Nothing Should Hold Us Back

Today, we will be going to Exodus chapter 9.

We will study the statements of God in answer to Pharaoh's stubbornness.

What does God desire that is of utmost importance?

What does God caution us against?

What are the consequences of disobedience?

May the Lord give us understand on these things.

THREE THINGS THAT GOD TOLD PHARAOH.

1. GOD WANTED HIS PEOPLE TO BE RELEASED FROM THE BONDAGE OF EGYPT.

Exodus 9:1 (NIV) "Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.”

The first thing we can notice in this verse is that God desires for His people to be released from bondage.

"Let my people GO" he said.

As if God was saying, "Release them, Satan."

Give them back their freedom, their joy and their peace.

God wanted Pharaoh to let them go - to cut off the bond of slavery from the Israelites forever.

To release them from physical and spiritual bondage and to give them the freedom of worship.

Something is holding back God's people to their fullest potential and God doesn't want that.

In the same manner, when something is standing in our way of our destiny in Christ, God does not want it.

He wants to give us our spiritual freedom.

And so, God said to Pharaoh: Let my people go that they may worship me.

Do you know that our worship is important to God?

But our worship is being taken away from us.

We cannot worship God when we are under the bondage of Satan.

Satan takes control over our minds through ignorance, through strong holds and deceptions.

This is true if we have not been reading God's Word and there is nothing to combat them.

Then, Satan takes control of our hearts through unforgiveness, through bitterness and hatred.

This is true if we have not been spending time in praying to God.

We become so sensitive over what people says about us and we misinterpret those words and begin to hurt emotionally.

Then, Satan takes control of our words by releasing words of curses and words that would hurt other people.

We are not aware that the more we release those words, the more these words would come back to us to hurt us even more.

When that happens, we are under the bondage to Satan.

No wonder, we have difficulty in coming to church and worshiping God.

When we do not worship God, life becomes so difficult, full of fear, frustrations and defeat.

No wonder, God declares: "Let my people go."

It is only through Christ that we can be delivered from the bondage of Satan.

It is only through worship that we can be liberated from fear and depression.

Galatians 5:1 (NIV) "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

It says that Christ will give us true freedom.

Christ alone will set us free.

Christ will make us to be able to stand firm from the enemy.

And Christ will take away the yoke of slavery from our shoulders.

Our minds can be liberated through the power of God's Word.

When the truth of God's Word enters our minds, we overcome ignorance.

We overcome those strong holds and deceptions of the enemy.

When we worship God with joy, our emotions will be liberated from fear and shame.

We learn to forgive, we overcome our bitterness and hatred towards others.

Through Christ, our words have been transformed and begin to speak words of healing, encouragement and hope.

No wonder, God wanted us to be released from the bondage of Egypt.

Therefore, ask yourself:

Have you been delivered from the bondage of Satan?

If so, are you enjoying as you worship God?

Do you look forward to this time of worship every Sunday morning?

Psalms 95:2 (NIV) "Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song."

This is a picture of a person that has been delivered from the bondage of Satan.

He comes to God in worship with thanksgiving, with eagerness, with energy and fervor.

So, how do you like our worship this morning?

If you have come to church this morning depressed, downhearted, unhappy, pessimistic and discouraged,

God says to you as He said to Pharaoh: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me."

Symbol of freedom:

The Bald Eagle is the symbol of the American freedom from the dominion of Great Britain.

It was chosen on June 20, 1782 because of its long life, great strength and majestic looks.

We could see the eagle with outspread wings on the backs of our gold coins, the silver dollar, the half dollar and the quarter.