Declaration of Total Dependence
June 29, 2008
Dr. Jeff Dunn
We’re reading from the book of John and actually records the words of Jesus himself which is really significant because Jesus, the Bible says is the exact representation of God the Father in heaven that in him we see exactly what it is that God’s called us to be, who God is and how we have relationship with him.
And so, in John, chapter 8 and we’ll start in verse 28, and if you have a Bible, I hear some of you turning now. It would be great, I don’t usually encourage this but I’m going to start doing it, just to encourage you to bring a Bible and that way, when you’re reading, when we’re going along you can kind of read along and it would be a real cool way to do that. Then you can mark it and look back on it and read it.
John, chapter 8, starting in verse 28, “When you have lifted up the son of man, then you’ll know that I am the one I claim to be. I do nothing on my own but speak just what the father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone for I always do what pleases him. Even as he spoke many put their faith in Jesus. To the Jews who had believed in him, Jesus said, if you hold to my teaching you’re really my disciples and then you’ll know the truth and the truth will set you free. And they answered him, we’re Abraham’s descendants and we’ve never been a slave to anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free? And Jesus replied, I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family but a son belongs to it forever so if the son sets you free you will be free indeed.”
Lord, God, would you help us to understand what it is to be free in Jesus’ name, amen.
Hey, do you know that wired deep within every human being and it’s true for you and it’s true for me, there’s this piece of us that wants to be independent. And independence meaning, I want to get what I want and I can get it myself, just give me the opportunity. I want to do what I want to do and be what I want to be and I can do it myself if you give me the opportunity. I want to be in control of my own destiny and I can get there myself if you just give me the opportunity.
And so from the littlest age we have this desire for independence and to get what we want, go where we want to go, be in control of our destiny, and do it by ourselves in our own strength and we’re wired that way. And so from the littlest time, babies want to get out of the playpen and toddlers want to wriggle free from Momma’s hands and little elementary school kids want to camp in the back yard so they don’t have to be in the house under the control. And every teenager can’t wait to get their license and their car and get on the road and every young adult can’t wait to get off to college or get their own apartment. And every middle age adult comes to the place of thinking, I want to be financially independent so I don’t have to answer to a boss and I can set my own schedule and I can be independent. And every senior citizen to faces the thought of losing their license or going into assisted living or into a nursing home just is broken by the thought of losing my independence because we have a desire for independence.
And part of that was wired in us by God as a very good thing. We talked about it on Mother’s Day about that piece of us that’s wired to leave our mothers and fathers and cleave to our spouses. It’s that part of us that God created in us to be independent of a need for a human being’s control but actually to come in submission to him. And so there’s a good piece of that, that’s our desire for independence.
But I want to say, very important, that there’s a large piece of this desire for independence that is rooted in the very worst of who we are as human beings. It is rooted in the very worst of who we are as human beings. And when I say that I mean as bad as bad gets, when you go back to Genesis where we learn about that desire for good independence, we also learn about the desire for bad independence. It’s when we were tempted, if you remember, there was the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden and Eve ate from it, everybody remembers it, right, and everybody thinks she ate and apple. And no, it wasn’t an apple; the tree was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. And the temptation, even though it was pleasing to the eye and good for food, the temptation that Satan gave to Eve was, if you eat this, you’ll be like God, knowing good and evil. His temptation was, look Eve; if you’ll just take hold of this you can be independent of God. You can decide for yourself what you want. You can decide for yourself what you want to get. You can determine your own destiny. And if given the opportunity, Eve, you can make your own decisions, get what it is you want, and control your own destiny. You can be like God.
And it is that desire to be in control over our own lives instead of God being in control of our own lives that’s at the root of everything evil. It’s at the root of everything bad. It’s the root of all pain and all sin and all trouble. It is what we call our sinful nature.
