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| Rev. Brian Wilkie |
Pastor of St. Andrew's Christian Community
Rockland, Ontario
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PODCAST LINK to CFRA broadcast - Sunday, October 22nd, 2017:
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Broadcast Notes:
Welcome to Good News in the Morning, a program of words and music
bringing a message of hope and encouragement to those who are looking for an
intelligent, meaningful and spirited approach to Faith and life. Good
News in the Morning is sponsored by Good News Christian Ministries and has been
broadcast weekly since 1999. Do visit our Website, GNCM.ca. Here, you
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who deliver the good news to growing numbers of listeners worldwide. They
appreciate and need your regular prayers. Our heartfelt thanks to all those who
support us financially and now here is today's presentation:
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Good Morning! I'm your host
today, Brian Wilkie of St. Andrew's Christian Church in Rockland. As we begin today, my prayer is that The Good
News of the Lord Jesus Christ would encourage and strengthen you today!
The Truth Will Set You
Free
I especially want to bring you the
message today about the freedom that Jesus offers through himself. The
scripture that points to that so clearly is a scripture in The Gospel according
to John, where Jesus is talking to a group of Jewish people who are asking
questions about Jesus’ identity. This is how the passage reads:
(Jn 8:25–38)25 “Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been claiming all along,” Jesus replied. 26 “I have
much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have
heard from him I tell the world.”
27 They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. 28
So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that
I am the one I claim to be and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what
the Father has taught me. 29 The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me
alone, for I always do what pleases him.” 30 Even as he spoke, many put their
faith in him.
The Children of Abraham
31 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my
teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 Then you will know the truth, and the
truth will set you free.”
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?”
34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, 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
you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are ready 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 do what you have heard from your father.”
Well, Jesus has a lot to say here and
we'll take a look at what it means in a few minutes. First I'd like you to hear
a song that expresses the testimony of the singers of the Rend Collective from
their album, Homemade Worship here is their song, Christ has set me
free
We may wonder, “how are we not free?”
In the world today there are many kinds of captivity many restraints that
prevent people from being free. We can look around and see people who are
actually in slavery. In the world today there are countries where slavery has
not been brought to an end. We even see some kinds of exploitation within their
own country as virtual slavery, as people are forced to do work where they
don't want to or to do kinds of work, criminal activities that are being forced
to do by people who have them in their total control. That kind of slavery we
understand, but what does Jesus speak about when he says to the Jewish people
that are living, yes, under Roman occupation but are free to worship God as
they see fit; they are free to go about their lives and do their do their work;
they pay taxes like anyone, but they don't find day-to-day oppression as the
rule of their life? So they protest, saying, “We're already free, what do we
need to be set free from?” Well Jesus has a word for them that says sin has
enslaved them, that the things that they're doing which are contrary to God,
actually have control over them. That's a principle which we find to be
true in our lives. When we look at our lives we find ourselves struggling to
overcome a kind of slavery to all kinds of different things. Some people, and
certainly a focus that I see in many people's lives, is the issue of diet: that
they have trouble controlling their appetites and because of that their
appetites control them.
That happens on both sides of the
weight spectrum: there are people who are so driven to be thin that they don't
even eat what's healthy for them and there are people who are so caught up in
unhealthy eating habits that they can't seem to stop themselves from eating
things that they know do them no good.
Certainly when anorexia is it stake,
that kind of slavery as a brutal master. Though we joke about how difficult it
is to lose weight those of us who have a problem on the weightiness side really
do find it difficult to control their appetites instead of being controlled by
them.
Other kinds of slavery are in the world
and I've seen see it often and experience it myself.
Doesn't fear control us
sometimes? We, I hope, are generally pretty brave people and we can get
ourselves into new social situations, find a new job, do the all the things
that are required of us to stand up and be counted. But there are times
when fear stops us. For some people, when I ask them to help out at
church they say “I'd rather die than do public speaking!” Now that's a great
deal of fear! Others are afraid of speaking the truth in a relationship - of
upsetting the apple cart - when they really need some problem to be resolved
the fear keeps them from working on it. Those kinds of slavery: slavery to fear
is something from which Jesus wants to set us free.
There are other kinds of more subtle
slavery. We can be surrounded by bad counsel so that the option to do right, or
to do the thing that will really solve a problem, is not even out there because
the people around us are giving us bad advice. Without knowing the truth we
often are held back and we are kept captive in a situation because as we don't
know the truth and cannot be freed from the problem. That sort of goes along
with bad company. Bad company can constrain us and keep us from doing what we
know we ought to do. Peer pressure is perhaps a very subtle yoke that people
wear, a very subtle set of bonds.
Sometimes we also though are captured
or restrained constrained from doing what's right or what's good because we
lack an ability. We truly don't have a skill that would help us to do something
that we know needs doing. Whether that's a technical skill or a social skill,
I've known many people who really want to go and visit with sick friends and
try to encourage them, but they're afraid that they'll say the wrong thing
because they lack the right words. In other instances they lack information.
The truth is that sometimes we have the
ability and we have the right information and we're not afraid and we are not
driven by fear or an appetite but that's still not sufficient to let us live
free and full lives. If we had the right information all the time we would
still experience some of the slavery that Jesus is talking about. If we had the
right techniques we couldn't solve every problem - neither will positive
thinking or sincere beliefs help us to be set free.
