Dr. Tony Evans is known as a relevant expositor and is a pastor of pastors and a father in the faith.
#Religion
#Strongholds
#Deliverance
#Truth
#Bondage
#Freedom
#Word of God
#Transformation
#Spiritual Foundation
#Tony Evans
#John 8:31-36
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Dr. Tony Evans | The Power of Truth | June 19, 2022
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- Tony Evans: Today we're living in a world
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- of confusion, chaos, and lies.
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- We don't know what the truth is.
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- What's up is down, what's down is up;
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- what's right has become wrong,
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- what's wrong is deemed as right;
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- and people need a sure place to go to learn the truth.
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- God has given us a location for the truth,
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- and that is his apparent perfect Word.
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- That's why we need to return the truth,
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- which means we need to return to the Bible.
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- Tony: The death of truth has led to a breakdown
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- in the cultural immune system.
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- They hated Jesus because he was of the truth.
- 00:00:41.433 --> 00:00:44.002
- "If they are not taking me seriously,
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- that's 'cause they don't take truth seriously."
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- We must adjust and be people of the truth, the whole truth,
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- nothing but the truth so help you God.
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- Tony: There is another kind of slavery
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- that hold people hostage.
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- It is a slavery that keeps them from being
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- what they were created to be.
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- It is a slavery that holds them bound
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- to illegitimate incarceration, and that is the slavery
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- that Jesus talks about in John chapter 8.
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- He says in verse 31, "So Jesus was saying to those Jews
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- who had believed him, 'If you continue in my Word,
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- then you are truly disciples of mine.'"
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- Verse 32, "And you will know the truth
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- and the truth will make you free."
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- He speaks to people who had believed in him.
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- So these were already Christians,
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- but they were Christians who needed still to be set free
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- because having accepted Jesus Christ
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- did not remove automatically all of the things
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- that held them illegitimately hostage.
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- To be free means to be released from something
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- that ought not to be shackling you,
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- limiting you so that you can be what you were designed to be.
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- And Jesus tells them that their salvation
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- has set them up for an experience of freedom,
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- but the unfortunate reality is that many people
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- still find themselves illegitimately shackled
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- as spiritual POWs, prisoners of war.
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- They find themselves behind enemy lines unable to get free.
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- They have accepted Jesus Christ like many
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- who had believed in him had,
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- but something was still holding them back,
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- limiting them, keeping them from fully realizing
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- the greatness of their salvation.
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- For many there is a gap between the time of salvation
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- and the time of their liberation;
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- that when they receive Jesus Christ
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- there was an Emancipation Proclamation,
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- but what they need was a Juneteenth experience
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- because there was a gap of time between what was done legally
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- and what was experienced relationally.
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- And the question is, how do we get released,
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- freed up from the strongholds?
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- That's the spiritual word for what the secular world
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- calls addictions.
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- A stronghold is an addiction that has a spiritual component
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- attached to it.
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- That is something spiritual has grabbed hold of something
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- that either is legitimate or was legitimate
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- and made it illegitimate, and so it's a stronghold.
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- It's something that you can't buckle
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- because there is a spiritual component,
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- and that means that all your human efforts
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- can't really get you free because the spiritual component
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- has not been either understood or addressed
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- and what you need is 2.000 union soldiers.
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- You need a power to set you free,
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- to set us free from whatever it is.
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- It can be an addiction of drugs.
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- It can be an addiction of alcohol.
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- It can be an addiction of profanity,
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- not being able to control what you say;
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- an addiction of identity.
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- You pick the stronghold,
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- the addiction that has been wrapped
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- in this spiritual vise grip like a snake
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- that's wrapped around your thinking,
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- so that no matter how many promises you make,
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- how many new year's resolutions you make
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- it just won't let you go;
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- and what many people do, including Christians,
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- to try to address this is they decorate their cells.
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- They're in jail.
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- They have concluded, "I'm never going to get out of this,
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- so at least let me decorate myself
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- so I look good being an addict."
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- So we dress it up with church.
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- We dress it up with piety.
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- We dress it up with Bible study.
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- We got a good-looking cell, but we're still in jail.
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- Others seek to manage their slavery.
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- You're trying to manage it.
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- Just--"If I can just hold it hostage for a while
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- so it don't--it doesn't just break out."
