Walk out of Jail

Several million people a year pass through the jails in this country. They are incarcerated in horrible conditions in various prisons. Inside those, you can read accounts of lawless depravity that exists in the very institutions that are supposedly correcting people for having broken the law.

Research shows that unmentionable despair exists in many, many facilities, many prisons, many jails around the world.

Consider this statement that was told a new inmate. Do not press your panic button unless you are dying. Do not talk out the window. Do not sit on the window sill. Do not kick your door. Do not seal your outgoing mail. Do not lend and do not borrow. Do not make holes in the walls. Do not put graffiti on the furniture. Do not damage any prison property. Get used to it. You live here now. And that's how a young man entered the walls of a prison on February 24, 2000, at 17 years of age.

Paul Carter Bowman, no different than most other prisoners, began a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence at Felton Prison in Britain.

Felton has its own graveyard for dead prisoners, he said. It was the first thing I saw when I got to the prison.

You know, prison can be a dead end. And not much of value goes on in prisons. And yet here you and I are today, out in the free world. We're free to do anything we want. We can choose any kind of life that we want to live.

Prisoners are not.

In Romans 6 and verse 16, the apostle Paul makes a statement. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves to slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey? A slave.

A slave doesn't have the opportunity to do whatever they want. And Paul says, to whom you present yourself a slave to obey, that's who you have to obey.

Whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness. Well, I'd like to ask you the question, what kind of life have you been living? And are the results of the way you're living your life the results that you want?

It's a good question for all of us to ask. I was pondering that. Are the results of your life, John Elliott, the results that you've been looking for, are that you want? On a daily basis, a monthly basis, a yearly basis, a lifetime basis.

Today I'd like to examine the opportunity that Jesus Christ is offering to you and me.

And that's the opportunity to choose the type of life we want and the results that we want. The title of the sermon today is, Walk Out of Jail.

Maybe that doesn't mean a lot to you and to me because we're not in jail.

But imagine a person in jail who is given the opportunity to simply walk out of jail.

As we just read, we can be slaves of sin, and through Jesus Christ we can walk out of jail free.

1 Peter 4 and 3 shows us that we haven't always been free from human nature and its poles.

We haven't always been free from the effects of living a life that has not been according to God.

1 Peter 4 and 3 says, For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles.

In other words, in doing the will of not God's people, but the will of society or of human nature.

Satan, who is the God of this world, would be fulfilling his nature. Notice when we walked in lewdness. I don't care about others. I don't care how I impact others or affect others.

Lusts! Here's what I want. Here's what I want to get. Here's what I want to do.

Drunkenness. Revelries. Drinking parties. Abominable idolatries. Things in the face of God. This one who made a wonderful earth, but doing things back in his face to not give him the credit and seek other things is our primary interest and our primary focus.

What fruit did you have?

In regard to these things, they think it's strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

Now, why is it that there's a difference? Why aren't we running with that crowd? There is a difference, and we have spent enough time doing that other way, he says. In Titus 3 and verse 3, For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another, or loving others less than ourselves. That's how we were spending our life, just like the world. Going for the gusto, being all we can be, getting all we can get, just going for it, just doing it.

Paul Carter Brown said, And what do you do in jail?

17-year-old kid, what do you do in jail? For 23 hours a day, I was locked up. Reading and dreaming was all there was to do, he said. You can read and you can dream, and you can sit in yourself 23 hours a day. You get out one hour. I thought, day in and day out of just being free. That's what he wanted to be. Free. Living a different life with different results.

If he could just be free. You know, freedom from sin and from its penalties is a wonderful concept. You could ask anybody, how would you like to be free of the penalties of sin, whether they know what that is or not? Of the things that come and kick you back after you do them? I think everybody would say, oh, I'd love that. That'd just be the paradise I'm looking for. Happy life. I'd love a happy family, happy life, good career, respect, honor, you know, all these good things coming. Oh, yeah, I'd love that.

