Recognizing Your Deliverance Series

Recognizing Your Deliverance

Theme Verse: For I know that as you pray for me and as the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will all turn out for my deliverance. (Philippians 1:19)

Monday: For I know:

“What Do You Believe”

Tuesday: As you pray for me:

“Jesus Prayed for Me”

Wednesday: As the Spirit of Jesus: “When Jesus Exhales”

Thursday: Christ helps me: “Biting the Hand that Feeds You”

Friday: This will all turn out for my

deliverance.

“Recognizing Your Deliverance”

TEXT: Acts 12:11 And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. (KJV)

Peter finally realized what had happened. "It’s really true!" he said to himself. "The Lord has sent his angel and saved me from Herod and from what the Jews were hoping to do to me!" (NLT)

Subject: Recognizing Your Deliverance

If we were to stop for just a minute tonight and reflect upon the lives of our grandparents and our great-grandparents, I think that most of us would come to the conclusion that we’ve really got it made. For we know that there were many things that our grandparents and ancestors had to endure that we know nothing about. For some of our older saints here tonight, their grandparents may have been raised in the bondage of slavery. They may not have had the freedoms that we have come to know and expect in today’s day and age. They may not have had the ability to pick and choose whom they would marry and what kind of job they would find to support their family. They may not have had the opportunity to learn how to read or write all because they were designated as the slaves of other men. Have I got a witness?

For those of us who have not been on the battlefield as long, we may not be able to take our grandparents or our great-grandparents as far back as slavery. And yet we know that our grandparents had to come through a time and an era that was torn with racial degradation and segregation. They experienced a time when everything was separate, but no where near equal. They experienced a time when they had to drink from separate water fountains and use separate bathroom facilities. They had to sit at the back of the bus and couldn’t eat in certain sections of certain restaurants, IF they could eat there at all. And on top of this, they had to live for fear of their lives if they were to step out of line, because they knew that it was nothing to find another black man strung up to a tree, and lynched dead just because his skin was a different color. Am I right about it?

Yes, we would have to say today that we who are here tonight have it made when we compare our circumstances and conditions to those of our ancestors. We have things happening in our lives that our grandparents never dreamed would ever happen. Most of us have more than one car in our family. We no longer have to ride a horse and buggy. We have televisions in just about every room of the house. We don’t have to sit around the fireplace, reading and telling stories anymore. We’re able to come and go as we please. We are no longer chained up and locked up like wild beast.

And the list of our advancements goes on. We are able to live where we want to live and go to the bathroom wherever we choose. We are able to eat in any restaurant as long as our money isn’t funny. We are able to send our kids to decent schools and even to college if they make the grades and desire to go. We have air conditioning and gas heat in our houses. We have automatic washers and dryers and no longer have to use that old rugboard and turnknob washing machine. We can use the bathroom on the inside of the house instead of having to go outdoors in the middle of winter.

The point I’m trying to make is that we’ve come a long way from where we used to be. We’ve been delivered from our longstanding position as second class citizens and have been afforded rights under the law that enable us to be all that we can be. Have I got a witness?

And that’s what deliverance is all about: being put in a situation where you can be all that you can be.

If has God delivered us from educational bondage, then it is our responsibility to educate our children and ourselves, and ensure that our deliverance is not wasted. If God has delivered us from emotional and physical degradation, then we should work on getting our emotional and physical states to a level that is pleasing in the eyes of God. If God has provided us with a good job, a good home, a nice car, and all of the other luxuries of life, then it is becomes our duty to give back to God. Not only in tithes and offerings, but also by giving our time and our service to help somebody else reach their deliverance.