True Christianity Comes Through Freedom

Intro:

True Christianity comes Through Freedom? What does that mean? Well it mean just what it says it means: True Christianity can only come through Freedom. I mean, our whole religion is based off of Freedom. Freedom from sin.

Body:

But you don't have to take my word for it. You can just read Romans 3:24, which says: “Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sin.” Of course that could just be a misprint, right. Well, if you turn just a few pages you'll come across this strange concept again in Romans 6:7. “For When we died with Christ we were set Free from the power of sin.” Hmm. Well I suppose it's possible to have two misprints in the same book. Oh! Wait a minute! What's this here in Romans 6:18? (I will have my bible open in front of me at this point). “Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.” You know, I'm starting to think that these verses aren't misprints. But there are still more! Galatians 5:13 says: “For you have been called to live in Freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your Freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.”

So now that we know we can get freedom through Christianity, let's talk about how to get it. It says in John 8:32: “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” The truth this verse is talking about is the truth about who God is. If you spend a lot of time with God then you will know who He is, and if you truly know who god is then that truth will set you free.

But what does it mean to be truly free? Well, if you are truly free you'll be absolutely crazy about God! You'll be totally willing to do anything for him! This freedom is not easy to get or keep, but once you've had it you won't want to live your life any other way. I can guarantee that!

I, myself, had that freedom for the whole of last summer. It was an amazing feeling! I was totally willing to do anything for God! Unfortunately when the school year started again I started going a million different directions. I stopped spending time with God, and so I lost that freedom. Since then my life has gotten much harder. But I have never stopped trying to get that freedom again. It is something that I know I can't live without.

Challenge:

And I challenge You to strive for that freedom too. Start spending more time with God and ask him to give you that freedom, because,v as it says in John 8:36: “So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free!”

True Christianity Comes Through Freedom

So here's a basic outline of the sermon I will be preaching on the worship night. :)

Intro: explain concept behind title.

Body: explain how to get freedom, what it means, how it feels, how you can tell you're free, and share my own story about God's freedom (not necessarily in that order).

Challenge: repent and ask God to set you free!

It's not long but I really didn't want to have too much detail yet.

Taste and Sight

We all have five senses. Right? Seeing, smelling, tasting, touching, and hearing.

We seem to take all of these senses for granted sometimes, but if we lose even one of those senses our lives are completely changed.

But today I am going to explain how not having two of these senses in your spiritual life can completely change your relationship with Christ.

The two senses are seeing and tasting and I am basing my sermon on one of Jesus' sermons, the sermon on the mount.

Although there are a lot of good teachings in the sermon on the mount I am only going to touch on one. The teaching on salt and light.

So what do seeing and tasting have to do with salt and light? Well, everything, for if you can't see then everything is dark and if you can't taste then everything is flavorless. Right?

Well if you lose your senses of taste and sight in your spiritual life then how will you be able to see and taste Gods see and taste all the good things God is trying to give you?

But as anyone who's read Matthew 9:27-34 knows, Jesus can restore our sight. He can also, I believe, restore our spiritual sight.

And, although there is no evidence of it in the bible, I know that God can restore our sense of taste both physically and spiritually.

So now I have a question for you. Do you want to live your whole life seeing Jesus, the Light of The World. Or do you want to walk around in the darkness like a blind man? And do you want to taste Christs goodness? Or do you want to eat the flavorless food of the world?

The choice is up to you, but I challenge you to open your eyes and mouths to Gods goodness.   

Freedom

“I am free to run,” just as Elijah did in 1^st Kings 18: 46.

“I am free to dance,” just as King David did in 2^nd Samuel 6:14.

“I am free to live for you,” just as the disciples did throughout the book of Acts.

“I am free!” because Jesus made me free.

Freedom is something we sort of take for granted here in this country because we've always been free.

Now I'm sure some of you are probably saying: “Wait a minute! What about King George and the revolution? We weren't free back then.”

Well that's true, but we weren't a country back then either. We didn't become a country until after the revolution. We were just a part of England. It wasn't until after the revolution that we became a country.

So our country has always been free. Or at least that's what most people think.

But the reality is that we're all slaves. Slaves to sin.

