Dealing with Doubts - Jesus and Freedom for the People You Love, Part 1

If you're a parent, you're very concerned about the world your child is growing up in. It's hostile. It's dangerous. How can you set them up to make wise choices, make good friends, and avoid the addictions and the problems that are so prevalent all around us?

That's today. You don't want to miss it, parents. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of the Steely Program is to intentionally disciple Christians through the insightful Bible teaching of Chip Ingram.

Does it feel like the deck has been unfairly stacked against Christian parents? No matter how hard you work to keep your kids on the right path, there are always new obstacles and issues to wrestle with. Today, guest teacher John Dickerson offers some much needed encouragement to moms and dads as he continues our series, Dealing with Doubts. But before he dives in, if this is your first time listening to Living on the Edge, or you want to learn more about what we do, go to livingontheedge.org. You'll find resources on tons of topics and countless programs to enjoy. Or if you prefer, the Chip Ingram app is also a great way to get plugged in with our ministry.

Okay, if you have your Bible and notes ready, here's John with his talk, Jesus and Freedom for the People You Love. When I was an investigative reporter, one of the first big investigations I had to do was on heroin addiction in Phoenix. And I profiled this young 19 year old girl named Mickey, who was down to about 90 pounds. She was so addicted to heroin, it was destroying her body. And as I looked into Mickey's story, one of the unique things about it is that she wasn't born in the slums or in poverty. Her parents were attorneys. She went to Disneyland as a kid.

She had the perfect little girl bedroom with stuffed animals all around. And when we think about this question, what can you do to set the people you love up for a life that they live free from addiction, free hopefully from divorce, free from as much pain and suffering as possible? It's important that they have a good education, yes.

Playing youth sports, that can be good, yes. Mickey did all those things. And at one high school party, when she decided to smoke a little marijuana, it led to her then trying cocaine and then trying meth and then trying heroin and ending up living in a drug house at age 19.

How do you prevent that kind of thing? In a world where there's so many things that our kids are exposed to, division and hatred and so many things that are designed to addict them, how do we set them up for freedom? We can't control their choices, but how can we set them up to make good choices? Well, Jesus speaks about this in John Chapter 8. He speaks about freedom. And as we've learned in this series, when Jesus speaks, he's not speaking as a guru or a self help coach or even a great spiritual teacher. He claims to be Almighty God. And so in this series we've documented, yes, he lived.

Yes, we know what he said. It's recorded in the gospel accounts. Yes, his birthday is the zero of our calendar and he's impacted humanity. He has more followers than anyone else ever in the history of the world. But the real power of Jesus is in his words. And within these claims to be God, we each have to look at these and say, was this guy actually God on earth as he claimed or is he some weird lunatic? Because just good people who are helpful moral examples don't claim that they're God.

They don't claim that they're gonna return and judge every single person for how they live their life. But Jesus made these audacious claims. And it's within that context that Jesus said things like this in John Chapter 8. He said, if you hold to my teaching, then you're really my disciples. So your salvation begins when you believe that he died on the cross for you. But being a disciple means you're continually reading the teachings of Jesus and you're continually looking at your life and saying, am I doing what Jesus said?

Now, none of us do this perfectly, but it's about trajectory. Is there an effort to simply obey the words of Jesus in your life? If so, then he gives this promise. He says, then you will know the truth, not a truth, not one of many ways, but the truth, God's truth. And then this well known phrase that even if this is your first time in church, you've heard this phrase before, and the truth will set you free. The truth setting you free is dependent on the first part. Do you hold to Jesus teachings? Are you striving to do what he says in your life?

In other words, Jesus is making this radical claim. He claims to give unrivaled freedom to those who follow his teaching. Most of the other freedoms in our lives were kind of recipients of. We've been born into a country where we have a lot of freedom.

Most of us didn't personally achieve that. But the kind of freedom Jesus talks about is freedom from death that you have eternal life. Freedom from sin, from any kind of addiction or habit or pattern that makes your life smaller. Freedom in family systems. When there are things like alcoholism or abuse or codependence or insecurity that get passed down from generation to generation, Jesus claims he can break that in your family.

He can change that. This is a radical claim. And in our series, we've been seeing that followers of Jesus in history have been at the leading edge of setting other people free. Those who gave their lives to turn the conscience of countries against slavery, we saw from their writings they were followers of Jesus. And all that is documented.

It's not opinion. But I want to show you today, while we'll look at a little bit of history, I want to show you what this looks like right now, right here. We're a bunch of people who've taken Jesus up on this promise that if we do what he says, he'll set us free. And we found it to be true.

Zach and Lindsay are two of those. I want you to go ahead and see their story. When we first met each other, it was just like a friendship. It was about getting high. It was about having sex.

