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GYC Southwest

Deliver Me

Keala Thompson

Deliver Me From Evil Expectations

Tonight's presentation is entitled, Deliver Me from Evil Expectations.

And so if you have any Bibles, you can turn me to opening text and that's found in 2nd Corinthians 3.17.

You know this theme this weekend is entitled Deliver Me, a Freedom Church Revival.

And you know this thought has been really in my mind about experiencing deliverance from many different things and what we're looking at tonight is being delivered and delivered me from actually having expectations of other people upon us and being delivered from those expectations.

And so tonight as we all go through God's word, we pray that God will help us to experience deliverance from evil expectations.

Contrary to popular belief, freedom is not free, but instead it has a cost.

And if you don't believe me, then just ask the parents who lost their only son fighting for our freedom.

Just ask the parents who lost their only son fighting for our freedom.

The little boy whose mom is not coming home from war, the price of freedom.

The young newlywed who got a military visit at a front door, the high cost of freedom and if you would I'm almost certain you see how expensive freedom really is.

And a freedom in a spiritual realm of the spiritual world is much more costly.

For to follow the beliefs of what you believe and the dictates of your own conscience, 1 must continually be fighting for one's freedom.

For the freedom we experience is really our picture of God and the freedom he gives to us.

Now, 1 of my, the churches I've visited in Hawaii, I spoke on healing and in eating healing from your past emotional wounds, I mean hurting your heart.

And I, after I gave my presentation, I made an altar call for people to come forward in this appeal.

And as I made the altar call, people came up and I remember this 1 couple, they came and they stayed till the end as I talked to people one-on-one.

And as they slowly went away, I finally got to talk to this couple, and they actually were visitors from the mainland, from Southern California.

And he was a head elder, and she was very involved in the church, and they were very active in the church.

And then they showed me that they were having physical problems.

She was having some serious problems, some health issues.

And they showed me the problems that she was having was very serious.

And they just said, I asked them, well, when did the symptoms really come upon you?

And do you remember when it really came bad?

And he said, well, you know, actually it started where every Friday night, it would come really bad upon me.

And it would be better the rest of the week, but every Friday night it would come really strong, these bad symptoms.

And I asked her, like, what do you do in church?

And then I asked her, how many positions do you have in church?

And she said she had 8 positions in the church.

And she felt somewhat anxious, and I think of the quotation of Ellen White that says, nine-tenths of illnesses has a foundation in the mind, right, so negative emotions kill not only the mind, but it kills the body also, right?

Depression, unforgiveness, bitterness, anger, all of these negative emotions, it kills you.

And so you hold on to these negative emotion and it kills not only the mind and your relationships with 1 another, but it kills the body.

And so I was sitting with her and we were talking about this and finally we came to the root cause of why she was so busy in church.

And she said, what it really is, is because I'm a people pleaser.

I like to live up to people's expectations.

So just dealing about quitting the positions in the church was not enough.

She needed to deal with the root cause of healing from being a people pleaser.

And tonight, many of us live, trying to live up to the expectations of people.

And that's what I want us to look at tonight.

So as we go through this, may God help us to experience the freedom that he wants to deliver us from.

And Lord, as we begin this weekend, may be your words, we thank you for your freedom in Jesus name.

The Bible says, now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is what?

So wherever the God's spirit is, there is what?

And also wherever there is freedom, there is also what?

In other words, God is such a God that He wants to pour out His Spirit.

In fact, God is here and He pours out His Spirit.

But the problem is that many times, the reason why there is no Spirit, the reason why there is no revival in the churches, The reason why there is no reformation is because somehow, some way, there's people or there's institutions or there may be even church board decisions that's hindering the Holy Spirit from coming.

Somehow there's something going on or there's a person who's abusive in the home or in the church.

Something's going on where actually there's that system that's structured in place that God is not 1 who would say, okay, why is a revival going on in this church?

But why is it not a revival going on in that church?

God is not saying, okay, I'm gonna bless you, but I don't like you that church, so I'm not gonna bless you.