Being a slave is horrible. Just ask Joseph. Not only was he sold into slavery. He was sold into slavery by his own brothers!

The Israelites were also forced into slavery, twice. Once by the Egyptians and once by the Babylonians.

We've even had slaves here in the U.S.! The country of the United States of America has always been free. But some of the people in America, specifically African Americans, were not always free.

But slavery to sin is the worst kind of slavery. If we die as slaves to sin then we will burn in the fires of hell! But Jesus died to free us from our slavery to sin.

All we have to do is repent of our sins and welcome Jesus into our hearts. And additionally if you give your life completely to God (this is not the same thing as repenting of your sins, repenting of your sins is telling God you believe in Him whereas giving your life to God is telling Him we want to “Live for Him”) you will receive true freedom in your life.

So I challenge you to give your life completely to Christ, because only then will you truly be able to say: “I AM FREE!”   

“Sometimes we must sacrifice what we want for what we need”

Joseph was so busy playing his Xbox that he did not hear his best friend Alice enter his room.

“Joseph,” Alice said.

Joseph did not answer.

“Joseph!” Alice said again, only louder.

“What?” asked Joseph, not bothering to look up.

“What do you mean 'What?'” demanded Alice. “Today is Thursday. I come over to your house every Thursday for our bible study, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember,” answered Joseph, still not looking up from his game.

“Sooo, are you going to turn your game off so we can study?”

“No,” Joseph answered flatly. “I’m just about to beat this game. And besides, God can wait.”

“God can WAIT?!” cried Alice incredulously.

“Yeah. I mean, God has all the time in the world, right?”

“Well yes, but that's not the point. God is supposed to come first. He's way more important than your silly game.”

“SILLY GAME?!” This time it was Joseph's turn to yell incredulously. “I have been trying to finish this game for over a month now, but something always gets in the way. Chores, my homework, and now God? I don't think so.”

Alice looked at him for a moment, then she took out her bible and opened it to Hebrews 9:28.

“So Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people,” she read out loud. Then she looked up at Joseph. “God sacrificed his son for you,” she said. “the least you could do is sacrifice some of your time and spend it with him.”

“But it's my time,” protested Joseph.

“And who gave you that time?” demanded Alice.

“Well God,” admitted Joseph. “But it's still my time.”

“But God saved you from your sins” said Alice. “ You owe him”

“Owe him?” asked Joseph. “I thought his love and forgiveness were free.”

“They are free,” replied Alice. “But that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to repay him.”

“But I don't want to repay him,” said Joseph. “It's too hard.”

“You think giving up some of your time to God is hard?” asked Alice. She turned in her bible to the book of Leviticus. “The Israelites had to sacrifice several complicated offerings to God to repent of any sins they had committed,” she said. “There were burnt offerings, grain offerings, sin offerings, and others. If they refused to offer sacrifices to God He would most likely kill them.”

“But Jesus sacrificed himself for us so we don't have to do all those offering anymore. And God's not going to kill me.”

“Maybe not,” replied Alice. “But sometimes we must sacrifice what we want for what we need. We need Gods love, we need to have a relationship with him, and to have that relationship we must sacrifice some of our time and spend it with him. Do you think we would still be friends if we never saw each other?”

Alice started to walk towards the door but stopped halfway there.

“You know,” she said, turning once more to face Joseph. “Once you start spending time with God you won't find it to be much of a sacrifice at all.” Then she turned and left.

Joseph sighed. Then he turned off his Xbox and went to find his bible.

It was time to talk to God       

Suffering

(revised)

“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.”

These are the words of the apostle Peter, and they can be found in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 21.

Now we've all suffered at some point or another, but has that suffering been for God? Have you been suffering for being a Christian? Or have you just been suffering for being human?

All humans suffer in some way or another. Whether it's by falling off your bike and skinning your knee when you were 6, or crashing your car and breaking every bone in your neck. A girl named Cinderella suffered when her evil stepmother made her do all the chores. You see suffering is just part of life. But, if you hide your faith, you can go your whole life without suffering for being a Christian.

But how much more will you suffer if you hide your faith? Not here on earth, but in heaven on Judgment Day.

