Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Thursday, July 7th. If you have a recurring pattern of sin and defeat, it might be time to do some digging. Until you deal with the root of a problem, you'll never be entirely free. Freedom is the privilege and the power to do what is right and what is good. It is the absence of coercion and confinement and restriction. And it speaks of the liberty of the mind and of the feelings and the actions of a person's life. On the other hand, enslavement speaks of bondage and confinement and restriction.
It is a depressing attitude, is a depressing feeling to feel that you're restrained, confined, that you're enslaved by anything. And it's interesting that men will fight and die for freedom and turn right around and submit themselves to a power greater than themselves and become enslaved to some form of sin that dictates and governs and guides and dominates and controls their life absolutely and completely. How in the world does a person find freedom and liberty from enslavement to sin? And I want you to turn, if you will, to John chapter eight. In the eighth chapter of John, Jesus is talking about freedom and He's talking about what it is that sets us free.
And in this chapter, in several chapters of John, He's dealing with the Pharisees and Sadducees, explain to them who He is and how God is working in His life. And so He says in the thirty-first verse of the eighth chapter, Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, If You abide in My word, then You are truly disciples of Mine, and You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make You free. They answered Him, We are Abraham's offspring and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that You say, You shall become free?
Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. That is, the person who continually commits sin becomes its slave. And the slave does not remain in the house forever.
The son does remain forever. If therefore the son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now, oftentimes people want to deny the very possibility of being enslaved by anything. And so they either deny it or ignore the fact that they can be enslaved by sin. Sin by its very nature is an enslaver. That is the goal of sin, to so enslave us, so dominate us, so control us that you and I can neither believe nor trust nor serve the Lord as God would have us to do so. And as a result, a person's life can be absolutely destroyed by many, many different forms of sin.
Now you say, Well, what kind of enslavement are you talking about? Sometimes it can be some very, very strong, very, very enslaving attitudes and emotions or actions. It can be alcoholism. It can be drugs. It can be sexual addiction. Or it can be this drivenness to succeed, this drivenness to prosper in life that oftentimes drives people to sickness and almost unto death.
Sometimes it can be an attitude of cynicism, a critical attitude, a critical spirit. Oftentimes it can be a sense of a lack of identity and so a person is driven by that. Sometimes a person is driven by desires for relationships or desires for position and prestige and prominence and power in life. It is amazing what can enslave a person. And so as a result, a person soon finds themselves as the victim of something that began seemingly innocently on the inside of them.
It happens every day. There are millions of people enslaved who do not even realize what they're enslaved about. So as we proceed in the message, I'm going to come to one point to talk about what the root of oftentimes these things are. But we do know this, that there is some consequence, a major consequence to being enslaved to sin. One of which is it divides the mind.
It always does that. It fragments the emotions. It causes fear and guilt and insecurity.
Oftentimes a person ends up hating the very thing that they have become addicted or enslaved to. And so they find themselves hopeless and helplessly at the mercy of a power that is within them. And so the question comes, how does a person, once they discover that, once they realize there's something going on in their life, how do they escape? How do they walk away? How are they delivered, redeemed and freed from the enslaving power of sin?
So what I want to talk about in the rest of this message are things that I think are helpful in bringing a person out of that. Now you say, well, I don't think I have an enslavement of sin, so I don't think I need this. Well, before you make that conclusion, why don't you listen to at least about three more points of this? Because oftentimes a person can be enslaved and it's so subtle. It is so subtle they don't even see it as enslavement of bondage. They just think that's the way I feel. This is the way I've always felt.
This must be natural normal for me because I've always felt this way when it can be a form of bondage. Well, certainly the first step in freedom from any kind of enslavement is to place the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. That is, if a person has never been saved, then, my friend, there is no power within you strong enough to free yourself from the enslaving power of sin, no matter what the object of that enslavement may be or what the cause of it may be.
And so what we have to ask is, what is the first step? The first step is to come to the realization that sin is separated from God. We place our trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sin. He saves us. He forgives us. He come to live on the inside of us. And the Holy Spirit of God is now dwelling in us. And from that moment on, now we have positioned ourselves as a child of God.
Indwelling us is the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit who is able to enable us to walk away from any addiction or any enslavement to sin, no matter what it is. That indeed is always the first step. The second step is this, and that is to admit it. And oftentimes that is the most difficult step for most people to admit the fact that there is some form of bondage, some form of control, something that is dominating their thinking and dominating their life.
Very, very difficult to admit it. Now, one thing is for certain, that denial is absolutely deadly. To deny that there's some form of enslavement, to deny there's some form of bondage when there is in a person's life, is deadly.
Because it sets up a roadblock to any kind of healing process that needs to go on, any kind of freedom that they need to experience, it is absolutely deadly. Now, when I say admit it, I don't mean just say, well, generally I must be in bondage to something. Or generally I must have some problem.
But no, be able to identify what it is. What is it that drives us? What is it that not just motivates us but drives us? What is this drivenness all about?