Sure, no problem. Late Johnny Cash, one of his last hits, one of his last records, I'm not sure it's a hit, but it was a record. It was entitled, Hurt, the name of the song. Hurt. And at the end of the song, it says, If I could start again, a million miles away, I would keep myself.

I would find a way. And that, the video to that song goes back and actually chronicles his life with June Carter and some of the mistakes he made and some of the issues that came up and some of the rough roads. And then, honestly and frankly, he concludes it by saying that, If I could start again, I would keep myself. Next time, I would find a way.

Everyone wishes they had better results. Everybody says, oh, life's a bummer, it's kind of hard. But if I had to do it over again, if I only had it to do over again, let me tell you, Sonny, give you some lessons from a guy who didn't do it right. If I had to do it over again, you know, you hear this kind of stuff, always sit. Well, if John, Johnny Cash, or anybody else could start again, do you think they would do it different?

Remember, actions have reactions. Causes have effects. The reality of that mentality is shown in something Jesus Christ gave in an allegory in Luke 16 and verse 27. There was a very miserable man who had lived his life wrong, and he was now facing the lake of fire in his allegory. Luke 16 and verse 27. Just to get down to the gist of the story here at the end of it, this man who is facing the lake of fire and feeling the heat, and Abraham's there, and he says, then I beg you therefore, Abraham, that you would send him, send this resurrected one, send him back to my father's house, raise somebody from the dead, send him back and shock him, scare him, tell him what it's like, tell him what it's going to be like.

For I have five brothers, that he may testify them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Verse 29. Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets. They have the word of God. Let them listen to the word of God. And he said, oh, no, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, then they'll repent. But he said to them, if they don't hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though, one rise from the dead. Brethren, nor would, if I could start again, I would keep myself, work. If I could just have another chance, I'd do it differently.

Nor would that work. Because choice was always there. Choice and consequence were always available. It's the same with you today and every day. Same with me today and every day. God's word instructs his children to obey him in everything. Everything means many things. To deny selfishness, to put God first, put a fellow man second, to be responsible in relationships, keep his Sabbath, tithe to God. Do we just jump right into doing that? No. Why not? You know, we might say, oh yes, I do, I do, I do, I do, but you don't.

Neither do I. Every day we get up, other things begin to take precedent over putting God first in our life. Other things take precedent over putting our family, our spouse, our children second in our life.

Over serving the way that we should, outgoing, least equal to the self. There are things that come to our mind for whatever reason.

And what we do is we tend to select from a palette of God's commandments what we will do in our life and what we will be in life. Well, I will be very strict over here. I will only eat broccoli and old wheat.

But over here I will be a little easy with the end of the Sabbath, because I really got a good show on TV I like. Or with the start of the Sabbath, I really have to work a little bit into the Sabbath to really make ends meet or whatever. I just have to talk a little bit about my job or my careers and hobbies with my friends on the Sabbath.

Or whatever it is, we begin to pick and choose a little bit. Well, most of the time, except when it's really inconvenient. I know one person that used to attend was, Well, I'll keep the Sabbath except, you know, of course, when I have to work, you know, whenever those days are. What is it about your life or my life that might come up that we might not just jump into everything, but rather tend to maybe hold back in some way, pick laws, overcome some things.

Well, I have some bad habits, but, you know, some of those are just me, you know, get used to it. Well, what about that? What about those things? Well, I've chosen to overcome these things in my life, but the rest, you know, somebody's just going to have to live with that. I'm just trying to give examples of some things that you and I might hold back from in obeying God's instructions fully. These things can come from family traditions or ancestral traditions. Sometimes it's a societal thing or a cultural thing.

Well, we don't really, we don't really visit people or have people over because our family or our culture, our people never did that. So hospitality is just not one of those things that's going to be happening in our life. Or somebody else that might be, you know, something else because they just didn't do that.

You know, no culture does God's will of and by itself. So that's not an excuse, is it? It might be the flow of society. Well, you know, this is how it is in the Western world. You just don't have time to think about others. You know, you just have to work, work, work. You know how it is? Well, there's convenience.

