Truth=Freedom 7-5-2026

If this is your first time listening you can check us out at lifefamily.church or on Facebook and Instagram at @lfcbeardstown

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Life Family Church Sermon Podcast. If this is your first time listening, you can check us out on our website at lifefamily. Or on Facebook at LFC. Now let's get right to the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Lord, we love you. Praise you, Jesus. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Praise you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Has the Lord been good to you? Has he been faithful to you? Has he always come through for you? He will never let you down. He will always be on time. His word is true. His ways are always righteous. He's a good God. Hallelujah. Won't you turn around and shake somebody's hand, hug somebody's neck, and we'll get going here. Praise the Lord. Thank you, praise the worship team. That was awesome. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. A couple of things before we get started. First of all, if you're a guest here for the first time, if you're a guest here, can you lift up your hand? We want to acknowledge you. Amen. Praise God. There's a guest back here. Guys, let's welcome our guest. Amen. We got guests over here. It's so good to have you all. Thank you for coming, and I hope you're blessed. We're just a group of people who love the Lord, who are called to just give God glory and honor and to love one another. You can turn me down just a hair, brother. I'm a little hot. Yes, sir. That's all right there. Fine. First of all, I would like to thank uh Jimmy and Aaron for filling in for me. I've heard nothing but wonderful things from you guys. Uh, didn't they do a great job? Amen. Have the opportunity to listen to Jimmy speak. Um, I listened to it on our podcast. And by the way, if you have never listened to our podcast, this is a great opportunity to go back and listen to the sermons and also to um get all the all the scriptures that I speedily go through and don't give you an opportunity to write them down. So if you guys want to, you can always go back to our website. That'll take you to our podcast. You're always welcome to listen to that. And uh, we'd love you to listen to that actually. It it always helps that you go back and you listen to it so that you can correct your pastor if he makes mistakes. So, but we really, I really do appreciate those guys for filling in. Um, this is a wonderful church with wonderful people, and I totally trusted them. Uh, there's places, and and I know pastors who cannot go on vacation, they cannot do anything based on if they leave that when the pastor's away, the mice begin to play. And it is nasty when they go. When they come home, they're they're playing cleanup. But thank God we have a church that when I come home, there's people uh filling these all uh filling these pews and people here visiting, and good things are happening. Amen. So I trust you guys full and thank you so much for what you did. And Aaron, same thank you, brother. I haven't listened to your message yet, so once I hear it, I can come and we can correct everything you said that was wrong. All right. No, no, I really appreciate these guys, and um, I know that they did a wonderful job, and and I love our staff and those who work here and those who volunteer here. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much. We had a wonderful time in Colorado. Uh we dodged the fires, but um it was smoky in certain areas, but where we were, it was it wasn't so bad. Uh, we had a great time. We were in Woodland Park, which is real close to Karas Bible College, where we were uh enjoying a conference which was celebrating the 250th uh anniversary or birthday of our nation's beginning. And uh I just want to say happy 250th. Amen. Amen. I want to say this based on what I've heard all my life. The teaching that I received as a child in history was a lie. Come on, somebody. They lied to you. This nation was not founded on deist, this nation was founded on the truth of the word of God. Don't let them lie to you. The Bible says, let God be true and every man a liar. The government was founded upon Christianity. 100%. George Washington wrote many times about Christ and how he was provincial and how he protected man during the Revolutionary War, how God led them through certain areas. And when they thought that it was about to be over, God made a way so that they could walk through situations where it was unbearable, but God brought one situation, God brought a fog. And there was a fog that allowed the American troops to go and the British to be stuck behind, and they couldn't find them. I mean, we we they called it provincial. We call it that was the glory of God. Amen. Many times the American troops would go and they would cross a river, and that river immediately would begin to flood, and the other troops could not pass over to attack. So God protected this nation. This nation was founded on the truth of the word of God. And I promise you, we're gonna declare that truth for another 250 years. And there's no socialist communist group that's gonna come in here and take our nation. Come on, I should hear a better amen than that. Now, I'm not preaching politics, I'm preaching morality. Morality says that if somebody wants to kill babies, destroy, tear down, that is not God. We've got to stand up. Our nation is under attack. But