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Freedom Celebration 2014 - John 8:31-36

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Jesus addressed the religious people of His day about true freedom, but they didn't understand what He was talking about. They thought they were free—even claiming that the nation of Israel had never been in bondage—but they were deeply misguided. In this study, we look at what Jesus had to say about where real freedom comes from—not sin or self, but from the Son alone.

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7/2/2014
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Freedom Celebration 2014
John 8:31-36
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
Jesus addressed the religious people of His day about true freedom, but they didn't understand what He was talking about. They thought they were free—even claiming that the nation of Israel had never been in bondage—but they were deeply misguided. In this study, we look at what Jesus had to say about where real freedom comes from—not sin or self, but from the Son alone.
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Independence Day Messages

Independence Day Messages

As believers in Jesus Christ, we have the greatest freedom in the world: "If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed" (John 8:36). Be encouraged to embrace and live out that freedom in these special Independence Day messages.

Detailed Notes

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  1. Introduction
    1. The most important thing in the world is that you are saved
    2. There's only one man who died and gave His life to save you for all eternity from your sin---Jesus Christ
    3. John Adams thought we would celebrate our nation's independence on July 2
  2. John 8:31-36
    1. There is a level of freedom that is better than political, social, or any kind of freedom---freedom from sin
    2. President Roosevelt's four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear
    3. "Fight, and you may die. Run, and you'll live... at least awhile.... [But let's] tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take our freedom"—William Wallace in Braveheart
    4. Jesus was talking about a different kind of freedom
    5. Freedom doesn't come from sin; that will only enslave you
      1. Sin is very alluring; it overpromises and underdelivers
      2. It promises you freedom, but it doesn't deliver it
      3. "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"—Janis Joplin
      4. People are confused about what real freedom means
      5. What the world will designate as freedom is often just another form of slavery
        1. Sexual freedom
        2. Experimental freedom
        3. Relational freedom
        4. These freedoms bring a bondage with them
      6. The more you do as you please, the less you are pleased with what you do
    6. Freedom doesn't come from self; that will only deceive you (v. 33)
      1. Human beings have an amazing capacity for self-deception
      2. The Israelites had almost always been slaves to someone
        1. Egypt for 400 years
        2. Assyrians in 722 BC
        3. Babylonians in 586 BC
        4. Greco-Macedonian Empire
        5. Syrians
        6. At this time, they were slaves to the Roman government
      3. They were looking to themselves for freedom and salvation
      4. Mankind is incurably addicted to working for his salvation
      5. A lot of people think they are saved
      6. If you are not absolutely certain that if you were to die, you would go to heaven, then perhaps it's because you are in bondage
      7. The worst form of badness is goodness that tries to be a substitute for the new birth
        1. John 3:3
        2. Matthew 5:20; you can't do it by yourself
      8. You need the righteousness that Jesus Christ provides
    7. Freedom comes from the Son; He's the only one that redeems you
      1. Jesus can do for you what you, your religion, your background, and your parents can't do for you
      2. Abraham Lincoln was called the Great Emancipator, but Jesus Christ is the Greatest Emancipator
      3. "And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (v. 32)
        1. Whenever you take a text out of context, you make it a pretext
        2. Not academic information but spiritual transformation
  3. Closing
    1. If you are still holding on to your sin or yourself, you're bankrupt
    2. The way is narrow, but God made it easy for the world
      1. He did the heavy lifting
      2. You come by faith and receive the gift of salvation
      3. You'll find freedom

Figures referenced: John Adams, Franklin D. Roosevelt, William Wallace, Janis Joplin, Abraham Lincoln


Cross references: Matthew 5:20; John 3:3; 8:31-36


Transcript

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Introduction: Welcome to Calvary Albuquerque. We pursue the God who is passionately pursuing a lost world; we do this with one another, through worship, by the Word, to the world.

Skip Heitzig: I want to talk to you out of a verse of Scripture that you're familiar with in the gospel of John where Jesus said, "If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." But basically I want to talk to you about the most important thing in the world, and I think you'll agree as I tell you what it is. The most important thing in the world, above everything else, is that you are saved, a saved person on your way to heaven. [applause] You see, in a hundred years, a hundred years from now you're not go to care about if you got that raise or what kind of fashion is going on. In a hundred years you won't be here; none of us will be. So in a hundred years from now the most important thing at that time in your life---and you will still be alive, you will be around somewhere---is are you saved or not?