There's a level of understanding. Greed can take hold, a certain amount of lust. Then there can be fear. Well, if I just stepped out and obeyed God, I might lose my job. I might lose my friends. I might lose my spouse. I can't just really just step out there and do that. Maybe do a little bit that way, but I'm not just going to step out there. There's our will. And then there's defiance. We just say, well, I'm going to do what I want no matter what.

It can be all of these things. And the end result is we stay in prison. Even though we might think that, to a degree, we're free from sin. We're not slaves to sin because we come to church, we're in the church, whatever.

But what we do is we stay in prison. We stay slaves to self and selfishness. And we don't abandon that and come fully into Jesus Christ through repentance and have become a new changed person who is a new creature, a whole new creation, doing a whole different will. So we're kind of a little bit or a half change or a partial change, but we're still hanging out in the prison and kind of feeling comfortable with that. You can go out in the courtyard in prison, yeah, I'm in the church and I'm kind of in the prison, yeah.

This is working. It doesn't have the results, really, that I'm looking for, but that's just because those people are lucky. Some people are just born lucky. They have lucky marriages. They have, I don't know, they just were lucky. Well, if you were stuck in a miserable prison and offered freedom, would you take it?

That's really the crux of the message today. We are offered freedom to really walk out the door and be free. All the way I just go and don't even look back, just keep going. Would you take it? Or just say, well, I like standing at the doorway. I like looking out the window. I just feel like a free man or a free woman because I can stand here and smell the air and I can see town out there a few miles away.

That's good enough for me. I'll just hang out right here. If you're stuck in a miserable prison and offered freedom, would you take it? Listen to this. 17-year-old Paul Carter Brown. Well, he wasn't 17 anymore. He spent a little time in there. For the first thousand days in prison, I didn't spend one second out of custody. Imagine what that was like. Prison is a dreadful place. I used to spend so much time thinking about just being outside, if only for an hour if I could be outside.

Remember back before you were baptized? If I could just... all this baggage I'm toting around. All of these results for the mistakes I've made in my selfishness, it's just overwhelming and it's not working right. Here's this beautiful church and God's showing me a new way of life. Everything is happy and there's, oh, I want that so badly.

I want happiness and I want forgiveness and I want cleanness and I want respect and honor. I want that so much. We all said that, didn't we? How badly do we really want it? Is it just an idea? Just an emotion? Just a feeling? I spent so much time thinking about being outside of sin. If I could just be out for only an hour and we craved it. But do you really want to leave jail? Have you counted the cost, Jesus said?

Have you counted the cost? John said, have you brought forth fruits, fitting, representing, representative of repentance? Do you understand what it takes to be free, to stay free? Just because the door is open doesn't mean you're going to want to be outside it. The old human nature is still there. The old way still feels comfortable. The old self just loves to get itself, you know, appeased and pleased, as it were. It likes the stroking. You sure you want to be out of prison, see?

Jesus said, many are called, few are chosen. Many are invited to walk out into freedom. Few really want it. Want it bad enough, long-term, to actually do it. Why is that? Paul Quarter Bowman said, on March 30, 2002, the day the Queen Mother died, the day I celebrated having served exactly 1,000 days, I was released from prison for six hours. I had finally been granted a town visit under the supervision of my family. The grass would be greener out there.

The sky would be bluer. I had believed that for so long. But the grass wasn't greener, and the sky was gray, and by midday, I wanted to go home to prison. As time went by, I gradually thought less and less about leaving prison. See what can happen? You can have this rush of a feeling of an emotion because of the penalties that we pay, and we can say, I want to change! I want to convert! I want to be a new person!

And then when you're finally given the opportunity, you go out in the new life. Well, it's not what I'm used to. It's not what I'm conditioned for. It's different. It's unique. Kind of miss it back home. Kind of wish I could go back. 1 Peter 2, verse 19, can remind us here of those who are of a mind to come out like this and then withdraw.

It says, while they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption.