if you if you want to make it another 250 years, we're gonna have to stand up, we're gonna have to vote, we're gonna have to do our part. Because it was founded on truth and it was founded on liberty, and that's exactly where we're gonna keep it. And it's up to the church, it's not up to the government, it's up to the church to stand our ground, to take our to take our place in the kingdom of God and stand up for our nation and not allow anyone to just come in and destroy it. We've got to stand our ground. And I know people will say, well, we're just, you know, my vote doesn't even count because we're in a we're in a liberal country or state here. Know what? We have to stand for the truth even if even if things happen we don't like, even if we're gonna stand for the truth. Because the Bible does say, and I'll be speaking on this today, the truth shall set you free, shall make you free. It is the truth. So today we're gonna talk a little bit about that. Freedom is built on truth. Adam and Eve were deceived. In Genesis chapter 3, verse 4 and 5, it says, the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of this fruit, the eyes, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Satan promised freedom, but delivered bondage. You see, we've got to be smart and wise in this world in which we're at right now, the time that you're living in right now, we've got to be wise. The world is promising you freedom. You can do whatever you want to do, but what they deliver is another thing. Amen. Satan will promise you if you'll go ahead and do it, hey, whatever feels good, do it. Amen? But that's not true. That is a lie from the devil, and he wants to bring you into bondage. Sin always disguises itself as freedom while leaving you as a slave. Freedom and liberty will always be rooted in truth. Everybody say truth. Without truth, what appears to be freedom eventually becomes deception and bondage. Truth is revealed through the word of God. The Bible declares that Jesus is the living word. And the word of God says in John chapter 1, verse 14 the word of God became flesh and it dwelt among us. The word of God became flesh. What is that saying? That Jesus is the word of God. And Jesus is truth. Apart from Jesus, there is no truth. It doesn't matter how hard you twist it, how hard you try, apart from Jesus, there is no truth. We cannot separate Jesus and the truth. It's his nature. He is truth. And the truth is perfectly united in Christ. Jesus said also, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. That's John 8 32. Notice that he didn't give you an opinion. It was not based on opinions or feelings or a popular culture at that time. It was based on the truth that he declared over you that if you're going to walk in freedom, you're going to walk according to the word. If you want freedom in your life, true freedom comes through the word of God. It does not come any other way. There's no other way to obtain freedom for this nation apart from the truth of the word of God. This nation was formed on morality that was based upon the word of God. So if we want to go another 250 years and experience freedom and rest, then we're going to have to stand our ground and walk according to the truth of the word of God, and that is Jesus. Later, Jesus, he said this I am the way, I am the truth, and I am the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. That's John 14, 6. If Jesus is the truth, then the only path to true freedom is through Jesus. There's no other way. There's no other path. He is the path to freedom. There's no lasting liberty apart from Christ. Our culture often defines freedom as doing whatever feels right, whatever we desire, but biblical freedom is different. Biblical freedom is not the absence of boundaries, it's the power to live according to God's truth. There was a story I heard a long time ago when I was in Bible college in 2000, 2001. I was listening to them talk about this, these elementary school kids where their building and their playground, they didn't have a playground at the time, but their building was really close to the highway, and they were trying to figure out a way to put a playground so these kids could go out and have a good time and just get a little recess. So they built this playground, and to their amazement, the kids would all hover around the back side of the playground, and they would never enjoy the full area to play in. So someone had a good idea, okay. Well, maybe we need to build a fence because there's a road really close. So they built this fence around the playground. And those kids went absolutely berserk, like kids should. They were climbing the fence, they were walking around the fence, the outer part of the playground. They had freedom. You see, freedom is not the absence of boundaries. Because the kids felt free because they felt safe. You see, when you are walking according to the word of God, your freedom is secure, your freedom is safe. When you're walking according to the word, your life is safe. And you can walk with true rest. You don't have to worry about obstacles coming at you and things coming at you because the word of God sets you on a course of freedom. You can walk in true rest and true freedom. Emotions change, desires they fluctuate, but God's truth remains constant. True freedom is found when we, number one, believe God's word. This is when true freedom truly comes to your life. Number two is when you submit to the word. And