What is this control, this domination? What is it that absolutely enslaves us and keeps us from becoming or being the person that God wants us to be? Enslavement to sin demands a relationship with God, demands a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so, one of the things we have to do is to admit the fact that something is wrong, it's not right, and not deny it. A third thing that is so important is to realize that it is a spiritual problem, that it's a relationship between God and us. For example, a person who is addicted to alcohol says, well, I have a social ill. Well, it may have caused many, many social ills, but my friend, the truth is, it is sin against God.
When a person takes anything to their body that destroys their liver, their heart or any other parts of their body and so affects them as alcohol does, it is a sin against God. And usually, one of the biggest problems a person has to deal with in coming out of that particular sin is the fact, denying the fact that they do have a problem. And so, when you can ever get them to admit the fact, yes, I do have a problem, it is not just a social ill, it is a spiritual problem. Anything that separates us from doing the will of God is a spiritual problem. Anything that so controls the human body and the mind, the emotion and the will, to so dominate us, to keep us from being what God wants us to be, isn't just some social ill, it is dealing with a relationship with God. It is a problem. It is a spiritual problem that has to be admitted and has to be dealt with. Now, part of the solution is acknowledging the fact that God is involved in that. This is a part of my relationship to Him. So, whatever keeps us from becoming what He wants us to be, we need to look to Him to look to at least part of the solution.
Now, let's deal with the fourth thing I want you to notice here, and that's tracing it to its root. What is it that causes people to become addicted to things? What is it that causes people to be driven? What is it that causes people to become enslaved to attitudes or habits in their life, or actions in their life that when they first thought it, of course, it was just one action or one thought or one idea, and now they have become enslaved to it.
What is it that causes that? Sometimes that root cause is insecurity. A person feels very insecure, and so what do they do? Well, they take a little drink, that'll make them feel a little better, a little stronger, a little more bold, a little more courageous. And so, if you want to get more courageous, have another drink.
If you want to get more courageous, you want to be courageous tomorrow or the next day or the next week or next month or next year, and before long, they have no courage, no sense of self-worth, no sense of self-esteem. They find themselves, what, captivated by liquid in the bottle, dominated by liquid in the bottle. It could be that form of enslavement, or it could be many other things. For example, here's a person who works seven days a week, driven, driven, driven, driven. If you ask them why, they will say, well, I like what I'm doing. Or they'll say, well, it's for financial reasons because we have needs in our family. Or they will say, well, in my position, this is what I have to do. And they'll give you all kinds of reasons. But what they have to ask is, what is it that drives them? And so oftentimes, people who are driven financially, they're driven because of a feeling of insecurity. Maybe they grew up in a home where they had almost nothing. And as one person said, my mother said to me, watch out, son, because the poor house is always right around the corner.
Well, my friend, if somebody plants that in a child's mind, it doesn't make any difference who that child is unless they face that and deal with it. Here's what's going to happen. All their life, they're going to be feeling insecure. And so to deal with that, they've got to have a little bit more and a little bit more. And so they're driven to have a little bit more because, you see, there's never enough for a person whose internal machinery has started in the direction of being able to accomplish enough to build security in their life. And so what happens is there's never enough out there because, you see, even after they get a lot, they say, well, you've got to keep going because, you know, something could happen. You could lose all this.
You've got to have some more. And so it's absolutely a trap. It is a trap of the devil. It is part of the enslaving power and the direction of sin that a person goes on and on and on. Now, somebody says, well, but they're just motivated to do their best. There's a difference between motivation and drivenness.
And I want to give you a personal example of that because I certainly experienced that. And that is I thought I was being motivated to do my best. I thought I was highly motivated because I wanted to do all that I could in the name of Jesus for the sake of the Lord and for His church. And so what I did, I assumed more responsibility than I should have assumed. Two thirty-minute television programs every week, plus the eleven o'clock service on Sunday, which was live part of that time, plus everything else that goes on in the life of a pastor.
And so with a much smaller staff than we have today. And so I found myself being driven. At first, I thought I was motivated. I would have sworn if I was been a swearing man, I was not, am not, that surely this is because I love God. And if you'd asked me, I'd have said, well, God and I can do anything. Just whatever God wants to do, just tell us, we'll get it done. Now, in my thinking, I was giving Him all the credit, but I at least was involving myself.
God and I could do most anything. And so I worked at a day and night, seven days a week for a while. And I remember getting tired.
And I remember it began to work on me in this fashion. That is, usually on Monday and that you're a little bit tired after preaching three times on Sunday. And so I found myself equally as tired on Tuesday. And then I found myself just as tired on Wednesday. Then I found myself just as tired on Thursday. Then it got down to Friday and I knew I was in trouble. And then it was Saturday. And already Sunday comes every three days a week.
And so what was happening was that I was just as tired the latter part of the week as I was the first part of the week. And I knew something was happening. I can remember coming to this place of thinking, I'm on this wheel and I can't get off. I want to get off, but I can't get off. I'd love to get off, but I can't get off.
