the
Speaker:truth, all you hear is truth.
Speaker:May we be a church who is immersed in the church,
Speaker:immersed in the truth. May we be a church who's immersed in the truth. So
Speaker:that when people look at our church, all they see is
Speaker:Jesus Christ.
Speaker:All they see is Jesus Christ.
Speaker:Here's the thing. Some people say, if I'm immersed in the church and I can't
Speaker:be seen, who's going to do the fighting?
Speaker:Who's going to do the preaching? If I'm immersed, I mean, who's going to stand
Speaker:up and tell them what they need to hear? Do you know,
Speaker:when I look in Scripture and I look at the people with the loudest voices,
Speaker:before they start their. Started their ministry, they
Speaker:metaphorically signed the dotted line and said, they can take me out and kill me
Speaker:for this. They were crucified,
Speaker:they were speared, they were beheaded, some of them.
Speaker:So before I take on the idea that I need
Speaker:to be in the position of a platform to give my voice, I
Speaker:also need to be in a position that says, listen, I'm willing to give my
Speaker:life for this. I
Speaker:believe that those who are immersed in truth speak so
Speaker:much louder, have more extraordinary voices than anybody
Speaker:who's ever been given a platform with a voice. It's not to say the
Speaker:platform isn't important. God uses the platform. But there are
Speaker:some silent warriors and ninjas in the kingdom that
Speaker:go farther. I believe that they are going to be recognized before the King
Speaker:in extravagant ways, more so than those
Speaker:who are on the platform.
Speaker:We are supposed to be people who are
Speaker:immersed in truth. Why
Speaker:is this important?
Speaker:The World is confused
Speaker:about how we are supposed to live our lives.
Speaker:And if we are not careful, we too, as
Speaker:believers in the house of God, will become confused
Speaker:about how we are supposed to live our lives.
Speaker:There is no confusion in the kingdom of God.
Speaker:The truth of God's word can stand alone. It
Speaker:is a firm foundation. The
Speaker:answer to the problems that you have are not found
Speaker:on TV or in the world. They're found in the word of God.
Speaker:There are principles in here. Some of you have been laid up for
Speaker:38 years and God is saying, do you wanna
Speaker:be free? Do you wanna be free? He's got
Speaker:an answer for that question. He's got a peace that
Speaker:passes understanding. He's got every. He owns the cattle on the
Speaker:hill. He's got every provision that you've been asking for. He has that
Speaker:hope that he's instilled inside you. He gives you the ability to be
Speaker:faithful. He is a God above all other gods. He is a
Speaker:suprem. The world cannot take him down.
Speaker:The Father of lies must bow to the truth
Speaker:of God. And so my question
Speaker:this morning to you all, to this church, is, do
Speaker:you want to be free? And guess what? I'm not gonna leave it on
Speaker:an abstract note today. Would you stand with me, worship team? You can come
Speaker:out. The question that we have
Speaker:to deal with is, do we want to be free?
Speaker:And I believe that there are people in here who want to be free.
Speaker:Guys, an immersed life is not a passive life.
Speaker:The Word tells us that when the Son of Man is lifted up, he will
Speaker:draw all men unto himself. He can
Speaker:do the bidding for his work. Here's the deal. Does
Speaker:our life look like the Master to
Speaker:whom we say we serve? Does our lives look
Speaker:like that? Do you even know what's required of you
Speaker:when you encounter something in the world that is confusing?
Speaker:When the world adopts a philosophy,
Speaker:when the world adopts all types of things and tries to
Speaker:indoctrinate the next generation, are you prepared
Speaker:not only how to answer that with the truth of God's word by
Speaker:what it says, but how to
Speaker:encounter and how to interact with those who are rendering the
Speaker:lie. All of this has to
Speaker:do with the immersion of the truth of God's word.
Speaker:So here's my real question. My question that the broad question we're
Speaker:answering is this. Do you want to be free?
Speaker:But I'm going to pare that down a little bit more to make this
Speaker:concrete. Here's the word, here's the question.
Speaker:Are you immersed in God's Word?
Speaker:Do you know the truth of God's word.
Speaker:Now, I'm not talking about. I'm not talking about
Speaker:quantity. I'm not saying, well, you know, I read 10 chapters
Speaker:a day. Check that off the list.
Speaker:What I'm saying is, is this book alive
Speaker:in your life? Does it hold the
Speaker:authority of your opinions, your beliefs, how you
Speaker:interact with people? Do you actually know
Speaker:what this word says? Because to know the word of God is to know
Speaker:Jesus Christ.
Speaker:There's this scary scripture, and this isn't meant to scare
Speaker:or manipulate. It's meant to convict. It is meant to convict.