number three is when you act upon it. So true freedom is found when you believe, you submit, and you act upon the word of God. As we walk in his truth, the chains of sin, fear, guilt, and deception are broken. And you continue to walk in his word. You see, I know people that they'll say to me, I've tried it, it didn't work. We don't try the word. We abide in it. You don't try things like this. We abide in it. You know what that word abide means? I give an illustration. Abiding means that you go and you set up a homestead. You know what a homestead is? First thing you do is you go and dig a well because you plan on staying there a while. Amen. So if you want freedom and freedom that lasts, dig a well there. Stay there. Abide there. Abide in his word. And you'll see truth began to deliver freedom from all these things the enemy wants to put on your life. Freedom is not found in following ourselves. Freedom is found in following who is truth. Jesus is truth. The closer we walk to the truth, the more free we become. So if you feel like you're held bondage, held in bondage to anything, you need to get closer to Jesus. You need to stay close to the word. You need to start to apply the word of God into your life. The Bible says, I will put your word in my heart so I won't sin against you. We need to put the word of God in our hearts. We need to start applying them to every situation of our life. I know myself personally, there's certain areas in my life that I feel like I can handle. But does that give me a right to handle it on my own? I shouldn't do anything on my own. Our confidence and our and our focus should always be upon Jesus and his word. If we'll do that, I promise you, freedom will start to manifest in your life. You'll start to see freedom start taking place, and you'll start to breathe easier knowing that God is in control because I've yielded myself to him. Amen. He said the word of God became flesh. So we know that the true nature of Jesus is truth. That is his nature. It's not what he spoke about, it's who he is. So when you go to Jesus, you're always going to get truth. Sometimes we don't like truth. I'm gonna be honest. Sometimes my wife tells me the truth and I don't like it. How'd I do today? Well, sometimes I don't like what I hear. But did you know that when the enemy lies to you and tells you what you want to hear, that that does not bring freedom and liberty to your life? That keeps you in that place of bondage. You see, we need to stop listening to the world's opinions of us. Stop worrying about what the world thinks of us. The Bible says that if they hated me, they're gonna hate you. And they're hating you because they hate Jesus. Why? Because they hate the truth. The truth exposes the darkness. So when we go out and we preach the gospel, they're gonna hate it. They're gonna get mad at you, they're gonna reject you, but don't be offended. Don't hold on to offense, don't let it bother you. Because they're not hating you, they're hating the word, they're hating the truth. Know this anytime you preach the truth to someone, there's a chance that they might be offended. It's always there. There's a chance. But anytime you back someone in the corner and tell them the truth, it's an opportunity for them to change their ways and experience freedom. What's gonna happen if they if they get angry at me? Well, what's gonna happen if they get free? Amen. But they'll never get free if we don't speak the truth in love. They'll never be free. We've got to go out into the communities and we've got to speak the truth of the word of God to these people that Jesus is the only way, the only truth, and the only life. And there's no other way to the Father except through Him. You can't get to heaven by being good. If you're in here today and you think I'm a good person, I can make it because I'm a good person. Your goodness will never equal eternal salvation. It's only the goodness of Jesus, it's only the truth of the Word of God that can set you free and make you free and allow you to spend eternal life with Him. Eternal life is knowing God. That's what it is. It's knowing the truth. That is eternal life. So you don't have to wait till you die. You can go ahead and experience eternal life right now by walking in the truth of the word of God. Amen. He thought he's gonna go and he's gonna experience freedom. Give me my inheritance now, Father, so I can go experience the world and have freedom. But that freedom, very shortly, after he extinguished everything his father gave him, that freedom shortly became bondage for him. And that bondage made him become a slave. That's bondage. That's bondage. Freedom is walking in boundaries. The boundary is the word of God. And you might not like what your parents say to you, teenagers. You might not like it when they ask you to take out the trash. You might stomp your feet, you might get mad, but parents, don't you stop? You set boundaries for your children because those boundaries will provide freedom for them. You think, oh, I'm just, oh my mom and dad, I can't stand them. Why do they always make me do this? Guys, if you think it's hard now, wait till you become an adult. Come on, somebody. I should get a better amen than that. Wait till you become an adult and you've got people depending on you. This is just preparation time for what's about to come. You better be putting your confidence in your mom and dad and allow them to speak truth into your life.

