To be free means to be released from something that shackles us. We are free when we allow the truth of God’s Word and His will to establish our identity. But we must normalize God’s perspective in our thinking and in the way we operate. Dr. Tony Evans gives a powerful message illustrating the Power of Truth.
when you got saved he signed your
emancipation proclamation
but there is a gap
between when he signed it and when
2000 troops show up to activate it
because there is a
system that’s been so used to being
there that doesn’t want to let you go
but when the sun shows up he’s able to
take the mess that’s held us hostage and
say to us free at last free at last
thank god almighty you are free at last
[Applause]
there is another kind of slavery
that hold people hostage
it is a slavery that keeps them from
being what they were created to be it is
a slavery that holds them
bound
to illegitimate
incarceration
and that is the slavery
that jesus talks about
in john chapter 8.
he says in verse 31 so jesus
was saying to those jews who had
believed him
if you continue in my word
then you are truly disciples of mine
verse 32
and you will know the truth
and the truth
will make you
free
amen
he speaks to people
who had believed
in him
so these were already
christians
but they were christians who needed
still to be set free
because having accepted jesus christ
did not remove
automatically
all of the things that held them
illegitimately
hostage
to be free means to be released
from something that ought not to be
shackling you
limiting you
so that you can
be what you were designed to be
and jesus tells them that
their salvation has set them up
for an experience of freedom
but the unfortunate reality is that
many people
still find themselves
illegitimately
shackled as spiritual pows
prisoners of war
they find themselves behind enemy lines
unable to get free they have
accepted jesus christ
like many who had believed in him had
but
something was still holding them back
limiting them
keeping them from
fully realizing the greatness about
their salvation
for many there is a gap between the time
of salvation
and the time of their
liberation
that when they received jesus christ
there was an emancipation proclamation
but what they needed was a juneteenth
experience
because there was a gap of time
between what was done legally
and what was experienced
relationally and the question is
how do we get released
freed up from the
strongholds
now that’s the spiritual word for what
the secular world calls addictions
a stronghold is an addiction
that has a spiritual component
attached to it that is
something spiritual has grabbed hold of
something
that is either is legitimate or was
legitimate and made it illegitimate and
so it’s a stronghold it’s something that
you can’t buckle because there is a
spiritual
component and that means that
all your human efforts can’t really get
you free because the spiritual component
has not been either understood
or dressed and what you need is
two thousand union soldiers
you need a power
to set you free to set us free
from whatever it is it can be an
addiction of drugs
it can be an addiction of alcohol it can
be an addiction
of profanity not being able to control
what you say an addiction of identity
you you pick the stronghold
the addiction that has been
wrapped
in this spiritual
vice grip
like a snake that’s wrapped around
your thinking
so that no matter how many promises you
make
how many new year’s resolutions you make
it just won’t let you go and what many
people do including christians
to try to
address this is they uh
they decorate their cells
they’re in jail they have concluded i’m
never gonna get out of this so at least
let me
decorate myself so i look good being an
addict
so we dress it up with church
we dress it up with piety
we dress it up with bible study we got a
good looking cell but we’re still in
jail
others seek to
manage their slavery
you’re trying to manage it just if i can
just hold it hostage
for a while so it don’t doesn’t just
break out
jesus recognized that there is the need
even when jesus raised lazarus from the
dead
he had to tell some folk lose him and
let him go he still needed to be free
still need to be released
and even if that’s not you
you know somebody who’s in that
situation
who has something tattooed on their
souls
that they can’t get rid of
that they want to shake
that they need release and relief from
we find ourselves often in spiritual
quicksand
where the harder we try to get out the
deeper we sink
and the need to be free
jesus gives us the clue the secret if
you will the
the guidance that we need
when he says
in verse 32
and you will know the truth
and the truth will
make you free
it’s like he’s saying
if you get this thing called the truth
it’ll force you to freedom
it’s going to make you free
so if i can say it another way if you
don’t have the truth you may have to
settle for being a slave
the first thing he says is that truth
exists we’ve talked about that already
there is such thing as truth an absolute
standard by which reality is measured
the truth that exists is knowable you
shall know the truth so this truth that
jesus is speaking of that sets people
free is not hidden information
you shall know the truth
and the way you know that you really
know it
is that you’re finding yourself being
freed by it
so he’s not merely talking about
intellectual acuity he’s not merely
talking about
intellectual information he’s talking
about
transformational data
you shall know the truth
and the way you know you know it
is that you are being released freed
by it
so let’s go a little deeper
he has told them in verse 31
if you continue in my word
if you
continue in my word now they’ve already
believed in him
they’ve already accepted him they’re
already on their way to heaven
but he says the key to freedom
beyond your initial salvation
is continuing in his word
which will give you the truth that will