It was about using one another. I had gone through a DCS case. My house caught on fire. I ended up signing over custody to my parents for my two oldest children. And at that point, I started using meth. I went to prison a few times.

And then every time I got out, I would try to be good, do good. But I became homeless after my mom got diagnosed with cancer. And she ended up having to leave the house that I was raised in. So after that, I didn't have nowhere to go. And then I ended up in a homeless shelter.

I would keep going out trying to just say I was going to use one or two, three times. And then eventually it led down to bad roads. Then we got married. We got married high at the courthouse in our hometown. And my parents encouraged us to go get help at a detox center in our hometown.

It didn't help us any at all. When I picked her up from the rehab, I had heroin on me and basically threw it in her face again. We ended up getting out and going to live with the man that we met in the detox center where he would let us spend his money, drink and get high there. But when we got kicked out of that house, you know, we didn't have nowhere to go.

So we went and sat at the Walmart. So with the heroin and the meth, you know, I finally got to the point to where I realized that it was going to lead me to prison again for the rest of my life or dead. At the time, I wish I was trying to find drugs, you know, just to be able to end my life and not wanting to live. And I just felt like giving up. I tried to get on Facebook and just try to call and try to reach out to anybody that I could. We were sitting there on our phone and Zach just looked at me and we didn't know what to do.

He's like, what are we going to do, you know? Nobody that we were messaging was able to help us. It was like God was letting us know.

These aren't the people that I want you to go and get help from. I sent a message to a guy I know that was in my childhood and he reached out to me and he said he could come pick us up. And then I mentioned Trinity Life Ministries and he knew about that. So I went to the Trinity office there and I had an interview with him. And then he asked me when I wanted to enter the program and I told him the same day.

I actually had to wait a month before I could get into Through the Gate. So our Christian friends allowed me to live there a month. Also while I was able to visit with my children and they were able to come spend the night with me, just all these open doors that God opened for us.

My mentor, Tim Moser was his name and he was there through everything. Just knowing that my husband has this really good relationship with a godly man is wonderful. It's great.

I support it all the way. When Tim was mentoring me, he invited me to a service and so I came to the first service and then after that I made that commitment that this was going to be my home church. I really like this church and I've come to love this church now. I have come to love the fact that my husband stood and stood firm into wanting this to be our home church and I love it now. I love committing every Sunday coming here. Because of everything that we've been through, I just felt like I was being led to commit and to make the decision to basically share some PDA for Jesus and it was just so great to be able to have this good, good memory of my husband baptizing me because of everything that Jesus has done.

It just really is a home here. Being a part of this church and all the people that we've met along the way since we decided to start living for Christ, it's so amazing. My life has changed tremendously from being homeless, to being a drug addict, to now being able to be there for my kids and my family and be a godly man and lead my family and my wife.

I would say that our lives completely took a 180 turn. We're being reconciled with family members. We're able to be examples to others who could be out there right now using and then seeing our story. And we're doing it all for the glory of God and the only reason that we're able to keep moving forward is because of Jesus.

Our oldest children come visit us every other weekend. We're able to show them what Jesus has done in our lives because our oldest children saw us in our darkness and now they see us in the light because of Jesus. He just baptized his son and now his son's mother and her husband want to get baptized and it's great. There are so many open doors here and now we're finding just like Tim and Lisa have been able to lead us in different ways to Jesus. Now we're seeing fruit by some people from our past that are now being led to Jesus because we were able to bring them here to Connection Point. It's never too late to surrender your life to the Lord. There is no hopeless cause. It's all in a matter of desiring to do good, desiring a better life and the answer is Jesus. Give God the glory for that transformation.

Those the sun sets free are free indeed. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Before we hear the rest of our guest teacher John Dickerson's message, let me remind you that we are a listener supported ministry. Your financial gifts help us create programs like this one, develop new resources and encourage pastors globally. Prayerfully consider supporting us today. Then go to livingontheedge.org to give a gift.

Thanks so much for your help. With that, here again is John. There were things I saw as a journalist that I thought people could never get free from that kind of addiction. And now as a pastor, I see Jesus doing it. I see him setting people free not only from addiction, but also from insecurity, from never feeling like they could do enough to be accepted, from never feeling like they're good enough, set free from shame, set free from greed, set free from guilt, set free from brokenness. Those the sun sets free are free indeed.

And you're just sitting in a room full of people who are broken and imperfect, but who have found in Jesus that when we hold to his teaching, not perfectly, but consistently, then we come to know the truth and it does set us free. It changes our emotions. It changes what we see when we look in the mirror.

It changes how we treat the people around us. Those the sun sets free are free indeed. I tried to make it through that video without crying because I know exactly where Zach and Lindsay sit and I'm sitting there watching them through the video.