So I just want you to think about that thought: Are you saved? Are you sure you're saved? I'm not asking you if you're a nice person, because most of you look pretty nice; of course, you know, looks can deceive, so. But you look great. But it's not, "Are you a nice person?" It's not, "Are you a religious person? Or a sincere person? Or a well-meaning person? Or an educated person?" Simply put, when you strip it all away, are you a saved person? Now, if you were in a burning house and a fireman---they are so good at their job---if a fireman came in and delivered you, and you weren't going to die, we would say that the fireman did what to you? He saved you. You were saved from the fire.

If you were out in the ocean, and you were caught in the undertow, and you were being taken out and a lifeguard jumped off the booth and swam out and brought you back in, we would say that he or she saved you. So when we talk about freedom, when we talk about liberty, as believers we take it to a whole new level, a whole different level. How thankful we are for men and women who have served in our military and given us the kind of freedoms we enjoy. But there's only one Man who died and gave his life to save you for all eternity from your sin and my sin, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why this Freedom Celebration is better and deeper than any other kind of Fourth of July week. Now, technically, as you know, this is not the Fourth of July, this is the second of July.

Do I have my dates right? Okay. So on July 4, 1776, fifty men signed a document that made a declaration to Great Britain that they weren't the boss of us anymore, that we were free from their laws and their constraints and we were a sovereign nation. We celebrate that on July 4th, but today is July 2nd. Little known fact: John Adams, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and would be the future president, one of the presidents of the United States, actually said it was July 2nd, not July 4th. He wrote his wife and he said that he believes that there's going to be a great celebration every year in this country on July 2nd. Of course, tonight he was right, because here we are having a great celebration in this fine state of ours.

But the reason it landed on the 4th and not the 2nd is that though most of the people had signed the document on the 2nd, it got held up in Congress. [laughter] True story. There was a delay on the editing of the document itself, and that took a couple of days. Of course, now it would be couple years. But it took a couple days, and so we now celebrate it on the 4th instead of the 2nd. But here's what Jesus had so say about freedom and slavery: "He said to the Jews who believed in him, Jesus said, 'If you hold my teachings, you are really my disciples. And then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' They answered him, 'We are Abraham's descendants and we have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we will 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. If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." There's a level of freedom that is better than political freedom, better than social freedom, better than any kind of freedom, and that's a spiritual liberation, a freedom from sin. And I want to just describe that briefly to you. Back in 1941 one of our presidents President Roosevelt in his famous speech talked about the four freedoms. We have the freedom of speech. We should be guaranteed the freedom of speech, the freedom to worship, the freedom from want, and the freedom from fear.

Those are social freedoms. They're very important, but their social freedoms. When we think of political freedom, much like what we celebrate on July 4th, we could also go overseas when Scotland was fighting against England. And everybody has seen the movie Braveheart. There's was a struggle also against the same nation of England. Didn't turn out as favorably for them as it did for us. But in the movie Braveheart, which unfortunately is about all some people know of that struggle, Mel Gibson played William Wallace. Do you remember the film? Any of you remember the film? Okay, so we remember the great shouts in that movie, right? And before one of the battles that the Scots had against England---and they were fighting Edward I, they called him "Longshanks." He was a bitter enemy of William Wallace.

William rallies his troops and he tells them, "Fight, and you may die. Run, and you will live . . . for a while. But let's tell our enemies that they can take our lives, but they can never take our freedom." You remember that line, right? [applause] Well, that's political freedom, and that's important too. Social freedom is important, political freedom is also important, but when Jesus addresses the crowd in the text that I just read, he's talking about a different kind of freedom. And it wasn't what even the crowd was thinking about. They were thinking about freedom on a whole different level, like most people think about it today. But I want to make three statements based upon what we read in the text, and see if you agree with the statements.

Number one, freedom doesn't come from sin---that can only enslave you. Do you agree with that? Okay, you agree with that. Freedom doesn't come from sin---that can only enslave you. Here's the second statement: Freedom doesn't come from self---that can only deceive you. Do you agree with that one? Here's the third one: Freedom comes from the Son---he's the only one that redeems you. Do you agree with that statement? Because, basically, Jesus said all three of those things here. Now, I'm just briefly, and I'm not going to talk long tonight, but I'm going to briefly talk about those three statements and see---'cause if you don't agree with them, I'm going to reason with you a little bit. So here's the first statement: Freedom doesn't come from sin---that will only enslave you.