Come back into prison. You have a bed there. You're free to eat. Free food. You've got free lodging. You have buddies, friends. Come on back. For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.

But it's happened to them according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sow having washed to her own wallowing in the mire.

And so these things can apply to us as human beings in God's church, called out ones who may be under the illusion that we are free, when in fact we may be sleeping at night in the prison house and feeling comfortable at home. You know, freedom is only freedom from sinful nature. There's no other freedom available. If you like that freedom, you'll want it. You'll treasure it. You'll want to keep it. You'll enjoy it. You'll love it, but if you don't like freedom from self-centeredness, you really enjoy self-centeredness, that's really not the kind of freedom that you're looking for. Because that freedom comes through repentance, through despising of the self, through examining the sinful human nature and wanting to get rid of it. Acts 2.38 says, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sin. Repent means to hate, dislike, want to get rid of, want to change who you are, and be baptized for the forgiveness of the sin, the breaking of God's law. And then a new direction takes place through God's Holy Spirit.

Romans 6, verse 5 and 6.

Romans 6 and verse 5 says, For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection. If we go down that path, there is a goal at the end. There is a positive goal at the end. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with. See, not sort of walked around with, danced with, enjoyed, know that he's done away with, buried, killed off, crucified with Christ, buried in the grave.

We are not going back to jail. That dude got executed. He was a lifer that got terminated. That we should no longer be slaves of sin. No longer be jailbirds. No longer live that life. Now, repentance, of course, is a gift of God. We can't just come up with that on our own. God isn't broadcasting this to the whole world and telling them, okay, this is your opportunity. You get to choose. No, you get to choose. Society at large doesn't. Their eyes are closed. 2 Timothy 2, 25 says, if God perhaps will give them repentance, that they may know the truth.

God has given you repentance, and you know the truth. The question is, what are you and I doing with that? What are we doing with that pass, that opportunity to leave, to walk out into a new life? It says in verse 26, that they may come to their senses. We have come to our senses and escaped the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

We have that opportunity. We have been given a get-out-of-jail pass. The question remains is, what are we doing with it? What have we done with that? You know, a get-out-of-jail card is true. It's not just Monopoly, the game Monopoly, that has a get-out-of-jail-free card. You have one. I have one. At least temporarily. And get-out-of-jail cards are a reality, in fact. Here's the story of a man who was given the right to walk out of jail.

His name was Erwin James. And about 20 years after he checked through the front gate, and was told by the prison officer that, you know, your rights are over, but you're here. One day, about 20 years later, he received a message. They want you over in reception in 15 minutes. All I had on was the clothes I was wearing, and when I walked into the brightly lit room, the reception officer was waiting for me.

My file was on the counter, with the license authorizing my release on the top. Morning, said the officer, he handed me my license. Read this and sign it. And he got me to sign my property cards, acknowledging that he had nothing left in his store that belonged to me. That's all we want from you. Goodbye and good luck. As I turned, the gate man already had the gate open for me. For me, 20 years of a life inside was over, and that was it.

He had his card, and he walked out. It happens fast. It happened to him fast. It happened to you fast. When you repented and you desired so much for forgiveness and an escape from prison, the prison of slavery to sin, you were baptized. And in a moment, in the time while you were underwater, before you came up and took a breath, all of your life's sins disappeared. Every one of them disappeared, and you came out a new living creature. He shortly thereafter had hands laid on you to receive God's Holy Spirit, a new person, a new creation, a new creature in Christ.

That's how fast it happens. Boom, boom. And it's over. It's done. You're out. Baptism is the start of freedom. In Romans 6, verse 2, How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? How can we who have died to that way of life go back in jail?

How can we go back and say, well, I kind of want to go home. Go spend the night in there. Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

Walk out that door and walk in newness of life. You know, it's a curious thing to me. When I do baptism counseling over in Africa, the members have been pre-counseled by our deacons over there, and when they reach a certain state, then they come to me. And I may have 20 or so at any given time that will form a line. And one by one, they come in and will sit with a translator. And I greet them, and I ask the question, why do you want to be baptized? Well, the curious thing is, is the answer is always to walk with Jesus.

