Pastor Leon’s SOAP:  Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer
August 6, 2022: SOAP #4629: Habakkuk 1-3; John 8

SCRIPTURE: John (NIV) 8:32 Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” 33 They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” 34 Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. 35 Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

OBSERVATION:  God is so high and holy that He can only be truly worshipped by those who are free to worship Him.  If He is so High and Holy, He should not need to force people to serve and worship Him!!!  We are not puppets responding to the pull of a string, moving at the will of a great string-puller.  We are not slaves with no choice but to obey God.  God created man to have a choice.  He desires to reveal Himself to us that we will be convinced that He alone is worthy of worship.  He does not need to pull a string to get us to worship Him!  He does not need to demand our worship. 

God is honored when we serve Him as Lord and worship Him as worthy.   He is even more greatly honored when our service and worship come despite pressure on us to not serve and worship Him.   

APPLICATION: Presently man has limited knowledge of how this earth and life began.  We can choose to accept by faith what the Bible says, or we can think up some probable explanation that leaves God out of the picture and accept that by faith.  

There are many places in the world today where we can see the result of leaving God out of the picture.  There are also many places where people are slaves.  Some are slaves to men.  Some are slaves to religions.  Some are slaves to social and religious practices. 

PRAYER:  Jesus, you came to set us free!  We are free to have a relationship through you to our Heavenly Father!  That is God’s desire and plan!   Help me to live in that freedom.  Amen

Pastor Leon
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