There's an interesting thing about sin: it's very alluring and it overpromises and it underdelivers. It promises that if you take it, if you do it, if you practice it, you will be free. After all, you ought to do whatever you want to do. That's ultimate freedom, is to just feed your passions and whatever appetites you have, do them, practice them, have a ball. You'll be happier and more free if you do. It promises you that---problem is it doesn't deliver that. It falls flat on it, because it seems like when you get involved in something that is wrong, sinful, it's fun at first, but you want more of it and more of it, because it doesn't stay there very long. It doesn't satisfy. The lingering part of it doesn't hold on for a long time, so it over promises and underdelivers.

Freedom doesn't come from sin---that'll only enslave you. Back in the 1960s and '70s when there was a lot of talk about freedom and we were an antiwar society, at least in large part, Janis Joplin sang a song. And the words some of you will remember: "Freedom's just another word for"---anybody?---"nothing left to lose." "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." I listened to that song and I still listen to it, and I have one question every time I listen to it: What does she mean? I don't quite get it. What does it mean, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose"? It sounds good, but it's kind of a stupid statement, in my opinion. That's just my opinion. You know, it sort of sounds like your rallying against something, and then you look at each other and go, "Now what are we against again?" [laughter]

So I went on the Internet and checked out all the blogs that had something to do with that song, and I discovered that all the bloggers didn't know what it meant either. [laughter] So, I'm in good company. There's a lot of us that have no idea what she meant. She's just sort of talking about freedom and singing about freedom. But it illustrates a point: People are confused about what real freedom means. They're confused about it. They think it's a grand idea, a good idea, but they don't know where to draw the line or exactly what it means, so it's confused. And what the world will designate as "freedom" is often just another form of slavery. Let me illustrate. For years our country has advocated sexual freedom, saying, "You ought to be able to do whatever you want with your body, whenever you want to do it.

"You are free to use your body however you want to use it." Sounds reasonable, even in the courts today. The only problem with it is it brings a slavery with it, a bondage with it. There are massive abortions because of that thinking. There are unwanted children in this country because of that "freedom" that people enjoy. So that kind of freedom can lead to bondage. Here's another freedom that's popular in our culture, experimental freedom: "You ought to be able to drink and smoke and take any pill you want, whenever you want it. Again, it's your body, you should have the freedom to experiment with it." We pay---because of that ideology---we pay $40 billion a year dealing with that problem in this country alone because of drug addiction. So, again, that freedom brings a bondage with it.

Follow me so far? Then there's relational freedom: "You ought to be able to marry and divorce and remarry and divorce and remarry anybody you want to, whenever you want to." And you have to pay a price for that too. There are children growing up without fathers, children growing up without families. Those freedoms bring a bondage with them. So listen, here's the bottom line that I've discovered: the more you do as you please, the less you are pleased with what you do. [applause] The more you do as you please, the less you will be pleased with what you do. You enjoy those freedoms, you do what you want, but you go, "You know what? Something's just not right. Something is not satisfying. Deep down in my heart I am not a free person."

So, again, back to that statement, I hope you still agree with it: Freedom can't come from sin---that'll only enslave you. Here's a second statement based on this text: Freedom doesn't come from self---that will only deceive you. Now, Jesus said if you sin, you'll be in slavery. That's the first point. Here's the second. This is what Jesus said. This is in verse 32. "He said, 'You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.' Then they answered him"---now listen to their answer. "They answered him, 'we are Abraham's descendants and we have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we will be free?' "Did you hear what they said? "We're free people. How can you say that we need to be free? We've always been free? We've never been slaves."

You know what's amazing? Human beings have an amazing capacity for self-deception. It's like they just want to make something up and say it over and over again, hoping that if they say it long enough, it'll be real. Who do they think they're kidding? They say, "We've never been slaves to anyone." They've always been slaves to someone, except for very few exceptions. Let's see, they were once in bondage as slaves in Egypt for 400 years, let's start there. They got back into their land. They were in their land for a while. The Assyrians came in and took them captive 722 BC. Let's see, let's move ahead a little bit: 586 BC the Babylonians came in and captured them and took them captive. Later on the Greco-Macedonian Empire took them as slaves. Later on the Syrians up north took them as slaves.