So the reason why it is not that special blessing is that Not because God does not come and pour out his blessing upon 1 church, but because something is going on.

Something is going on within possibly people, members within the church.

Something is going on with mom or dad where the person is hindering the Holy Spirit from working freely among that home or church.

If you believe that, let me hear you say Amen.

And so where there is freedom, that's where the Holy spirit is.

In other words, God is a God of freedom, contrary to what we think.

And God allows us freedom to choose Him or not to choose Him.

And what happens is, is that when we play the place of God, and actually we decide whom God can work and who God cannot work through in the church or in the home or in the workplace or wherever it may be, on a youth group, then we are the ones that hinder the working of the Holy Spirit in the churches, not God.

And God gets to blame for why there's nothing going on in the churches, but that's not true.

Satan's spread lies about God's government being restricted to be a Christian.

But in reality, as you look at how God works in the Bible, God's way is actually the ways of freedom.

The Bible says, you shall know the truth about God's government of freedom.

So turn me to your Bible, see Revelation 13, verse 12 and 15.

Revelation 13, let me just, Revelation chapter 13, verse 12.

John Diel

Deliver Me From the Slavery Within

And this morning's message is, Deliver me from the slavery within.

Last night, we learned that we needed deliverance from other people's expectations.

Last night we learned that there are many many pressures that come our way and many times those pressures tend to dictate our conscience and praise God that we can find freedom in Christ.

However, if you really think about it, many of these pressures, though we ask God from deliverance, we naturally tend to gravitate back and become people pleasers.

And so this morning we're gonna be dealing with the root cause of what makes us be people pleasers, what makes us fall into the trap of fulfilling others' expectations rather than God's expectations.

And there is a bondage that the Bible talks about that we need to be freed from.

And not just on a one-time basis, but on a moment by moment by moment basis.

So I ask that you please keep a prayerful heart that God will speak to each of our hearts this morning.

Let's bow our heads as we seek the Lord in prayer before we begin.

Our dear Father in heaven, we thank you Lord for religious liberty.

We can come together and worship you and learn from your word without being harassed.

We thank you that today also you've given us this wonderful holy day, the Sabbath day.

A day you have set so that we can have an intimate moment with you.

But Father, we understand that we are, just as the song says, sinners.

And so we ask that you please cleanse us from all unrighteousness may this day be a reminder to us that you can sanctify us and so that Lord there won't be any hindrance for your spirit to freely move into our hearts and minds.

We ask for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost to be upon here.

I pray, O Lord, claiming the promise that Christ received, Isaiah 50, verse 4, You have given him the tongue of the learned, that he should know how to speak a word in season to them that are sweary.

And I know that all the promises in Christ are amen, are yes.

So I claim that right now, that you please put your words in my mouth and that your words would be of effect.

And I pray that you would also grant us the ears of the learned to hear what you want us to hear in Jesus name we pray amen amen good morning for those of you who are just arriving come come have a seat I think I'm gonna I'm gonna try not to move a lot because the microphone tends to fall.

I tend to stay closer with people on Sabbath school.

Probably we'll try to see if we can do a little dialogue, but it's probably not going to happen a lot.

I was talking to my sister as well as 1 of our church member last night who was here and the messages that that are being preached are messages that they've never heard before and so messages that are somehow new to us we need to kind of dialogue about it and examine the Word of God together.

And so we have a Q&A section this afternoon and I ask that you write up questions down and then we're going to deal with them this afternoon.

But this morning we're going to be talking about deliverance from slavery within.

And if you have your Bibles with you, I ask that you please turn with me to Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5 and beginning in verse 1.

Galatians chapter 5 beginning from verse 1.

And the Bible says here, and this is the Apostle Paul talking to the people of Galatia, he says, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

It's very interesting that in this verse we see many things, just as we see in many verses of the Bible.

Jesus Christ had made us free, which means the freedom that many people long has already been provided.

And another thing about this verse is it says that we actually need to stand fast.