How are they now? They're here every weekend. The point of this is Jesus. All we are is a place that connects people to the source of life, to the one who not only creates, but also redeems and restores and recreates. You see, God's truth, obeyed, sets people free. God's truth is always available to set you free in your life, but whether it will or not depends on will you obey it. And I hope you've heard from me, you don't have to obey it perfectly.

You just have to obey it willfully, intentionally, with some consistency. We all still stumble and fall down. We're a group of imperfect people, but what we have in common is when we fall down, we've got people around us who pick us up and dust us off and say, keep following Jesus.

He's the path to freedom. Now, this is true for individuals. This is true for families. So many families in this church and in Jesus' movement over the last 2000 years where for generations, greed or alcoholism or physical abuse or emotional abuse or some other thing was just passed down from generation to generation, and that pattern could never be broken until there was a generation that believed in Jesus and held to his teaching, and then they knew the truth and it set them free. And what we see when we look back over the last 2000 years is if you get enough people together who are experiencing that, then they start to help other people experience that.

And the movement grows and it starts to actually change the society in which they live. And this might sound like an impossible claim depending on your education background, but we looked at primary evidence. What did Harriet Tubman say about Jesus? What did Frederick Douglass say about Jesus? And we found out that the leaders of the movement to end open and legalized slavery not only here in the US but around the world were dedicated followers of Jesus and were motivated by Jesus' teachings. That's according to their writings.

That's not me putting that in their mouths. We saw the same with the top 10 hospitals. We saw that the Mayo Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts General, those three of the top five are symbolic of the top 200 which have spread healthcare around the world and that each of them had followers of Jesus at their founding, that they were started to care for the poor and to obey Jesus' words where he says, whatever you do for the least of these you've done unto me.

And again, all of that was documented. Now, very briefly, I wanna give you a thesis. And the thesis is this, that we live at a time where, yes, society is imperfect, but we've inherited some fruits of freedom, prosperity, even longevity of our lifespan that are unusual in history. So the average lifespan in human history has been 45 years. Now in the US, that's about 80 years. That's changed in the last 200 years because of specific advances in healthcare.

Where did those come from? Most people throughout history either were slaves or they lived in a society that had slaves. In the last 200 years, that has changed. Who were the people who changed that? Where were they educated?

How did they do it? These are all fruits that we inherit. Even what we assume are our property rights and our human rights and that we can go to a court and hopefully have at least an effort at a just and fair trial, that's unique in history.

Where did all of this come from? And if you think of these as fruit on a tree, the reality is that there were seeds that were planted. And we can trace these through history. We looked at the Reverend Samuel Wright, an African American gentleman who was born into freedom because of the Quaker Christians long before the Civil War. He gave his life to help end slavery. It was very rare that he knew how to read and write as an African American before the Civil War.

Why did he know how to read and write? Well, it was because of the Quaker Christians. It was them and the Puritan Christians who pretty much instituted what we now call public education, that every boy and girl gets taught how to read.

Now over the generations, that's been handed on and it's obviously not overtly Christian anymore, but that's where it started. And if you were to look at each of these advances, one of the things they all have in common is the university as we know it today. Could you imagine if there were no universities today? One, how terrible would it be to not be able to watch college football? So thank you Christians for founding the university system so we can watch our favorite team get pounded or win.

But so much more than that. Just imagine if right now there were no universities in the United States, the roads that you drove on today to get here wouldn't be like that because there wouldn't be engineers trained to grade and design the road like that. The vehicle you have wouldn't exist. The electricity you have that you can turn on the lights, it wouldn't be there. Without the university, you remove that one thing from the last 1,000 years and we're back in the dark ages.

So where did the university system come from? This is Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram and you've been listening to the first part of our guest teacher, Jon Dickerson's message, Jesus, You, and Freedom for the People You Love from our series, Dealing with Doubts. Jon and Chip will join us shortly to share some additional thoughts on what we've heard. If someone were to ask you, how do you know Jesus actually lived? Or can we really trust the Bible?

What would you say? Join pastor and award-winning journalist Jon Dickerson as he explores these complex topics, drawing on evidence from various credible sources and the impact Christians have had throughout history. Jon builds a credible case for believing in Jesus. Our hope is that as you listen, you'll be able to confidently say, Jesus is real, the Bible is true, and I can prove it. In fact, we have some valuable tools to back you up. Anytime Jon or Chip mention a book, podcast, or article in this series, you can easily find it on our resources page at LivingOnTheEdge.org. We want to equip you with practical Bible-centered materials to use personally or share with others.

So check out the resources page at LivingOnTheEdge.org today. Well, Chip's back with me in studio now, and Chip, people don't have to listen to your messages very long to discover you love basketball. You played in high school, I know, and in college, then around the world.