Your suffering on earth for sharing your faith glorifies God, and if you try to hide your faith you're really hiding God. And besides, God can use your suffering for good.

For instance, in Genesis chapters 37-50 we read about a man named Joseph. Joseph was: betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, made to work for a man named Potiphar, framed for a crime that wasn't committed, thrown in prison, forgotten about, and then finally brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams.

But by interpreting Pharaoh's dreams he ended up saving all of Egypt and his entire family from the seven year famine that was plaguing the land at that time.

I would love to tell you that after that the Egyptians were eternally grateful to Joseph and his descendants, but as it turned out they were only temporarily grateful. They actually ended up enslaving the Israelites.

But God had a reason for their suffering. He wanted them to live in the Promised Land. So he allowed the Egyptians to enslave the Israelites so they would want to leave Egypt. The only problem with this was that the Pharaoh did not want to lose all his slaves. God had to send a man named Moses to go talk some sense into Pharaoh.

If you want to read the whole story you can find it in the book of Exodus. You can also read the book of Job which is another good story about suffering. In Job's story God test Job's faith by allowing the devil to take away all of Job's riches. He even took away the lives of his children. But Job stayed faithful to God through it all.

But the most amazing story of God using someones suffering to do good, of course, is the story of Jesus Christ. Through his suffering he saved all of us from suffering the eternal fires of hell! (Jesus' story can be found in any of the four gospels)

So if Jesus can suffer for all of us then why can't we suffer for him?

So I challenge you to do what Jesus asked you to. I challenge you to share your faith with the world, even if it means you have to suffer persecution. For as I said earlier, we glorify God through our suffering for him.

(anything Orange is something I changed, I decided to make it easy for anyone who wanted to compare)

Suffering

“For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you.”

These are the words of the apostle Peter, and they can be found in 1st Peter chapter 2.

Now we've all suffered at some point or another, but has that suffering been for God? Have you been suffering for being a Christian? Or have you just been suffering for being human?

All humans suffer in some way or another, at some point in their life. It's just part of life. But, if you hide your faith, you can go your whole life without suffering for being a Christian.

But how much more will you suffer in heaven if you hide your faith?

Your suffering on earth for sharing your faith glorifies God, and if you try to hide your faith you're really hiding God. And besides, God can use your suffering to do good.

For instance, in Genesis chapters 37-50 we read about a man named Joseph. Joseph was: betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, made to work for a man named Potiphar, framed for a crime he didn't commit, thrown in prison, forgotten about, and then finally brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream.

But by interpreting Pharaoh's dream he ended up saving all of Egypt and his entire family from the seven year famine that was plaguing the land at that time.

I would love to tell you that after that the Egyptians were eternally grateful to Joseph and his descendants, but as it turned out they were only temporarily grateful. They actually ended up enslaving the Israelites.

But God had a reason for their suffering. He wanted them to live in the Promised Land. So he allowed the Egyptians to enslave the Israelites so they would want to leave Egypt. The only problem with this was that the Pharaoh did not want to lose all his slaves. God had to send a man named Moses to go talk some sense into Pharaoh.

If you want to read the whole story you can find it in the book of Exodus. You can also read the book of Job which is another good story about suffering. In Job's story God test Job's faith by allowing the devil to take away all of Job's riches. He even took away the lives of his children. But Job stayed faithful to God through it all.

But the most amazing story of God using someones suffering to do good, of course, is the story of Jesus Christ. Through his suffering he saved all of us from suffering the eternal fires of hell.

So if Jesus can suffer for all of us then why can't we suffer for him?

So I challenge you to do what Jesus asked you to. I challenge you to share your faith with the world, even if it means you have to suffer persecution. For as I said earlier, we glorify God through our suffering for him.   

Integrity

What can wash away our sins?

What can make us hole again?

Nothing but the blood.

Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Do these words sound familiar?

That's because they are part of a song called 'Nothing but the blood'. This song is full of integrity.

Integrity, according to the dictionary, is; The quality or state of being complete; wholeness; entireness; (and) unbroken state.

So integrity means whole, and, as it says in the song I mentioned earlier, nothing can make us whole except for the blood of Jesus.

So we know we can have integrity though Jesus' blood, but the word integrity has other meaning other meanings.