Even though our thinking might be true
there is still a problem; because truth has many meanings. Truth can mean
knowing the best answers, having a lot of information, being able to Google
everything and sort out the false information from the from the valid
information, knowing the cause of a disease and the cure for a disease, knowing
the right foods to eat on the wrong foods to eat - all these answers are
helpful and necessary in solving problems, but not sufficient. Another kind of
Truth is integrity: truth in your inward life; when you are determined to do
the right thing whatever the cost. Sometimes it's simply our conviction
that we aren't convinced enough that the truth is worth the cost and so we hold
back from doing what is right not because we think it's wrong but because we
don't want to pay the cost. Living with Integrity is part of knowing the truth
of having the truth, but Jesus doesn't point to reasoning information or
techniques as the truth which will set us free. He speaking in this scripture
to group of people who are asking a question, “Who are you?” and he says, “If
you follow me you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” Jesus
is really saying that He is the truth - that the truth we need is a person not
a book of information!
That person is offering himself as the
Fountain of Life, the Source and guarantor of freedom, the beginning of a new
beginning and someone who will be faithful to us right to the end.
There's a song which Carolyn Arends has
written to celebrate the freedom to start over when you're in Jesus Christ. She
sings it on her album Feel Free and this song is called New Year's Day. Would you listen to it with me?
In order to truly be free we cannot
stand alone. We need the true God as our helper, our Savior, our friend and our
Lord. We need a constant and faithful companion. We were not made to live
alone. Freedom is not Independence from everything and all things, freedom is
being in the right relationship, first of all with God and then with the world
around you; because we have that that freedom as part of a relationship with
God. A true relationship with the true God brings true freedom. I always
consider how we can look at different analogies of the need that we have for
God. Sometimes I talk about the Holy Spirit as the necessary fuel in our gas
tank as though we were a car and we were to drive along. We definitely need
fuel and that reminds us that we constantly need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit to have the energy to do the things of God. But I also had a bad
experience with my car one time when it ran out of oil and when it ran out of
oil the engine seized up. In fact I had to replace the engine the entire engine
which was a very challenging task. I did it with a good friend’s help and I
never want to go through that one again!
We cannot be free to live our lives
without God working in every part of our life not just as fuel for the engine
but kind of as the lubrication that keeps us moving, that keeps us going -
an integral part of our lives not just an external Source.
Jesus tells the people of Judea who
have started to believe in him, “follow me and do my teachings and then you
will know the truth and the truth will set you free.” He tells us that that
simply saying yes to Jesus is not enough for in saying yes to Jesus we
have a whole new opportunity open to us as the Holy Spirit comes to abide in
us. We have an opportunity here, having said yes, to Jesus to live his way, to
walk with him and to let his life be living in us. Then we have the power to do
what is right. Then we have the confidence to follow him in all circumstances.
Then we have faith and we have hope and we have love through Jesus Christ.
So Jesus is not merely someone who
comes along, dusts us off, puts us on our feet and sends us on our way. He does
pick us up, he does dust us off, he does set us on our feet - and then he
walks with us, lives in us, and he also intercedes for us. He works on our
behalf around us. He is our Fortress and our strength, he goes before us,
he prepares the way before us. He watches our back and protects us from
the wiles of the evil one Jesus in fact is our all in all. Jesus is not a book
you read, he's not an exam you pass, or a pill you take. The truth is that he
is your everything, or you are not free.
But you can be free by letting him be
your freedom, by accepting the truth that you need him every hour. If you've
already discovered your slavery to fear or appetites or bad company or lack of
counsel, if you've already discovered that you need the help of Jesus that you
can't make it with the resources you now have, then come to Jesus as your
friend and your Savior. Let him be your advisor, let his Word fill you with
wisdom, let his Holy Spirit fill you with power to live according to the
freedom of a new life in Christ.
As we bring our conversation to a close
today, I do hope that those of you who are already following Jesus would
remember to renew your dependence on him; to remember that you didn't just get
launched by Jesus when you started your new life but that he is doing a work in
you that he will continue faithfully to the end. If you've been
feeling that the perhaps that work is stalled, it is possible for there to be
dark times, dark valleys in your Christian walk - but Jesus has promised that
he will complete the work he has begun in you, so don't lose heart. Let the
truth of his presence, of his person live in you forever.
To those who have never known Jesus I
implore you to call out to him, to taste and see that the Lord is good. Try
him, in this matter, to say, “I need to be set free from my habits I need to be
set free from my appetite so I need to be set free from hatred and bitterness I
need to be set into the light and life of your presence. I need to be set free
to experience joy and to know peace and to find patience. I need I need to find
new compassion in my soul I need to find someone who has compassion for me and
I need to find compassion for others.” These are elements of the life that
Jesus has is offering to all who call upon him so I implore you to do so.
Let me let me join with you in prayer
as we bow our heads before God.
Almighty Father, thank you for sending Jesus; for completing us; for
giving us your presence to fill us and to strengthen us, to guide us, to love
us and to lead us. Thank you, Jesus, we offer our lives to you to be filled by
you to be cleansed by you trying to be renewed by you. We pray almighty God
that not only we, but many others, may come to know the freedom that you have
for them. We thank you in Jesus’ name, Amen.
As the broadcast closes today I do hope
you'll listen with me to the old hymn “A shelter in the time of storm,” a song
by the a capella group This Hope.
Rev. Brian Wilkie
St.
Andrew's Christian Community,
Rockland, Ontario
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above broadcast, click on the following link:
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