Living in Continued Freedom Part One.
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Our spiritual freedom is GAINED through SALVATION. Our Spiritual Freedom is MAINTAINED through OBEDIENCE.
Deliverance and Discipleship. Those are the two keys to experiencing and living in freedom in Christ Jesus! And If the Son has set you free, then you are free indeed!
We continue our series this morning by expanding a bit in the area of maintaining our spiritual freedom. We are going to further talk about living continually in the freedom Jesus has given us.
Jesus has given us an amazing gift! But there is someone out there that despises your spiritual freedom who will do whatever it takes to get you to surrender that spiritual freedom - His name is Satan.
Remember how last week we declared that we are going to war with the enemy? If we think the enemy is going to make this easy… think again. That’s why it is called spiritual warfare! But do not be afraid, the God we serve is GREATER than the enemy who might attack!
4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
31 What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
So… with the truth that there is a very real enemy who intends to attacks must also come the truth that we serve a very real God who will protect us and defend us… so long as… we make the choice to CLOSE ALL DOORS to the enemy in our lives.
Ephesians 4:27 gives us a clear and stern warning regarding this.
27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
Don’t give the enemy an inch! If we desire to live in continued freedom, we must we must we must shut down the influence of the enemy in our lives.
Satan is always looking for open doors of opportunity in our lives. He’s seeking not to own us… but to control us and influence us - and to hurt us anyway he can.
And… the enemy is sneaky. Say that word with me… sneaky. In Genesis, the serpent who deceived Eve was described as “more crafty” Genesis 3 meaning the enemy is a master manipulator and a trickster.
He will down play any if not all negative consequences of sin AND… he will work to make God look like the bad guy.
His goal… is to gain a foothold in your life.
Once he has it… your spiritual freedom is in jeopardy. Again, this NOT something the enemy can forcefully take away from us… it is something we surrender or give away.
When we undertake certain activities - sinful activities - the devil is given legal grounds to claim that turf. Look at how Paul describes this ground in 2 Corinthians 10:4
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
The “turf” Satan claims becomes a stronghold in our life - a spiritual road block to the freedom we have in Jesus Christ.
These strongholds can and will do nothing but cause trouble in our lives! These strongholds will keep you from living continually in the freedom in Christ. SO LONG AS THE DOOR TO THE ENEMY REMAINS OPEN, SO WILL THE STRONGHOLD REMAIN IN TACT.
We cannot pray to God to deliverance from things… we don’t want to be delivered from. What I mean by that is we must ask God to change our heart… before He can change our habits!
The good news is that if trouble that if the trouble in our lives has a spiritual root, then Jesus can easily deliver us and dig out that spiritual root. His work in our lives makes TRUE freedom a possibility today and every day!
So this morning, we are going to dig seep within. This morning, in the interest and desire of living in continual spiritual freedom, we are going to responsibly and transparently look inward to make sure the enemy has NO FOOTHOLD in our lives.
The key in this is identification. We must identify those areas and deal with them accordingly.
Our house is a great house and I am very glad to own it. Over the last few years we have been working to update and modify a few things. One of those things we have been working on is sealing it up.
It the hot months, I look for or feel for… hot spots. Where are the areas the heat is coming through?
When we first moved in, the front windows had lost it’s seal… so all of the special gases between the two panes had escaped. When the sun was shining on the windows, the glass on the inside was 120 degrees. Our living room felt like an oven!
We have an attic fan that tends to let a lot of attic heat in. We have other spots that do the same.
If I want to keep the heat out, I have to work on sealing up the problem areas.
The same can be said regarding the winter months. If I don’t take active steps to remedy the problem, then I have no room to complain about the higher energy bills.
The same can be said spiritually. There may be things negative things happening in your life that is tied to a spiritual root or stronghold that you have yet to deal with.
First, it must be identified. Second, it must be dealt with through deliverance.
Identifying the stronghold is the first step in us becoming free. That is followed by confession, prayers for deliverance, and the continued filling of the Holy Spirit.
So this morning, we are going to look at three major warning signs that an unidentified stronghold exists in your life. We are going to look to the signs, and then in our closing, we are going to call on our Savior.
