In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: Just because you're a multi-multi-millionaire and you say, "I can buy what I want, I can have who I want, I can go where I want, I can do what I want. My life, I'm free." No, you're not. You're not free until Jesus sets you free to worship him, and to praise him, and to love him, and to follow him, and to walk in his ways. Every other single lifestyle is a lifestyle not of freedom but of bondage.

Guest (Male): The pursuit of personal freedom is a core motivation for most people. But much of what passes for independence these days is really disguised bondage. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, we'll hear the biblical definition of true liberty and how to experience it in part one of Real Freedom. Let's listen in to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Freedom. That word is very motivating, very reassuring. It's a precious word. It's a word that everyone wants to feel deep down in their heart, no matter who they are. It is a word that causes revolution. It's a word that brings people together in marriage when they really realize what true genuine love is all about and they're free to give themselves to one another.

Where does freedom fit in your life? Do you want to be financially free? Do you want to be politically free? What does freedom mean to you personally? Well, there are many people who are very wealthy, but they're not free. Who hold high positions, but they're not free. See, freedom isn't wrapped up in things that you and I are able to pursue in life and achieve. It says something about who we are, what we believe, and how far we are to go to make that freedom available to somebody else.

Well, when you think about it, in Jesus' day, one out of every three persons was living in poverty—extreme poverty—or they were slaves. One out of every three. So when Jesus began to talk about free, he had their attention because all they knew in their society was poverty, slavery, fear, and oftentimes hopelessness.

When you hear that word, what do you think? Do you feel something? Or do you find yourself saying, "But I'm not free. I wish I were free. I wish I could be free. I wish I could feel that freedom but I do not." Maybe because you are in a job, for example, you can't get out of it. You can't walk away and it's very difficult for you to go every single day and do the same thing.

I don't know what it is in your life that's causing you to feel that you're not free. But maybe in this message, if you listen carefully, you'll discover what that is because my prayer for you is that you'll be free. That God will set you free to be the person he created you to be and achieve those things in life that he wants you to achieve.

So when Jesus began to talk about freedom, believe me, their ears were open, their eyes were open, their hopes were open, because that's what freedom is all about. It's all about hope also. So I want you to turn to the eighth chapter of John. And in his conversation with his listeners, he wasn't saying this is how to be saved, but once you are saved by the grace of God, here's what you do.

In the eighth chapter, beginning in verse 28, Jesus said, "When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me. And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." Don't you wish you could say that? "I always do the things that are pleasing to Him." And as He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed in Him, "If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." Notice what he said. If you continue in my word, that's the word of God. If you continue in my word, then you're truly disciples. Not if you continue in my word are you saved. They're already saved. But you're truly my disciples. So when somebody says, "Are you a disciple of Jesus?" ask yourself the question: do you continue in the word of God, reading God's word, soaking your mind and heart in it?

He says, "If you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free." What truth? What is the truth that makes us free? And that's what I want to talk about in this message.

I want you to listen carefully because you may be suffering in an area of your life you do not even realize what it is, what the cause is, why you don't feel free, why you don't have his peace and his joy and all the things that we talk about in the Christian life. So as I think about what Jesus said here and how he said it, I think about what does it take to be really free? And why are some people not free? What is it about them that makes them not free? But the question I want to answer is, are you free and if not, how are you free?

Someone came following and said, "I am captive for certain and I need to be free. Would you pray that God will set me free?" And naturally, I would. So what are the things that captivate us? What are the things that cause us to live in captivity all of our life? One of those things, for example, is error that we've been taught. There are many people, for example, who do not believe that Jesus is the only way of salvation. And so they're always looking for this and looking for that and looking for the other and trying to figure out what is the best way to go. You know what they are captive to? The confusion of error that they've heard somebody teach or imply.

Listen, living with uncertainty is living in captivity. It is a spiritual jail when you do not know, because of what you've been taught, whether I'm going to heaven or hell. "So I'm going to do the best I can and I hope I get there" or "forget it, I'm going to live it like I want to because who knows who's going where?"

