Sermon Tone Analysis
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\\ /Scripture: John 8:31-41/
/" *To the Jews who had believed him*, Jesus said, “If you *hold* to my teaching, you are really my disciples.
*Then you will know the truth*, and *the truth will set you free*.”
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?” Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, *everyone who sins is a slave to sin*.
Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever.
*So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.*
I know you are Abraham’s descendants.
Yet you are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.
I am telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
“Abraham is our father,” they answered.
“If you were Abraham’s children,” said Jesus, “then you would do the things Abraham did.
As it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things.
You are doing the things your own father does.”
“We are not illegitimate children,” they protested.
“The only Father we have is God himself.”"*[1]*
/
The things that I got away with as a child.
There probably was no point in my life in which I was more free.
The more dependent that I was on my parents the greater freedom that I enjoyed.
I had fewer responsibilities, fewer expectations.
It worked well for me as I can remember.
There might have been a few chores but all in all, it was pretty good.
I had to mow the lawn but I never had to buy a lawn mower or to put gas in it.
I had to take out the garbage.
Not so bad.
Today I have to buy it, bring it home, consume it, sort and bag the refuse, take it to the curb.
I am engaged in this process all the time in my adult life.
I found this little reflection on the freedoms that we had as younger people.
I thought it was worth sharing today.
*/I Can't Believe We Made It!/*
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's, probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
Horrors!
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because… we were always outside playing.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
No cell phones.
Unthinkable!
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, videotape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends!
We went outside and found them.
We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
They were accidents.
No one was to blame but us.
Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.
Horrors!
Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
Our actions were our own.
Consequences were expected.
The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the school or the law.
Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.
We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it.
The call to come to Christ personally was an appeal to freedom.
I wanted to be free from the consequence or the penalty of my sin.
I wanted freedom from the guilt that I felt because of my sense of sinfulness.
I wanted to know that in the next life I would be accepted by God and that I would be guaranteed an eternal existence with Him.
I found that not long after I came to Christ, there were a great number of people who wanted to introduce me to a new form of bondage.
In the absence of sin’s bondage, there were well meaning people in the church who wanted to tell me everything that I should and shouldn’t do, now that I had declared myself to be a follower of Christ.
This was disappointing to me because it didn’t feel much like freedom.
Paul found these people in his own spiritual pilgrimage.
They were the confiscators of the religious freedom of other people.
He called them the Judaizers in the book of Galatians.
/" It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1 NIV) *[2]* /
With all my heart, I believe that Christ has come to set us free.
There are times when we live as though we were bound.
There is nothing quite so sad as the Christian who lives in needless bondage.
This morning I would like to highlight three life-giving principles or keys that will allow us to experience the sort of freedom that God intends for us to know.
If we implement these in our lives, I believe that we will take yet another step in personal spiritual intimacy and discovery as we come to know the very heart of God
*1. **Action – Faith must be “acted on”.*
/" To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, *“If you hold to my teaching*, you are really my disciples."
(John 8:31, NIV) *[3]* /
*Principle #1* Freedom begins with obedience.
/Obedience is the pathway to discipleship./
Every moment and every situation challenges us to action \\ and to obedience.
We have literally no time to sit down and \\ ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbor or not.
We \\ must get into action and obey -- we must behave like a neighbor to him.
But perhaps this shocks you.
Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do.
To that, there is only one answer.
You can only know and think about it by actually doing it.
It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth.
\\ ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), The Cost of Discipleship
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