And so I want to tell you that all of us have within us, at the very worst of who we are a sinful nature that wants to be independent of God and be in control of our own lives as opposed to God being in control, that I can do what I want to do and I can do it if I just get the opportunity. I can be what I want to be, do what I want to do, go where I want to go, if you just give me freedom to do it and I can be control of my own destiny, I can get there on my own. That sin is what causes most of the trouble and pain and difficulty in your life because God said, Eve, if you do that and Adam if you do that, then you’ll surely die. You don’t understand that when you get independent from me, from God, then you will become slaves to everything you’re grasping for.
And I know everybody knows that old story, actually I’ve done a lot of research, I think it’s actually true that they actually catch monkeys by drilling a hole in a coconut and the monkey reaches in to grab hold of the nuts inside the coconut or whatever they have in there, candy or whatever, and he makes a fist and he can’t get his fist out, and they catch him. And I think that actually happens. I know they do it with raccoons and other animals, but it’s this think of like, what we’re grabbing for, I don’t want to be dependent on you God. If this is a sign of dependence, if I’m just receiving, I’m dependent on you for everything I’ve got, and what you give me is my sufficiency. If instead I say, no, I want to get what I want. Give me freedom and I’ll get what I want. As soon as we start grabbing for it we become enslaved to what we grab.
And so in the book of Matthew, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, look, no one can serve two masters, either he’ll love the one and hate the other, he’ll be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money and you become enslaved to stuff as soon as you make your decision that it’s my responsibility, I want what I want, I can get it on my own, just give me the freedom. I can earn the money; I can get it from other people. I can achieve what I want to achieve, I can get what I want to get and I can do it on my own. You become a slave to it.
And you know what I’m talking about because you know what it feels like as he went on to describe the feeling, he said, you worry about what going to eat and what you’re going to drink and what you’re going to wear. Your life is consumed with the bills and what’s coming up next. You were a slave to getting what it is that you want. And there’s hardly a day that goes by that it doesn’t occupy your mind and it becomes the master for you and you and I become enslaved to worry and I don’t know anybody here can identify with this but have you ever just felt like you just had this heaviness, this weight of responsibility on you. And it starts fairly young in life, as soon as you’re responsible for your own car payment and all of a sudden I’m enslaved by it.
And more than that, we get into a trap, not just the worry about making ends meet and now I want to get what I want to get and if you give me the freedom I can get it on my own, and now we have the weight of responsibility and worry on us and it weighs us down and it becomes our master and we serve it. And also we get trapped. In I Timothy 6:6-10 but it really doesn’t sound right now so somebody look it up, he says in verse 9 of that chapter that people who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. It’s a trap. And it starts as early as you want a better bicycle or more accessories for your Barbie. It’s like no matter what I’ve got, I want more. And when I’ve said to God, I want to get what I want and I can get it on my own. If you just allow me to, we become enslaved by that and it drives us. And we never get the satisfaction, there’s always more and there’s always something else we’ve got to work for and work toward. And it is a wicked slave master and it’s why we went from paradise, God is beautiful, we’re in the Garden of Eden to being with thorns and thistles and sweat of our brow, being beat to death because we’ve decided we want to be independent, get what I want and I want to do it on my own.
Now, beyond that, we’re enslaved as we decide I can be who I want to be, go where I want to go, do what I want to do. It’s not just that I want to be free to get what I want, it’s I want to be free to do what I want. I want to be free to go where I want to go and I can do it myself and I can get there myself, you just give me the freedom to do it. And the truth is that when we get free from God to go where we want to go and do what we want to do, guess what happens, we get enslaved by the very things we’re going to get hold of. And suddenly we find that wherever we’ve walked, we’ve stepped into traps that shackle us and we can’t get free. Jesus said in the passage we just read, John, chapter 8, in verse 34 he said, “Everyone who sins becomes a slave to sin.” You’re a slave to it.
