July 4th Our Dependence on God Day

Happy 4th of July! Today is the day we celebrate Independence Day. It’s the day our country became independent of England and became the United States of America. Today, as a nation we celebrate freedom. But today is another day of dependence on God for everything. You see for us believers, liberty, freedom from sin, comes only by our dependence on God. Our lives are not our own. Our eternal destiny was purchased for us by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. So our true freedom comes from our relationship with God! Let’s begin our “Dependence Day” journey.

John 8:31–36 The Message

31 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. 32 Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” 33 Surprised, they said, “But we’re descendants of Abraham. We’ve never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, ‘The truth will free you’?” 34 Jesus said, “I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. 35 A slave is a transient, who can’t come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through.

1. True freedom only comes from dependency on Jesus!

When you and I choose to not follow Jesus and turn our lives over to Him, the best we can do is secure our spot as slaves to sin. There is no future living a life of sin. However, when we turn our lives over to Jesus and surrender our will to His, we are set free and our freedom is eternal. Those who Jesus sets free, is free indeed! That means that you are free in every area of life. The greek word used in this passage for indeed is the word ontōs which means truly, as a fact. So we are not free in theory but in fact. So we can see here that there is great benefit for us when we become totally dependent on God.

1 John 4:4 AMP

4 Little children, you are of God [you belong to Him] and have [already] defeated and overcome them [the agents of the antichrist], because He Who lives in you is greater (mightier) than he who is in the world.

2. Dependency on God makes us overcomers!

That word overcome is interesting. The fact is that we have to be facing some kind of obstacle in order to “overcome” it. I think sometimes we tend to think that when we turn our lives over to God everything will be great! Not don’t get me wrong, following Jesus is truly awesome. But the fact is this, when we make the decision to follow Jesus, the devil, our enemy, sets out to destroy us. He hates anything that God loves or values. So we are in a fight. But the awesome news is this, because we put God first in our lives, the Greater One lives in us and we overcome every ploy of the enemy. There is definitely great benefits for us when we become totally dependent on God!

2 Corinthians 2:14 The Living Bible

14 But thanks be to God! For through what Christ has done, he has triumphed over us so that now wherever we go he uses us to tell others about the Lord and to spread the Gospel like a sweet perfume.

3. Dependency on God makes us His witnesses!

Isn’t it amazing that even though our pasts might have been not too good, because of our dependency on God and accepting Jesus as our Savior, God has changed us and is using us to be His witnesses throughout the world. Now you might say that’s not me. I’m not a pastor or a missionary, or a evangelist, or a teacher of the Bible or...... No, what you are is a child of God who has become dependent on Him and because of that, your whole life is a testimony of His sweetness. Your family will see the difference, your neighbors, the people you grew up with, the friends you hung out with and so on. God is using you to spread the fragrance of a changed by the power of God life everywhere you go. As we’ve already seen, there is great benefits for us when we become totally dependent on God.

Philippians 4:15–20 ESV

15 And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. 16 Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. 17 Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. 18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. 19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 20 To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

4. When we are totally dependent on God, our needs are met!

We love that part of this passage that my God supplies all of my need according to His riches. But if we look at this in context, we find that this promise is for those that are totally dependent on God. The church at Philippi entered into partnership with Paul when he first started. I was thinking, if you remember, Paul was not trusted in the beginning because when he was Saul he persecuted the believers. So the trust that the Philippians had concerning Paul did not come from a “positive” experience with him but rather a dependency on God’s leading to partner with him. Because of this dependency on God, all their needs were met. They kept sowing into Paul’s ministry. So the church at Philippi received great benefits from having total dependency on God. And we will too as we depend on Him!