I want to walk with Jesus. It's always the answer. Now, really, what they're referring to is right here. As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. They're trying to say, I want to walk with Jesus. Now, some of them understand, and some of them don't. And so the next question is, well, what does that mean? How do you walk with Jesus? And how will baptism help you walk with Jesus?

And then we begin to know if that person is really progressing towards baptism or has more of an emotional experience going on. When a person is baptized, we assume that they're on this walk and that they're free. Just free as a bird, out of jail, happy. You know, I'm baptized. Well, that just tells us something, doesn't it? You are free from slavery, bondage to sin and its penalties, and therefore your life is better off.

But you know, life is choice. And your life consists of the combination of choices that you've made. And a person is not free after baptism unless they continue to choose to be free. They want to be free. They desire it. They yearn for it. They choose each day to be free of sin or slavery to sin.

Chicago Sun Times this year, or actually in October of 2005, I guess it's not this year anymore, said, when formerly incarcerated individuals are released from prison with little more than clothes on their backs, most get caught in the revolving door of cycling in and out of jails, courts, and prison beds. That's what most do. So it really comes back to you and me. Do we want to really be out of sin? Is that the choice we're going to make?

You know, most people in the 20th century who were baptized into God's church got caught in a revolving door that went right back out of the church. Why? Choice. Choice. Well, Matthew 7, verse 13, Jesus said, Wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. Why is that portrayed by him in an analogous manner of being wide, level, flat, easy, maybe even downhill? Well, the way that leads to destruction has many going in it in that direction because that's what human nature is about.

It's a self-serving, self-centered concept, mentality. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life. Why is it narrow? Why is it difficult? Why is it so hard? Because it doesn't match with our human nature. It's not something we really want to do. We don't want to be humble. We don't want to give God the glory. We don't want others to be exalted and respected higher than ourselves. We want to save some of that for us. So it's more difficult for humans to go that way. You know, freedom, we all love freedom. Happiness, we all love happiness. The kingdom of God, oh yes, sign me up. All of those things mean choosing to repent, choosing to change, choosing to root out selfish human nature, which we all came to love in our youth.

It means seeking things above, not things on the earth. Having the right desire and making the choice to complement and support the right desire. If we do that, then we are free and we continue our freedom. And every day we walk further and further out of sin.

And it's a beautiful thing, but it really comes back to, do we want it?

Romans 6.4 again talks about us needing to walk in newness of life. That walk is a determined motion. It's a direction. It's an action. It's something we want to do. It's hard. It's difficult. I'm reminded of this all the time when I want to go out and exercise. To run is four miles, which is my typical run, four miles or six miles. It's hard. And yet it's so good for you. And yet the next time you get up, the next day you get up, or two later, and you think, you know, I really ought to run today. Well, it's hard. And it hurts. Yeah, but it's good for you. Oh, but do I want to do it? And that's the way with God in His way of life. Do we really want to walk in newness of life? It's a character change, but it's a decision process. In Titus chapter 3 and verse 4, we find out how we come to this opportunity to choose to leave jail.

Titus chapter 3 and verse 4, But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, He gave us this get-out-of-jail path, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, which He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

That having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So it's all by Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, yes, but who wants to come? Who wants to come along? Who wants to be part of the group that's walking, that's going that direction? Well, this is a faithful saying, verse 8, And these things I want to affirm to you constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. Careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. Let's take a look at a few good works, a few changes that God requires of free men and women everywhere. One of them is to love God first. You know, it says over Matthew, chapter 22, verse 37, Jesus said, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, might. This is the first and great commandment. So that's the first one. Taking our mind off of ourselves and really putting it on God where it belongs. Matthew 5, 48, We're to be perfect like our Father in Heaven is perfect, complete, wholehearted, fully wholehearted in that way. Imperfect, yes, by making mistakes, but perfect meaning wholehearted, fully committed, fully persuaded, fully active. Our intent is perfection. Now, if you have that, you can walk in the way, in the newness of life and maintain good works. Another one is love fellow man equal to yourself. In Galatians, chapter 5, verse 13, it says, For you, brethren, have been called to liberty. Liberty from jail, liberty from sin. Only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh. This is where we get it mixed up. Oh, I'm free. I'm in the church. I'm free. I'm called. I'm cleansed. I'm forgiven. I'll just go right back through the door. Now I'm different than everybody else in jail because I'm approved.

