DELIVERED - Youth Retreat Lesson

Why is being DELIVERED important?

If you were drowning this very moment, gasping for your last breaths of air, would you be willing to stop and negotiate with your rescuer? Would you say: “I want you to save me from drowning, but don’t take me out of the water. I don’t want to live on the land. I know it’s dangerous in the water and I am drowning, but living on land has too many other restrictions I don’t want to live with.”

Of course, your Rescuer, who has just risked his own life to save yours says, “No, you must leave the water and live on land. You weren’t created to live in the water. So out of fear you submit to being saved….but quickly find an organization on land that will work with you on how to live in the water. Submarines, special equipment, air tanks could be used, but in the end, you were never created to live underwater and it is inevitable that you will one day drown.

How about if you were in a burning building with no escape? Would you say, “I don’t want to leave, but if you will just stand there and keep the fire from burning me, then I’ll be happy to just stay right here and live in the ashes and ruins." Ridiculous!

DELIVER: to set free or liberate, to be released or saved, Not by our own power

What are we Delivered From?

THE POWER OF DARKNESS

This is what the Bible says about the wicked who live in the dark:

Isa 59:9, 10 Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noonday as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men.

Psa 82:5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

Jer 23:12 Wherefore their way shall be unto them as slippery ways in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein: for I will bring evil upon them, even the year of their visitation, saith the LORD.

Deu 28:28-29 The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.

Psa 35:5,6 Let them be as chaff before the wind: and let the angel of the LORD chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery: and let the angel of the LORD persecute them.

Pro 4:18,19 But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.

WE WERE NOT CREATED TO LIVE IN THE DARK

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. Joh 1:1-5

Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: Col 1:13

I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. Isa 42:6 ,7

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. Joh 12:46

To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. Luk 1:79
…to preach the gospel to the poor…. to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of Light to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, Luke 4:18(b)

DELIVERED means to be SET FREE.

HOLINESS / PURITY is the means of STAYING FREE.

The ONLY way to be DELIVERED and to be HOLY & PURE is by the Second Definite Work of Grace performed by the Blood of Jesus upon the Cross.

SANCTIFICATION

2Co 1:10 Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; .

Act 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Heb 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

Th 4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;

1Th 4:7 For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

Heb 12:14 Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:

1Ti 1:5 Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned:

WHY IS PURITY IMPORTANT?

What if I had a bottle of water that has the word “PURE” on the label. But what if I dipped a toothpick in toilet water and then back into the bottle. Purity matters doesn't it? Our Purity matters to God.

PURITY: Unmixed with any other matter. Free from what weakens, or pollutes. Containing nothing that does not properly belong. Free from moral fault or guilt.

WHY DO WE NEED TO BE SANCTIFIED?

1Th 3:12 And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:
1Th 3:13 To the end he may establish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints.

Unblameable in Holiness? Is that Possible?

Did you notice the word HE in that Scripture? WE CAN'T deliver ourselves. WE CAN'T have hearts unblamable in holiness before God all by ourselves.

Only HE (Jesus) can present us Holy before God.

Remember the Word DELIVERED.

Daniel was DELIVERED after he purposed in his heart not to defile himself.

Let's think about Daniel in Daniel 1:1-8, 17. What would you do if you were… a wealthy Prince, highly educated, used to luxurious living and were suddenly and violently kidnapped into slavery? Your parents and family are most likely killed and you have been stripped of your home, your name and your religion. During the long, hot journey as a new slave, you might think that God had forsaken you. You might even think you would be better off to adapt and cooperate with your captors to build a better life for yourself. Your parents and your church aren’t there to tell you what to do any more and your friends are mocking you. God didn’t protect you, so why should you live for him? What would you do? Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself.

Daniel had to rely on the Law he had learned and His own Heart's Integrity to do the right thing. We now, through the Blood of Jesus have the law written in our hearts and the Second Definite work of Grace: Sanctification to deliver us.

Just like JESUS delivered the 3 Hebrew boys from the Fire and sent an angel to shut mouths of Lions for Daniel, JESUS HIMSELF DELIVERED US FROM THE POWER OF DARKNESS BY Heb 13:12 Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.

LIVING IN THE DARK – Why do so many "christians" want to play in the Dark?
Living in dark caves, Cave fish have lost all need for their eyes so the useless organs gradually disappeared. These fish are born with functional eyes, but after about two weeks, the eyes become distorted and partially enclosed in tissue. As the young fish grow, their rudimentary eyes shrink and become completely covered, leaving them eyeless and blind.

Samson taught us this lesson in JUDGES 13:7, 24, & JUDGES 16: 15-21 And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself. And he knew not that the LORD was departed from him. How frightening!

2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Be not Decieved...True Christians CANNOT live or play in or have fellowship with the dark. The DELIVERED cannot go back to the darkness they were delivered from.

Co 6:9-11 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

Eph 5:1-8 Be ye therefore followers of God as dear children: And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savor. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any Inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

1Jo 1:4-7 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

WE WERE CREATED FOR THE LIGHT

Remember the Prodigal Son in Luke 15: 11-24. "And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee," Wake up! Go back to or Stay in the Light!

GROWING IN GRACE:

1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1Th 5:5 -9 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

2Pe 3:17,18 Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness. 18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.

Tammy Washburn