And you know what I’m talking about because the very things that you wanted to do, that God would not have wanted you to do, that once you are free to do and be what you wanted to be and go where you wanted to go, do what you wanted to do, you stepped into traps and the very things you wanted to do now have you. You can’t stop smoking, whether it’s the tobacco or the weed, you can’t stop the pills that you were free to get once you were independent of God. You can’t stop looking at the junk that you were looking at when you knew you shouldn’t have looked at it in the first place but you were free to do it because you were independent of God and you stepped in there and now you can’t get yourself free. And day after day you have this idea that I’m going to stop, starting tomorrow I’m not going to cuss and you start to walk off and yank and realize that I’m chained to it, I can’t get free. Starting tomorrow I’m not going to lust after that person and you’re hooked again and you’re right back where you were. It becomes a slavery. And you become a slave to sin and you can’t stop the lust and you can’t stop the pornography, you can’t stop the gossiping, you can’t stop the worrying, you can’t stop the lying, you can’t stop the profanity, you can’t stop whatever it is and it just keeps on working on you.
So how many people know what it’s like to have said, I just want to be free to be who I want to be, do what I want to do. Give me the freedom; I can do it on my own. And all of a sudden you are enslaved to things you no longer want but you can’t stop and you can’t get out of.
And then finally there’s that piece of independence that we desire which is, I want to be in control of my own destiny. I want to be in control of my own destiny, if you just give me the opportunity, I can set my mind on what I want to do and on the way I can do what I want to do and I can still get to heaven because I’m going to be a good person and I am a good person. And if I work hard enough and I try hard enough and I try to clean up my act, I really don’t have to be submitted all the way to God. But if you just give me the chance, I don’t have to be dependent on him for it because I can get there and my destiny if you just let me take hold of it, then I can get to where I want to get.
And here’s what God the father in heaven, at the time of the Garden of Eden he said, look, as surely as you try to get independent from me and have your own destiny and your own control, you’re destiny will be destruction at that moment. He said if you do this, you’re surely going to die. If you try to take hold of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil and decide that I’m in control of my own destiny, I’ll make paradise myself and not be dependent on God for my paradise, you will surely die. You’ll be separated from paradise; you will live in pain and ultimately death.
And so in the book of Philippians, in chapter 3, verse 19, it talks about people whose God is their stomach, they’ve decided that what I feel and what I want is going to control where I go and I’m going to get to my own destiny. He said, their destiny is destruction. As soon as I decided I could do it on my own, I signed up and guaranteed my destiny was destruction.
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, verses 27-28, he says, “Just as man is destined to die once and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people.” The truth is your destined to die and face judgment and here’s what you and I know, at the moment we decided that I’m going to be independent of God and I can be good enough on my own and I can get to heaven on my own, and I just want to be in control, just give me the freedom and I’ll be good enough that one day I’ll stand before God and say, surely I’m better than most and surely all the good I’ve done will get me into heaven. All of us know this truth, at that moment you’re destined to the opposite of heaven because you’re saying I’m going to stand before God and answer for what I’ve done. And if that answer is given, that answer is death for all of us. And just like Adam and Eve, from that moment, you’re riddled with guilt and shame. And even though you might stand and proclaim yourself as being very clean and better than most and all that stuff, you know deep in your heart that you loath your own behavior. And the things that you do, you look at yourself and despise. And when you think about the way you talk to yourself and the things you say to yourself about your failures and your weaknesses and the bad things you’ve done, as you’re weighing it all on the scales, sometimes you can’t stand you. And so you’re in this trap of guilt and shame and condemnation and ultimately judgment from that moment forward.
And so get it, I just want you to understand that that desire in you to be independent, get what I want, give me a chance, I’ll get it myself, do what I want to do, give me the chance, I can do it myself, go where I want to go, give me the opportunity, I’ll get there on my own, all lead you to slavery and pain and separation from God. And if that’s the truth, if your desire for independence is rooted in some of the worst of who you are, why do we celebrate a declaration of independence? We celebrate for July 4th, 1776 was the original date of the Declaration of Independence, why do we celebrate that as a nation and why do we celebrate that as a people if this independence is so bad?