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- Jesus recognized that there is the need.
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- Even when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead,
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- he had to tell some folk, "Loose him and let him go."
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- He still needed to be free, still needed to be released.
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- And even if that's not you, you know somebody
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- who's in that situation who has something tattooed
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- on their souls that they can't get rid of,
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- that they want to shake,
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- that they need release and relief from.
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- We find ourselves often in spiritual quicksand,
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- where the harder we try to get out
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- the deeper we sink and the need to be free.
- 00:07:38.717 --> 00:07:48.093
- Jesus gives us the clue, the secret, if you will,
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- the guidance that we need when he says in verse 32,
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- "And you will know the truth
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- and the truth will make you free."
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- It's like he's saying, "If you get this thing called the truth,
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- it'll force you to freedom.
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- It's going to make you free."
- 00:08:15.720 --> 00:08:19.057
- So if I can say it another way, if you don't have the truth,
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- you may have to settle for being a slave.
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- The first thing he says is that truth exist.
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- We've talked about that already.
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- There is such thing as truth, an absolute standard
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- by which reality is measured.
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- The truth that exists is knowable.
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- "You shall know the truth."
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- So this truth that Jesus is speaking of
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- that sets people free is not hidden information.
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- "You shall know the truth."
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- And the way you know that you really know it
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- is that you're finding yourself being freed by it.
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- So he's not merely talking about intellectual acuity,
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- he's not merely talking about intellectual information,
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- he's talking about transformational data.
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- "You shall know the truth."
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- And the way you know you know it is that you are being released,
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- freed by it.
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- So let's go a little deeper.
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- He has told them in verse 31, "If you continue in my Word,
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- if you continue in my Word--"
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- Now, they've already believed in him,
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- they've already accepted him, they're already
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- on their way to heaven,
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- but he says the key to freedom
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- beyond your initial salvation is continuing in his Word,
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- which will give you the truth that will set you free.
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- The word continue is our keyword.
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- It is the word that means to abide.
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- Now, we've explained that strongholds is more--that's more
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- than an addiction, a secular concept of just being owned
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- by circumstance or substance, but it has to do
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- with the spiritual reality.
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- That's because of what Jesus says next.
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- They said, "We are Abraham's descendants,"
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- verse 33, "and have never been enslaved to anyone.
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- How is it that you said you will become free?"
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- Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you,
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- everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin.
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- The slave does not remain in the house forever.
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- The son does remain forever."
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- He says the reason that folks aren't free is because sin,
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- which is a spiritual issue, has a vise grip.
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- It's not just a bad habit, it is an enslaved situation.
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- You know you need to be free when your sin
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- becomes your identity.
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- What I've done is I've taken the sin and I've made it normal.
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- In other words, I've turned it into my identity.
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- That's why you put I am in front of it
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- because it has become such a vise grip on the soul
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- that it is now how you view who you are,
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- and he says you become a slave to it.
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- They say, "Wait a minute. Wait a minute.
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- Wait a minute."
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- "Wait a minute," they say.
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- "We're Abraham's descendants."
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- Talk about Father's Day.
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- "We are descendants of our father Abraham.
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- How do you say we are a slave?"
- 00:11:55.874 --> 00:12:00.011
- They say, "Don't you know who we are and where we're from?"
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- Nothing will keep you locked down in spiritual slavery
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- like having a wrong view of yourself.
- 00:12:13.057 --> 00:12:18.029
- They said, "We are Abraham's seed.
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- We have never been enslaved."
- 00:12:21.166 --> 00:12:22.767
- Now, right then they're enslaved to Rome.
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- They have been enslaved to Babylon.
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- They have been enslaved to Persia.
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- They have been enslaved to Egypt.
- 00:12:29.374 --> 00:12:31.676
- In other words, they weren't dealing in reality, you know.
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- They were turning a biological reality
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- and thinking that gave them spiritual privilege.
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- They had a spiritual miscalculation.
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- And when you have a spiritual miscalculation
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- that winds up causing you to lead
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- to an erroneous spiritual conclusion,
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- you won't get the spiritual help to give you
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- the spiritual release that you are looking for.
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- Jesus has to tell them, "You are not using the right standard
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- for the freedom that you need."
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- One of the reasons that we are held hostage
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- by all of this stuff that we're facing today,
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- racism and culturalism
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- and classism and political conflict,
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- is that we don't continue in his Word.
