Setting the Captives Free - Part 2

Setting the Captives Free Part II

A wonderful promise in the Scriptures is found in Jeremiah 29:11--that God has plans for us to bless us, to prosper us, to give us hope, to give us a future. Many of us look at those kind of promises in the Bible and say, "God, I love that promise; but I'm not there. I'm trying to follow you. I'm trying to live for you. I'm trying to do the best I can. Why am I in a hard place? Why am I in a difficult place? Why do I feel like I'm not there when you have this promise for me?"

If you look at the context of Jeremiah 29, you'll find that the people were in captivity. They were literally prisoners of war. They'd been ripped out of their country. They were taken to another country. They were there for seventy years. And God said, "This is going to end soon and I have plans for you to prosper you, to bless you, to give you hope, to give you a future." But when he spoke those words, the people were in the midst of captivity.

I began to think about that and the people in the Bible. I found out that almost every one who was greatly used of God, those who were the great spiritual men and women of God, went through a tough time. They went through a time I would call a captivity--a time that was a time of trouble, a time of trial, a time of difficulty; and there were different reasons for this.

In the case of the people here, they were unrepent sinners. You say, "Well, I can understand that. I can understand going through troubles and trials when I'm in sin and God has to wake me up." But most of the time, the people who were in a time of captivity had not done any terrible, awesome sin.

Joseph did what was right, and he ended up as a servant in Potiphar's house in Egypt. He ran from sexual temptation and ended up in jail. He spent thirteen years in captivity, but he went from the prison to the prime ministry. God was refining him, knocking off some rough edges. The purpose of Joseph's captivity was to prepare him for God's calling in his life, and it was character development.

Moses tried to get ahead of God. God was going to judge the Egyptians. Moses took God's judgment into his own hands. God took him to the backside of the desert and had to teach him to lead sheep before he could lead people. So again, the captivity was a type of refinement for him and it was a time of judgment.

Now as we look at the book of Jonah you say, "Why in the world did Jonah end up in the miserable situation he was in? All Jonah did was run from God." You see, when God has a call on our life, a lot of times we just want to run from that, especially when it's a difficult situation. Look at Jonah 1. I love this little book of Jonah. It's one of the greatest little books of the Bible. You want to read a book of the Bible before you go to bed tonight or when you get up in the morning? Read Jonah. "The Word of the Lord came to Jonah, son of Amittai: 'Go to the great city of Ninevah and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.'"

Ninevah was a wicked city. The Assyrians were barbaric. In fact, they were so barbaric that they had little signs at the gates of the borders of Assyria which warned people about going in. They had these piles of what looked like cannon balls at the borders, except they were human heads, skulls. So when you went to the border, the Assyrians piled these skulls up saying, "You want to come visit us? You know, we'll make a monument out of you." So it wasn't a pleasant place to go to, and Jonah didn't really like the idea of going to Syria. He didn't like the idea of preaching to these pagans.

So what did Jonah do when God said, "I want you to go to Ninevah?" Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. Now Tarshish was in Spain. He went in exactly the opposite direction. How many know that when you run from God you want to go as far and as fast as you can? He headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, a seaport city which you can visit there in Israel. I've been there. He found a ship bound for Tarshish. (You'll always find a way to run, by the way.) The ship happened to be there and Jonah thought, "This must be of God, this ship here. It's going just where I want to go!" "After paying the fare, (and you'll always pay!) he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord."

Now the long and the short of the story is this: God sends this great big storm. The people on board the ship say, "What are we going to do?" They find Jonah. Jonah says, "Oh it's my fault! Throw me overboard!" In other words he's saying, "Just kill me and this will solve the thing." He'd rather die than obey the Lord. How many understand that feeling?

Now God wonderfully, verse 17, has a way for Jonah. They threw him overboard. I can actually sense Jonah's feelings. He was probably euphoric. They threw him overboard and "Yes! I'm going to die! This is just what I wanted!" and he hit the water. He was probably just getting his breath of salt water when God had this great fish just gulp! God prepared a fish. He had a fish there at the right time. "But the Lord provided a great fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights." If you, by the way, think this story is a myth like some people do, Jesus spoke about Jonah as a historical person. So I'll go by the words of the Lord Jesus that this really did happen.

