“Uplifted, Untied, Unchained, Free”
“And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing”. Isaiah 10:27
Intro: In northern Mesopotamia was the large empire of the Assyrians. The Assyrians had conquered the regions around Palestine, Damascus and Samaria and had made life miserable and very difficult for the Israelite people. The Assyrians were not just a proud people they were beyond proud they were haughty, arrogant, self conceited. They believed their military victories were because of their own strength, their own power and that they were completely in control. They did not understand that God was only using them for His glory and greater purpose to draw Israel away from idol gods and away from wickedness and selfishness.
As a history lesson: The two sons of Joseph, the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, part of the northern kingdom of Israel, had fought against each other in a civil war because of their own oppressiveness, and injustice, and unfair treatment of their own people. So the Lord God had used the Assyrians as a tool by allowing Assyria to conquer and enslave and put into servitude the Israelites as a form of judgment against Israel.
But no tool is ever greater than the hands in which the tool is in. Any tool, any instrument, any person, any people, any church, any nation, that does not recognize that the Lord God Creator of the universe is in charge will be its downfall. But there is always hope. The bible often talks about a “remnant” Isaiah 10:21 that would remain faithful. Remnant in the Hebrew (Strong’s 7604, 7605) means: a reserve, a remainder. Implying an authentic and genuine group of faithful believers that would renew and revive true worship of God.
Today we are going to talk about when real celebration of God is restored and people are “Uplifted, Untied, Unchained, Free.”
Believers have hope. We sound the trumpets of belief. We shine of trust and certainty. Have you ever met a skeptic. Skeptic people are those who are doubters. Doubters tend to be people whose life is dysfunctional, and out of order. Not long ago I went to the gym to work out. When I got my favorite work-out machine, there I saw a sign that said, “out of order.” So, I turned around and went home. We live in a world that has an out of order sign hanging on it. People are lost. Their families are dysfunctional. A dysfunctional family is a family in conflict. There is often child neglect or abuse. The arguing and fighting is so common that children grow and think that is normal and so they continue the cycle. This can lead to addictions and substance abuse, alcohol, drugs, co-dependency and if untreated depression. Their lives are broken. They have been forsaken by friends, society, neglected and even abandoned by the church. When you are living in that kind of place, where storm and struggle are an everyday occurrence, where gloomy is part of everyday life and you can’t see the stars at night, the saddest thing in the world is hopelessness and doubt. But there are things in my religion that faith does for me. God is framed in hope. Faith is about joy, and gladness. The tapestry of God is painted with happiness, and joy and delight. When we come into the presence of God, when we meet and experience Jesus, we take with us hope, and grace, and a life of blessings and favor from God. God removes the tyranny of the moment, the depression, the despair. God uplifts. Our God is a happy God.
True there are moments of sorrow and sadness and burdens and yokes. Psalm 121:1 is a song of pilgrims on their way to the Mountain of Jerusalem to worship, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”
There is a lot music in the Bible: stringed instruments, the harp, the lyre. Wind instruments, such as the horn, the trumpet, the flute, and pipes. There are percussion instruments, drums, the tambourine and bells. Songs, and Psalms, and spiritual singing and dancing, and praising, and lifting up hands.
Psalm 98:4-9 Shout to the Lord, all the earth; break out in praise and sing for joy! 5 Sing your praise to the Lord with the harp, and melodious song, 6 with trumpets and the sound of the ram’s horn. Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King! 7 Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise! Let the earth and all living things join in. 8 Let the rivers clap their hands in glee! Let the hills sing out their songs of joy 9 before the Lord,”
Just take a look at what God created. The beauty of the sky, the amber waves of grain, the purple mountains majesty, the fruitful plains, the shining sea, the freedom that beats across the nation. "I know the Master of the wind. I know the Maker of the rain. He can calm a storm, make the sun shine again. I know the Master of the wind."
You can’t leave after that kind of worship and be sad, and downhearted and miserable. Jesus came to drive away the sorrows, and fill our hearts with singing and our face with smiles. A friend of mine, talks about people who frown, she says instead of a “face lift” they should come to church every Sunday for a “faith lift” because meeting Christ in worship will result in a beautiful, radiant smile.