- 00:13:33.972 --> 00:13:38.209
- Oh, we may get started with it with an invocation,
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- we may bring God's name,
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- we may even quote a Scripture,
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- but what we don't do is abide.
- 00:13:47.352 --> 00:13:52.490
- He says, "If you continue, if you abide,
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- if you hang out in my Word,"
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- he says, "freedom is attached to that;
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- by hearing it, learning it,
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- memorizing it, quoting it, referring to it,
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- and most of all utilizing it.
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- If you continue in my Word; if it becomes an--a way of life,
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- a mindset, an orientation, a perspective;
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- if it's how you roll;
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- if you continue in my Word, you want to know
- 00:14:26.124 --> 00:14:28.660
- what I think about it, how I feel about it,
- 00:14:28.660 --> 00:14:30.929
- what I say about it, and you interact with me
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- and my Word, then the truth will be activated
- 00:14:35.099 --> 00:14:43.041
- in your experience."
- 00:14:43.041 --> 00:14:45.443
- Satan's goal is to get you to contaminate the truth,
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- get me to contaminate the truth
- 00:14:51.282 --> 00:14:53.685
- so that the truth loses its pop.
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- It loses its ability to do what it does.
- 00:14:58.556 --> 00:15:04.696
- So here it is.
- 00:15:04.696 --> 00:15:06.764
- You're a believer, you're saved, you're on your way to heaven,
- 00:15:06.764 --> 00:15:09.367
- but you're incarcerated in some form or fashion.
- 00:15:09.367 --> 00:15:14.305
- That's why some of these things we try to fix don't get fixed
- 00:15:14.305 --> 00:15:17.275
- because we keep it in a secular addiction category
- 00:15:17.275 --> 00:15:20.545
- and not in a spiritual sin category.
- 00:15:20.545 --> 00:15:25.049
- He says, "If you will continue in my Word,
- 00:15:25.049 --> 00:15:31.656
- you will know the truth
- 00:15:31.656 --> 00:15:35.693
- and the truth will make you free."
- 00:15:35.693 --> 00:15:39.831
- It'll make it happen.
- 00:15:39.831 --> 00:15:44.535
- And then he gives you the kicker.
- 00:15:44.535 --> 00:15:47.638
- The kicker is in verse 36.
- 00:15:47.638 --> 00:15:54.946
- "So if the son makes you free,
- 00:15:54.946 --> 00:15:59.851
- you will be free indeed."
- 00:15:59.851 --> 00:16:04.956
- So if the son makes you free,
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- you will be free indeed.
- 00:16:10.161 --> 00:16:12.530
- Indeed mean sure enough, for real.
- 00:16:12.530 --> 00:16:17.402
- You can bank on it.
- 00:16:17.402 --> 00:16:21.172
- "If the son makes you free--" Well, wait a minute.
- 00:16:21.172 --> 00:16:23.941
- I'm confused because he told me, "You will know the truth
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- and the truth will make you free."
- 00:16:29.047 --> 00:16:32.850
- But verse 36 says, "If the son makes you free,
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- you will be free indeed."
- 00:16:37.722 --> 00:16:39.791
- So which is it?
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- Is it the truth making me free, or is it the son making me free?
- 00:16:41.125 --> 00:16:46.264
- Well, in verse 31 says, "If you continue in my Word,
- 00:16:46.264 --> 00:16:51.102
- the truth will set you free."
- 00:16:51.102 --> 00:16:53.004
- So what you and I need to understand
- 00:16:53.004 --> 00:16:54.939
- is the dynamic relationship
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- between the written Word and the living Word.
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- There is a dynamic, cooperative, unified empowerment
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- when Jesus takes the Word, makes it his Word for your problem.
- 00:17:12.957 --> 00:17:21.332
- "If the son sets you free, you will be free indeed."
- 00:17:21.399 --> 00:17:31.042
- Why must the son make you free?
- 00:17:31.042 --> 00:17:35.213
- Well, I'm going to get a little ahead of myself
- 00:17:35.213 --> 00:17:36.747
- and let me show you verse 44.
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- "You are of your father the devil
- 00:17:38.716 --> 00:17:40.985
- and you want to do the desires of your father.