unknown 21:59

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Amen or O me or whatever they say now. I'm not gonna say it. I don't even know what they're saying now. Jesus is the only way. The world tried to destroy Jesus. The religious people tried to destroy Jesus. The church tried to destroy Jesus. Jesus hung on a cross. I will say it like this: the truth was crucified for you. The truth went through the fire for you. The truth was beaten. Has been given many stripes, has been put to the test and resurrected on the third day. The truth will always resurrect. Always. So we need to allow ourselves or give ourselves the opportunity to yield our members to the word of God and allow God to change us through his word. The world defines freedom as the following. Do whatever you do whatever feels good. Do whatever feels good. But the Bible teaches us that feelings will deceive us. Proverbs 14, 12 says this there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end, it's the ways of death. So as much as you think, well, I feel like this is the right thing to do, you still need to back it up by the word of God. Because you just saying what makes somebody feel good doesn't help them. Amen. I've had people tell me what I wanted to hear. And I've also had people tell me what I needed to hear. And what I needed to hear is the word. What does the word say about this? I don't I don't think we I don't think people understand the importance of the truth in today's world. They would rather hear someone tell them what makes them feel good. That made me angry to tell me that I wasn't first place. I should be first place too. Well, you lost the game. Amen. When you lose a game, you're not first place. You lost. Amen. That is supposed to motivate you to get better. When you see that other team getting their first place trophy, that's supposed to motivate you to that. I'm gonna get better, and next year, we're gonna get that trophy. It's not meant to destroy you, it's meant to help you grow. So this world is twisted. They're like, well, everybody deserves a first place trophy. That's not true. That's a lie. Nobody, nobody who loses the game deserves a trophy. You only get a trophy when you win, amen. But politically correct, we all get participation award. I don't want a participation award. I've got trophies where I played in ball games that you know what they do? They sit in the closet. I don't want trophies for for losing. I want trophies for winning. Amen. I want to, I wanna I want to brag on that. We're a church that always wins. And we need to put that on our shelf every day. And we need to show it every day I win. How do I win? Every day I follow the word. Every day I do what the word says. And because of that, I always win. I'm always coming out victorious. Why? Because I put my trust in Jesus, I focus on Him. When I make decisions, I make decisions based on the truth of the Word and not based on my feelings. Amen. Couple other things. Freedom comes through obedience. It's not enough to just hear the word, it's not enough to just go to church as much as we love you coming to church. But you can come to church your entire life and still walk in bondage. Well, did I say that? You can still come to church every day, sit on the pews, lift your hands in worship, and still walk out in bondage every single day of your life. If you do not apply the word of God to your life and start to act upon the word, you'll never see the freedom that that person right beside you is seeing. Amen. Push the guy beside you or the girl beside you and say, come on, get it together. God's commands are not chains, they are pathways to freedom. So freedom, let's just put it this way freedom is like I was I was thinking about this. Think of an example of a train. A train is a pretty powerful, pretty powerful thing. It's got this amazing engine, and it can do some awesome things. We were in Colorado, we were close to Pikes Peak. Anybody ever heard of Pikes Peak? It's straight up. Everybody, let's all stretch our hands toward Heather, because I believe the Lord needs to cast fear out of her life. She will not go up that mountain. No. We didn't have time to do that this time, but we we will we will do that one day. There's this thing called a cog train. Anybody ever heard of a cog train? It's got three tracks, one of them in the middle is kind of like has teeth. So as it goes up the mountain like this, it's climbing. But how many of you know that a train is no good when there's no tracks? So you've got to have tracks in your life because your life is no good if there's no boundaries. Your life is no good if there's no truth. Those tracks represent truth. And as long as you're on the truth, you're on the track and you're going somewhere, and you're supplying stuff, you're supplying needs, you're you're you're enjoying the journey. But the moment that that train gets off the tracks, that train is in a mess. And there's too many people, not in this church, amen. There's too many people in the church in general that are off the tracks. They're trying to do it the way they want to do it. We're gonna have church the way we want to have church. We're gonna worship the way we want to worship. We're gonna sing the way I want to sing. I'm gonna lift my hands if I feel like it. I'm gonna dance if I want to. I'm gonna do all this stuff because I want to do it. Worship becomes about you, not about God. The word becomes just obsolete. We'll get into it when I have trouble in life. I'll get in the word and figure it out. That's not how you stay on the tracks. You stay on the tracks, and your life is gonna be a journey with God, and you're gonna have a great journey, and that journey is gonna be safe. And you can just sit back on that train and relax and enjoy the journey. That's what it's about. It's not about bondage, it's about freedom. This nation was created with boundaries. There were tracks laid for us. We were supposed to travel on those tracks and stay the course and not get off on our own way and do whatever we want to do, but stay within the boundaries of what the word of God declares, and you're gonna see freedom, joy, peace, and the Holy Ghost. Amen. Amen. Let's all stand up. Praise the Lord. I said it earlier, and I'm gonna say it again that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. And that the only way to the Father is through Jesus. And if you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, today is the day of salvation. Today is the day that you get on the tracks. Today is the day you stop doing it your way and you declare that Jesus, you are the way. And I'm going to submit to you. So if you're in here today and you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you would like to make that commitment, I would like to pray with you. I would like to join hands with you, and I would like to agree with you that Jesus is Lord. And if that's you today, and you're in here and your heart is beating out of your chest, and you know that you need to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, I would encourage you right now to just step out from where you are and just come up here to the front. I would like to pray with you. This church would like to pray with you. We would like to lead you to Jesus, who is the truth, the way, the life. So if you're in here and you don't know Jesus, you've never made that confession in your heart ever before, and you would like to do that, please. You have this opportunity to come up to the front. Hallelujah. Amen. All right. So we're going to change gears just a little bit. Today is the first week of the month, and we have communion on that day. Hey, buddy. If you have received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you're a born-again believer, you have an opportunity to take in communion. If you're not a born-again believer and you have never received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you're not welcome to take communion. It's only for believers. Amen. So what we're going to do, well, we we have a way we do this, but kind of a lot of people here. So I'm going to serve. My wife's going to serve everyone. Yes, yes, yes. Hey, buddy. Awesome. Awesome. You want to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Alright. Alright. What's your name? Abraham. Abraham? Awesome. All right. We pray with me. Say this, dear Lord Jesus. I receive you. I received you as my Lord and Savior. I reject sin. And I turn to you. I love you, Jesus.

