Jesus said the Spirit of the Lord was on Him to set captives free, give sight to the blind, and release the oppressed, and that same mission is what this message is built on.
I'm going to throw some scripture at you today, so if you're a notetaker, I encourage you, because I will not read it all. Here's the first one, Luke 4:18. This is Jesus speaking.
"The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come." (Luke 4:18-19, NLT)
The key words for me today are captives, the blind, and the oppressed, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. Here's the instruction I got this morning. First, we're going to pray, and I mean really pray.
Pray over yourself. What is it, Lord, that I need rescued from right now? Where am I held captive right now? Where am I blind right now? Then I'm asking you to pray for me too, because the Spirit of the Lord is on me to set the captives free, and we are going from glory to glory. All the truths we're not walking in are going to be revealed today, and everything we've been taught that's wrong is going to fall off.
You are not the person you used to be, so stop letting your past convince you that you can't walk in what God has for you now.
My wife, Brenda, and I are evangelists. The Lord called us out of the life we used to live, and I want you to hear this: you are not the same person.
Stop letting that person have filth on you that says, "I can't do the things of God because of who I used to be." Let it go. Rise up. Elevate.
The Lord pulled me out of the corporate world a few years back and put me into Hope Center, a drug and alcohol rehab with a one-year discipleship program. There are three graduates from that program sitting on the same row in this room right now.
I remove "candy Christianity" from the guys at Hope Center, the soft, coated version of the gospel that tells people they're okay when they're living in disobedience.
I'm intense. I'm forward. I'm passionate. But when I'm at Hope Center, I don't have time.
I've got guys who are self-admitted, guys just out of prison, guys in and out of jail their whole lives, guys tatted up head to toe. But they have something in common. They love me, not out of pride, but because I tell them the truth, and they finally found someone who quit all the churchy, soft, coated candy Christianity garbage.
So many of them tell me, "My pastor said we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." True. But when they say "my pastor said we all sin," I say false. You do, because you're not obeying Christ.
Scripture tells believers not to take offense, so instead of stomping out or quitting church over a disagreement, I teach people to simply shrug and get over it.
We scripturally are not to take offense. Understand that, believer. Stop being offended.
If you disagree with me, do this: shoulder shrug. That's what you do when you disagree as an adult.
You don't have to stomp out the back door. You don't have to be mad. You don't have to quit the church because I disagree with you. Get over it in the name of Jesus. Step into the reality of the word and forgive a brother. Have forbearance. Have longsuffering. Do what the word says to do.
I once heard the Holy Spirit tell me to call a friend, and because I put it off until tomorrow, that friend took his own life that same night.
I was counseling a friend whose wife was in the hospital. The doctors kept telling him, "I can't find anything," and they pumped fear into him over and over. They put his wife into a medical coma to run more tests, and eventually a doctor told my friend, "We've done all we can do for her."
My friend loved his wife so much he couldn't live without her. I heard the Holy Spirit say, "Call Kevin." I said, "I'll call him tomorrow." He took his own life that night.
His wife woke up two days later and found out her husband was gone. She recovered, and she's been healed the whole time since. Am I hard on doctors? Yes, because I want you to go to the Father first and believe the word of God.
I tell people to put their face in the word instead of researching their problems on their own, because Jesus already bore it all.
When we come into these doors, don't try to get out. Get all the way in. Get into the scriptures. Get into the fact that Jesus gave you healing, that Jesus bore it all, that Jesus did it all.
Quit studying whatever ChatGPT or the medical diagnosis stuff says. Get in the word. How big is your problem? How much time are you going to spend in the word?
Get your face before the Lord. The Holy Spirit will answer you, because scripture says if you seek Him, you will find Him.
I teach that forgiveness isn't optional, because scripture says you must forgive or you are not forgiven, and holding onto offense keeps you from the freedom Christ paid for.
Whatever turmoil you're going through, whatever's been done to you, whatever you've done, whatever offenses or unforgiveness you're holding onto, I don't understand your specific story. But I do know what Christ did to set the captives free, and I know the price He paid to set you free.
He said you must forgive. He said do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Are you walking through the house with your spouse wanting nothing to do with them?