The dictionary says that the word integrity also means; The entire, unimpaired state or quality of anything; perfect condition; soundness.

So integrity also means unswayed or unchanging.

This brings to mind another worship song, 'Your love never fails'.

In this song it says: 'You stay the same through the ages. Your love never changes'.

The 'You' in the song is, of course, God. So God shows integrity through his love. And so did his son.

In Matthew chapter 4 we learn how Jesus was tempted by the devil. But Jesus' integrity and love for us were so strong that he easily withstood the devil's temptation.

So integrity can mean whole and steadfast, but it can also mean something else.

The third and final description of the word integrity listed in the dictionary is: The quality or state of being sound moral principle; uprightness; honesty and sincerity. In short, truthful.

When most people think of the word truthful they are reminded of the story of a little wooden puppet who tells all kinds of lies. He gets in lots of trouble for it because his nose grows every time he tells a lie, making it very easy for everyone else to tell when he's telling a lie.

But usually it is rather difficult to tell when someone is lying.

In the story of Joseph, located in Genesis 37, Jacob (Joseph's father) is told by his ten oldest sons that Joseph was killed by a wild animal, even though they knew full well that Joseph was alive. Jacob is unable to see through their lie any is grief stricken for quite some time before finally leaning that Joseph is really alive.

But God can help us see the truth.

For instance, in Acts chapter 5 we can read the story of Ananias and Sapphira. They sell some of their land and give part of the money to the apostles and decided to keep the rest for themselves. This would have been fine, but they decided to tell the apostles that the had given them all the money, so God told Peter that they were lying and he struck them down.

So there are three different kinds of integrity a Christian, or anyone for that matter, can have. Most of us have at least one of these three kinds of integrity, but it's only through God that we can have them all. So I encourage you to ask God to help you attain all three. They are all attributes worth having!

Lordship: What is it?

In this little speech of mine I am going to answer the age old question;

“What is lordship?”

Okay, so it's not an “Age old question,” but it is still an interesting question to consider.

We have not had any lords since the Medieval ages, so it is sometimes hard to figure out what a lord is.

According to the dictionary, a lord is “A person having great power and authority.” In short it means: to rule over someone.

But I feel that lordship is something more. I feel that lord is someone who you respect and someone you want to please.

That's how I feel about my heavenly lord. I love and respect him and I want to please him.

However not all lords are good lords.

For instance, in the movie “A New Hope,” we are introduced to a character named Lord Vader. Lord Vader is a ruthless lord, and is hated by everyone, including himself at times. He feared rather than respected, and he kills both his enemies and his adversaries. The only reason anyone wants to please him is so he won't kill them.

No one wants a bad lord to rule over them, but our heavenly Lord is just and would never mistreat or ruthlessly kill us.

However, sometimes he asks us to do difficult things.

He asked a young maiden named Joan to lead the French army.

He asked a man named Noah to build a rather large boat known as an ark (Genesis 6:14).

Sometimes our heavenly Lord asks us to rebel against our earthly lord, as he did with a man named George Washington.

And sometimes we are forced to chose between an earthly lord we love and respect and our heavenly Lord.

For example, in a book called “The Old Testament,” we read about a girl named Esther. Esther happens to be married to her earthly lord, but she also loves her heavenly Lord. So when the king orders that she must not come before him without a summons, and God asks her to asks the king to save her people, she is unsure what to do for, as she says in Esther 4:11; “The king has not called for me to come to him in thirty days.”

Eventually Esther's love her heavenly Lord won out, as it should. For that, I believe, is what it means to be under a lordship. Obeying your Lord no matter what the cost.

So I end with a question. Are you prepared to die for your lord?

George Washington and Esther were, and Joan really did die for her Lord. But will You?   

Only Through Jesus

Intro: G C G (2x)

Verse 1:

G                   C            G

Who can ever hope to reach Heaven?

G                        C             G

Who could ever dream to reach those gates ?

G                     C            G

Who can ever think to meet Jesus?

G                       C           G

Who could ever hope to see his face?

PreChorus:

Em

Through his love, we've been set free

C

And through his love, there's hope in me!

