1st Reading Revelations 14:6-7

Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal

gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and

tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, "Fear

God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come,

and worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs

of water."

2nd Lesson Romans 3:19-28

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are

under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole

world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no

human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes

knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been

manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets

bear witness to it-- the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus

Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have

sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace

as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God

put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This

was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance

he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at

the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one

who has faith in Jesus. Then what becomes of our boasting? It is

excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law

of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of

the law.

Gospel Lesson John 8:31-36

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in

my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and

the truth will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of

Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you

say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say

to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not

remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son

sets you free, you will be free indeed.

Message

Grace to you and Peace from God our Father and from our Lord

and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen

Let us pray. Dear Lord God, may the words of my mouth and the

meditations of our hearts, be acceptable to you. I pray this in the

strength and the name of our Redeemer Jesus Christ. Amen.

I find it amazing how often the Word of God is taken and used in

contexts to which it was never intended to be used. Snipets of God's

Word is taken out of the context to which they spoken and recorded;

and injected into different areas. For example, “You shall know the

truth and the truth shall set you free.” One single sentence from

Jesus. Yet very often taken out of context.

I have heard these words used in business settings, in self help

settings and others settings as well. Words used to express some

sort of epiphany. A sort of a, “Follow my advice and the answers to

your problems will magically appear.” Settings that have absolutely

nothing to do with Jesus Christ, himself. It almost seems of as if,

people assume that in using this phrase, for their own purposes, or in

their context which has nothing to do which it was originally used, they

increase or magnify their credibility or God will fulfill the prophecy

being promoted. People take and use the words of God, for their own

gains, assuming the credibility and power automatically go along with

them. In reality, this is not the case.

It amazes me how often we see and hear of people using the Words

of God for their own means, but refuse to recognize,the source of the

Words, God Himself.

When Jesus said, “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set

you free" He was speaking of the truth about Him. And the key word

in this statement is not truth or free, but “know”. Jesus was saying

that when you know me, or when you have a relationship with me, the

burdens you carry, the guilt that this life piles upon us. The guilt each

of us carries with us daily will be lifted and you will live in a freedom

that human words can not describe. This guilt comes from those

things we know that should not have done, guilt that comes from

things we have not done. The continuous reminder that we have done

wrong, we have hurt someone, we have failed to do something. It

weighs heavy on our hearts. Those sins accumulate and we carry

them around with us continually, like a 50 lb sand bag. Like this bag

of sand (see my video). The guilt of our mistakes, lies upon us like

carrying this bag of sand where ever we go. Day in and day out,

carrying this bag of sand to drags us down, we are forever grumpy,

having to carry this bag around where ever we go. Both physically

and spiritually, we become exhausted, unable to do anything more

than that absolute minimum required for us to be alive.

Yet through knowing Jesus, truly knowing Him, having a relationship

with Him, in having faith in Him, we can lose this bag of sand. The

burdens are lifted and that is the freedom that Jesus is speaking

about. Jesus came to this world to lift that bag of sin from our lives.

And that is where our freedom comes from; not having to carry around

that heavy bag of sin, where ever we go. And the result of not having

to carry that bag of sin, is a peace that can not be explained, a peace

that passses all human understanding.

In order to have that bag removed we need to truly know, we need

to have faith in our Friend Jesus Christ.

Faith is about trusting in, it is about taking a chance on something

that we have not seen physically or touched with our hands. Faith in

Jesus Christ is about knowing in our hearts He is real, it is about

spiritually seeing His pierced hand reaching out to us and passing our

bag of sin to him and then grasping ahold of the pierced hand that is

right there, in front of us and allowing the owner of that hand, Jesus

Christ to lead us in our lives.

Faith is also about accepting God's promise and Word. It is about

knowing, and here is the word know again; knowing that God always

fulfills His promises.

As Paul wrote, faith only comes by hearing the Word of God.

Everyone must hear the Word of God, before they can have faith in

Jesus and in God. How can anyone have a relationship with someone

when we have not been introduced to and communicated with? It can

not be done. When we hear about someone, yet do not communicate

with that some one, there is no relationship, knowing about, is not the

same as knowing. It is fair to say that in this country and in this city,

most people if not all have heard something about Jesus. However

not every one who knows about Jesus, has a relationship with Jesus.

A relationship is bi-directional. It means there is communcation in

both directions.

And like any relationship; the more time you spend together the

stronger that relationship becomes; and the opposite is also true. The

less time we spend with someone, the further we drift apart and the

further we drift apart, the weaker the relationship becomes.

And I am not just talking about a relationship with God. I am talking

about all relationships. This is why it is so important for me to talk with

my wife three or four times a day. Although we are separated by

distance, I have a longing to be with her. We have been fortunate

that with computers and the Internet we have been able to not only

speak with each other but also see each other, daily. We keep our

relationship, our faith in each other strong by means of regularly

speaking and seeing each other. Our love for each other is

strengthened daily by our communicating with each other. Many times

we do not say alot, just hearing the other say a few simple words,

seeing each other. Seeing each other smile, seeing the “I love You” in

our eyes strengthens our love and faith in each other.

The same is true when it comes to our relationship with Jesus. We

need to be in regular communications. Multiple times a day, in fact

through out the day we need to be communicating with Jesus. And

communicating does not just mean speaking, it also means listening.

We need to be listening for and to Him and what He has to say to us.

And we can do that through many ways, but two of the best ways to

hear is, to be in the Word, read our Bibles daily, and second of all to

spend time quietly each day, allowing the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit

to speak to us.

I know for myself, it does not take long for me to be out of sorts

when I do not do this. When I allow other things in this world to

distract me from spending time with my Lord and Saviour, I find my

self at odds, with myself and with others. I seem to lose the peace of

knowing I am free in Christ. I find that bag of sin, that burden of life,

start to fill backup.

And when that happens, when I start to fill that bag fill back up, I

know I have to reach out and grasp ahold of His hand. I need to

reach out to Jesus' hand and give him that bag of sin and allow him to

empty it. Then we need to grasp ahold of His hand and rebuild our

relationship and we must never let go: Because knowing means

having faith and faith means accepting God's Word as truth and in that

truth we shall find our freedom.

Amen.

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Words of Assurance -- Our Loving Father recognizes that all of us have fallen
short. To those who believe in and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, He
forgives, renews and strengthens until life everlasting. Go now refreshed,
renewed and strengthened in the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Quote from Martin Luther --- "Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's
grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times."

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Readings for Nov 1 :

Revelation 7:9-17 ;

1 John 3:1-3 ;

Matthew 5: 1-12

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