- 00:17:40.985 --> 00:17:43.688
- He was a murderer from the beginning
- 00:17:43.688 --> 00:17:45.623
- and does not stand in the truth
- 00:17:45.623 --> 00:17:48.192
- because there is no truth in him."
- 00:17:48.192 --> 00:17:51.796
- Okay.
- 00:17:51.796 --> 00:17:54.098
- What holds us hostage is Satan's ability
- 00:17:54.098 --> 00:18:00.972
- to keep a lie going.
- 00:18:00.972 --> 00:18:04.075
- He has impeccable ability to make you treat the lie
- 00:18:04.075 --> 00:18:09.747
- like it is the truth.
- 00:18:09.747 --> 00:18:14.285
- So you need somebody stronger than him to override him
- 00:18:14.285 --> 00:18:19.724
- for what he's doing to you and me.
- 00:18:19.724 --> 00:18:23.828
- You are no competition for him, but we know somebody who is.
- 00:18:23.828 --> 00:18:32.136
- In the previous verses he says the slave that's in the house
- 00:18:32.136 --> 00:18:38.109
- is different than the son that's in the house.
- 00:18:38.109 --> 00:18:42.380
- The slave is a temporary servant; the son is an inheritor
- 00:18:42.380 --> 00:18:48.886
- of the benefits of the Father.
- 00:18:48.886 --> 00:18:52.056
- Jesus says, "I'm the son and I have final authority
- 00:18:52.056 --> 00:18:56.494
- in God's house.
- 00:18:56.494 --> 00:18:59.063
- So if you're being held hostage illegitimately,
- 00:18:59.063 --> 00:19:03.334
- because I have authority in the Father's house
- 00:19:03.334 --> 00:19:06.904
- I can role--overrule anything illegitimately
- 00:19:06.904 --> 00:19:10.074
- holding you hostage in the house."
- 00:19:10.074 --> 00:19:13.578
- So he says, "If the son shall make you free,
- 00:19:13.578 --> 00:19:16.647
- you shall be free indeed."
- 00:19:16.647 --> 00:19:22.787
- Now, let me say something very important.
- 00:19:22.787 --> 00:19:27.291
- It is the truth that sets you free,
- 00:19:27.291 --> 00:19:30.328
- not what you believe to be true.
- 00:19:30.328 --> 00:19:36.000
- You got to get this.
- 00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:39.170
- It is the truth that sets you free, not what you believe.
- 00:19:39.170 --> 00:19:44.675
- I don't care how long you've believed it.
- 00:19:44.675 --> 00:19:46.410
- I don't care how long your mom and daddy
- 00:19:46.410 --> 00:19:48.279
- reinforced it.
- 00:19:48.279 --> 00:19:49.614
- I don't care how long the culture agrees with you.
- 00:19:49.614 --> 00:19:52.383
- I don't care how long your siblings
- 00:19:52.383 --> 00:19:54.885
- or what they have to say about it.
- 00:19:54.885 --> 00:19:56.387
- It's not what you believe.
- 00:19:56.387 --> 00:19:58.289
- He say, "It's what I say."
- 00:19:58.289 --> 00:20:01.292
- And that's why you need to know 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
- 00:20:01.292 --> 00:20:06.964
- Let me refer to this.
- 00:20:06.964 --> 00:20:09.100
- This probably will come up other times in our series,
- 00:20:09.100 --> 00:20:12.370
- but it is a critical passage for your freedom
- 00:20:12.370 --> 00:20:15.106
- or for you to help somebody else get free.
- 00:20:15.106 --> 00:20:17.875
- 2 Corinthians chapter 10.
- 00:20:17.875 --> 00:20:26.284
- He says, verse 3,
- 00:20:26.284 --> 00:20:28.786
- "For though we walk in the flesh,
- 00:20:28.786 --> 00:20:30.121
- we do not war according to the flesh," the battle.
- 00:20:30.121 --> 00:20:34.725
- "For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,"
- 00:20:34.725 --> 00:20:37.828
- that is human ability,
- 00:20:37.828 --> 00:20:40.364
- "but divinely powerful for the destruction
- 00:20:40.364 --> 00:20:43.100
- of fortresses.