Dealing with these issues are essential if we truly desire to live continually in spiritual freedom.
Continued Iniquity
Continued Iniquity
First off, what is iniquity?
Webster defines it as immoral or grossly unfair behavior. The Bible would use this word and define it as… sin. Continued iniquity means willful, habitual sin. Such continued behavior in our lives is a sign that a person may have allowed a spiritual snake to come into their house.
The Bible makes it clear that every single one of us has sinned. Romans 3:23 tells us of that truth.
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
So… we all know what sin is and what sin feels like. But sin is exactly what Christ came to this earth to deliver us from. Therefore, those who have been delivered from sin, are to no longer to have anything to do with sin, PERIOD.
So… the continued allowance of sin in a believers life is a HUGE sign that the enemy has gained a foothold somewhere.
Choosing to willfully sin, particularly over and over again in the same specific area, is an outward sign of an inward problem. The ongoing sin can be both cause and effect.
Habitual sin in our lives can open the door to evil influence.
Habitual sin can also be evidence that something evil has already moved in.
Regardless, living with continued iniquity is NOT living in continued freedom. And church… sometimes a person can be living in this continued pattern for so long that… they cannot eve see it for the sin that it is.
A woman caught, a crowd in denial.
I want us to look at John 8 this morning, specifically at the story of the adulteress woman. In the attempt to trap Jesus in His words, a crowd brought a woman to Him who had been caught in the act of adultery.
So… there was no really denying her sin. She was caught. And now the crowd brought her to Jesus to be condemned. The crowd didn’t care one bit about the woman’s fate… all they wanted to do was trap Jesus. But what happens next is something only God could have done.
Instead of calling our the woman’s continued iniquity, He instead calls out the crowd! John 8:7
7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
One by one, the people left because each and every one of them had sinned. No one was free from guilt meaning anyone of them could have been the victim in the middle of the circle.
Once everyone was gone, Jesus spoke with the woman directly.
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
The woman was set free by Jesus. The only one worthy to condemn her… instead delivered her. And look carefully at His instruction “leave your LIFE of sin.”
But the amazing work was not over because Scripture indicates to us… that the crowd returns with some additional questions. And this conversation is what leads us to a passage we looked at last week. John 8:31
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
Here’s the funny and interesting part. The people that heard this… did not like this. Look at how they respond in verse 33
33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”
These guys don’t even know their own history… nor are they paying attention to their present! They had been slaves in Egypt under Pharaoh, they had fallen into habitual idol worship and iniquity, they had been conquered by a series of national taskmasters - Chaldeans, Babylonians, Assyrians, and Greeks. And… in that moment… they were in political bondage to the Romans!
This crowd had been used to bondage that… it had become their reality! They couldn’t identify the bondage because it was all they had ever known!
Then Jesus nails them with this truth
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. 37 I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word. 38 I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you are doing what you have heard from your father.”
Did you catch what Jesus just said? The people had become slaves to sin AND… instead of coming out from under this slavery, they were looking for ways to kill Jesus because they had NO ROOM for His Word!
Sound familiar? We have become a nation and a culture that has NO ROOM for the Word - who is Christ Jesus! And with the decision to no longer identify the sins that bind and destroy, we have instead turned our back on the One who died to set us free from the bondage we are facing!
Think I’m making this up?
Our culture has worked to not only redefine sin and immorality, we have created laws to protect and to celebrate such things.
Our culture has worked to make Christianity the one intolerable faith as we fill our hearts with witchcraft and evil, violence and immorality, and wickedness and unrighteousness.
Our communities have embraced educational formats that are poisoning the hearts and minds of our children… allowing for evil to be indoctrinated into their souls.
We have allowed for far more than a foothold… and then we arrogantly profess to be free??? I fear, church, that like the Pharisees in Jesus day, we don’t even know what it means to be free anymore!!!
The key in breaking free is found in the words that Jesus spoke to the adulteress woman. Her sin had been clearly identified. She was caught, she was thrown out before the crowd to be condemned… but Jesus did something else… HE SET HER FREE.