We need to make sure that we're remaining in the liberty wherein Christ has made us free.

Freedom is something that we have to continue to struggle for to make sure I remain in freedom.

I don't know about you but have you seen the article that Adventist Review had just passed regarding the literature evangelist in Louisiana Arkansas conference, there are people out there right now that are not allowing freedom of speech and freedom to express religion in that area.

And somehow, our people found it a necessary thing to fight for liberty.

Actually, in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1, it says here, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made it free.

I read it in my original language, in my original tongue, which is Tagalog, and it's translated in a very different way.

And I said, why is it translated that way?

Then I looked at it in the English Standard Version as well as Young Literal Translation and if we would look at it, it actually translates it the way it's translated in my native tongue.

And the Bible says there in English Standard Version, it says that, for freedom Christ has set us free.

In other words, the reason why Jesus set us free or made us free is for the purpose of having freedom.

The reason why Jesus Christ came down here is to give us liberty of conscience.

The reason why Christ made sure that He would die on the cross is to make sure that you and I can make our own conscious decision regardless of any pressure that comes from without.

Freedom is something that is very important to God And freedom is something for Christ is a more than good enough reason to die for To give you and I freedom for freedom Christ has set us free and it is this freedom that God wants us to hold fast to stand fast To make sure we're in it to make sure that we're making decisions not based on people's expectations, not based on what others are manipulating us to do, but rather stand because we've examined everything, we've examined all sides and I make the decision for myself.

In reality, we're all accountable to God individually.

My parents, though they can influence me, are not accountable for my decisions.

Each individual has their own accountability to God.

Now, it's another interesting point here that freedom is something that God emphasizes a lot.

Last night we learned that where the Spirit is, there is liberty.

In other words, if there is some sort of manipulation, if there is some sort of bondage, if there is some sort of captivity, the Spirit of God is not there.

If the way we function is to manipulate other people, we can make sure that the Spirit is not moving through us.

And why do you think freedom is so important to God?

Why do you think liberty of conscience is so important to God?

The Bible says in 1 John chapter 4, it's a memory verse that many young people memorize as well as verse 16, God is love.

And there's an interesting way in which love works.

It says here, God does not force the will of his creatures.

He cannot accept a homage that is not willingly and intelligently given.

A mere forced submission would prevent all real development of mind or character.

Love never works by force, because it will no longer be love.

To illustrate this, if someone comes up to me and has a gun, and points at me and tells me, Hey, JR, start dancing, or I will shoot you.

If that person tells me go do jumping jacks, do you think I'll do jumping jacks?

But if that person tells me Love me or I will shoot you It's impossible for me to do that I Cannot do that With no what's this?

And actually, if we work through force, if for example, I just learned this, I'm starting to read about, you know, how to discipline children, being married for 2 and a half years, it could happen any time, you know?

It was actually written by a secular writer on how to discipline children, on how to use time out.

You know, back then, I thought time out is something that you use to motivate children.

You know, like, you better straighten up or you go to time out.

And when I read this article, the reason for time out is actually to have the child who is acting up have a silent time for themselves so that they can think for themselves what they're doing.

It's not something that we use to threaten them.

Discipline is not something that we use to threaten children because look what it says there, It will actually prevent development of mind and character.

I don't know if you're seeing that there.

It would impede growth rather than let growth happen.

Continuing on, Another thing about love is love is God's character and the law is the transcript of God's character which means that God governs through love.

The Spirit of Prophecy says here, but in Desire of Ages, page 22, Sister White says here, the exercise of force is contrary to the principles of God's government.

He desires only the service of love and love cannot be commanded.

Stronger Than Our Fears

This morning's presentation is entitled Stronger Than Our Fears.

If you have your Bibles, please turn me to our opening text to Exodus chapter 2, verse 23.

Exodus chapter 2, verse 23 is the opening text.

We're talking about experiencing freedom.

Last night we talked about experiencing freedom from the expectations of other people, what they expect you to do so they can manipulate you or guilt trip you to do what they want you to do.