And when they're telling these words to Jesus at that very moment they are slaves to the Roman government. Okay, now listen to this statement again: "We've never been slaves to anyone." Really? What universe do you live in? Where you are orbiting around? Now, I think what they meant is they were proud Israeli people who no matter who they were under the physical slavery to they felt free, because they were descendants of Abraham. So here's the deal: they were looking to themselves to save themselves, to give them freedom. They were looking to themselves for salvation. Sort of like an ethnic positive confession: "Because we are Jewish people, we are never in bondage to anyone." And it illustrates a point: mankind is incurably addicted to working for his salvation.

We are, we're addicted to working. It's almost like we're always trying to prove that God should love us and trying to win his love. You know, ask a person, "Do you know Jesus Christ? Are you saved?" "Well, you know, I go to church and I pray every now and then. And I give money even to good causes." They're telling me what they do; they're not telling me anything about how they relate to God. We are incurably addicted to working for our own salvation. Okay, so Jesus is having this conversation, right, with these Pharisees, with the religious leaders? They're making this statement. And then Jesus goes on to talk---and we don't have to read it, I'll sum it up. They say, "We are Abraham's descendants."

And Jesus says, fires back at them, and says, "Now, if you were Abraham's descendants, you would believe me, because he wrote about me." And then he said these words: "You are of your father, the devil." How's that for a comeback? "We've never been in bondage. We're sons of Abraham." "Uh, no. Reality check, you belong to the devil, you're his children." You see what I mean by we have an amazing capacity for self-deception? They were so smug in their self-righteousness that they believed that they were going heaven when Jesus basically said, "You are going to hell if you do not change and you rest in your own religion and your own self-righteousness. You are so deceived that you are going to hell while you think you're going to heaven."

Now, please listen to me, because this is serious stuff. I told you I'd talk to you a little bit about the most important issue in life; and that is, are you saved? There's a lot of people who think they are saved, because Jesus said these words, it says, "to those who believed in him" in Jerusalem. There's a lot of people who will say, "I believe in Jesus. I believe in God," but some kind of mental assent. It's possible to have some belief system in your mind: "I agree. I think there's a God. And because I believe there's a God up there, it must make me a believer. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. That's the label I put on the God that I follow." You may not be saved. I don't want to get narrow on you. Don't want to get legalistic. I just want to see you in heaven, honestly. I want to see you in heaven.

So I want to say to you, if you are not sure, if you are not absolutely certain that if you were to die, you would go to heaven, then perhaps it's because you are in bondage, you are not free. You, like these fine religious people thought they were going to heaven, when Jesus said, "You are of your father, the devil." The worse form of badness is goodness that tries to be a substitute for the new birth. Jesus said, "You must be born again." And the worst form of badness is the disguise where a person lives---sort of does a few things, goes church and hangs out, and sings the little songs with the other little Christians---but deep in their life they're hiding the reality they're not a saved man or a woman. Jesus said this, "Unless your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never see the kingdom of heaven."

That's a shock statement, because everybody thought the scribes and the Pharisees were, like, the most righteousness people in the world. And for Jesus to say, "Gotta do better than that," when that is the group that tried to keep all the laws and were working hard and were very sincere and very religious. And Jesus said, "Not good enough. Unless your righteousness exceeds theirs, you'll never go to heaven." That's the kind of a statement that should make you throw up your arms and say, "I don't know how to do it then. I can't do it. I have no idea how to get to heaven if that's the case." Here's what he meant by it: you can't do it by yourself. You can't do it by yourself. Freedom doesn't come from self---that only deceives you.

If you're saying, "Well, I'm a good person. I'm a pretty sincere person," you're probably lost. You're probably lost. You need a righteousness that he provides for you, that he gives you. That's the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So freedom doesn't come from sin---that enslaves you. Freedom doesn't come from self---that deceives you. It leads me to my third statement based on the text: Freedom does come from the Son---he redeems you. Jesus words: "If the Son sets you free"---ahhh---"you will be free indeed." Or, "You will really, really, be free, if the Son sets you free." Why does he say that? Because it's simple: Jesus can do for you what you can't do for you. Jesus can do for you what religion can't do for you, what you're background can't do for you, what your parents could never do for you, only Jesus can do it for you.