Here’s why, they weren’t proclaiming independence from God. They were proclaiming independence from Great Britain. They were proclaiming the kind of independence that God wired in a good way for us to want to have the freedom to worship God, the freedom to do as God would have us to do and not to be controlled by people but rather to be controlled by God. They were, in fact, making a declaration of independence from Great Britain and a declaration of dependence upon God. And so those men who signed that document, out of the 56 who signed it, I’ve heard that as many as 53 were active participants in their church. But the vast majority of them were strongly, strongly committed to the concept that we are absolutely dependent on God and it is the in the very wording of the Declaration of Independence. They said that we make this declaration of independence from Great Britain that we do it appealing to the supreme judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions. They were saying, look, we’re doing this and we’re saying to the supreme judge of the world, to God Almighty, the only thing we’re doing is what we believe is your will. We’re appealing to you that we are desiring what you want and that what we’re desiring is good.
And so they were proclaiming from the very beginning that I am dependent on God for what’s good, on God for what I should do and where I should go and what I will have. I’m always dependent on God for it. And then they said this, in that same declaration, they said that they made that declaration with a firm reliance on the protection of divine providence. They we’re saying we can get it on our own. They weren’t saying we can be strong and we can be the best nation in the world. You just give us the chance and we can get what we want, we can go where we want to go, we can control our own destiny. They were saying just the opposite. We are firmly relying on the protection of divine providence. Only God can give us what it is we believe he desires to give us. And so we are proclaiming our dependence on him.
Samuel Adams, I don’t know how he ended on a beer bottle, but Samuel Adams who was this phenomenal, dedicated man of God, on the day, it was actually August 2nd when they finally got the parchment copy competed and all of them were signing the parchment copy of the Declaration of Independence that we can now see today. When he was signing it, he said this, he said, this day we have restored the sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun, let his kingdom come. He was saying, look; today what we’ve done is we’ve said who’s sovereign. Do you know what sovereign means, absolute control, absolute power, the one who makes the decisions, the one who has the power to accomplish it all is God, and today we have restored the sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. And he reigns, and let his kingdom come. In other words, let him be king of our lives, let him be king of our nation, let him be king of us. We’re depending on you, God for everything we have and all that we will ever be. We don’t earn anything except that you’ve given us the ability to earn it. We don’t receive anything that didn’t first come from your hand, God. We can never be anything unless you by your hand make it in us. And so we proclaim the sovereignty of God and we acknowledge our dependence upon him.
Do you know that on the day, it was after the wording had been done, they were going to actually vote on it, the delegates, the next day on July 3rd, this was being anticipated? Another guy, John Adams, was writing to his wife Abigail. And as one who was part of drafting that document and approving the wording of the document, was going to be voting it in the next day, he said, I am apt to believe that it, this Declaration of Independence, that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. And he was right, wasn’t he? He said, I’m apt to believe that year after year, we’re going to look back, and now it’s 230, however many years later, so many years later, and we still do it every year, we celebrate that day because, man, that had such an impact in our nation. He foresaw that and then he said this though, he said, it ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance with or by solemn act of devotion to Almighty God. He said we ought to recognize that this is the day that we were set free and we ought to worship God; we ought to solemn acts of devotion to him because it is by his hand that we were set free.
And the truth is that man, today you hear all this stuff about, most of the people who drafted the document were deist and there weren’t many, that’s so far from the truth. Yeh, there were a few people, even a deist recognizes the sovereignty of God, but most every one of the people who were involved in that process believed in the same God and worshipped his son. Jesus says you do. And there might have been one or two within the whole bunch who were thinking the old sinful, I want to be independent so I can do what I want to do, become what I want to become, give me the chance, I’ll do it on my own. There might have been two or three in the bunch like that. And you and I both know it; the best things about who we are as a nation have come from the times and the ways in which we’ve said we’re dependent on you, God. And the worst things about who we’ve become and who we are have been in the times we’ve said, we’re independent of you, God and we’ll do it on our own. Do you agree with that?
