Today is Sunday and many of us will find ourselves in church. Some of us won't be attending and that's ok. For this Sunday I decided to try something a little different. I decided to start posting a sermon that I have already preached. I would like to post one every Sunday, but I need your feedback. I really pray over my posts hoping that I will help to lead at least one person to a more meaningful relationship with God. It is my desire to help anyone who desires to know God. That is why I do what I do here. If you would like me to try this for a short time and see if it helps, let me know. If you would rather I just continued with a regular post on Sunday, let me know. We are all the body of Christ and I will take all the help and suggestions I can get! As always, May God richly bless you today! Harold!
From Bondage to Freedom
Scripture: Psalm 81:6-10
Intro: We can get ourselves trapped in situations that we are unable to get out of. Whether it is a financial situation, a tempting situation, or some other type of situation, we cannot save ourselves. Many of us will try, but most of the time, we fail. But, today I want to say that this psalm offers direction from God as to how we can be freed from bondage by relying on Him. Please open your Bible to Psalm 81 starting at verse 6.
1. Admit That You Are in Bondage (v6). Many people are held in bondage to things these days, but to admit that we are held is a pride issue. None of us likes to be wrong, and most of us dislike having to admit anything. Pride has a way of getting in the way of all things for all people. But, in order to recognize that we need help, we must admit that we are in bondage. Are you in bondage today? What are your chains? Better said, what is holding you captive? When we are able to recognize and admit that we are being held captive by anything, the first step has been taking to receiving our freedom.
2. Get Some Help (v7). The next step is to get help. Listen to verse 7. Here the psalmist is telling us that God has rescued him. He called out to God, or in our language, he sought God’s help, and God helped him. Once again I can say that a lot of us will not seek help because of pride. Our pride often gets in the way even as we know in our hearts that we need the help of others. A good example I can use personally is my dad. Growing up, and even today, he will refuse to seek medical attention even when he knows he needs it. He thinks that by going to the doctor’s, he will appear weak. I even started to be that way, and not just about medical conditions, but in all things in my life. I grew up thinking that if you had to seek out help, you were basically admitting that you were weak, or stupid. I wonder how many of use grew up with this same false value? I say false because we all need help, and we all could use the help of others in various positions in our lives. If you search the scriptures, you will find even the toughest of the tough sought out help. Moses told God that he couldn’t handle the people of Israel by himself, so God told him to appoint seventy others. David, Gideon, Sampson, Jacob, Joseph…they all sought the help of others and God. Friends, we can’t allow our pride to control our lives. I can name a few people today, that because of pride, failed to seek out help and it cost them their very lives. General Custer comes to mind. Get some help! God is waiting and believe me, He wants to help all of us.
3. Follow God’s Advice (v8). Would you notice verse 8. Here God tells the people to listen to Him. God always knows what is best for us even when we cannot see it ourselves. One thing I would like to say right here is that in our society today, we have been taught to believe that God is linear. What I mean is that most of us could agree that we think that God works this way or that way and that He always does things in certain ways or fashions. May I say to you that God Himself has told us over and over that His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts!! (Isaiah 55:8-9). God does not operate according to our will or our desires, but according to His will and His desires. Search the scriptures and you will learn that over and over God tells use that if we seek Him, if we listen to Him, if we follow Him, then and only then does He give us the desires of our hearts because it is then that our desires have become the same as His desires. God knows and always knows what is in the best interest of His people and if anyone says any different, they are not teaching in accordance with God’s own written Word!!! If God tells you to do something, if God asks you to do something, if God leads you to do something, do it! He alone knows the outcome as He instructs His people. (Jeremiah 29:11-13). It’s when we make the choice to do things ourselves that we get into trouble because it is then that we are out of the will of God.