Now Jonah was swallowed by a fish and he was in this mess. You know what he did? He prayed! Can you imagine? Now I don't know what it's like in the belly of a fish. I've tried to imagine it. I've cut fishes' heads off. I've looked at fish guts, and they're not pleasant to see and touch; but I understand the temperature in the belly of a whale, if this was a whale, is 103 degrees. It was kind of like a three day sauna! There are also acids inside the stomach that would bleach your skin white, and Jonah had seaweed draped about his neck. He was basically in a hot slime pit for three days. And when God finally delivered him, it was in the whale barf. The Bible says the fish vomited him up. Not a pleasant place to be. I have trouble cleaning up the cat's mess! (I'm just being honest with you! But I'll stop there.)

So Jonah spends these three days in misery in the belly of the fish. In Jonah 2:10, "the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land." Now Jonah survived this ordeal because God had a purpose. In Jonah 3:1 "The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time." The same word that came the first time. "Go to the great city of Ninevah and proclaim to it the message I give you." In verse 3, "Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord." Quite a change! God got his attention.

Sometimes, our times of captivity are to get our attention. Sometimes, we're going in one direction or God says, "Go in this direction." We say, "God I'm sorry. That's just not what I really want to do, thank you. I'll go this way." God usually doesn't have a plan A and B. His commands are not suggestions. So when the Lord says "I have a call for you. I have a plan for you", and we stray from that, in his own gentle, no, loving way, he oftentimes will get our attention. So sometimes our captivity is a result of stepping out of God's will.

Did Jonah do any terrible sin? Did Jonah break any of the commands of the Lord? You say, "Well he just didn't go to Ninevah. What's the big deal?" God called him and he disobeyed. So when God has a call on your life, when God has something for you to do and you don't do it--it may not be going to Ninevah. It may be going next door. It may be praying for someone. It may be sharing the gospel with someone--when God speaks, we need to step out and obey. Sometimes our captivity is God saying, "Wait a minute, listen up. I have a call for you, a plan for you. I need to get your attention again."

It's interesting that of all these captivities this one is the shortest, but maybe the most difficult. Sometimes they're short and intense, sometimes they're just long and difficult. This was a short and intense one, but Jonah now prays. And by the way, this was the most interesting time of thanksgiving. He offered up thanksgiving to the Lord. Look what he said in the belly of the fish in 2:8. I love this: "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs." If you cling to worthless idols, you forfeit God's grace. But look what he says in verse 9. "But I, with a song of thanksgiving..." That must have been some song! Can you imagine what it sounded like? "...will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good." God, I think I'll go to Ninevah if you ask me again. I promise you, God, that I'm going to do that.

So sometimes our captivity is God gently or ungently saying to us, "I have a direction for you. I have a place for you to go. You've chosen not to do that. So I just want to reacquaint myself to you in a different situation to say here's how I love you. Here's what I want for you." And I love Jonah 3:1 because you know what? The Bible says the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Aren't you glad our God is the God of the second chance? And the God of the third chance. And the fourth, and the fifth, and the sixth and so forth. The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. And the story goes on to say that Jonah went to Ninevah, great revival, people repented. But Jonah still wasn't spiritually where he needed to be. And the book ends on kind of a sad note because God's still trying to get his attention. But that's the way the Lord is.

Now, some of us may be between a rock and a hard place. We're in a difficult place. We don't understand it. I've just shared with you a number of reasons why we might be in captivity. And by the way, there might be no reason.

Let me just share with you that I've been listening to David. David's on my heart. Think about David. There's David. He's a shepherd. He's the youngest son. He's a good shepherd. He's faithful as a shepherd and one day he goes out to the battlefield cause his brothers are in the fight. He goes out to take them some lunch because probably the military food wasn't any good. So he takes them out some lunch and Goliath comes out and he's spouting off and David, the little shepherd boy says, "I'll fight him." And you know the story of the sling and the stones and he lays it right into his temple and kaboom! Goliath goes tumbling down and David cuts off his head. David's a hero.

Then God's anointing is on David to be king. He receives the anointing because the Holy Spirit is taken from Saul. The anointing comes on David. Saul then calls David in to play his music. It soothes the demonic spirit that's tormenting Saul. Now he's God's anointed. He's God's anointed king. He's faithful. He's serving. He's doing everything right. Would you agree with that? Everything right. He's already got the anointing to be the future king on him. Saul with his demonic spirit is insanely jealous because one day he hears a little song, "Saul has slayed his thousands, David his ten thousands." He's full of jealousy. He tries to kill David. David finally runs for his life and spends years in the desert running from Saul. He's God's anointed! Would you call that a captivity? Would you call that a hard place? He's God's anointed! He was a great military leader. He was a great musician. He's running from Saul, hiding cave to cave, desert to desert. His life is always being threatened. They're struggling for food. They're struggling for survival. God sends the misfits, so to speak, to join him and they end up being his mighty men.