Take a minute and explain for us the key lesson you learned through these experiences and how it applies to the work Living on the Edge is doing. Well, Dave, you're right. I'm a basketball junkie. My kids love basketball. The greatest experiences apart from Jesus I've ever had in my life is being on a team.

And I was a point guard, so getting the ball to the big guys or just filling your role. And when it all fits together, it's almost like ballet. It's so beautiful. Big people do what big people do, and small people like me do what we can do, and there's camaraderie. And then you produce something that's so much bigger and better than all of you. And of course, that's what the Bible teaches in Romans 12, is that we are one body and individually members of one another. And people probably don't know that of the millions of people that listen and benefit from Living on the Edge, I think I did the math about 1.5 percent actually financially support the ministry.

Think of that, 1.5 percent of all those people. And so we know we're ministering to and benefiting many, and of course, there's some people that can't afford to. But what I'd like to say is if we've ministered to you, if you listen to a podcast, a stream, a small group, a daily discipleship, would you partner with us? And it doesn't have to be a lot, just whatever God leads you. But if thousands upon thousands of people would give a little, man could we do a lot more.

Bring honor to God, make disciples, see marriages restored, kids grow up in good homes, and Christians live like Christians. Would you pray and then go to our website, LivingOnTheEdge.org, and give whatever God directs you to give? And let me say in advance, thanks for joining the team.

Thanks Chip. If partnering with Living on the Edge is an idea that makes sense to you, we'd love to have you join us. We believe encouraging Christians to live like Christians can radically change the world we live in. To send a gift, go to LivingOnTheEdge.org or call us at 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003 or go to LivingOnTheEdge.org.

App listeners tap donate. Well with that, here are Chip and John to share a few final thoughts. Thanks Dave. Well John, I want you to know that today's message really resonated with me. These messages are really impactful and I appreciate you sharing them with us. I wanted you, if you could, to elaborate on a point that you made in today's talk. You said, Jesus' offer of true freedom is unrivaled in human history.

Could you tease that out for us a little bit? Why is the freedom that Jesus offers so much better than what we can find anywhere else? Yeah, that's a great question Chip.

I think of a few reasons. The first is it actually is free. Most of the other things that say they're free require a great cost, a great price. In the case of what Jesus offers, that cost has been paid by Him on the cross.

That price has been paid. So every other religion, every other self-help system is exactly that. We're looking for freedom, but then the weight is on us to deliver. What Jesus offers, the weight is on Him.

All we have to do is be humble enough to receive it. Another reason that I'd say that Jesus' freedom is better than the so-called freedom you could find anywhere else is it's transformative. That is, Jesus offers you a heart transplant. He offers you transformation from the inside out that changes you from the inside out. Every other form of freedom is something that we try to get from the outside in, but Jesus offers us a freedom when we'll humble ourselves before Him and receive Him as our Lord and our Savior, a freedom that then comes from the inside out. You know, Chip, I'm actually thinking now of a third reason that Jesus' freedom is so kind of undeniably better, and it's this.

Jesus started the largest movement in all of human history, and here's what I mean by that. If you're looking for a product that works, you look at the online reviews, how many five-star reviews are there? Is there a hundred?

Man, there's 14,000 reviews. Jesus has more than two billion followers today in the world. That's one out of three people in the world says, I've found something in Jesus that I couldn't find anywhere else. It's more than any other movement or anything else. And so that was part of my journey as a skeptic is realizing, oh my goodness, there must be something here because more people follow this guy than anyone else. And the last reason I'm thinking of here, Chip, you know, it's free. It's transformative.

It clearly works because two billion people say it does. But the most important one is eternal life and forgiveness of sins. The freedom that Jesus offers you is freedom from the fear of death and freedom from the slavery of sin.

We all have bad habits or things we do that hurt us and the people around us. Jesus can truly set you free from that. You don't have to pay money for it or do good deeds. You simply receive by believing. And the same is true of eternal life, that you don't have to live in fear of death. If you receive Jesus as your savior and you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven, then you know that when you breathe your last breath on earth, you'll awake in the very presence of God. That's pretty great freedom. It really is, John.

Thanks. And if you just prayed to receive Christ, we have a free resource we'd like to put in your hands that was uniquely created for new believers. This tool will help you understand what it means to trust in Jesus and what to do next. Request this free resource by calling 888-333-6003 or by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org, then clicking on the New Believers button. That's LivingOnTheEdge.org or call 888-333-6003. Let us help you get started in your faith journey. And as Chip always says, welcome to the family. We'll listen in next time as our guest teacher, John Dickerson, picks up in our series, Dealing with Doubts. Until then, this is Dave Drewy saying thanks for joining us for this Edition of Living on the Edge.