If the Son sets you free, you'll be really free. Jesus said in verse 31, "If you hold to my teachings, you are really my disciples. And then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." Abraham Lincoln was called the "Great Emancipator" because of his abolition of slavery in 1865, the Emancipation Proclamation, a wonderful edict, a wonderful moment in history. But Jesus Christ is the greatest emancipator, because he gives you the kind of freedom that we're talking about: freedom from sin, freedom from yourself, freedom from all of those constraints that hold you down. He's the greatest emancipator. "You will know the truth," said Jesus, "and the truth will set you free." It's funny---that's a very famous statement, by the way.

I've heard it, and I've read it, and I've met people who have no idea it's even in the Bible. It's on many universities. You'll see the seals of many of the great, even Ivy League schools that will say, "And you'll know the truth, and the truth will make you free." And why that's a marvel to me is this: these are on advanced educational institutions filled with scholars and professors, right, packed full of knowledge, of history? And so when I read that on their institution, I think, "They should know better than that. They should know better than taking a text out of its context. Because there's an old saying: "Whenever you take a text out of context, you make it a pretext." You can make something say anything you want to.

When Jesus said, "And the truth will set you free, if you know it," he wasn't talking about academic information, but spiritual transformation. That's the context of the text. But they, in these institutions, lifted it out of its context, put it up on their little insignia, as if to say, "If you just come to our school and learn a bunch, you'll be set free with a bunch of knowledge." No. You can get a Ph.D. at that school and be in as much bondage or more than the day you walked in. The Son will set you free. And I'll just tell you from personal experience, the dominant feature, the dominant experience for me the day I gave my life to Jesus Christ---and I grew up in a church. I grew up in a religious home. I wasn't a "good boy," necessarily, but I grow up with a religious background.

But the moment, the afternoon, in a summer much like this in San Jose, California, when I gave my life to Jesus Christ, the predominant experience I had was peace, was a lifting of a burden, and a sense of freedom. If Braveheart would have been out by then, I would have gone, "Freedom!" Because that's how I felt deep inside, and I knew that Jesus did that. I knew that I didn't do that, I know that my sin that I had practiced couldn't pull that off, but it's something that Jesus did. So once again, these three statements: Freedom doesn't come from sin---that enslaves you. Do you agree with that? Freedom doesn't come from yourself---that'll deceive you. Do you agree with that? Freedom does come from the Son---only he redeems you. I hope and pray you believe that.

And if it's never been something that you have wholeheartedly believed in, if you are still holding onto your sin or yourself, your background, your experience, your own capacity to imagine a better world for yourself and that ideal, you're bankrupt, friend. You're bankrupt. And I want to see you in heaven. There's only one way that could happen and God provided the way. You say, "That's a pretty narrow way." Well. It is narrow, but it's easy for us. He made it easy for the world. See, he did the heavy lifting. He took the rap for you. He did the heavy lifting. He's the one that died so you don't have to. So it's not like you can stand there and go, "Well, this is too hard. This is too narrow." You're not doing anything.

You're not doing a thing, except saying, "Yes, I agree with that and I want to receive Jesus as my Savior, because he died for me." That's all you need to do. That's faith. You come by faith and you receive the gift of salvation and your life will never be the same. You'll find freedom! [cheers and applause] I'm going to have the worship team come up. I'm going to say a word of prayer and then I'm going to give those of you who have come to enter into something deeper than social freedom, than political freedom---all of that is good. And we celebrate that, and we honor those in our country who have stood up and fought for that. But we're dealing with the most profound level of freedom ever, and that's freedom from sin and freedom from a future payment of sin.

You do not have to pay for your sin. You do not have to pay for it. If you want to, he'll let you. If you want that rap forever and ever in eternity, he'll let you do it. He'll honor your choice. But he's giving you a choice to say, "I'd rather let him do it for me. And I'm going to receive what Jesus did for me as payment. And I'm going to give my life to him." And you'll never be sorry. Now, there's a lot of people, there's over 6,000 people here, but I want to give you time and give you an opportunity, because then the fireworks are going to just mean a whole lot more, right? So as we sing this song, I'm going ask those of you who have either never personally made a commit to Christ---I'm not saying that, again, you're not a religious person. I went to church every week for years, and I was not a saved person.