Speaker:In Matthew, Jesus says there are going to be
Speaker:people that show up on that day and say to him,
Speaker:Lord, Lord,
Speaker:I cast out demons in your name.
Speaker:Did you see that extra zero I put on that tie? Check.
Speaker:Jesus. Jesus,
Speaker:I preached in your name. I served in that ministry in your name.
Speaker:You know what he says? He looks right at those people and
Speaker:says, I do not know you.
Speaker:The only way for you to know him and for him
Speaker:to know you is to be immersed in the truth.
Speaker:Do you have a relationship with this word? I
Speaker:promise you, there's a lot of things that we're going to talk about on this
Speaker:stage, over this series and this year or whatever. There is nothing more important than
Speaker:what I'm telling you right now. Because the answers, everything that
Speaker:we're preaching here should come from this book. Get in relationship. Do you
Speaker:see what God could do? Do you know the freedom that people could experience? If
Speaker:we had a bunch of people immersed in the truth
Speaker:he would be bringing. There would be growth. It would be unstoppable. We would not
Speaker:have room to put all the people. Why? Because when he is lifted up,
Speaker:he draws all men to himself. He does not need you to lift him
Speaker:up. He needs you to die to yourself so that he will
Speaker:be lifted up. So will
Speaker:those who are gonna pray with people come forward. I have a very specific call
Speaker:this morning, and it's not even if you have a need.
Speaker:Some of you have come with needs this morning. And if your need is outside
Speaker:of this, I'll be down here. Pastor Barbee, we'll meet with you after the service.
Speaker:Be happy to pray with you. That's not what this call is for. Come on
Speaker:down here. I'm gonna need a lot of leaders. We had a salvation in first
Speaker:service. That should be a Praise the Lord. We had a salvation,
Speaker:and I mean, eternity was changed. Okay, listen.
Speaker:It's literally a matter of life and death.
Speaker:My daughters are being raised in this house
Speaker:and they are being Taught by people who are sitting in these seats.
Speaker:Guys, do you know this word.
Speaker:The other day, My diet. I don't remember what day Justin's gonna
Speaker:punch me in the face for this, but my diet the other day, mozzarella
Speaker:sticks, popcorn, and a slushie.
Speaker:It's really what it was. Let me tell you
Speaker:who felt it the next morning.
Speaker:My kids don't need cookies, popcorn,
Speaker:candy, all of that stuff that the world gives out. They need
Speaker:some meat and vegetables that are found in the Word of God.
Speaker:I want my kids and their kids and their kids to
Speaker:have a fighting chance in a world that seems to be taking over.
Speaker:But I know who has the victory in the end. I
Speaker:don't want my kids to get trampled on because we got a bunch of
Speaker:complacent, lukewarm people in their lives.
Speaker:And the way that we combat that is by getting into the Word of God.
Speaker:And so this morning, I am asking you, I am beseeching you, I am
Speaker:begging you, if your life is one that you would say, I'm not
Speaker:in the Word of God. I'm not immersed in the Word of God.
Speaker:I read sometimes, but I'm not really necessarily applying what
Speaker:I'm learning. My calendar is such that I don't. I'm not able. I just
Speaker:don't get into it. I struggle having time in the Word.
Speaker:You need a dose of hunger from the Holy Spirit. Spirit in your
Speaker:life that makes you attracted to this, that this becomes the priority
Speaker:in your life. And today, what I'm going to ask you to do is
Speaker:to come with one of these believers down here and confess
Speaker:and just say, you know what? Listen, here's the thing. We don't need to make
Speaker:this long down here because I think there's going to be multiple people. There's one
Speaker:question to answer. Do you want to be free? We don't need to. We don't
Speaker:need to. Hey, yes. My life has been. I got a
Speaker:calendar issue. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what the lame man did. Jesus said,
Speaker:get up. Some of us need to get up, walk down here and just say,
Speaker:I want to be free. That's all it needs. And these people will know how
Speaker:to pray with you at that moment. You want to be free? Get into the
Speaker:Word of God. Get immersed in the Word of God. Know the Word of God.
Speaker:Live and breathe the Word of God. Jesus Christ
Speaker:wants to change your life radically. He wants you to be free. Does
Speaker:anybody here want to be free? Am I the only one? Am I crazy? Guys,
Speaker:let's go swimming. Come on.
Speaker:If that is you today, I want you to make your way down here. We
Speaker:may have lines here because these prayers aren't going to be hellfire, brimstone,
Speaker:long prayers. We're going to literally just agree that the Lord is going to open
Speaker:up capacity and birth a hunger in your life. Come on down right now as
Speaker:we worship. If you want to ask the Lord to help you have a
Speaker:hunger for his word and to be immersed, come now, let's pray.