So all the frustration that comes with not knowing the truth and Jesus said the truth sets you free. Then, of course, I think about people who are captive to evil habits. There are people, for example—and some of these may hit you that you say, "Oh, I don't really think that's important"—but yes, it is. There are people who are captive to lying and deception.

There's something in them, they just can't be honest. And the reason they can't be honest is their fear of rejection. They just can't be honest and so they go through life being very deceptive. Listen, it's a form of captivity because many people grow up doing it and all of their life you can't ever really tell whether they're telling the truth or not.

Then, of course, there's sexual immorality. Everywhere you turn today, it looks like sexual immorality is coming to the forefront. And so people say, "Well, I want to be free. I want to be sexually free." Listen to me carefully. What most people mean is, "I want to be free to exercise my sexuality in whatever way, whatever means I choose to." And many, many people, if they were honest, would say, "You know, I don't really have freedom. I'm driven—driven, driven—captivated by ideas, by lusts that absolutely would destroy me if I allowed it to." That's not freedom. That's captivity.

Then, of course, there's drunkenness. And naturally, people who drink are going to say, "Well, you know, I'm free to do what I choose." Well, why don't you stop? "Well, I could stop if I wanted to." Well, why don't you just want to? The reason they don't want to is because they feel like they can't.

You know why? Think about this for a moment. People will take something that is a liquid. And this liquid can cause them all kinds of heartache and trouble and pain and suffering for themselves, their families, and others. And you're going to allow that to capture you? Enslave you? Make your life miserable and those around you? And then you're going to say, "Well, I can quit anytime I want to." Well, isn't it strange you don't ever want to?

Even when you're crying, even when you've spent God's money, even when you've caused all kind of confusion and heartache and pain and suffering in your family, and you still don't want to? That's not freedom. That is a form of foolish captivity. And many people who drink will tell you that they're free to do it. They may have been free, but they're free no longer.

Why do you keep doing it? Why do you keep doing something that destroys the human body? Then, of course, there's the whole drug area. Well, why do they do that? Because they say, "I'm free." This is freedom. This is real freedom that I can drink, I can drug, I can sex, I can do all these things when I please, where I please, with whom I please. What you really have is total captivity in your mind.

Something is controlling you. Your thinking is controlling you. You're not free. You're enslaved. You're enslaved to attitudes and things that will absolutely destroy your life sooner or later. And so I think about smoking, for example. Somebody says, "Well, that's my business." I'm sure it is. I would simply say, are you free to stop? "I'll stop anytime I want to." Why don't you stop? "I don't want to." But the reason they can't—they could, if they went about it in the right way.

But let me ask you: is there anything in your life that has a grip on you? And you talk about being free, but if somebody chose to take it away, you wouldn't feel free. Are you captivated by something? And so when I look at the attitudes that people have which they think they're free...

Just because you're a multi-multi-millionaire and you say "I can buy what I want, I can have who I want, I can go where I want, I can do what I want. My life, I'm free." No, you're not. You're captivated by the lie that you're free. You're captivated by the lie that your things and your abilities and your talents and your skills and all the things you can enjoy in life that you're doing that. No, you're captivated by them.

You're not free until you're freed by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You're not free until Jesus sets you free to worship him, and to praise him, and to love him, and to follow him, and to walk in his ways. Every other single lifestyle is a lifestyle not of freedom but of bondage.

So do any of these things happen to be those issues that you have to deal with in life? Well, the most elusive one of all is not any of these. The most elusive of all of them is this: those captivating feelings we have, those emotions that we have that often times destroy people. So think about it for a moment. Your emotions have been with you for a long time. They're deep down inside of you.

They may have been there since you were a child, for example. They're difficult to identify and sometimes you can't identify them without somebody helping you identify them. But they're there. And they have captured you. You've been captured by them all of your life. And you keep saying, "I know I'm free, I know I'm free, I know I'm free." You say because I've confessed them and I've repented of them. Let me ask you a question.