No, you're not supposed to be in jail. Don't use it as an opportunity to go back and serve the self. That's what Paul's saying here. But through love, serve one another. On the outside, serve one another. For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Wait a minute. It's easy for me to stand here and preach it. It's easy for me to read it on the page for myself, too, folks. That it's hard to put it into practice sometimes because that would avoid selfishness. And I like selfishness. I do. It feels good. You ever notice that? It feels great. Selfishness and me first and all about me and me, me, me, me, me, me. Sometimes I hear myself saying the me and I word. And I'm like, I can't hardly talk sometimes without saying me and I. What's with that? Well, it feels kind of good. Tell you about what happened to me today and how I feel and what I'm doing and how good my life is and, you know. See how it goes? It just feels good, doesn't it? But we're not called to do that. The great commandment is in one word or one phrase, even you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But who wants to avoid selfish opportunities? Miss out on desirable things. And really, would it work out? Do we really have the confidence that doing good works will pay off? See, there are a lot of people who don't believe that. They'll snuggle up to God. They'll snuggle up to His word in the church. But they won't do the good works because they're not convinced that there's a payoff there.

That it's going to be right for them or best for them. And I think we all fall into that category sometimes. Should I go do what's fun and exciting for me or should this person who's in the hospital, you know, should I really take the time to go stop and be with them? Or help the person over here or console the person over there? Wouldn't it? Those people ate so problematic. I just hang out with my friends and we'll, you know, eat pizza and drink pop and watch football. Sounds like a much better time. See how that works?

All of the works that God requests us to do require faith. My wife and I have been talking about this for a couple of weeks as this sermon has been developing. And the initial title of the sermon was, If you want to walk on water, you have to step out of the boat. Now there's a concept. You know, if you want to be free, you have to walk out of jail. It's what the sermon title ended up. But imagine yourself out on a boat and the wind is stormy. And you want to walk over to where Jesus is? Well, the first step is a wet one. And it's uneven. And so do we keep the spirit of God in a napkin buried because we're afraid? Do we really step out and say, Yes, I am going to submit to my husband, or I am going to love my wife, or I am going to put my job on the line, or I am going to start putting other people first? Or do we say, if I did that, wow, I might really miss some things. If I did that, if I stepped out of the boat, I might get wet, or worse, I might drown.

And so we can keep that spirit wrapped in a napkin if we're not careful.

Faith and works really come together when we step out of the boat, or we step into living the way of God.

It's what it is. It is works, but we have to have the faith of Christ in order to step forward. Think about the saints in the kingdom. Yeah, I want to be a saint. I want to be in the kingdom. Revelation 21.7, there is the blessings. You know, He who overcomes, does the will of God, keeps His commandments, I will be His God, He will be My Son, we're going to live forever and reign with Christ. That's wonderful. We all say, yeah, count me in!

But that requires stepping out on faith and doing those things. And verse 8 follows it up. The abominable, the sinners, those who are self-serving and don't love others, they're going to end up in the lake of fire, the second death.

Remember, Israel and the Promised Land. Israel was in Egypt, they were in terrible circumstances. Oh, we'd love to be the people of God and follow You out, Moses. Just take us. Love to do that.

And they got how far? And they said, oh, that we were back in Egypt.

Oh, that we'd go back to jail. I like that old prison guard. I like that old mentality. Send me back to jail.

God had all of them die. The many were called, but Joshua, Moses, I mean, just a few, Caleb, very few were chosen.

