Slave to Our Own Freedom (John 8:31-36)

Start

For you detectives at home, I am not PRich. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Jason or you can call me PJ, I am the new Pastor for Youth Group.

Not as good looking as PRich, but I’ll have the honor of filling in for him this Sunday.

For those of you who caught his sermon last week about freedom, I hope you guys had a blessed week reflecting on how we find freedom in God and we use that freedom not for ourselves, but to love those around us.

PRich talked about how we were slaves to sin and how we abuse freedom for our own self-gain.

He mentioned that we focus on our own self-freedom instead.

That truth hit me hard and well the title of this sermon is called Slave to Our Own freedom.

Today, I want to unpack that in a little more detail.

We always say that we’re slaves to sin and in the scripture passage that we’ll be reading in a second will bring that term up again

But it got me asking “What does that mean?”

Obviously we can’t escape it, but I don’t think I really answer to it.

I don’t think I’m a slave to anything. I mean I feel pretty free and autonomous.

PRich talked about the goodness of freedom and how to practice that, but today we’ll be focusing in on why freedom of the world makes us slaves to the world.

We got this little good cop bad cop thing going I guess.

If you have a desire to grow in Christ and not be so emotionally swayed by things of this world, then I hope today will help you in that walk.

Let’s pray.

Prayer

Lord Father God, thank you for another wonderful Sunday that we gather together to worship you in song and worship you through scripture.

Lord reveal to us here today Your love for us and desire to bring us closer to You. Although we are so distracted by so many superficial things in our lives, please give us a heart to pursue something deeper.

Give us a heart to pursue something that has meaning and substance. Give us a heart to pursue you.

Lord, I’m not sure why you placed me here to speak your message, despite so many more who may be better at it, but I trust that it’s not through my own skills or lack thereof, but through your power, grace, and mercy that we receive your message here today.

Thank you God so much. We love you. We pray all these things in your sons most holy name. Amen.

Scripture

Let’s turn to John chapter 8 verses 31 to 36. It’ll also be shown in the slides as well.

John 8:31-36

31 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

33 They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

35 The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever.

36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

This is the Word of God.

Observation / Why?

Hopefully this will be easy to follow, I’m not the greatest public speaker, but by God’s mercy we’ll get through this together.

I like to think I’m methodical guy, so I like to start with observation, something that we see in our lives.

Romans 1:20 right, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.”

God created the world and created us. I think it’s important to take a moment to think about our lives and be introspective.

Then we’ll get into what the problem is, the problem statement and then the solution.

Spoilers it’s probably Jesus.

As I mentioned before I want to go more detail into freedom and what really means beyond just acknowledging it as a good thing and moving on.

Well what does the world tell me about freedom.

Freedom is essential.

In a Rasmussen poll 73% of Americans would die for their freedom of speech.

In a Gallup poll 77% of Americans feel individual freedom is our best virtue.

Freedom has become a rallying cry for our generation, culture and society.

Is anyone anti-freedom? Can I get a virtual raise of hands?

If you are anti-freedom I’d love to hear your story and your thought process.

So what is freedom?

Society has this idea of freedom of being without oppression and restriction.

We want to make our own decisions. We want to live how we want to live.

No one and no thing to hold me back. I’m free to do what I want to do.

No rules for me.

Freedom.

I went to college in-state (Arizona State University, the product of James Harden and Jimmy Kimmel, that’s honestly the only two famous people I know) and lived with my parents through college.

The first time I moved out and lived alone is after I graduated and got a job in Utah.

I was pretty nervous and worried that I’d be away from my parents.

Nah I’m just kidding I was freaking excited!

Young dude with an engineer’s salary just running wild doing whatever I wanted. Stay up as long as I want. Buy whatever I wanted. I finally had this freedom.

Freedom on the surface seems very simple right. Free to do what my heart desires.

But when I thought about it some more, I started to see this Freedom as a bit deceptive.

For instance, I had the freedom to spend my money however I wanted. No restrictions! Nobody to think about, but myself.

But I found out that I don’t have infinite money, weird. I’m giving up my future retirement freedom if spend all my money now. I can’t have both satisfy the desire to spend however I want now and the desire have enough money for Future PJ.

Hmm.

I’m starting to get a little older. I used to eat like 70% fast food and 30% what my mom made me at home. ‘

I can’t do that anymore because now I start to feel sluggish, I’m starting get a little belly action going on as my girlfriend always reminds me.

I have this desire to eat whatever I want, but also this desire to be healthy. I couldn’t have both.

1. I learned that I was bound by physical restrictions of freedom. I can’t have everything. I have to choose what I constrain myself to and what I want.

The idea that the culture gives us that we have the freedom to do whatever we want is an illusion. We really can’t.