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Listen to me clearly today: Jesus didn’t come to condemn… and He didn’t come hear to condone. He didn’t come here to compromise nor did he come here to overlook. HE CAME HERE TO DELIVER. He came here to set hearts free. He came here to save the lost.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
All of us in this room are worthy of condemnation for our sins - yet that is NOT what we received from Jesus. Just like the woman in the circle, we are guilty of sin.
But also just like the crowd who had a literal history of slavery - perhaps we live in denial of what we are a slave to. Perhaps we can’t see our sin for what it is because it is all we have ever known. Perhaps we have not allowed room in our lives for the Word to set us free.
Breaking free from habitual sin begins with identifying it for what it is. It begins by being real with your situation.
It means we stop making excuses… it means we stop playing games… it means we take responsibility for the foothold we have allowed for the enemy to have in our lives. GOD DOESN’T PLAY GAMES. God calls out sin for what it is.
The prophet Jeremiah recording some powerful words that came from God Himself that describe the audacity of willful, habitual sin.
8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
9 “ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
A modern-day paraphrase of this might be, “So, you’re actually going to lie and hate your neighbor and let lust in your heart and then come to church and act as if nothing is wrong? That’s not freedom! That’s slavery!”
That is standing with the crowd that would condemn another of something they themselves are guilty of. That is being used of the enemy to bring destruction instead of being used by Jesus to lead to deliverance!!!
Closing
Closing
Church, WE CANNOT GIVE THE ENEMY A FOOTHOLD IN OUR LIVES THROUGH CONTINUED INEQUITY! Our spiritual freedom was not given that we would continue in sin!
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.
Your freedom… the freedom Christ has called you to… was not given to do as you please… it was given to serve in love.
Our first and primary area of service is our relationship with Christ.
our second area of service is in our relationship with others.
BUT NOWHERE IN SCRIPTURE does it ever say that our freedom is given that we might serve our own indulgences and impulses. We are not free to sin… we are free to serve!
So it is time to make a choice. Are you willing and ready to be real… Are you ready to go to war with the enemy?
Again, this battle has already been won… but maybe it’s time for you to declare victory over some of these areas in your life that have been subject to sin.
It all comes down to who you are willing to offer yourself to.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! 16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. 18 You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
The only way to come out from under the weight of continued iniquity is… to stop serving the master of sin. Instead of offering ourselves to that which would bring destruction, are we willing to offer ourselves, THROUGH OBEDIENCE, to the One who gave His life that you could be free?
I want to offer an interesting thought regarding the story of the adulteress woman.
There she was… in the middle of the circle… caught in her sin. Jesus called out the crowd who was ready to stone her for her immorality. In His challenge, the people had the choice to either deny their sin and through the stones… or to acknowledge their sin and walk away.
But… was there one more option? An option that no one in the crowd decided to take? Was that option to not only acknowledge their sin… but instead of walking away… they could have walked toward JESUS???
One person was DELIVERED in that moment. One person came to know true freedom in that moment.
The others acknowledged their sin… but then turned FROM Jesus. What would have happened if… one by one… they joined the woman in the position of guilt… only to be set free by the hand of Jesus?
Jesus is calling ALL of us to freedom today through His grace and forgiveness. Jesus is in this place… ready to tear down strongholds… ready to set hearts free today… but two things must happen in order for continued freedom to become your spiritual reality.
One… Identify that sin… that open door in your life. Stop making excuses for it. Stop trying to justify it. Stop trying to reason for it. Call it what it is and acknowledge that sin.
Two… turn to Jesus. Make room in your life for the Word. Let he or she who is with sin… find forgiveness in the One who died for our sins.
If I stand representing the one who was called out for their sin… the one who stood condemned by the crowd… the one whom Jesus stood in the gap for… are there any others who would stand and join me in the presence of our Savior?
This is a stance of acknowledgement. This is a stance of confession. This is a stance of repentance. As you come, I want you to ask Jesus to forgive you… and I want you to declare victory over that continual sin in your life once and for all through the blood of the Lamb!