set you free
the word continue is our key word
it is the word
that means to abide
now we’ve explained that strongholds
is more that’s more than an addiction
a secular concept of just being
owned by circumstance or substance
but it has to do with the spiritual
reality that’s because of what jesus
says next
they said we are abraham’s descendants
verse 33. and have never been enslaved
to anyone how is it that you said you
will become free
jesus says truly truly i say to you
everyone who commits sin is a slave of
sin
the slave does not remain in the house
forever the son
does remain forever
he says
the reason that folks aren’t free
is because sin which is a spiritual
issue has a vice grip
it’s not just a bad habit
it is an enslaved situation
you know you need to be free
when your sin becomes your identity what
i’ve done is i’ve taken the sin
and i’ve made it normal
in other words i’ve turned it into my
identity that’s why you put i am in
front of it because it has become such a
vice grip on the soul
that it is now how you view who you are
and he says you become a slave to it
they say wait a minute wait a minute
wait a minute wait a minute they say
we’re abraham’s descendants talk about
father’s day
we are descendants of our father
abraham
how do you say we are a slave
they say don’t you know who we are
and where we’re from
nothing will keep you
locked down
in spiritual slavery
like having a wrong view of yourself
they said we are abraham’s seed we have
never been enslaved now right then
they’re enslaved to rome
they have been enslaved to babylon they
have been enslaved to persia they have
been enslaved to egypt in other words
they weren’t dealing in reality
you know
they were turning a biological reality
and thinking that gave them spiritual
privilege
they had a spiritual miscalculation
and when you have a spiritual
miscalculation
that winds up
causing you to lead to an erroneous
spiritual conclusion you won’t get the
spiritual help
to give you the spiritual release
that you are looking for
jesus has to tell them you are
not using the right standard for the
freedom that you need
one of the reasons
that we’re held hostage
by all of this stuff that we’re facing
today racism and culturalism and
classism and
political conflict
is that we don’t continue in his word
oh we may get started with it with an
invocation
we may bring god’s name
we may even quote a scripture
but what we don’t do is
abide
he says if you continue if you abide if
you hang out in my word he says
freedom is attached to that
by
hearing it
learning it
memorizing it quoting it referring to it
and most of all utilizing it
if you continue in my word if it becomes
an a way of life a mindset an
orientation a perspective if it’s how
you roll
if you continue in my word you want to
know what i think about it how i feel
about it what i say about it and you
interact with me
and my word
then the truth will be activated
in your experience
satan’s goal is to get you
to contaminate the truth get me to
contaminate the truth
so that the truth loses its
its pop
it loses its ability to do what it does
so here it is
you’re believer you’re saved you’re on
your way to heaven but you’re
incarcerated in some form or fashion
that’s why some of these things we try
to fix don’t get fixed because we keep
it in the secular addiction category and
not in a spiritual sin category
he says
if you will continue in my word
you will know the truth
and the truth will make you free
it’ll make it happen
and then he gives you the kicker
the kicker is in verse
36
so if the son makes you free
you will be free indeed
so if the son makes you free
you will be free indeed indeed means
show enough
for real
you can bank on it
if the sun makes you free well wait a
minute i’m confused because he told me
you will know the truth and the truth
will make you free
but verse 36 says
if the son makes you free
you will be free indeed so which is it
is it the truth making me free
or is it the son making me free
well in verse 31 says if you continue in
my word
the truth will set you free so what you
and i need to understand is the dynamic
relationship between the written word
and the living word
there is a dynamic
cooperative
unified
empowerment
when jesus takes
the word
makes it his word for your
problem if the son
sets you free
you will be free in deed
why must the son make you free
well i’m gonna get a little ahead of
myself but let me show you verse 44
you are of your father the devil and you
want to do the desires of your father he
was a murderer from the beginning and
does not stand in the truth because
there is no truth in him
okay
what holds us hostage
is
satan’s ability to keep a lie going
he has
impeccable ability
to make you treat the lie like it is the
truth
so you need somebody stronger than him
to override him for what he’s doing to
you
and me
you are no competition for him
but we know somebody who is
in the previous verses
he says the slave that’s in the house
is different than the son that’s in the
house
the slave is a temporary servant
the son
is an inheritor of the benefits of the
father
jesus says i’m the son
and i have final authority in god’s
house so if you’re being held hostage
illegitimately
because i have authority in the father’s
house i can roll overrule anything
illegitimately holding you hostage in
the house
so he says if the son shall make you
free you shall be free indeed
now let me say something very important
it is the truth that sets you free
not what you believe to be true
you got to get this
it is the truth that sets you free
not what you believe i don’t care how
long you believed it i don’t care how
long your mom and daddy reinforced it i
don’t care how long the culture agrees
with you i don’t care how long your
siblings or what they have to say about
it it’s not what you believe he said is
what i say
and that’s why you need to know ii
corinthians chapter 10.