Deuteronomy 31.15 says, See, I have set before you today life and death. I'm sorry, life and good, death and evil. Well, we all want life and we all want good, but we like to live in death and evil.

We'd like to stay in jail.

Verse 16, In that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commandments, His statutes, His judgments. Oh, that. Well, I'm not sure if I'm up to that.

But I sure would like salvation. I sure would like freedom and joy and peace and love.

The blessings. Oh, yes, we're all about the blessings. The land flowing with milk and honey.

They like that, but it required stepping out. They didn't want to step out. All those spies went to the land. Oh, no, we don't want to do any works. We don't want to go up and try to fight anybody with God's help. We don't want to work on our nature and our sins. You say, oh, no, no works. Just blessings. Just give me the blessings.

Of course, God also promised cursing, sickness, and captivity.

You know, He says in verse 17, But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and you're drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish.

That's the other side of the coin.

And in the end, most ended up back in jail.

Assyria took the kingdom of Israel to prison, and Babylon, under Nebuchadnezzar, came and took the kingdom of Judah to prison.

They all left jail, and they all went right back to it, with very few exceptions.

We can look at some of these issues of faith and works, such as tithing.

Tithing, for some, is an easy concept, because we don't give it any thought. It's what we do. Take it off first. Deal with life with what's left.

But when you stop and think about it from a new perspective, how can you pay 10% of your income to God, save another 10% for the feast, and give a third every three years to those who are in need, what we call the third tithe?

How can you do that when you don't have enough money to live on now?

The only way is faith. See? With each of these things, it requires, in order to step out of the boat, it requires faith.

And we can't come up with that on our own, because that is a big, big problem.

Think of the situation over in Africa where you live on less than a dollar a day, and the church wants you to pay tithes, and then save a festival tithe?

Hello? And third tithe? For the needy? I'm needy.

We're all needy.

And yet, the church members over there cannot attend the feast with assistance, or attend our summer camp with assistance, or receive emergency assistance, or water purification, or mosquito nets, or anything else, unless they tithe, unless they're wholehearted, and they've done it for over a year.

In 2005, church attendance grew 60% in East Africa.

Last year, 60% over the year before.

That shows a level of commitment of people who will step out when you think it's impossible to do that.

What about you? What about me? Do we really have the faith to do the things?

Well, God says, test me, Malachi 3.10, bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this.

If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. Now, blessings are promised. We like that.

But it requires faith and requires action.

And yet the response in verse 14 is, You have said it is useless to serve God. What profit is it that we have kept His ordinance? See the mentality? What profit has there been for us?

Serving God all these years. Remember how many thousands of people said that a few years ago as they left? What have we gotten from all of this? Obeying God. See where the mind is? It's on me. What did I get?

What kind of profit did I make by keeping God's ordinance?

And that we have walked as mourners before the Lord of hosts. So the result is, quit tithing.

One man, a good friend of mine that I worked for years ago, had a business up in Ohio. And somebody told him he didn't need to tithe anymore, and he began to be upset. Because he had a big business. He paid a lot of tithes. He was upset at all the money he'd paid through the years to God in tithes. I could have kept that money!

And he just turned inward and got very, very upset.

What about the Sabbath and the Holy Days?

The Sabbath this day holds the future of the people of God and actually the people of the whole world.

Leviticus 23 talks about them being the Sabbath and the Holy Days of God. Wonderful events. Everybody likes that. Everybody likes the kingdom, likes what it portrays.

But in order to keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, faith is required. You're probably going to lose your job first time to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. You might not get a job if you tell them you can't work on Saturday.

You're going to lose income if you run a business and you're not open Friday night and Saturday.

If it's that type of business, there'll be stigma that comes upon you as a Sabbath keeper. There might even be some type of persecution. And you'll have to take your mind off yourself, Isaiah 58 tells us on the Sabbath day.

We really want to do that. We want to stay in our bunk in the prison house.

And then, last, there's love and marriage.

