A Conversation In Three Movements Part One: Trust The Process

Grand Parkway Baptist Church

John 8:31-38 1. Abide “In a nutshell, abiding in Christ means allowing His Word to fill our minds, direct our wills, and transform our affections. In other words, our relationship to Christ is intimately connected to what we do with our Bibles!” -Sinclair Ferguson 2. Know “ginosko”- “to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of.” Four things that helps us learn to know... a) affliction- “It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statues. The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver pieces.” - Psalm 119:71-72 b) suffering “Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” -Hebrews 5:8 c) modeling d) dialogue “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. “ -Deuteronomy 6:6-7 3. Freedom Progression of our thoughts about freedom... a) Old Testament- freedom was deliverance from slavery, liberation b) classical freedom- inner freedom for the Stoics who believed in an internal detachment from the world (escapism). For Aristotle and Plato it was external, mainly having to do with political freedom and was experienced in the context of the law. c) cultural freedom-our culture thinks of freedom in terms of a lack of norms, laws or restrictions so people are free to do whatever they want which leads to destruction personally as well as culturally. d) New Testament- the predominant note of the New Testament is freedom in Christ from bondage to sin. Human beings by nature “love darkness” and “hate the light.” Because of this we live in a state of unreality. Throughout the Bible God is simply saying, “Freedom is what you were created for and the by-product of this biblical freedom is human flourishing as well as cultural flourishing." “When we come into bondage to the Word of God we come into freedom, because the Word liberates us from the lustful pull of our own nature, and brings us on, via the pathway of hard obedience, into new realms of living for God. It is the Law of Liberty.” -Alec Motyer ”True freedom is not the liberty to do anything we please, but the liberty to do what we ought; and it is genuine liberty because doing what we ought now pleases us.” -D.A. Carson Questions for reflection… Today we said that abiding in the word means allowing the Bible to fill your mind, direct your will and transform your affections. Of those three, which do you most need the Bible to do right now? What is the hardest thing you’ve been through in this past year and what did you learn from it? Who do you spend time with on a consistent basis that nourishes you spiritually? What would change in the way you thought about Christianity if you believed the the goal for the Christian really was freedom?