Welcome again to the sixth and likely final part of our series on How To Not Be Taken Captive. This is now our longest running series on the channel! But I believe that it’s also one of the most important, because I know it has broken a lot of long-lasting religious chains some of us have had. And praise God that He is using these studies to set people free.
Today we will tackle two more common religious ideas that serve to breed fear and keep people in bondage, as we conclude How To Not Be Taken captive, and allow the truth of Jesus to set us free.
One of the biggest areas of doubt for many people is a lack of hope. And as we have studied in the past many times, I am not speaking of hope as the world understands it to be, but I am speaking of spiritual hope, Biblical hope.
You see, worldly hope is like a wish, a dream, something that you don’t really expect.
Whereas spiritual hope, is a confident expectation.
In the Bible, when you see the word “hope” – especially in connection with Christ, it is always the spiritual kind of hope, the confident expectation of good.
For many people, their confidence is constantly being attacked and challenged. Their hope is always being pressed by situations, circumstances, thoughts and feelings. The world even likes to say “don’t get your hopes up!” – and that same sentiment has infiltrated churches as well.
I have been in many churches, where I have shared with my Christian brothers and sisters that I was believing for a miracle, and they would respond with something along the lines of:
“Yeah! That sure would be great… but don’t get your hopes up.”
“Absolutely! That would be amazing! But I can’t count on it.”
What I want to share with you today, is why you should go ahead and get your hope up, and also keep it up in Christ Jesus. And how by having a proper perspective through the lens of the finished work of Christ for you, you can stand against these attacks against your hope, and show others to do the same.
Have you ever faced a situation in which you absolutely needed the assistance of God? A situation where there was no hope or no way out other than divine intervention? Maybe a health issue, or a financial crisis? I have faced such situations, and let me tell you that is when doubts come from all directions. Not only do doubts come from your own mind, but also some well-meaning (and sometimes not so well-meaning) church-folk as well. And it’s interesting to notice in my discussions with people, that the majority doubt not only God’s ability to help, but especially within the church body, they doubt His willingness to do so. For many this has become a convenient excuse, saying: Oh, I know that God is able to help me, but He may not be willing!
That’s why in this study today, we will be examining the truth of scripture, that God is both perfectly able and also perfectly willing to help us. The more that we see of His love and His attentive compassion towards us, we will be able to confidently rest and freely receive the provision which He freely gives.
There are many forces in this world that put themselves in a place of leadership. Men desire to lead other men; simply turn on the television and you will see countless people all eager to give their opinion and advice on all kinds of things, setting themselves up in positions of leadership. We in moments of pride, desire to lead ourselves, and of course Satan has always desired leadership as well.
However, when we follow these leaders, or ourselves, where do we end up? The Bible says in 2nd Peter that those who follow other things and people are led into sin and darkness. However there is One Good Shepherd; One who does not lead astray, but leads into true rest and freedom from all bondage and oppression. This is what we will be studying today. Following the Good Shepherd into Righteousness.
Each year around the time of New Years Eve, people resolve to make resolutions... promising that they will do better, try harder, accomplish set goals and generally improve themselves. Usually these same people, around this time (three months after New Years) will have already broken every single resolution, with many not even lasting through January! This same pattern of promising resolutions and failing shortly after also goes on with believers – not just at New Years, but all-year-round. It's a vicious cycle of condemnation leading to destruction that often stems from a chapter in the Bible that was actually intended to free us from such condemnation!
Our study today is going to be on this very misunderstood chapter, looking at the common misconceptions surrounding it, and also of course we will be examining what it actually means for us in Christ Jesus today.