Satan is trying to divide families. He's trying to tear marriages apart. You must obey scripture for your freedom, and the chaos in your home is often the direct result of a lack of obedience.
I challenge the instinct to avoid offending people who are straying, because if someone is walking toward hell, keeping the peace isn't love, it's silence at the wrong moment.
We have to get real. This is not a club where people won't come back if we make them mad. Children who aren't obeying their parents, kids who have strayed into darkness, they're not coming back if you don't do something.
If you don't honor the scriptures, here's what scripture says: if you are not with God, you are an enemy of God. You may present the truth of the gospel to your kids and they get ticked off and run off, but plant the seed of truth in them anyway. Do not allow them to go to hell. Do not allow them to stay in sin.
We know sin separates us from God. We tell ourselves, "I sinned and I didn't die," but the wages of sin is death, and the wages are still coming.
Hebrews 10 warns believers, not unbelievers, that deliberately continuing to sin after knowing the truth leaves no more sacrifice to cover it.
Hebrews 10 is amazing to me because it's debated so hard. People say, "Well, that's about sacrifice, and he was talking to the Hebrews." But if we stop there and say the rest of the message isn't for us, then Galatians wasn't for us either, and Philippians wasn't for us, and Corinthians wasn't for us. He's talking to us.
Dear friends, if we deliberately continue sinning after we have received knowledge of the truth, there is no longer any sacrifice that will cover these sins. There is only the terrible expectation of God's judgment and the raging fire that will consume his enemies. For anyone who refused to obey the law of Moses was put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God's mercy to us. For we know the one who said, "I will take revenge. I will pay them back." He also said, "The Lord will judge his own people." It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God. (Hebrews 10:26-31, NLT)
Verse 26 is talking to the body, to dear friends, not to sinners out on the street. He's talking about someone who says, "I know it's wrong, I know clicking that mouse and going to that website is wrong, but I'm going to do it anyway." His Son provided everything for us to walk in freedom. All we have to do is obey Him.
Repentance is turning from what you were doing and changing your mind about it, not just feeling bad about it.
All of us collectively have already had something highlighted in us that we need to fix, and it's a simple repentance. Repentance is saying, "Lord, I wasn't obeying you. I'm going to turn from this."
It's a changing of the mind. I'm not going to think that way anymore. I'm going to honor you, walk with you, and do what you said to do.
You told me to go and free the captives, so I'm going to go free them. You told me to honor you, and I'm going to honor you. You told me to walk in love, and I'm going to love.
I recognize when the enemy is planting thoughts against my marriage and I respond by binding that spirit out loud instead of engaging the accusation.
I'm not the man I used to be, and I'm standing here a different man. When the enemy comes after my wife and starts throwing accusations, I don't go into quarreling. I recognize him and say, "I found you."
I bind that spirit that's coming against my wife right now. I do not allow this thing. I command it to leave this home. I cover her, I wash her with the water of the word, and I will not allow it to consume her thoughts.
He can only plant a thought for you to chew on, stew on, and act on until it becomes fruitful. He's a destroyer, a liar, and an accuser, but Jesus said He came to give life and give it more abundantly.
I warn that too many churches and podcasters are teaching a false message that says you can never lose your salvation, because that isn't what scripture teaches.
There are too many churches and podcasters teaching a false message, and that false message is once saved always saved. You can leave the hand of God, and you can leave the sealing of the Holy Spirit. Scripture says you must endure to the end, that you must continue in the faith, that you must walk with Him.
There's a difference between the lost lamb and the prodigal son. The lost lamb was in the fold and just wandered off. The prodigal is the one who left his father's house entirely, and if you go get someone in that state, it doesn't always work. I've experienced that heartbreak many times.
I was on vacation in Mexico when a pastor from Hope Center called to let me know one of my guys had fallen back into his addiction, and they found him dead in a hotel room. We have to stop the funeral talk of "he's with the Lord now" when scripture is plain that sin separates us from God. Old Testament still applies here too, and I'm reminded of the call in Deuteronomy 30 to choose this day whom you will serve, to choose life over death.