- 00:20:43.100 --> 00:20:46.737
- We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing
- 00:20:46.737 --> 00:20:51.842
- raised up against the knowledge of God,
- 00:20:51.842 --> 00:20:54.378
- and we are taking every thought captive
- 00:20:54.378 --> 00:20:56.814
- to the obedience of Christ."
- 00:20:56.814 --> 00:21:00.518
- He says we are destroying-- he says
- 00:21:00.518 --> 00:21:04.422
- we are getting rid of fortresses.
- 00:21:04.422 --> 00:21:06.524
- You know what a fort is.
- 00:21:06.524 --> 00:21:09.860
- A fort is an encampment that has been established
- 00:21:09.860 --> 00:21:13.731
- to keep things out.
- 00:21:13.731 --> 00:21:16.467
- It's a fort.
- 00:21:16.467 --> 00:21:18.969
- He says we are bringing down every lofty thing.
- 00:21:18.969 --> 00:21:22.606
- What the enemy puts up is a lofty thing.
- 00:21:22.606 --> 00:21:27.645
- Why?
- 00:21:27.645 --> 00:21:29.113
- 'Cause he wants to block the knowledge of God
- 00:21:29.113 --> 00:21:30.948
- from getting through.
- 00:21:30.948 --> 00:21:33.517
- He doesn't want God's perspective to bleed
- 00:21:33.517 --> 00:21:36.053
- over into your thinking, so he erects a lofty thing.
- 00:21:36.053 --> 00:21:41.325
- What are the lofty things that he erects so he can keep
- 00:21:41.325 --> 00:21:44.295
- you and me as a slave, breaking up our lives,
- 00:21:44.295 --> 00:21:47.932
- breaking up our peace, breaking up our marriages,
- 00:21:47.932 --> 00:21:50.401
- breaking up our plans for that--
- 00:21:50.401 --> 00:21:53.170
- our calling, our divine purpose?
- 00:21:53.170 --> 00:21:55.072
- What is the lofty thing?
- 00:21:55.072 --> 00:21:56.640
- He tells you what the lofty thing is.
- 00:21:56.640 --> 00:21:58.843
- Verse 5, "We are destroying speculations
- 00:21:58.843 --> 00:22:04.515
- and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God."
- 00:22:04.515 --> 00:22:10.588
- Speculations.
- 00:22:10.588 --> 00:22:11.922
- You know what a speculator is.
- 00:22:11.922 --> 00:22:14.191
- A speculation is how you feel about an issue,
- 00:22:14.191 --> 00:22:20.531
- what you think about an issue.
- 00:22:20.531 --> 00:22:23.901
- Do you know we spend a lot of our time blocking God out
- 00:22:23.901 --> 00:22:27.405
- because of what we speculate, how we feel, what we think,
- 00:22:27.405 --> 00:22:33.611
- what we were taught, how we were raised?
- 00:22:33.611 --> 00:22:35.813
- That created a partition that blocked out
- 00:22:35.813 --> 00:22:40.084
- the knowledge of God.
- 00:22:40.084 --> 00:22:41.585
- An interesting verse in Scripture says,
- 00:22:41.585 --> 00:22:44.355
- "You do nullify the Word of God with your traditions."
- 00:22:44.355 --> 00:22:48.426
- God says, "You can cancel me out."
- 00:22:48.426 --> 00:22:50.094
- Did you know you--talk about canceled culture.
- 00:22:50.094 --> 00:22:52.763
- You can cancel God out by what you think, by your speculation.
- 00:22:52.763 --> 00:22:59.537
- God doesn't want you to speculate when he has spoken.
- 00:22:59.537 --> 00:23:04.008
- He doesn't want you to debate when he has spoken.
- 00:23:04.008 --> 00:23:06.277
- Yes, clarity to understand, but the idea is to know the truth
- 00:23:06.277 --> 00:23:11.015
- because that's the only thing he's going to use to free us up.
- 00:23:11.015 --> 00:23:15.019
- He will only use the truth.
- 00:23:15.019 --> 00:23:17.254
- He won't use your speculation, he won't use your orientation,
- 00:23:17.254 --> 00:23:22.293
- and he certainly won't use your edumacation
- 00:23:22.293 --> 00:23:26.063
- 'cause some of us have educated ourselves in the speculation.
- 00:23:26.063 --> 00:23:30.301
- We become brilliantly ignorant.
- 00:23:30.301 --> 00:23:35.172
- Now, here's the kicker.