How do I get off? What will people think if I stop doing this, that, and the other? And so I found myself in bondage to what people thought. I found myself in bondage to a system that did not work. I found myself in bondage to an attitude that ultimately would destroy me. And I was doing all this for Jesus' sake, loving God. No, I was being driven by something on the inside until finally I came to the place in my life that I was so tired I just couldn't go anymore. I wasn't sick. By the grace of God, I didn't have a heart attack or something else happened.
I was just tired, absolutely worn out. Doing what? Doing the work of God. It is so deceptive. It is so enslaving.
It is so camouflage. You just think, well, I'm doing this for Jesus' sake. No, I wasn't. You know what I was doing it for? Because I'm sure I was trying to prove to myself something that I thought I had to prove. I'm sure I must have felt inadequate in some areas, and so I was trying to prove that I was adequate. I'm sure I must have felt insecure, so I must have been trying to prove that I was secure. Whatever it was motivating me deep down inside, it was not the motivation of the Holy Spirit.
It was being driven to accomplish and to achieve until finally on one Saturday evening when I was so tired and so worn out and a pastor friend of mine, Dr. Oldford and I and our wives went to eat dinner and he said to me, how are you doing? And I said, fine. My wife said, tell him the truth. And so when I told him the truth, of course, that was the beginning. I was gone for three months.
Out just resting for three months. Driven, driven, driven, driven. Was it a sin?
Yes. When you get so out of balance that you're driven by anything in life, it is a sin against God. And by His grace, He didn't just lay me out of the ministry forever, but by His grace, He just let me get so tired I just couldn't do any more. And the graciousness of this church, three months they let me be gone.
When I came back, the attendance was up, the money was up, everything was up. My absence was the best thing that happened. And so that was just God's way of showing me that He was in control and His way of also showing me that He did not need me.
And that was one of the best things I ever learned. He didn't need me. When I came back, I laid aside all my lists and all my goals and I put them aside and I said, okay, God, what do you want me to do? And I'm here to tell you ever since then, though I've been busy, I've not nearly been as busy as that. I'm not motivated to prove anything.
I'm not driven to prove anything. And yet I realize how absolutely easily I was enslaved and ensnared by something going on inside of me much deeper that I would never have, never have identified as sin. And so I'm saying all that to say oftentimes people are ensnared and become enslaved by things they don't realize. Here is a hunger and thirst and yearning in somebody's life, for example, to be loved.
And so what happens? They find themselves entrapped in all kind of situations because deep down inside of them, the basic thing is not what's on the surface. The surface may be some kind of immorality or whatever, but deep down inside is that hungering, thirsting, yearning to be loved when a person feels rejected, isolated, shut out or a person can be just so critical of everybody.
Why? Because somewhere back yonder, somebody tore them apart to shreds verbally, destroy them. And so all of their life, what are they doing? Pulling other people down, being critical of other people and trying to somehow get some kind of identity out of themselves.
If you could probably sum it all up in two or three words, you might could sum it up like this. And that is that our lack of intimacy, our lack of identity and our lack of a sense of self-worth or our lack of being somebody, oftentimes these things are the undergirding, deep, deep, deep, deep emotions within us that somehow begins to work its way to the surface and we begin to look for ways to satisfy or escape these feelings. And so I would just challenge you if you say, well, I do have some bondage in my life. Well, is it because of some sense of low self-esteem? Is it because of something that's happened back there that's caused you a great sense of insecurity? Is it because of a sense of fear of failure in your life? Is it because of abuse, for example? Back yonder you've been greatly abused.
And so whether it was sexually or verbally or physically or whatever. And so you feel this bondage. You can't quite figure out what it is. You just never feel exactly right. You feel somehow that you just can't break out, that something has you bound.
Well, my friend, until you're willing to trace it to its root. So often people say, well, I just don't feel good. I'm just tired. I'm just worn out.
Well, that can be true. But what you have to ask is, what's the cause of it? What is the root? What is the poison that's leaking out all through your system continually that causes that? What has enslaved you? Enslavement to sin.
What is the root cause? And you see, it isn't that God is angry and upset. God knows that when a person becomes enslaved because of some emotion. Does that mean the enslavement does not have the same consequence?
No, it doesn't. Because the consequence of enslavement is the consequence. And whatever the root cause may be, it may be something that happened back there with your parents or something that happened yesterday or just the fact that you just decided that you're just going to let it all dribble out and you're just going to do what you want to do and have your fling in life because you just want to be set free. And see, Satan always says, now if you want to be free, here's what you do. And so what he says, if you want to be free, do what you please. But doing what you please never set anybody free.
Doing what you please will ultimately imprison and enslave you. Thank you for listening to Freedom from Enslavement to Sin. We would also like to invite you to join us in celebrating 45 years of God's faithfulness. Stop by InTouch.org slash 45 years to learn more. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
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