We’re always bound by restrictions and we’re constantly making sacrifices everyday.

Where to spend my time and where not to spend my time.

You guys all play piano right? A lot of us are Korean.

I don’t know what all Korean parents make us play piano, maybe it’s in like a Korean parent manual or something. I’ll ask Chanmi later.

Or you play some kind of instrument or sport.

You practiced a lot right? Or your mom and dad made you practice a lot.

My piano teacher always had this rod thing hit my hands every time they weren’t rounded.

In order for someone to have the freedom to play whatever they want, they had to give up hours and hours each day of their lives practicing.

In order for someone to have the ability to be good at a skill, they had to sacrifice their other desires of playing video games, sleeping, YouTubing.

I wasn’t free of restrictions, I was constantly having to face them.

2. I learned that I was bound by not just these physical restrictions, but relational restrictions.

Living by myself, I had the freedom to just sit in my house and play video games all day. This was pre-COVID by the way. No restrictions!

Play minecraft or Valorant all day Saturday and Sunday. Come home and watch YouTube until I fell asleep.

But I soon learned, I’m giving up friendships and relationships by staying home and not spending time with people.

I couldn’t having loving relationships with friends and family if I didn’t give up things I wanted to do for other people.

You guys following me here?

Even though we value freedom very highly. We give up freedoms for those we love.

PRich and Chanmi decided to get married and commit themselves to one another.

They gave up their own individual freedoms in order to gain something greater.

PRich couldn’t party anymore and and get all the girls.

But really, we give up so much of ourselves in order to love other people.

In order to gain we have to give up our ability to do whatever we want.

They did that again when they had Eden! They gave up the freedom to go on dates and pursue their own hobbies in order to take care of Eden.

The way the world defines freedom being without restrictions, we clearly see that’s not really the case.

We restrict ourselves all the time in order to love those around us.

The Why

Now we took a deeper look into our own lives and see what’s going on.

Next is the why. Why does this matter? What’s significant about this?

So no we can’t do whatever we want, we have to be strategic about it.

The way we come up with a strategy is that is we latch onto something.

I call these freedom strategies. What strategy do we follow when making these decisions.

Let’s dive into verse 33, we see the Jewish people were saying hey we’re the children of THE Abraham.

Just before our passage, Jesus proclaims that He is the Son of Man and the Father has sent him with full authority.

And the Jewish people were moved and believed him!

But just like before during his miracles, this belief was short-lived.

Even though they believed Jesus was divine, they were still latching on to their own identity, their own meaning in life. Their freedom strategy was based on their identity.

Because they had this Jewish lineage, they felt they had freedom and they chose to be strategic about their choices (their laws) in order to pursue their own image.

How can you, Jesus, say that we’ll become free.

They’re not talking about political freedom because I mean they’re in service to the Roman Empire.

They felt they were latching onto God,

But when they were faced with Jesus, the Son of God, our Savior, , they chose their own identity and history.

This is the same for us.

Most people believe that Jesus existed 2000 years ago.

Most people believe there is a higher power.

But most of us still hold on to our own identity we set on ourselves.

We try to put meaning in our lives right? We don’t just eat poop sleep and eventually die, we like to feel like we’re living for something.

So we latch onto something. Self-image, career, friends, hobbies, material things.

We latch onto something based on our own goals, ambitions, or idea of purpose.

We make that our identity and our meaning in life.

So make this our strategy in deciding which freedoms to keep and which ones to sacrifice.

And we think that we are free to decide this strategy, but in reality because we latch onto it and base our life on those principles.

We’re chained to whatever we latch onto.

If we don’t get the grades we want.

If our friends don’t reciprocate our love for them.

If our career doesn’t turn out how we want.

When it doesn’t meet our expectations, we fall.

When it does meet our expectations, we get an endorphin rush for a bit, but we want more.

We’re not free.

We’re enslaved to what we latch onto.

Let’s look at Verse 34, Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.”

We’re slaves to things that are not God that we are pursuing.

We’re slaves because we latch onto these freedom strategies and we sacrifice and sacrifice, but ultimately we’re left with something that we don’t have control over.

If you were like me, I’ve had a pretty uneventful life. Pretty vanilla.

Some of you think that hey, I think I’m doing pretty well right now. I think I have a good purpose in life and I’m progressing.

I’m doing pretty well in school, I’m pretty happy making my own decisions.

But just wait. There is going to come a time where it’s not going to meet our expectations.

There are going to be times when we feel so insecure and anxious because we don’t have control over the outcome.

We’re going to be constantly under the enslavement of wondering what other people think of us.

Even though we love to be in charge of our destiny, we choose things of this world that are temporary and fickle.