- 00:23:35.172 --> 00:23:36.507
- Here's what really will turn it on.
- 00:23:36.507 --> 00:23:37.975
- If you want to speed it up, verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 10.
- 00:23:37.975 --> 00:23:41.879
- "And we are ready to punish all disobedience
- 00:23:41.879 --> 00:23:45.583
- whenever your obedience is complete,"
- 00:23:45.583 --> 00:23:52.056
- whenever your obedience is complete.
- 00:23:55.826 --> 00:24:00.130
- So you continue in his Word not merely by knowing it
- 00:24:00.130 --> 00:24:05.369
- but by implementing it whenever your obedience--
- 00:24:05.369 --> 00:24:09.707
- but here's the word incom--is complete.
- 00:24:09.707 --> 00:24:13.744
- So partial obedience won't bring spiritual deliverance.
- 00:24:13.744 --> 00:24:19.416
- You have to finish it.
- 00:24:19.416 --> 00:24:23.120
- Now, you may say, "You don't know my problem.
- 00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:25.456
- You don't know my struggle.
- 00:24:25.456 --> 00:24:27.691
- You don't know how deep this is.
- 00:24:27.691 --> 00:24:29.326
- You don't know how long it's been there.
- 00:24:29.326 --> 00:24:33.564
- And mine is different than hers, and she is--hers is different
- 00:24:33.564 --> 00:24:36.033
- than mine and yet-- you don't understand."
- 00:24:36.033 --> 00:24:41.005
- So I don't know what your situation is,
- 00:24:41.005 --> 00:24:43.440
- but there's one power source for whatever
- 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:46.677
- your unique situation is;
- 00:24:46.677 --> 00:24:49.446
- and that is the truth that you continue in,
- 00:24:49.446 --> 00:24:53.284
- which engages the son who brings about resurrection,
- 00:24:53.284 --> 00:24:58.489
- and the resurrection is used of Jesus.
- 00:24:58.489 --> 00:25:02.626
- Because when Jesus rose, they say he has risen indeed.
- 00:25:02.626 --> 00:25:08.365
- He's risen sure enough.
- 00:25:08.365 --> 00:25:11.168
- He can resurrect the situation.
- 00:25:11.168 --> 00:25:14.071
- When you got saved he signed your emancipation proclamation,
- 00:25:14.071 --> 00:25:18.576
- but there is a gap between when he signed it
- 00:25:18.576 --> 00:25:22.046
- and when 2.000 troops show up to activate it
- 00:25:22.046 --> 00:25:26.817
- because there is a system that's been so used
- 00:25:26.817 --> 00:25:31.288
- to being there that doesn't want to let you go.
- 00:25:31.288 --> 00:25:34.992
- But when the son shows up, he's able to take the mess
- 00:25:34.992 --> 00:25:39.463
- that's held us hostage and say to us, "Free at last.
- 00:25:39.463 --> 00:25:44.201
- Free at last.
- 00:25:44.201 --> 00:25:45.769
- Thank God Almighty, you are free at last."
- 00:25:45.769 --> 00:25:50.240
- ♪♪♪
- 00:25:50.307 --> 00:26:00.884
- Tony: Just like a seed has life-giving reality inside of it
- 00:25:59.183 --> 00:26:05.956
- that allows it to grow and to transform itself into something
- 00:26:05.956 --> 00:26:12.262
- larger and more productive; there is life in God's Word,
- 00:26:12.262 --> 00:26:20.004
- the power of life to transform a person from where they are into
- 00:26:20.004 --> 00:26:25.809
- what they ought to be, setting them free from anything
- 00:26:25.809 --> 00:26:30.080
- that would hold them illegitimately hostage.
- 00:26:30.080 --> 00:26:33.317
- The power of God's Word when it's released
- 00:26:33.317 --> 00:26:36.353
- by our activating it through obedience
- 00:26:36.353 --> 00:26:40.057
- can transform you and me
- 00:26:40.057 --> 00:26:43.527
- and a world that needs to be delivered.
- 00:26:43.527 --> 00:26:46.997
- ♪♪♪
- 00:26:46.997 --> 00:26:57.875
- ♪♪♪
- 00:26:57.941 --> 00:27:24.868
- ♪♪♪
- 00:27:07.885 --> 00:27:29.999