Has there ever been a time in your life when you recognized that you had a major problem and you confessed and repented of it before God? Yes. How many times did you confess and repent only once? No. You confessed over and over and you repented again and again and again. You told God and you told God and you told God and you told God and years have gone by and what happened? You still aren't free.

Because you see, there are emotions so deeply hidden oftentimes in our lives until we identify them, they will always hold us captured. We'll never be able to be the full person God intends for us to be because of false ideas we have about ourselves. And a lot of that, of course, somebody placed in our life: either parents or friends or circumstances did it.

So I want us to think for just a moment. When you ask yourself the question, are you free? Are you free emotionally? If you're not, you're living in captivity. And this is one of the most dangerous kinds because oftentimes you can't see it. It's deep down inside, as I said, it's been there so long you're comfortable with it. That's who you are. You say, "Well, that's who I am and this is how I've always been."

Well, could it be that you're living in slavery and not even realizing it? Emotional slavery is just as powerful as sexual slavery or slavery of drunkenness or whatever it might be. Just as powerful. So I want you to ask yourself the question: could any of these things be true of you? And could it be that they're holding you and binding you in ways that maybe you don't want to face?

And as someone said to me this week simply this: "I don't want to stop drinking because I don't want to face myself. I'm running, I know I'm running, but I'm not ready to stop running." And so he would think that he could stop at any time he pleases. No, he can't. He can't stop anytime he pleases till he turns to Almighty God.

So let's think about it for a moment. What are the kinds of emotional bondage that anyone of us can have in our life that can devastate us on the one hand or keep us down? There are many people who have lots of abilities and talents and skills. And the reason they don't move forward in life is because they're captured. They are imprisoned by a spirit of fear. "I'm afraid I'll fail. I'm afraid I won't do it the right way. I'm afraid of what people will say." And so fear dominates their life. They will tell you they're absolutely free, but they're not free.

Then, of course, there's false guilt that people have. Once you trust the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior, you're free. You're no longer guilty. And somebody says, "Well, I've repented of that sin, it happened a long time ago. And yet when I get down to pray, it keeps coming up. Somehow it just keeps popping up. And I know I've repented, I know I've asked God to forgive me, but somehow it keeps popping up." And oftentimes that is a false sense of guilt. It has you incarcerated that no matter what you do, those guilty feelings suppress your joy and your peace and your happiness.

And you say, "Well, if I could just get rid of that." You know, probably if our population got free—really free—the drug companies would go out of business. For the simple reason there isn't anything in a bottle that can set you free the kind of freedom that God wants you to have.

And so there are people who live in false guilt and people who live in jealousy. Jealousy has captured them. It's like binding them. They're jealous. They don't know why they're jealous. Maybe something happened deep back yonder in their life or maybe it's something that happened recently and it just has—they can't even think straight. They'll have to admit, "You know what? I'm just not thinking straight these days." They won't admit what the problem is or sometimes they do. But you have to deal with it. There is a truth that can set you free of fear and jealousy and all the rest.

Then there are people, for example, who live continuously in worry and anxiety. "Suppose this happens to my children? Suppose this happens to me? Suppose I lose my job? Suppose, suppose, suppose, suppose." And they work themselves into a cell block, so to speak, of what? Uneasiness, uncertainty, and fear and wonder what's going to happen in their life. Until you're able to deal with that, it'll keep you bound.

And many people full of anxiety, full of fear—maybe because of the way you grew up and how you were treated. And so they say, "Well, you know what? I've felt this way all my life." That doesn't mean it's the will of God. And I can think of some feeling in my own heart that was there for many, many, many years. I didn't see it. Nobody else either saw it or had the courage to tell me, "Do you realize thus and so in your life?"

And then my friends loved me enough to be honest with me. And once I realized, I thank God. Look what I've missed about my relationship with you. That I could believe that you could love me just the way I am. That I don't have to perform, don't have to please, I can just be myself with all my faults and failures and whatever else it might be. A very, very liberating moment in my life.

