Deliverance From Self

Good morning!

For those of you who know me well, you know that I [normally] enjoy following the New England Patriots (the football team). This year has been historically bad; they’re far removed from winning six Super Bowls in an 18-year span. After one of their games this season, one when they had a chance to win toward the end, but then Mac Jones threw an interception, I said to someone, “this team just cannot get out of its own way.”

It’s easy to point fingers and say “they can’t get out of their own way”—but that’s all of us, isn’t it? Often we cannot get out of our own way, and often, we are our own worst enemy. It’s a universal problem.

This is nothing new; Jeremiah writes, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it (Jeremiah 17:9)?”

The human race needs deliverance from itself. We see that all the way from Genesis to Revelation: The LORD says “don’t eat that fruit;” Adam and Eve eat the fruit. God sends plagues on Egypt and it takes ten of them and at least one dead person in each household before they finally let Israel go, and even then, they still chase Israel to the Red Sea where the separation between God’s people and Egypt is made once and for all; the LORD tells the kings of Israel and Judah to obey his laws (and then the narrator comes on and says “But they didn’t obey him. In fact, most of them did the exact opposite”). Israel as a nation couldn’t get out of its own way (there’s way too many examples to list), and unfortunately, the penalty for that was often misery (exile, AD70, and so on).

But none of us are immune. Many of our trials—not all, of course, because we live in a fallen and sinful world, but many—are brought about by our own wrongdoing. We know that and we need deliverance.

Let’s do a little exercise: I’m going to read Romans 7:14-25, and you tell me how many times you count the word “I.”

“For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (26 times)

You may have seen, there’s a t-shirt (and probably other clothing items) that says “Not today, Satan!” The way we understand it, we are the “satan,” the adversary, the enemy; many of our so-called “enemies” are not tangible (Ephesians 6:12), and often it’s the battle in our minds that affect us the most.

As we know, unfortunately many people turn to anything but God for help and deliverance. Some turn to drugs; people are addicted to drugs because it gives them a good feeling, but it only works for a short period of time. There is no lasting peace from that.

Others turn to people such as celebrities or politicians, most of which probably don’t actually care about them anyway.

There is a day coming—and we look forward to it—when this world will be delivered from itself; a time when people will come from the ends of the earth, and will say that they had previously inherited lies and vanity, and things wherein there is no profit (Jeremiah 16:19); all this stuff where they thought they would find deliverance, but only the LORD himself could save them.

There is, of course, a difference between innocent mistakes that we all make, and our own willingness to continue doing things the way we want (my way or the wrong way); we know that for our mistakes, we have grace. Even for our stubbornness we have grace (although it’s more difficult because we may not be willing to admit we need the help).

Often it is simply about your own attitude; you are in some ways, able to help how you (or someone else) feel at any given moment; sometimes it just starts with a smile. Dale Carnegie wrote: “Smile: it increases your face value.” You can actually trick your mind, temporarily, into making you feel better. And when you give one away, it causes someone else’s mind to temporarily help them. You never know who may need a smile, and it costs nothing to give.

Sometimes the LORD’s deliverance from ourselves comes through others; connection and community is important. He has given us a lot of great people who hopefully love him, and love each other. As a side note, we would do well remember to always check on our people; you never know what demons they may be dealing with. Many of us recently have had to learn the hard way through others, just how powerful and destructive those demons can be.

God has given us many tools to help, but they are not the solution; God’s ultimate plan is the solution. We all know academically that the LORD is the only one who can deliver us from ourselves; but do we remember that when we feel the need for deliverance?

The Psalmist writes, “Depart from evil, do good, seek peace; pursue it (Psalm 34:14).” Make peace more addictive than drugs.

One set of verses that surprisingly has not yet been used this week: “That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness; Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son (Colossians 1:10-13).”

Have you ever been having a spiritual problem, and someone responded by saying something like “well you just need to have more faith”? You may want to respond like “OK, who let the cat out of the bag?” Obviously it’s not that easy. It’s not an overnight thing, and it’s certainly not a prescribed formula (“do this and this and this and then you’ll be better and you’ll be delivered from yourself”); it’s a transformation, a new way of living. Paul writes, “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (Romans 12:2).” Even Jesus in the wilderness did not have a Bible with him where he “looked up” the right answer to his temptations; he had learned what the LORD required and it was second-nature to him.

A Brother once told us that whatever we decide to fill our minds with, to give it the “Philippians 4:8 Test:” “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

If we fill our minds with all the bad out there, that’s what they’ll be filled with.

To become re-centered and rededicated is a great way to begin deliverance from yourself (and what better time to start than right now as we’re about to begin a new year?). It won’t make all your problems go away, but it will give you a better perspective, and it may give you some self-deliverance from bitterness, anger, wrath, envy, and so on.

We had Psalm 42 read this morning (read Hymn 23); why ARE you restless and cast down?

“For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7).” The spirit of power and love and of a sound mind is all there; the LORD is ready to give it.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7).”

As one of our hymns says, “So amid the conflict, whether great or small, do not be discouraged; God is over all.”

“Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).”

“‘We shall be like him,’ O how rich the promise…forever past all weariness and pain; even death itself will have no power to reach us when with our risen Lord we live and reign.” And “so in the hope of bearing his bright image,” we can “rejoice in his present gift of grace.”

“You shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you.”

“If God be for us, who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?” The answer, of course, is “nobody!” Not even ourselves.