Then there was a day where I heard a message like this from Dr. Billy Graham and I gave my life to Jesus Christ. And that changed, because it was personal, it was real, it was authentic, it was in front my heart, I meant it, and God took me just as I am. So I'm going to give you that opportunity if you have never done that, if you're not sure, or if you've wandered away from the Lord and you need to come back, I'm going to ask you to get up from where you're standing. You might be sitting way in the back over there. God sees you and knows you and loves you. Or you might be in the front or anywhere in this facility. You can be over where thousands of people are in the park. There's pastors over there that are going to bring you over this way. You're doing business with God.

Don't let a lot of people stand in the way of you making this decision. Now, let me explain why I'm asking you to come forward. Because you're thinking, "Wouldn't it be better if we just bow our heads and just say a little prayer and then nobody knows who we are?" Yeah, maybe, but it wouldn't be as great for you. See, we want to celebrate with you God changing your life. We want to celebrate with you God coming into your life through his Son Jesus Christ. We want that and we want it for you. Because I believe it does something for you and in you when you make a public demonstration of "I'm leaving the past, I'm leaving the world, and I'm coming to Jesus." And with that kind of encouragement you're going to get from us, and that kind of definite commitment that you make, I think that changes everything.

Jesus so often called people publicly, called them out and said, "Make a stand right here, right now, for me." So I'm going to give you that opportunity. And as you come forward, I'm going to pray with you when you get up here to receive Jesus Christ. I'm going to lead you in a prayer of repentance where you give your life to the Savior Jesus Christ. So as we sing this song, whether you're here in the amphitheater, way back in some of these lateral arteries, up on the steps, far to my left, or out in the park, we want you to come this way and we're going to give you time to do that. [worship music plays] Come right on up here. God bless you. All right! [cheers and applause] You are welcome here. We'll make room for you. Come on, come on down this way. Let's fill this place in. [applause]

Maybe you're sitting way on the edge or you're way in the back and you're thinking, "You know, I really just want to sort of come here and enjoy the food and the fireworks, I'm not really into this whole Jesus thing." That's okay, but you're here, and you heard something that gripped your heart. And you know it's true, and it's growing inside of you, and God is drawing you. It's an opportunity for you. Do not harden your heart. Don't close your heart. Say "yes" to him, not "no" to him. Say "yes" to him. Come on up and join us. I've had people say to me, "Aw, the church, it's full of hypocrites." Well, welcome to the hypocrite club. There's always room for one more. You can come too. It's called being a forgiven sinner. We're not perfect, we are forgiven. Come and get your forgiveness. It's found in Jesus.

That's right, come on over. All right, we've got some from the park. Awesome! There you go, awesome. That's why you're here. This is why you're here. This is why you came, whether you thought you came for whatever reason, this is why you're here. Are you thirsty? Have you tried other things that just haven't filled you up? And aren't you just tired of all that? Aren't you tired of trying and chasing that, and only to come up empty and thirstier in the end? And you want more of it and more of it, but it won't make you satisfied. So as Jesus is calling you, instead of fighting him, why don't you raise up the white flag and surrender to him. Say, "Yes, I'm going to do it." Because he made you and he loves you and he will forgive you.

And I want you to remember that God loves you, and God has a plan for your life. Come and find out what it is. We're going to wait just a few more minutes. We've got time. You know, we can't start the fireworks till like 9:15, that's when it gets dark. Maybe you're struggling with something and you've been struggling for a long time and you think, "I can't get victory over that. That'll never happen. I've tried it." Allow the Lord himself to change your life and be amongst a group of people who will hold you up and encourage you and love you through the bad and the good. Anybody else? If you're in the park, if you're in the amphitheater, if you're way back in these rows, make your way down here. We'll sing it just through one more time. [worship music continues]

I'm so happy that you came. I'm so honored to stand with you. I remember that afternoon when I prayed a prayer like you're just about to pray, and I remember how things changed. I didn't hear a voice from heaven. I didn't see the heavens open up and lightning come down. But what I knew and what I felt and what changed after that is what this is about. So I'm going to lead you in a prayer, and I'm going to ask you to pray these words out loud after me, and say them from your heart, mean them. You're talking to God, and he's going to hear you. [applause] Let's pray.