Then he has this opportunity. Saul's asleep. They're in the camp. David comes down. He could take Saul's spear and kill him. The servant says, "Here's your chance!" If David would have driven the spear into Saul's heart, he would have been king and in the palace. Everyone would have said that Saul got what he deserved, because David was being hunted and it was just what he had coming. Right? David said, "No. I'm not going to touch God's anointed." Saul says, "Ok. I'll go back home. I'll call the troops." Later it all happened. And you know what? Saul went back after him again!

Finally Saul later was killed in battle and David became king. In fact, he didn't become king over all the tribes at first, just a couple of the tribes. Then later all the tribes. David was God's man. David didn't do anything wrong. By the way, David's captivity was to protect him from Saul. By having the most miserable time, in fact, I think the heart of the psalmist came from those things.

So our captivity may be the result of sin, it may be the result of running from God, it may be that we don't know why we're in that position; but if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, in due time he'll exalt you. So yes, there are captivities. The more I meditate on this, the more I see the wonderful people in the Scripture who went through it.

This is why I reject so much of what is called the prosperity gospel today where you've just got to have everything all the time and everything you want is going to be there. It doesn't fit with the characters of Scripture and their lives. I can't find people where everything is just perfect all the time. In fact, I've heard it said that if God wants to use you greatly, he must break you severely. And it's those times of trials and testings that refine us. The problem in the New Testament is all who lived godly lives in Christ Jesus all suffered persecution. How's that for a Bible promise for you?! So when you're in those captivities, remember a couple of things. One is many good people have gone there before. You're in good company. It's not forever. It will end. But remember this, too. Only God knows when. And when we're in those times, God has called us above all else to be one thing. Faithful. Faithful, faithful, faithful. Be faithful.

Father, you have not called us to be successful, but faithful. Lord, many of us would look at the past and say we haven't made it, but You are more interested that we finish the race with faithfulness. Lord, we know we will stand before you some day and Lord to receive the crowns to cast at your feet. Oh what a joy. Lord we ask that you teach us to faithful and help us to surrender our stubbornness, our will and our all to you. Let your word be at work in us. Do your mighty work in us Father...we ask it in Jesus name.

It is the believer that will stand before Christ to receive the rewards, but if you have not yet invited Jesus into your life to be your Lord and Savior, then you will appear before a different throne to be judged. And everyone who's name was not found written in the Lamb's book of life was thrown into the Lake of Fire. If you have not received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your name is not in the Lamb's Book of Life; but it can be by trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior. If have never been saved and born again with a new Spirit, then you can be today. The Bible says that to as many who received Him, to those He gave them the power to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name. If you are not sure of your salvation, then pray this simple prayer with me.

So I am going to pray a prayer of invitation to receive Jesus into your life. It is not like saying an "our Father" or like reading a prayer card, it is not the words that are significant but what it means. You are going to ask Jesus to save you from your sins, to come into your heart, to be the master of your life and to take you to heaven when you die. So if you are not sure of your salvation today, and the desire of your heart is for Jesus Christ to come into your life to be your Lord and Savior, make this your prayer. Dear Lord, I am a sinner. I confess my sins to you and right now ask you to forgive my every sin. I invite you right now into my life, to be my Lord and my Savior. Thank you for coming into my life. May never be the same again. Make me a new person in Jesus Christ for I thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Father we thank you. We thank you for the body and blood of Jesus and as we come around your table, help us to come with a heart cleansed by the blood of Christ, with an attitude of gratefulness and a desire to walk in the holiness you have called us to. We thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Some people give their all to their sports or their hobbies, yet those around them get nothing. Some of you know things are not right in your family because things like sports or hobbies are more important than your family. You need to give your all to God and your family. ==========================================================================

If you have prayed this prayer, please let us know by EMAIL or by correspondence. It would be a real blessing to us. And if you would like a cassette tape of this message, please send $3.00 to cover costs to: Faith Chapel 4113 West Seneca Turnpike Syracuse, N.Y. 13215 (315) 469-5555

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"Watch and pray, therefore, that you would be counted worthy to escape the judgment that is coming upon the earth and be able to stand before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:36).

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