And so right now do you understand that the declaration of total dependence on God that was made in our Declaration of Independence, is the most significant thing about who we are as a nation and it’s the most significant thing about you as a human being. I want to tell you that the most significant thing you’ll ever do in your life is come to a place of a declaration in your own heart of total dependence on God. And I’m going to invite you toward the end of this service to a declaration of total dependence on God. And maybe to this point in your life you’ve never come to that point because that nature within you has been, I want what I want and I can get it if you give me the chance. I want to do what I want to do, I can get there, I can do it myself if you give me the chance. I want my own destiny, I can get there, give me the chance. And God’s saying today, would you come to me and acknowledge, apart from me I have nothing. Everything I ever have received, will receive in the future. Everything I have now is all from your hand ultimately. I’ve never earned anything that you didn’t give me the ability to earn; every gift that’s come to me has come first from you. And so Lord, God, I’m dependent on you for who I am, apart from you I’m nothing. I can’t do anything apart from you, it’s only by your hand that I’m able to accomplish anything, do any good, and so I’m dependent on you, God, and all I want to do is do your will. Would you be in a place of making that kind of declaration?
Because see, the beauty of it is that in that declaration, that’s when you find freedom. You and I are enslaved because of our sinful nature to want to be independent of God. That’s why our lives are so heavy and so miserable and so difficult. But God is saying, if you would just proclaim your dependence on me, the weight’s taken off, the chains are set free and you can have freedom. Jesus said this is how I live with my father. I don’t do anything on my own. I speak only what he tells me to speak. He’s always with me, I’m always obeying him. Don’t you understand my relationship with the father is absolute dependence on him? And then he says to the followers, he says, now if you do the same, you hold to my teaching, you become my disciples, and hey, you’ll know the truth and the truth will set you free. If the son sets you free you’ll be free indeed. I want to make you free.
Understand what he’s talking about, God just wants to say, why don’t you get back to where it was in the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Eden before they went into thorns and thistles and sweats of their brow and all the difficulty and pain and weight of all the responsibility of providing for all my needs and getting what I want, they were in a place where they were like this, God, I’m dependent on you for everything, everything comes from your hand, I don’t have to worry. It’s all from you. Whatever you give me is my sufficiency and I’m dependent on you for everything in my life. They didn’t have to worry.
And he’s saying to you right now just like said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, chapter 6, verses 31-33, he said this, “So do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear, for the pagans run after all these things and your heavenly father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well.”
Anybody here ready to say, God, I’m dependent on you and I’m trusting you and I don’t have to worry about my bills? It doesn’t mean I quit work. But God, I don’t have to worry about it because it’s you, it’s by your hand, I trust you, God. I’m trusting in your sovereignty and the provision that you have and what you give me is my sufficiency, anybody ready to say that to God today.
And he says, you don’t have to worry about it, I’ll take care of the needs in your life. Anybody here ready to say to God, God I’ve spent my life grasping and I’ve been entrapped by that because I’ve always wanted more accessories for Barbie or a better bike or a bigger house or there’s more, there’s always more and I’m always been slave to this stuff. But he says in the book of Hebrews, in chapter 13, verse 5, he says, he wants your life to be free from the love of money. And do you know why? Because God has said, never will I leave you, never will I forsake you, you don’t have to. You haven’t got to be in that trap anymore. You can just trust him that his plans for you are good. And you don’t have to be striving so hard. Just, would you just trust me and would you just say God, all I want is what comes from your hand and I want to be content in that and I want to have joy in that and I don’t want to have to worry about that and I just want to have peace and freedom.
And he’s saying right now, you can walk out of here with peace and freedom because I want to tell you, there’s freedom in dependence. There’s freedom in dependence on God because all of a sudden it’s him that’s responsible for it. And moreover, would you like to be free from sin? That chain that you stepped into, that trap that you got into because you wanted to do what you wanted to do and you did it anyway and all of a sudden you find yourself enslaved by it and you in your own strength trying to get out of it you feel like it’s helpless and God just says, no, come back to me in total dependence on me and say to me, God, I don’t want to do what I want to do. I don’t want to become what I want to become, I want to do what you want me to do. I want to become who you want me to become and I’m going to trust you to take me there. And so, God, if you need to put one of your shackles on my feet, do it but break me free from the other.
