Now community today, we can be delivered in many ways; and each way is mighty sweet.
Deliverance from anything is a good thing. Especially if the thing from which we are delivered is a bad thing; but to be delivered says that something or somebody have us in captivity. That’s not the way God made us; mankind was made to be free moral beings; free to make decisions; God did not want man to be robots that he could program, but he gave us the capacity to do and be whatever we want to be; but even so, sometimes, man (and woman) put ourselves into captivity by the choices that we make.
For the majority of our captivities are of our own making; many a young man or woman is incarcerated as I write because they chose the wrong path; somebody is in a marriage gone bad because they would not listen. They ignored the warning signs; got angry and broke friendships with friends who tried to warn them; being in bondage they are stressed and it’s taking a toll on them physically and mentally… “deliver me” is their prayer.
To be in bondage takes the life out of an individual; they slowly but surely began to die. I’ve seen it happen; take an animal out of his natural habitat and it can lose its will to live; take a wild bird and put it in a cage; and you take the life out of it; wild animals have to be free, that’s their nature. It breaks my heart when on the “Animal Planet” network I watch animal owners abuse their pets that God intended for us to take of; to see families move away and leave their dogs tied up with a chain; the dog can’t eat or drink or find a mean of eating because their owner didn’t think enough of them to at least set them free to find food for themselves. But it feels good when somebody or animal control comes and rescue the animal and the animal is delivered; we hear all the time testimonies of people who have been delivered from drugs and alcohol; delivered from bad habits; folk have been delivered from diabetes, high blood pressure; bad relationships that was toxic; the Lord set them free; see, some people are a glutton for punishment; it’s hard for them to walk away from a bad relationship.
It is only through the power of prayer that God delivers them; community, this morning I say to all of us; don’t let nothing or nobody take away your freedom; don’t let nobody put us in a box and take our freedom and our life away from us; to be in bondage to anything is a bad thing.
Paul told the Galatia Christians in Galatian 5:1 “Stand fast in the liberty (freedom) wherewith Christ has set us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
My friends, we have celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday with family; God is good; but today we celebrate deliverance and the greatest liberation ever given to man; deliverance from the bondage of sin and the power that sin had over us; we celebrate the victory and deliverance that all Christians have through Christ Jesus; the word “deliverance” means “the action of being rescued or set free.”
Free to be what we are; free to be who we are; free to be anything that God wants us to be. Saints, can we be honest this morning? How many of us have ever been in a situation that had us in dire straits? A bully in school that had us so afraid; had us stressed out and we hated to go to school; a satanic supervisor that had a pick at us; you hated to go to work; you prayed for deliverance; and God delivered right on time.
Does anybody this morning know about being delivered? Have you ever prayed for God to deliver you from something or somebody? And if you have then you know the power of deliverance; and if you don’t know this morning, I have been sent here to declare that God can and God will deliver!
Go and tell somebody; I don’t care where you are at; what you are in or how bad it may seem, God can and God will deliver; let this encourage somebody; community God has been delivering his people ever since the beginning of time; ever since he delivered Noah from the flood in the Genesis account; he delivered the Hebrews from Egyptian bondage and brought them to Canaan land; remember saints he delivered Gideon in Judges chapter 7; we all know about David’s deliverance over Goliath and his deliverance from King Saul who was out to kill him; he delivered the 3 Hebrew boys and Daniel; he delivered Samson out of the hands of the Philistines; under prophetess Deborah in Judges chapter 4 God delivered Barak; King Jehoshaphat, King Hezekiah; Bro Peter in Acts chapter 12 and the list goes on; they all were delivered; God can, and God still does deliver; for whom the Son set free…they are free indeed (John 8:36); Christ has not only set us free, but He has canceled every debt so that we cannot be enslaved again.
Hallelujah! Satan cannot find anything in the files that will indict us! The slate has been wiped clean; we are free, praise the Lord we are free. My friends, that’s the power of deliverance.