unknown 34:05

I love you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

You are my Lord and Savior.

unknown 34:10

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 34:12

Amen. Amen. Hey, hold on a second there. Abraham's born again.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

Right, Abraham.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Amen. Praise God. Amen, buddy. Awesome. That's awesome. Don't tell me the gospel is not for the kids. They hear the gospel and they want to know that they're on their way to heaven. Amen. Praise the Lord. Amen. All right. Here you go, brother. Let me take that. All right. Come on. If everybody take take the elements and then wait, we'll we'll we'll join together and take communion. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 35:15

Praise the Lord.

SPEAKER_01 35:39

If you're not with your family, can you please, uh, if you're a teenager or a young person, can you go get with your family? Yes, sir. Yeah. Uh-oh. All right. Thank God for white grape juice, right? All right, there, buddy. All right. So, amen. I love little kids. That is so cool. Um, communion represents the truth that purchased our freedom. As we come to the Lord's table today, we remember that freedom did not come cheap. It came with a price. The freedom that we're experiencing right now, not only in our Christian faith, but also in that this country is experiencing, is because someone paid a price. When it comes to Christianity, it was Jesus that paid that price. And when it comes to our nation, it was those soldiers and those generals and those who led our country. And one declared, give me freedom or give me death. Because it is truly stated that if you're not walking in freedom, you're already dead. So freedom only comes through the blood of Jesus Christ and his broken body and his shed blood. The bread reminds us that his body was broken for our healing. And the cup reminds us it was the blood that established the new covenant. Forgiving our sins and restoring our relationship with the Father. Let's all take the emblem of the broken body. And let's partake together, amen. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for freedom. Thank you. Thank you for what you provided. Jesus, thank you. In Matthew 26, verse 27 and 28, it says, Then he took the cup, he gave thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink from it all of you, for this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. So let's all partake of the cup. Thank you, Jesus. So if you can, could you do this with me? Can we just lift our hands and just begin to thank the Lord for the freedom that he gave us? Lord, we thank you for the freedom that you gave us that's only through Jesus. Lord, we thank you for the freedom that you gave us in this country so that we could worship you and we could serve you, and we could shed the gospel of Jesus Christ, spread it throughout the whole world. Lord, thank you for calling this nation a nation that was called according to your purpose, your plan, to go into all the world and make disciples. Lord, I thank you. I thank you for rest. I thank you for blessing us. I thank you that we're no longer walking in shame and regret and rejection any longer, but we're walking in the truth. We're walking according to your path, your plan, and we're going to rest in you because we know that if we walk in you, we'll experience true freedom. Lord, we thank you for that freedom. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen, amen, amen. Is everybody good? Are you free? Are you blessed? Are you at rest? Amen. Well, let's take this freedom and let's go share this gospel to the ends of the earth. Let's minister the truth of the word of God to those who are lost, hurt, and dying out there in this world. And let's show them the love of God and show them the truth that will make them free. Amen. God bless you. If you're a visitor in here for the first time, I would love to meet you. So if you can, I would love to shake your hand. Come up here to the front and um love to talk to you. Amen. God bless you. Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Thanks for listening. We hope that this message helps you draw closer to God as you walk out your faith. We'll see you next week.