And that’s exactly what Romans, chapter 6, verse 22 says is that we become like slaves to God and we’re set free from being slaves to sin. In Romans, chapter 6, verse 6, he says that our old self was like crucified with him, all those chains gone. He says that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. He’s just saying, I want to set you free.
Anybody here today who right now would be in a place of just saying, I want to make a total dependence declaration, I want to say, God, forgive me for that time in my life when I said, I want to do what I want to do, become who I want to become. Give me a chance and I can do it myself and let me replace it with I want to do what you want me to do. I want to become who you want me to become and I want you to do it. And he said, man, you get dependent on me and you get set free from the power of sin and I can make you who it is that you were created to be.
And then finally, how many people here would like to be free from guilt and shame and condemnation and even the thought that somehow I’ve got to earn my way to heaven? Just like Adam and Eve, right after they took the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were hiding in fear and shame, do you remember that? And they were at a place where they were naked and they’re ashamed in a context where they wouldn’t even have been ashamed before. It’s like all of a sudden there’s guilt and condemnation and judgment and they’re feeling it and you’re feeling it. And even though you keep wanting to say, oh I know I’m a pretty good person, I’m probably going to heaven and God’s a good God and everything else, in the depth of your heart, you know that you know that what you feel is shame and guilt and you feel trapped. And if you had to stand before God right now and say, God on my own merit I ask you for heaven he would have to say, your destiny is destruction.
If you’re trying to get there on your own, I’m sorry, you haven’t got enough to get there. Because of things you’ve done would mess up paradise. And so God’s saying to you right now, but if you would come to me and acknowledge absolute dependence on me, God I have no hope of eternity apart from you. God, there’s nothing I’ve done, the only good I’ve done is first come from you, it’s only because you’ve provided that I could do good. There’s nothing good in me except for you and all the wrong that I’ve done and the harm that I’ve caused, oh, God, I am hopeless if it’s up to me for my destiny. But oh God, I am dependent on you. I’m dependent on you God. I’m dependent on you doing for me what I couldn’t do for myself. I’m trusting in the fact that you love me enough to allow your son to die in my place so that you could get me to heaven. So that you could forgive me and you could welcome me in and you could give me paradise as a gift because of what Jesus did for me so I’m dependent on you, God. I’m just absolutely dependent on you.
Would you like to be free from condemnation? Would you like to be free from even the power of death, to not wonder if you’re going to heaven or think you’re going to heaven or wish you were going to heaven or think I can work a little harder and I can get my destiny there. If I try hard enough. How would you like to go to bed tonight knowing that you have eternal life and will not be condemned? How would you like to go to bed tonight without any questions? How would you like to get up tomorrow and think there’s nothing I’ve got to earn, it’s all been given, And anything good I do I just do out of love for God and love for people. Would that be a cool thought? Would you like to know that you know that you know that there’s a place prepared for you that’s eternal. And he says, all you’ve got to do is proclaim your total dependence on me. I trust not in anything I’ve done but I trust in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, period and what you can do God, for me.
Romans, chapter 8, verses 1-2, “There is therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” Anyone want to be free of the law of sin and death? Say God, I’m absolutely dependent on you for my destiny and so give me heaven, God. Give me forgiveness.
Do you remember what John Adams said to Abigail? I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated as the great anniversary festival. And it should be celebrated or commemorated as the day of deliverance with acts of solemn devotion to Almighty God. He’s saying, I believe that this day, I believe that what we did yesterday and what we’re getting ready to do tomorrow, I believe that this declaration is going to be something that this date will be an anniversary for this entire nation. And I believe that year after year they’ll look back and say, that’s when we got free, when we declare our independence form Great Britain and declare our dependence on God, that’s when it all began and we’ll look back on that day as being the most significant day in history. And that’s exactly what happened.
