SET FREE!
It’s a stifling hot August night in Georgia. Over 700 inmates and
50 community workers have gathered in the auditorium of the
Atlanta penitentiary. Chuck Colson, who has come to speak to the
prisoners, looks over the restless crowd—half white, half
black—and begins speaking…
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A lot of you think of Christians as those nice, white,
middle-class people who go to church on Sunday and never get into
trouble. And you say, “No, that’s not for me. I don’t want any
part of that. They can afford to be nice. They don’t know what it
is to be hungry. They don’t know what it is to see their children
starving. They don’t know what it is to be in prison.” And you’re
right—most of them don’t.
Let me tell you a little about the man Jesus Christ, because he
did know about these things and He cared. Jesus was God and he
was man. And when he was nailed to that cross, he hurt. He
suffered there for every one of us.
Let me tell you what he said in his very first sermon: “The
Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to procl freedom for the
prisoners and recovery of for the blind, to release the
oppressed, to procl the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke
4:18-19).
And then, who did He assemble around Him? A dozen men who had no
special place in society. He and his twelve men began to preach
and perform miracles that only God could perform. But the people
rejected Jesus. They wanted a ruler who would overthrow their
Roman oppressors.
But Jesus said (and I paraphrase) “No, I am procling a
different kind of a kingdom—the kingdom of God being built on
this earth. And because God’s values are not man’s values, I come
for the poor, the , the hungry, the homeless, the
imprisoned.” He is the one who comes to help the downtrodden and
the oppressed—to set you free!
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The impact of Colson's words was remarkable. That night many men
found freedom in Jesus Christ. One man with a tough, unshaven
face said, “You probably won’t understand this, but tonight was
what my life has been leading up to. All 39 years were nothing;
just tonight matters.”
God had set him free from his spiritual “imprisonment” by sin!
Today you also can be set free, too, no matter where you are in
life. Jesus Christ has already suffered the full punishment for
your sin. Now God offers you a full pardon if you will...
Admit
Admit that you have a spiritual need. You must agree with God
that you are a sinner. The Bible says that “All have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God….the wages of sin is death, but
the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
(Romans 3:23, 6:23).
Repent
Change your mind about whatever you’re trusting in to make you
right with God, and instead trust only in Jesus, what the Bible
calls “repentance toward God and … faith in our Lord Jesus
Christ” (Acts 20:21).
Believe
Believe that Jesus died for you on the cross. “God demonstrates
his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ
died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Receive
Receive Jesus as your Savior. “If you confess with your mouth,
‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
You can receive God’s pardon by praying to him, telling him what
you now believe:
“Lord, thank you that you loved me so much that you sent your Son
to die for me. I know that without Jesus Christ’s sacrifice I
would be separated from you and your love forever. I place my
faith in him for forgiveness of my sins and the gift of eternal
life. I want him in my life to be my Savior.”