Say out loud, say: Lord, I give you my life. I am a sinner and I know it. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe he died on the cross. I believe he shed his blood for me. I believe he rose from the grave. And I believe he's alive right now. I give you my life. I turn from my sin. I make you my Savior. I trust in you as my Lord. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me the live for you every single day, in Jesus' name. And if you meant it, say amen! [cheers and applause]

Closing: What binds us together is devotion to worshiping our heavenly Father, dedication to studying his Word, and determination to proclaim our eternal hope in Jesus Christ.

For more teachings from Calvary Albuquerque and Skip Heitzig visit calvaryabq.org.


Additional Messages in this Series

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7/4/1999
completed
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Are You Really Free?
John 8
Skip Heitzig
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Are You Really Free? - John 8 from our study Independence Day Messages with Skip Heitzig from Calvary Albuquerque.
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7/4/2004
completed
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Freedom Celebration 2004 - Are You Really Free?
John 8:31-51
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
Freedom Celebration 2004 - Are You Really Free? - John 8:31-51 from our study Independence Day Messages with Skip Heitzig from Calvary Albuquerque.
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7/4/2007
completed
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Special Baptism Service
Skip Heitzig
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7/5/2009
completed
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Freedom Celebration 2009
Skip Heitzig
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Freedom Celebration 2009 from our study Independence Day Messages with Skip Heitzig from Calvary Albuquerque.
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7/3/2010
completed
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Free to be a Slave
Romans 6:14-23
Skip Heitzig
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Message Summary
God’s Word declares, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). As we gather to celebrate not only the freedoms of our nation, but our freedom in Christ, we’ll consider what we have been set free from, and what we have been set free for. We’ll address an issue that is often overlooked as we ponder the question: whom do you serve?
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7/3/2011
completed
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Freedom Celebration 2011
John 8:31-35
Skip Heitzig
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All of us are born into bondage—we are slaves to sin. But there is hope! Jesus can turn a slave into a son! As we consider our text from John 8, we'll be challenged to grow up and to grow deep in our relationship with Christ.
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7/4/2012
completed
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Freedom Celebration 2012
Skip Heitzig
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On Independence Day, we gather to thank God for and celebrate our country's freedom—but what good is civil liberty without freedom in Christ? Jesus promised freedom to His followers—freedom from spiritual ignorance, freedom from sin, and freedom from death. These give cause for a deeper, more meaningful, celebration.
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7/3/2013
completed
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Freedom Celebration 2013
Galatians 5:1
Skip Heitzig
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Before accepting Christ into our lives we are slaves to sin who cannot experience true liberty. Even now, as we take freedom for granted in our nation, we may actually be in bondage to the many lies of the world. In Paul's letter to the Galatians, we see a warning about legalism and an encouragement to truly be free in Christ.
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7/1/2015
completed
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Freedom Celebration 2015 - Living Free in a Broken World
1 Timothy 1-2
Skip Heitzig
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It seems that the more freedom people gain, the less they understand and appreciate true freedom. In this special Independence Day message, Skip Heitzig gives us three points from 1 Timothy 1-2 about how to impact the world around us as we live in true freedom, which comes only from Jesus Christ.
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7/2/2016
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Freedom Celebration 2016
Skip Heitzig
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Mankind is addicted to working for a salvation we cannot attain on our own. In this Independence Day message, we learn that even though sin promises to fulfill our need for freedom, true freedom comes from the Son of God.
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6/30/2017
completed
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Freedom Celebration 2017 - Friday
Skip Heitzig
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Though we are blessed with freedom in the United States, many people are not truly free. Nicodemus was a man who appeared to have it all together. Little did he know that the void in his life could only be filled by a relationship with Jesus. In this message, we learn what it means to be born again.
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7/1/2017
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Freedom Celebration 2017 - Saturday
Skip Heitzig
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Death is a subject most people avoid talking about--it's uncomfortable. But the fact is that every single person will eventually die. In this message, we learn that we don't have to be afraid of death if we are willing to come before Jesus in repentance for our sins.
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There are 12 additional messages in this series.
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