And I just want to tell you, just like John said to Abigail, I want to say, I am apt to believe that it, a declaration of total dependence on God, where you say to God, God I am absolutely and totally dependent on you for everything and this day I acknowledge that I don’t want to get what I want by my own strength, I want to trust in you for everything in my life and what you give me is my sufficiency. I don’t want to do what I want to do and be what I want to be, I want to do what you want me to do and be who you want me to be, and I don’t want to do it my strength, I want you to do it by your strength and I don’t want to be in control of my own destiny because if I did, my destiny would be hell. But I want you to be in control of my destiny and so I trust Jesus and I trust you, God and I want to know that heaven’s mine.
I’m apt to believe that that declaration of total dependence upon God for you today will be for many people sitting here the great anniversary celebration. You’ll look back on this declaration as the most significant thing you ever did in your life. You’ll look back 2008, a few days before the 4th of July, I was in church and I proclaimed my absolute dependency on God. And that’s when everything changed. That’s when I was set free from worry. That’s when I was set free from the trap of more, more, more. That’s when I was set from the sin that was just binding me. That’s when I was set free from guilt and shame and condemnation. That’s when I was set free from death. That’s my day.
Right now coming up on the screen in just a second, and it’s going to be a picture of what we have for you and if anybody would desire to come forward, we have something that looks kind of like the Declaration of Independence, except it’s called a Declaration of Total Dependence on God. And we’ve got a copy for every one of you. If there’s anybody who desires to, we’re hoping that you’ll get up in just a minute and you’ll walk down the isle and you’ll grab one of these things and you’ll let that be a statement to God, today I declare my total dependence on you. You may be a person who’s done it in the past, and you’re reaffirming it today. You may be a person who today is your day. Now if you’re one of the people that today is your day and you’re saying this is the first time I’ve ever truly acknowledged my total dependence on God for all that I have, all that I’ll ever be and for my destiny, I want his will in my life, I want what he provides and I’m trusting him and him alone, I’m totally dependent on God. If this is your day and you’re trusting in Christ alone for your salvation really for the first time, then after you pick up this Declaration of Total Dependence, I want to ask you to just keep on walking and stop by the prayer booth on either side, just walk on around and stop by the prayer booth and just say today was my day. And let those people encourage you and pray for you and do that.
Now, next on the screen is what this says, and so I’m going to ask you, only if you feel it in your heart to join with me in this declaration of total dependence. And Lord, I just want to pray for all of us here that we not make this declaration lightheartedly but we make it with the same depth of sincerity that the founders of this nation made a declaration of independence from Great Britain and dependence on you. And Lord, we know that there’s going to be freedom for us in depending on you. And so Lord, God, for that freedom that’s independence upon you we make this declaration and you all join with me only if you feel it in your heart:
I hold these truths to be self-evident, that apart from God I have nothing and I am nothing. All that I now have, have had, or ever will have is a gift from his hand. Everything good in me, all that I am or ever hope to be is the work of his hand. Whatever I have earned is only because God has blessed me with the ability and opportunity to earn it. Any good that I have done is only because God has blessed me with the desire and ability to do it. Whatever I’ve received from anyone in this world I ultimately received from the creator and owner or this world and all that is in it. Whatever I have given was first given to me by the one who owns it all. I am absolutely dependent on God for my every need, physical, financial, emotional, relational, spiritual and whatever need there may be. Most of all, I am completely dependent upon God for my salvation. For it is only by his grace and the sacrifice of his son that I have the assurance of life beyond the grave. I gladly declare my total dependence upon God for everything in my life and for my life itself knowing that God will finish the good work he began in me and meet all my needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus my Lord, amen.
You said it, do you truly mean it? For everybody who truly means it I’m going to ask these two center isles be the isles to come by. Out of the balconies and down the steps and come by these two center isles. Come by and grab this as your public testimony, I mean it; I’m totally dependent on you, God. Carry it home as a reminder, I mean it, I’m totally dependent on you. And if this is your day, the first day where you truly trusted Christ and Christ alone for your salvation and you truly acknowledge your total dependence on him, please stop by the prayer booth and just let those folks know that this was your day and they’ll want to write your name down and be praying for you and encouraging you in that.
Let’s stand together and anybody who wants to say, I mean it, we invite you to step out and come even as we begin to worship.