What's your banana?

This past Sunday I preached from John 8:31-36.  Jesus is telling Jews that have believed in him to step it up and become his disciples.  The reason he tells them that is so that they would know the truth and that the truth will set them free.  

I used the illustration of how monkeys are caught as a way to teach about the kind of freedom Jesus is talking about.  Hunters and capturers in India and Africa will drill a small hole the monkey can get his hand through in a Gourd, Cocunut or even the trunk of a tree.  They will put a banana or some other kind of treat in the hole.  When a monkey comes along, the monkey will try to grab the banana and form a fist to hold on to it.  The fist will be too big for the monkey to get the banana out of the small hole.  The monkey will not let go of the banana because monkeys are selfish and greedy.  The monkey is free, all it has to do is let go, but they don't.  So I asked the congregation, what's your banana?  What is it, whether its something signficant or insignificant that steals the freedom that is ours in Christ.

So I ask you, what's your banana?  What is it that gets in the way of the freedom that Christ wants you to have in this life.  Its a freedom we can have now and its a freedom that is ours for all eternity.  We often make decisions that create some kind of slavery in our lives and Jesus is calling us to follow Him and promises us that if we do that, we will have freedom now and in the future.

May you let go of your banana!