Chorus:

G                     C        Em         D

Only through Jesus will we stand firm

G                    C        Em     D

Only through Jesus can we believe

G             C              Em

That we could ever go through

D            Am

the gates of Heaven

C

WE BELIEVE!

Verse 2:

G             C            G

The gossiper will never enter

G               C                  G

So too the mocker will be thrown out

G             C              G

Only the righteous will ever enter

G                     C             G

Only through Jesus can we go in

Bridge:

G

We will stand firm in him! (3x)

Am

JESUS! 

Testimony--Revised

So my personal testimony has to do with Ignition. Ignition is this huge, really amazing, youth conference, with intense teaching, great dramas, and lots of of prayer.

The first year I was old enough to go I, for reasons that I can't actually recall, decided not to go. I have regretted that decision ever since. The reason for this is that the following year, when I did go, I truly became saved.

I had confessed my sin and “said” I'd given my life to God and all that stuff but I never really understood what it meant to be saved. That is, until that first Ignition conference. That's where I first really met God and discovered who He really is.

The weird thing is that before Ignition I didn't really feel empty or like I was missing anything in my life. Of course I grew up in a christian home, and I was home schooled, so I got a lot of biblical teaching along with my schooling, but I still find it odd that I didn't realize I had been spiritually empty until I was spiritually full.

But anyway, I went home and started reading my bible every day and talking to God, not just praying but actually talking to God. I did this for some time but after a while it got really hard, so I quit.

Then, the next year, at Ignition, I had the same revelation as the year before and decided to start reading my bible and talking to God again. But this time I knew I could not keep the awesome feeling I felt about God inside of me, and, sure enough, the feeling went away again.

But this time something strange happened. Some time in the middle of that year I had this strange desire to read the bible. I couldn't describe it but I started to read, and kept reading up to the day of the next Ignition conference.

One of the things I read was, amazingly enough, the book of Job. I was very surprised that I actually found it quite interesting and very beneficial, seeing as most Christians find the book of Job to be very long and tedious. In Job 2:10 it says “In all this, Job did

not sin in what he said”. This was right after he had lost all his riches and all his children and it just made me realize that if Job could go through all that hardship and loss and was still able to worship God then so could I.

Another book of the Bible that I found quite helpful was the book of Esther.

In Esther 4:16 it says “When this is done, I will go to the king,even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish”. I have always been a little timid and shy, so this huge act of courage on the part of Esther in an attempt to save her people showed me that, through God, even the most timid person can find courage.

But something else happened that year. I started having trouble with school. I realized that I had to rely on God to get me through this hard part of my life. And He did.

Then when I went to Ignition that year I already had that amazing love for God in my heart.

So I didn't discover God's amazingness this time . I discovered something else. I discovered that I already knew everything that the speakers were teaching us about God.

God was telling me it was time to move on. He told me that he had a new path for me...

My Testimony

So my personal testimony has to do with Ignition. Ignition is this huge, really amazing, youth conference, with intense teaching, great dramas, and lots of of prayer.

The first year I was old enough to go I, for reasons that I can't actually recall, decided not to go. I have regretted that decision ever since. The reason for this is that the following year, when I did go, I truly became saved.

I had confessed my sin and “said” I'd given my life to God and all that stuff but I never really understood what it meant to be saved. That is, until that first Ignition conference. That's where I first really met God and discovered who He really is.

So I went home and started reading my bible every day and talking to God, not just praying but actually talking to God. I did this for some time but after a while it got really hard, so I quit.

Then, the next year, at Ignition, I had the same revelation as the year before and decided to start reading my bible and talking to God again. But this time I knew I could not keep the awesome feeling I felt about God inside of me, and, sure enough, the feeling went away again.

But this time something strange happened. Some time in the middle of that year I had this strange desire to read the bible. I couldn't describe it but I started to read, and kept reading up to the day of the next Ignition conference.

But something else happened that year. I started having trouble with school. I realized that I had to rely on God to get me through this hard part of my life. And He did.

Then when I went to Ignition that year I already had that amazing love for God in my heart.

So I didn't discover God's amazingness this time . I discovered something else. I discovered that I already knew everything that the speakers were teaching us about God.

God was telling me it was time to move on. He told me that he had a new path for me...