1. CHRIST HAS SET US FREE

1. CHRIST HAS SET US FREE

Isaiah 9:2-9; Judges 6, 7

God’s Word transforms lives. Isaiah was about captivity and deliverance from captivity. We want to be a people of the Spirit of God, and to live in the Spirit of God. Where the Spirit of the LORD is, there is FREEDOM (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Isaiah 9:4

Judges 6:1-10

1. The people of God can be very oppressed by the enemy.

We can be a Christian, and yet, be oppressed by the enemy. God wants victory to be the rule in our lives, instead of the exception. We were not saved from our sins to live the rest of our lives in defeat.

Reasons God’s people can experience oppression:

• Testing.

God will bring us through a season when He allows us to be oppressed by the enemy, because He desires to test us, mature us, and grow us. One perfect example of someone being led by God into a time of oppression by the enemy is Christ in the wilderness.

• Chastisement for rebellion.

This is exactly what had happened in Judges 6.

• Lack of submission to God’s authority.

Authority is an extremely important part of freedom. We have to walk in the confines of God’s will, so that we can be set free. That is where our liberty will be.

• Weakness in warfare.

Some of us do not know how to do battle with the “evil one” who seeks to oppress us.

Isaiah 54:17

2. When oppressed the children of Israel have a tendency to prepare shelters for themselves, rather than do what liberty demands. These shelters can easily turn into strongholds (Judges 6:2).

Anything that has a stronghold on your life besides the Lord Jesus Christ is a stronghold. Often when we are oppressed, instead of going with Him to a place of freedom, it is our tendency to hide in shelters – to go into isolation, and hide behind all sorts of things.

3. The people of God have little defense against the destructive nature of the enemy without the power of God working in their favor (Judges 6:5-6).

On our own, without the filling of the Holy Spirit; without learning what to do with the Sword of the Spirit (Word of God, Ephesians 6), Satan is just too much for us. We can be saved, the Holy Spirit can indwell in us, and yet, we can continually live in defeat; because the enemy can out do us, if we are not totally dependent on the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to equip us.

John 10:10 – the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

The Midianites Dominion:

•They ruined the crops.

The enemy works on everything that you’ve tried your hardest and poured your best energies on. These are the things that we have poured our best spiritual energies into.

• They impoverished the people.

The original Hebrew word for “impoverished” is “dalal” meaning to dry up, to be emptied, to fail, to be impoverished.

Sometimes we feel completely dry, because you feel that everything that you have poured your effort into has been hit; and you just come to a place of feeling like a total failure. That is not God. It is oppression, and it is defeat.

4. God did not allow His people to be oppressed so they would be defeated, but so they would ultimately be victorious. Victory begins with the cry for help (Judges 6:1; 6:6).

In our lives God will allow things to get so bad at times, for the very purpose of finally forcing us to look up, and scream HELP!

5. God willingly tells His children why they are being oppressed if they are willing to listen (Judges 6:7-10).

God wants us to know the reasons why we are continually being oppressed. He wants you to know what went wrong; so that the next time we are in the same situation, we will make different choices if we are willing to listen.

For the Christian…

• Our prison doors are locked from the inside.

We hold the keys. Satan can presume no authority over us. He lost it on the cross of Calvary when Christ died in our place. He is a defeated foe. Because we will not deal with truth, so often in our lives we get caught in a stronghold.

•The enemy has no authority to hold us when we are ready to get out.

6. God sees the potential of His children and appoints the experiences necessary for them to fulfill their destinies (Judges 6:11-16).

If God has appointed something for you; even if it is a hardship or a difficult time, it is part of the plan, so that you can fulfill your destiny in Him.

7. Any sacrifice we make in our quest for freedom will be wholly consumed and blessed by God (Judges 6:17-25).

In order to be free, liberated in Christ, to fulfill the destines He planned for us before the foundation of the world, we have got some sacrifices to make. Anything that you have to place on the altar, that you have to give up in His name, he will bless (wholly consume).

8. To live in freedom, the people of God must recognize and forsake all other gods (Judges 6:25-27).

We will discover idols in our lives that we did not know we even had. We need to recognize some things that need to be torn down in our lives, so that we can be built up in the Spirit, and know the freedom that God has for us.

9. God wants to remove all doubt concerning who brings the victory ((Judges 7:1-8).

We need to know that only God can deliver us and bring the victory in our lives (Zechariah 4:6-7). We will be victorious by surrendering our lives completely to the Spirit of the Living God.

10. God recognizes our fears and insecurities (Judges 7:9-18).

You might be scared to death, really don’t like what’s happening in your life, crying, shaking, but whatever it is, do the will of God. If you stick with God of how to live in the freedom of His Word, and His Spirit, you are going to start living like a Mighty Warrior!