Oh, everybody loves romance, loves a nice marriage, loves a nice happy family.

And you just see people loving that concept. Celebrities loving this person and then loving that person and then loving this person and loving that person. And next thing you know, they've got kids. They don't even know where they're coming from.

And nobody's happy and everybody's mad and angry and in court.

You know, the Proverbs says, Rejoice with the wife of your youth. All that a man or a woman yearns for is available in marriage, in a godly marriage. And everybody likes that. But you know what? Faith is required in stepping out and having a godly marriage.

A wife has to trust her husband to submit to his will?

You've got to be kidding.

I'm going to do that? I don't think so. I know this guy. I know him when he was a kid.

Husband's going to have to love his wife. I'm going to have to love her. You may not have to take... I can't... football... car... job.

I got to... huh? I don't think so. I married the wrong woman. I'll try me number seven. I'm married to the wrong guy. I'll try me number eight.

Faith is required to step out and do it God's way. Mary and I remember a couple in the church many years ago now.

And the woman had real short hair, and she was the man of the house. And the guy, he kind of had the longer hair, and he was the woman.

And now it is, hey, don't laugh because that's how they grew up. They were a product of their circumstance, and they went looking for that relationship, and they found it. And they were fine.

And then Elliot comes along and has to start preaching about marriage and the way marriage should be. And if you really do it this way, you'll be blessed. And they heard enough sermons. They finally invited us over for a visit. And they said, look, we've fasted. We've prayed. This is the biggest thing in our life. But we'll do a role reversal if you really think we should. You know, we've really fasted a lot about this, and we will change our life. She said, I will put on a dress. I never had one on my life, but I will put on a dress.

And they did. And the transformation that took place and the happiness in their life, it was because they really were sincere about it. It was wonderful to see. You should have seen them dancing at church socials, holding hands. Stuff they'd never done before. It was a beautiful thing. But you had to have the faith to step out of the boat. And it's not a small thing. It's a big thing. If you and I will follow their example in all the events in our life and have the confidence to believe God in what He said, and really to follow Him, then there are blessings for that. We've all been in human nature's jail. We all carry some baggage along. And at some point, God reaches out and says, I want you to step out of jail. At that point in your life, halt the dysfunction. Walk into a newness and come out into the light. And that's where we start, at baptism and again each day as we ask for repentance. I mean, ask for forgiveness as we repent. The question is, do you really want to walk out of jail? That's the real question, isn't it? It's a question for you, a question for me. Do I want to walk out of jail? Do I want to be free of its penalties? Do I want to be free from sin? Well, Galatians 5.1 says, stand fast. In other words, do all to remain. Therefore in the liberty, freedom from slavery to sin, by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Don't go back into the mire of human nature's pulls. Don't go back into trying to do it your own way, on your own self-devised wisdom. It's not going to work. Trust God, do it His way. In conclusion, every day, every human being on earth stands at the door of human nature's jail. It begs us, who have been released from it, to come back inside. The door is shut to those who haven't had the get-out-of-jail card given to them. Our response is shown by every thought we think, by every action that we do. God wants us to choose life. He wants us to be free. He wants us to set a course and not go back to Egypt. The Bible is full of choose life, strive, fight, overcome, win. God is there for us. He's rallying for us. He's pulling for us. I'm pulling for you. You're pulling for me. In 2002, Paul Carter Bowman was offered a parole, a chance for a change in his life. And he chose to walk out of jail and never go back. This man, who couldn't wait to get home after his six-hour release, finally was given a parole halfway through his sentence, and he chose to change his life. He finished school. He got a job. He attended university. Today he sits on the research advisory group of the Howard League in Britain and studies law at the University of Westminster.

Romans 6, verse 17. Let's close with this. But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart. You wanted to go a different way. You wanted and desired freedom and what it took to be free and to stay free. God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness, indebted to go that way, compelled, propelled, desired to go the way of righteousness. Do you want freedom? Real freedom? Then have the faith in God and Christ to walk out of jail.