What if I told you that you can latch onto a freedom strategy that loves you back.

The Solution Explained

Tim Keller, one of my favorite preachers, said, “One of the world’s myths about freedom is some people say freedom is having no master but yourself. Christ says, Nuh-uh. Freedom is about having the right master.”

Verse 35, “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

When I was younger I was turned off by the idea of God and Jesus and being born again and pledge my life to this divine being.

It felt restrictive. It felt like I was giving up my identity and who I was for something I didn’t really know too much about.

But as we’ve talked about, I realized that everything I had been living for had just as many restrictions and had a shelf-life that would eventually fail me.

Throughout my life I devoted my life to my career. Through high school, college, and working my way up through my job.

I realized that I was chasing something that was never quenching and I would come across roadblocks because of my age and background.

I’m not saying don’t do well in school and your job, you absolutely should, but I was putting all my hope and making decisions purely on this never-ending path.

I became a slave to it. I would get anxiety constantly about grades. I still have dreams to this day about grades and classes.

I would constantly be wondering what other people thought of me at work.

I got a lot of raises, but I still felt like I deserved better.

My life, my emotions, my thoughts all consumed by my objective to better my career.

I was a slave to this ambition.

When we dedicate our entire lives and sacrifice so much for something like our career. And something happens outside our control and we get fired. Our life turns upside down.

When we screw up or fail in Jesus, he forgives us.

We all choose to be chained to something in our lives, but why not make that someone who is unchanging.

Why not make that someone who will forgive us no matter how much we screw up.

Why not make that someone who not only forgives, but wants to reconcile and renew our relationship time and time again.

There’s this famous video that I’m sure a lot of you have seen.

It’s a father of a daughter who was raped and killed.

He was in the court room and he forgives his daughters killer.

Man I honestly think I wouldn’t be able to do that ever.

And to think man God through Jesus forgave us, but this is what gets crazier.

God desires reconciliation.

It’s as if the father would grab a beer with the killer and build a relationship.

Unthinkable.

This is God’s heart.

Before we were building these restrictive lives in pursuit of some goal that we had. That goal would be ultimately unsatisfying and in the end nothing lasted, not even ourselves.

God changed that through Jesus.

When Jesus died on the cross, he tore the veil and bridged that gap between us and God.

He suffered on the cross so that despite our sinful nature, our tendencies, we can be righteous before God.

I think a lot of us have experienced that initial freedom of being saved.

But a lot of us still struggle with placing other things as our primary motivator.

Practical Application

Hey PJ, I see areas in my life where I’m so emotionally and physically drained because of things outside my control and I feel like I’m a slave to what goes on in the world. I see that Jesus is the answer, so how do I do that practically.

To get off this emotional roller coaster of a ride where we’re so sensitive to things of this world, we have to be a little counter-intuitive.

Going back to verse 31, “So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

We have to give up our self-rule.

How do we do that? We abide in God’s Word.

This.

Why do we need to read the Bible? Why do we need to listen to what the Bible says? Why am I listening to this sermon?

It’s so we can be reliant on God.

It’s a little contradictory right? We have give up our freedom to God. In order to get freedom.

But if you’ve been following along, we’re restricting ourselves ANYWAY.

But we’re choosing to give ourselves to God in order to be free of enslavement that sin brings us in this world.

1. That means reading the Bible. One of the most encouraging things during COVID is watching the youth group kids participate in the 10pm bible readings everyday. I think they just finished the Old Testament.

It’s fun watching kids try to figure out how to pronounce even some of the names.

Sometimes it’s hard to figure out what is going on. In the book of Ruth, God isn’t even mentioned there.

But even seeing the heart to learn maybe a little more. Praying that God is able to impart some knowledge of who he is little by little.

It’s not always easy, but we read because we want to know God more. We want to understand who he is. The more we understand God the more we understand his love for us. And THAT truth sets us free. How much does God love us and what did he do for that love.

2. It also means that we need to practice what God tells us. Jesus commanded us the 2 core commandments that sum up everything. Love God and Love those around you.

If you look through Paul’s letters and the letters of the New Testaments there are many ideas of how to do that.

We need to take up our cross everyday and realize that our master is Jesus.

It’s not advice or just a set of rules just for the sake of having rules.

Its intention is to keep close to God. It’s to maintain that relationship.

So all this to say read the bible and listen to what it says.

But the motivation and perspective is different see.

We don’t do it out of obligation or because I told you to do so or your parents told you to do so, it’s because we love God because he gives us true freedom that we don’t find anywhere else in the world.

He gave that to us through his Son Jesus Christ who by his grace allowed us to break free of sin and find freedom by making him our master.

Let’s pray