This morning, JR talked about being free from the bondage of legalism and doing works in order to get God's approval and acceptance and salvation.

And now I want to focus on something that I feel is very important that we all struggle with, and that is fear.

And Satan uses fear today to get God's people.

Slavery, what a horrible condition to be in.

According to the ILO or the International Labor Organization there are an estimated around 21 million men, women, and children around this world who are in some form of slavery today.

Now you ask yourself what's so horrible about slavery anyway?

What does an ex-slave called Herod Jacobs?

And she wrote this book and she wrote in a book her experiences as being a slave here in the United States.

She said that her slave master was a very cruel person.

He never cared for his slaves, neither did he do anything to benefit them.

In fact, he would intentionally cause them much pain and much suffering.

You see, what makes slavery so bad is that people who live in slavery have been conditioned to live in a constant fear.

And the same way today, there are many people who today who are living as slaves who don't even realize it, for they too have been conditioned to live in a constant fear.

Now a friend of mine shared to me recently about a month ago and I was visiting passing through and we're staying with them this couple and she assured me that she lived with fear as a Christian.

And I'm gonna read to you what she wrote to me, actually.

"'Fear is a very real difficult area of our lives as Christians.

Even though you carry it locked up away in your mind, in your heart, yet it still controls decisions you make every day in life.

She says, it's a difficult subject to bring to others and let alone bring to God.

I know that as a Christian we shouldn't have fear, but what happens when real, tangible life experiences, like a death of a newborn child, or death of a young, vibrant, single mother of 3 happens?

For soon after the death of my dear friend and also the death of my another good friend's baby who's only a month older than my own son.

I found myself with this overwhelming fear.

It took me a long time to take it to God because my God was bigger than death, and yet, why did they die?

Fear from my experiences paralyzed my connection with God.

The loss of these precious and dear friends was so heartbreaking.

To this day, my heart still mourns for their loss.

I am still learning what It means to have God in the midst of this reality on earth.

And as you're gonna be studying it this morning, realize that we all are plagued with this fear.

But there's a solution because there's a God who can overcome all fear.

So as we see the fears that control us and the love that can set us free from this slavery, may God help us to see this love is up here.

And let us pray, Father, help us To see your character more clearly this morning help her to see your love and I pray father that you may speak and True deliverance and true freedom may be granted to everyone here at myself as I speak in Jesus name rest Amen So we'll go back to the children of Israel.

How horrible was slavery to the children of Israel?

What did they do and how did they respond?

Look at the Bible says here, And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died and the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage or the slavery.

And they cried and the cry came up to God by reason of the bondage.

In other words, the children of Israel, God's chosen people, had come to the point where their slavery had become so terrible, so horrible in their experience, they had cried and sighed and cried for deliverance from the bondage and the slavery that they were experiencing as slaves.

Well, here are some of the conditions that the slave masters keep their slaves in.

If you look in your handout, you have 2 handouts.

1 was for last night for those who missed it, but there's 1 for stronger than our fears.

And if you look in there, I put some conditions here.

When slaves could not make their own decisions, slaves were forced to serve another with no benefit to themselves.

Slaves had to work every day as commanded.

Slaves had no time of their own, number 4.

Number 5, slaves could rest only when allowed, and 6, slaves had no future.

So these were the conditions of the slavery in the United States back then, and these were the conditions of the slaves of Israel at that time also.

So in her book, Harriet, she wrote about slavery because she shared her experiences.

And she said this, I want to convince, in your handout, I want to convince the people of the free states what Slavery really is.

Only by experience can anyone realize how deep and dark and foul is that pit of abominations.

Then it goes on and she says, she also said, I was made for his use, made to obey his command in everything, that I was nothing but a slave whose will must and should surrender to his.

But beloved, Herod wasn't the only 1 who experienced slavery.

In the same way, fear is also a horrible slave master.

Series

Deliver Me

Deliver Me From Evil Expectations

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Deliver Me

Stronger Than Our Fears

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Deliver Me

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