That's not the only imperfect thing about me, but I'm simply saying this: one by one, if you're willing, God will set you free. And there's nothing like an emotional freedom that comes when you have dealt with something in your life that you know. And when I think about people who grow up that way, we hurt ourselves and we hurt other people because we miss the wonderful spirit and the camaraderie we have with other people who come from different countries of the world. It doesn't make any difference what color they are, what language they speak, Almighty God looks on us, He sees every single one. You know what? God doesn't see color.

God doesn't listen for this language. He doesn't listen to one language over here and maybe another one over here. God created all of us. And so anything in my life that causes me to be less than God wants me to be is a sense of captivity. And it needs to be dealt with. And we're not free as long as anything has us walking down a path that God does not want us to walk down.

Guest (Male): Has Dr. Stanley's message today on In Touch helped you realize that you're bound to something? Well, you can be free from its hold if you give it to Jesus. Stop by our website InTouch.org and learn more about the liberty that can be yours once you receive God's gift of forgiveness through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

And to go back over what you just heard, click on the link to Today on Radio. And if you'd like a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message today, you can order it at our bookstore. The title is Real Freedom. Again, you'll find these resources at InTouch.org. To call or text us, the number is very simple: 1-800-In-Touch. And to write to us, address your letter to: In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357. Again, our phone number: 1-800-In-Touch.

Praying is good. Studying your Bible is good. But there's something else that's vital to spiritual growth. Today's moment with Charles Stanley is coming up.

Guest (Female): There is an inexplicable joy that comes from understanding scripture and learning how to apply it in our own life. The Charles F. Stanley Life Principles Bible includes 30 foundational truths that Dr. Stanley has learned from over 60 years of ministry. It's available in the New King James Version, New International Version, the King James Version, and New American Standard Bible version. To order, call 1-800-In-Touch or go to InTouch.org/store.

Guest (Male): With the 30 Life Principles Bible Study, you'll enjoy a rich exploration of God's word. Designed as a 90-day learning experience for individual use or in a group setting, you'll explore Dr. Stanley's 30 life principles and learn how to make the Bible a part of your everyday life. Because we can all benefit from a closer look. To order the 30 Life Principles Bible Study, call 1-800-In-Touch or visit InTouch.org/store.

Guest (Female): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus, as we all want to do. So are you ready for the next step in your journey? It begins at the Charles Stanley Institute. You can learn how at CharlesStanleyInstitute.org.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch. One reason for slow growth as a Christian is that we ignore some really big things. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: What is it that causes a person to keep coming to church, keep listening to sermons, and somehow there is no deeper desire for God, no hunger for Him, no thirst for Him, no real excitement about Him? Well, I'm going to tell you what part of it is. Part of it is just pure old sin.

My friend, you cannot grow in the Lord holding on to anything that God has put His finger on. Now think about this for a moment because it's the truth. If God brings something to your mind and He says, "I want you to deal with this, it's not right in your life," you say, "Lord, one of these days I am." And you bypass it. And you flip over, and you go under it, and you go around it.

I want to tell you something. The moment you pass what God has required of you and you don't deal with it, at that moment you cease to grow spiritually. Now you may get more active and more popular, but that does not mean you're growing spiritually. Because listen, when God says, "Hey, you've got to deal with this," there's no way in the world that I can increase my activities over here in order to balance off what God says I've got to deal with.

And I believe many people who are sitting in church pews who are not growing in the Lord, who are not spiritually growing in the Lord Jesus Christ, they have sin in their life they absolutely refuse to deal with. And if you refuse to deal with it, you're not going to grow.

Until you unite the truth with faith in application of your life, you can listen and listen and listen and listen until sermons run out of your ears and not grow spiritually until you unite the truth and your faith in application of your heart. And that's exactly why churches are absolutely filled with people who are not growing in their spiritual life.

Guest (Male): Stop by InTouch.org for practical tips and encouragement to help you grow as a Christian. Do you have a fresh understanding as you listen to this program? Tell us what you learned today. Coming up on In Touch: what does it take to be free? Continue exploring the source of real freedom when you join us for more on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.