4. Remove Other Gods (v9). Pay attention to verse 9. All of us a one point or another serve other gods. I don’t like to use that word, but God has used that word to describe anything that we serve outside of Him. What have you devoted your life too? Perhaps you have served money all your life. You live and breathe to make money, spend money, save money. Money right now has become the biggest evil in our nation and perhaps the world. Many people in third world countries are captured and made slaves to work in the diamond mines around the world. Poor conditions, lack of food, water, medical treatment, all so that the wealthiest people among society today can wear pretty rocks upon their person. Friends, rocks do not make you rich, paper does not make you rich, but an intimate, personal relationship with God Almighty can make you one of the richest people in all the world!!! Some of us serve our jobs, our wives, our television programs, our medications. Friends, anything that takes you away from spending time with your Lord can be considered a foreign god. God says to stop it!! Come to the one and only true God, the Lord Jesus Christ and you will learn and reveal in the great and powerful truth that He loves you and wants you and that He alone is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The only way many of us will learn the truth of who God is and what God wants from you is to spend time with Him. Spend time in His Word, in prayer, in seeking and knowing Him. Church is only one place you can start, but just because you are in church does not mean you have relationship with Him. There are many today that think that just because they are members in some church and serve in several different areas of the church, that they are in relationship with God. Friends, you have to be in relationship with God just like you are in relationship with your spouse or your family or you friends. You have to talk to Him, commune with Him, learn of Him.
5. Trust God to Meet Your Needs (v10). Lastly folks, would you listen to verse 10. God brought the nation Israel out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt. God brought us out of the bondage of sin by being made flesh and dying upon a cross. God will meet your needs as He has for others throughout the centuries. Open wide your mouth and God says He will fill it. In our language God is saying that He will take care of us. Friends, I have repeated it several times in this very message. The world is not going to take care of us. The world is not going to meet our needs. Only God can. And He is patiently waiting for us today. He wants to meet our needs. That is the great truth of the scriptures that many of us overlook. The scriptures testify that God so loved us that He gave us a way, the Lord Jesus Christ, just to be with us. How wonderful it is to know that we serve a God that loved His creation so much that He has given everything for that creation!!! We must learn to trust His infinite wisdom, and when you do, I can promise you through the very Word of God, you will never be disappointed.
Conclusion: God’s desire is for us to be free in Him so that we may be able to serve Him wholeheartedly. However, if we are in bondage, we will end up being subject to what is holding us and will be unable to allow God to use us in the way He desires.
Pastor Harold Trent.
From Bondage to Freedom
Scripture: Psalm 81:6-10
Intro: We can get ourselves trapped in situations that we are unable to get out of. Whether it is a financial situation, a tempting situation, or some other type of situation, we cannot save ourselves. Many of us will try, but most of the time, we fail. But, today I want to say that this psalm offers direction from God as to how we can be freed from bondage by relying on Him. Please open your Bible to Psalm 81 starting at verse 6.
1. Admit That You Are in Bondage (v6). Many people are held in bondage to things these days, but to admit that we are held is a pride issue. None of us likes to be wrong, and most of us dislike having to admit anything. Pride has a way of getting in the way of all things for all people. But, in order to recognize that we need help, we must admit that we are in bondage. Are you in bondage today? What are your chains? Better said, what is holding you captive? When we are able to recognize and admit that we are being held captive by anything, the first step has been taking to receiving our freedom.
2. Get Some Help (v7). The next step is to get help. Listen to verse 7. Here the psalmist is telling us that God has rescued him. He called out to God, or in our language, he sought God’s help, and God helped him. Once again I can say that a lot of us will not seek help because of pride. Our pride often gets in the way even as we know in our hearts that we need the help of others. A good example I can use personally is my dad. Growing up, and even today, he will refuse to seek medical attention even when he knows he needs it. He thinks that by going to the doctor’s, he will appear weak. I even started to be that way, and not just about medical conditions, but in all things in my life. I grew up thinking that if you had to seek out help, you were basically admitting that you were weak, or stupid. I wonder how many of use grew up with this same false value? I say false because we all need help, and we all could use the help of others in various positions in our lives. If you search the scriptures, you will find even the toughest of the tough sought out help. Moses told God that he couldn’t handle the people of Israel by himself, so God told him to appoint seventy others. David, Gideon, Sampson, Jacob, Joseph…they all sought the help of others and God. Friends, we can’t allow our pride to control our lives. I can name a few people today, that because of pride, failed to seek out help and it cost them their very lives. General Custer comes to mind. Get some help! God is waiting and believe me, He wants to help all of us.
