Sermon Tone Analysis

HOW TO EXPERIENCE REAL FREEDOM

*Luke 4:18-19 & Galatians 5:1*

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*In Luke 4:18-19*, the very first passage Jesus ever spoke -- it was His first public sermon, -- Jesus spelled out what was going to be the theme of His ministry.

*/“18The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.

He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind, To set free those who are oppressed, 19 To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”/*

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Jesus, in His very first sermon, said, “I came to bring good news”.

He said, “I've come to set people free”.

He said in John 8:32, */“I am the truth, you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”/*.

And in John 8:36 he says, */"If the Son will set you free, you will be free indeed."/*

I want to talk about freedom tonight.

Jesus said, "I've come to set you free."

*Galatians 5:1* says, /"*It was for freedom that Christ set us free*."

/ Jesus promises real and lasting freedom.

From what?

This evening, I want to give you a few things that Jesus said, "I've come to set you free from".

*1.

JESUS SAID, I WANT TO SET YOU FREE FROM THE BURDEN OF GUILT.*

There are a lot of people bound up by guilt today.

One of the wisest decisions that the executives on television did was to put reruns of Columbo.

The other night the bad guy was Johnny Cash.

They had him cast as a country-western singer (imagine that!).

He murdered somebody.

At the end, Columbo always figures out what happened, and Cash got caught.

The closing words of the scene, Johnny Cash says, "I'm glad I finally got caught.

The guilt was killing me."

You cannot live indefinitely with guilt.

But the fact is all of us make mistakes and all of us are guilty.

How do you live with it?

Jesus said, "I want to set you free from it."

Ephesians 1:7-8 in the Good News Bible says this */"For by the death of Christ we are set free.

That is, our sins are forgiven.

How great is the grace of God which He gave to us in such large measure/*/."/

Guilt robs you of happiness.

It causes depression.

It can make you sick.

Doctors say that 80% of the people in hospitals today could go home if they could get rid of guilt and bitterness.

The number one killer of college students now is suicide.

The number two killer of high school students is suicide.

Why?

Depression and guilt.

Yet God says, "I want to set you free."

I talk to a lot of people who have been in therapy for years and years.

Some of them just need to be forgiven.

They don't know how to get rid of the past.

"I am a prisoner of my past.

I don't know how to let go of the past.

It haunts me.

I'm afraid somebody's going to find out about it.

I've made mistakes.

How do I get on with my life?"

Jesus says, "I want to set you free from the burden of guilt."

The Bible says when we come to Christ, He takes us and forgives us instantly, He forgives us completely, He forgives us without question.

The Bible says, /"I've taken your sins and put them all behind My back."/

Out of sight.

"I've separated them as far as east from west."

Out of reach.

"I've put them where I remember them no more."

Out of memory.

Once you learn that God can forgive and forget, what God forgets then you can forget.

If you come to God and say, "God, I've really made a mess of my life.

I've made mistakes and this is what I've done wrong and please forgive me."

You're forgiven, and God says, "I not only forgive but I wipe the slate clean."

It's like starting over.

It's like being born again.

Then if you were to die and go to heaven and say, "God, about that sin..." He'd say, "What sin?" "About that mistake I made in that relationship..."  He'd say, "What mistake?"  "God, about that pain that I went through..." "What pain?"

That is the freedom of forgiveness.

God says, "I want to set you free from the burden of guilt" / "In Christ we are set free.

That is our sins are forgiven."/

It brings me great joy knowing that I'm forgiven, that I can have a clear conscience.

The slate is clean.

But that's not all.

*2.

JESUS SAYS I WANT TO SET YOU FREE FROM THE PAIN OF RESENTMENT.*

In life we end up hurting people and other people hurt us.

When we hurt others, we feel guilty.

When people hurt us, we feel resentful.

Bitterness is a poison that will eat you alive.

It is worse than cancer.

It will affect your entire system and ruin you.

I remember reading about twin sisters in a little town in Georgia in a little tiny church.

One of the sisters got engaged to a fellow and about half way through the engagement he broke off the engagement and married the other twin.

Problems!

Those two sisters developed a resentment and bitterness against each other.

They even divided the church so that everybody had to divide up ‑- "Whose side are you on?"

Even in this little church, one sister sat on one side of the church, with the other sister on the other side.

You kind of chose.

For the next 70 years, those sisters up in their 90's, the church was still divided.

That's what bitterness can do.

It can wreck you.

You will be hurt in life, either intentionally or unintentionally.

It's not so important the fact that you're going to get hurt in life.

But what is important is how you choose to respond.

Are you going to be bitter or are you going to be better?

Jesus says, "I want to set you free from the poison of bitterness."

\\ Ephesians 4:31-32 in the NIV says */"31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.

32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."/*

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If you forgive, you can move on, but if you harbor resentment, it ruins you.

What we like to do when we are hurt is get even.

We want revenge.

We want to retaliate.

We get resentful, but resentment always hurts you more than the person you're resentful against.

Always.