let me
refer to this this probably will come up
other times in our series but it is a
critical passage for your freedom or for
you to help somebody else get free
second corinthians chapter
chapter 10.
he says
in verse 3 for though we walk in the
flesh we do not war according to the
flesh the battle
for the weapons of our warfare are not
of the flesh that is human ability
but divinely powerful for the
destruction of fortresses
we are destroying speculations
and every lofty thing raised up against
the knowledge of god and we are taking
every thought captive to the obedience
of christ
he says we are destroying
he says
we are getting rid of fortresses you
know what a fort is
a ford is an encampment that has been
established to keep things out
it’s a fought
he says we are bringing down every lofty
thing what the enemy puts up is a lofty
thing
why because he wants to block the
knowledge of god from getting through
he doesn’t want god’s perspective to
bleed over
into your thinking so he erects a lofty
thing what are the lofty things that he
erects so he can keep you and me as a
slave
breaking up our lives breaking up our
peace breaking up our marriages breaking
up our plans for the uh our calling our
divine purpose what is the lofty thing
he tells you what the lofty thing is
verse 5 we are destroying speculations
and every lofty thing raised up against
the knowledge of god
speculations you know what a speculator
is
a speculation is um
how you feel about us
an issue
what you think about an issue
do you know we spend a lot of our time
blocking god out
because of what we speculate
how we feel what we think
what we were taught how we were raised
that created a
a partition that blocked out the
knowledge of god
an interesting version of scripture says
you do nullify the word of god with your
traditions
god says you can cancel me out did you
know you talk about cancer culture
you can cancel god out
by what you think
by your speculation
god doesn’t want you to speculate when
he has spoken
he doesn’t want you to debate when he
has spoken yes clarity to understand but
but but the idea is to know the truth
because that’s the only thing he’s going
to use to free yes free us up he will
only use the truth
he won’t use your speculation
he won’t use your orientation and he
certainly won’t use your edumacation
because some of us have educated
ourselves in the speculation
we become brilliantly ignorant
now here’s the kicker here’s what really
will turn it on if you want to speed it
up verse 6 of 2nd corinthians 10 and we
are ready to punish all disobedience
whenever your obedience is
complete
whenever your obedience is complete
so you continue in his word not merely
by knowing it
but by implementing it whenever your
obedience but here’s the word
inc is complete
so partial obedience
won’t bring spiritual deliverance
you have to finish it
now you may say you don’t know my
problem you don’t know my struggle
you don’t know how deep this is you
don’t know how long it’s been there
and mine is different than hers and she
is hers is different than mine and and
how yeah you don’t understand
so i i don’t know what your situation is
but there’s one power source
for whatever your unique situation is
and that is the truth
that you continue in which engages the
son
who brings about
resurrection and the resurrection
is used of jesus
because when jesus rose they say he has
risen
indeed
he’s risen show enough
he can resurrect the situation when you
got saved he signed your emancipation
proclamation
but there is a gap
between when he signed it and when the
2000 troops show up to activate it
because there is
a system that’s been so used to being
there that doesn’t want to let you go
but when the sun shows up he’s able to
take the mess that’s held us hostage and
say to us free at last free at last
thank god almighty you are free at last
[Applause]
[Music]
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just like a seed has life-giving reality
inside of it
that allows it to grow
and to transform itself
into something larger and more
productive
there is life
in god’s word
the power of life to transform
a person from where they are into what
they ought to be setting them free from
anything that would hold them
illegitimately hostage
the power of god’s word when it’s
released
by our activating it through obedience
can transform you
and me
and a world that needs to be delivered
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you