3. Follow God’s Advice (v8). Would you notice verse 8. Here God tells the people to listen to Him. God always knows what is best for us even when we cannot see it ourselves. One thing I would like to say right here is that in our society today, we have been taught to believe that God is linear. What I mean is that most of us could agree that we think that God works this way or that way and that He always does things in certain ways or fashions. May I say to you that God Himself has told us over and over that His ways are not our ways, nor are His thoughts our thoughts!! (Isaiah 55:8-9). God does not operate according to our will or our desires, but according to His will and His desires. Search the scriptures and you will learn that over and over God tells use that if we seek Him, if we listen to Him, if we follow Him, then and only then does He give us the desires of our hearts because it is then that our desires have become the same as His desires. God knows and always knows what is in the best interest of His people and if anyone says any different, they are not teaching in accordance with God’s own written Word!!! If God tells you to do something, if God asks you to do something, if God leads you to do something, do it! He alone knows the outcome as He instructs His people. (Jeremiah 29:11-13). It’s when we make the choice to do things ourselves that we get into trouble because it is then that we are out of the will of God.
4. Remove Other Gods (v9). Pay attention to verse 9. All of us a one point or another serve other gods. I don’t like to use that word, but God has used that word to describe anything that we serve outside of Him. What have you devoted your life too? Perhaps you have served money all your life. You live and breathe to make money, spend money, save money. Money right now has become the biggest evil in our nation and perhaps the world. Many people in third world countries are captured and made slaves to work in the diamond mines around the world. Poor conditions, lack of food, water, medical treatment, all so that the wealthiest people among society today can wear pretty rocks upon their person. Friends, rocks do not make you rich, paper does not make you rich, but an intimate, personal relationship with God Almighty can make you one of the richest people in all the world!!! Some of us serve our jobs, our wives, our television programs, our medications. Friends, anything that takes you away from spending time with your Lord can be considered a foreign god. God says to stop it!! Come to the one and only true God, the Lord Jesus Christ and you will learn and reveal in the great and powerful truth that He loves you and wants you and that He alone is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The only way many of us will learn the truth of who God is and what God wants from you is to spend time with Him. Spend time in His Word, in prayer, in seeking and knowing Him. Church is only one place you can start, but just because you are in church does not mean you have relationship with Him. There are many today that think that just because they are members in some church and serve in several different areas of the church, that they are in relationship with God. Friends, you have to be in relationship with God just like you are in relationship with your spouse or your family or you friends. You have to talk to Him, commune with Him, learn of Him.
5. Trust God to Meet Your Needs (v10). Lastly folks, would you listen to verse 10. God brought the nation Israel out of the bondage of slavery in Egypt. God brought us out of the bondage of sin by being made flesh and dying upon a cross. God will meet your needs as He has for others throughout the centuries. Open wide your mouth and God says He will fill it. In our language God is saying that He will take care of us. Friends, I have repeated it several times in this very message. The world is not going to take care of us. The world is not going to meet our needs. Only God can. And He is patiently waiting for us today. He wants to meet our needs. That is the great truth of the scriptures that many of us overlook. The scriptures testify that God so loved us that He gave us a way, the Lord Jesus Christ, just to be with us. How wonderful it is to know that we serve a God that loved His creation so much that He has given everything for that creation!!! We must learn to trust His infinite wisdom, and when you do, I can promise you through the very Word of God, you will never be disappointed.
Conclusion: God’s desire is for us to be free in Him so that we may be able to serve Him wholeheartedly. However, if we are in bondage, we will end up being subject to what is holding us and will be unable to allow God to use us in the way He desires.
Pastor Harold Trent.
Awesome message!!! I would never have looked at that particular psalm that way. Praise God for His faithfulness!
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