So if you are hurting, unhappy, broken, you came to the right place today. Has anyone ever said to you, “Don’t give up hope?” Oh, But Listen: Time does not always heal every wound. Words sometimes don’t help. Counseling cannot always save a relationship. Surgery doesn’t always remove the cancer. But there is one thing that always works. The one thing-- that does-- is knowing a loving God.
There are times in life when we should be solemn. There are times when the spirit of God is like a gentle breeze, the Holy Spirit is described as a white dove descending gently upon Jesus. There is peace in the valley for me. I walk in the garden, while the dew is still on the roses. But not in the verse of our text: This verse says to “Shout to the Lord.” This verse says to “break out in praise.” This verse says to “sing for Joy!” The coming of the day of the Lord is uplifted, untied, unchained, free. Understand that this verse is taking about celebration.
This passage is talking about harps and melodious songs and trumpets and horns making a joyful symphony. There is a time and place for all things and sometimes there is cause for fireworks in the celebration. Where people look up toward the sky and say wow. God is beautiful. When you are along the coast line at the beach and you hear the crashing waves of the sea…It sounds like hands clapping in applause and praise. This is the day that God has made, Let all the earth and all living things, join in. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the mountains sing out their songs of joy! Before the Lord! As the scripture gets excited so does the heart of the believer.
Here our text today describes what happens when faithful people of God outlast the proud, sinful, wicked, people of the world. “And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing”. Isaiah 10:27
He has promised that a day will come, when this burden, will be taken away and lifted off from your shoulder.
The day the Assyrians conquered Israel there wasn’t anything left to rejoice about. The nations treasure was lost. The wealth of a people had been taken from its nest. There were no feast no song for their dead were beyond the count of grief. The birds had hushed their singing, “no creature fluttered a wing or opened a mouth to chirp” verse 14. This was the kind of warfare without honor. They would burn the crops and salt the fields so nothing else would grow. They would fill in the wells and scorch the farmland and burn the forests. Isaiah 10:19 says, “its forest’s remaining trees will be no more than a child can count.” What they didn’t take they destroyed.
What they couldn’t enslave they killed. It looked like the end of Israel had come.
Timothy William Parker grew up in a Christian home. He was the middle child. His parents had great jobs. He went to school and later on to college and graduated with a degree and was soon hired as an assistant manager at a large company. But Timothy had a secret. He used drugs for recreation. At first it was just on the weekends for fun. Then it was to help him relax and relieve the stress from work and forget about the week. That turned into a fix in the middle of the week to get him over Wednesday. Then it was Monday morning to start off his week. Then it was a quick fix in the bathroom to make it past lunch. You get the picture.
Suddenly Timothy’s drug habit went from an average of $50 a day to over $100 dollars a day. The more the cost the more his other bills began to pile up, student loans, car loan, rent, his drug abuse habit became his biggest expense at over $2,000.00 or more a month.
Jump forward three years in time. Tim was back home living with his parent. He had been fired from his job, arrested for drug possession and was in trouble with the law. His girl friend had left him. His world had crumbled and turned upside down.
I want to read you part of his testimony. “It was the third day of being back at home at my parents. They had both taken off work and were setting with me. What happened next is something I didn’t want them or anyone else to see. It was my darkest hours. The withdrawal symptoms started. It wasn’t just for a few hours it took four weeks before I finally walked outside and felt the sunshine on my face and knew it was real again and that I was still alive.”
Here is another entry from his journal: “Two years to the day later I was sitting in church celebrating being clean. But instead of listening to the sermon I was experiencing the cravings and physical longing that only a drug addict can understand. As the tears began to stream down my face the preaching must have ended because everyone stood up to sing. As the music played, I heard the words of an old song that had been retuned: "Amazing grace, How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now I'm found
Was blind, but now I see, My chains are gone, I've been set free, My God, my Savior has ransomed me, And like a flood His mercy reigns, Unending love, amazing grace."
Do you know Timothy William Parker? Everyone one of us do. That might not be his real name. It might be your nephew, cousin, your brother, or sister, or a co-worker. It might even be you. It might not be methamphetamine that has you chained and tied up and that is holding you in bondage. It might be something in a relationship. It might be the way you spend your finances. It might be your attitude. It might be something else: You fill in the blank. But whatever it is you have to address the root cause before you will ever have spiritual freedom.
So hear the Good New “the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing” God has made a way out. While your freedom can start today it want just happen instantaneously. It will take months of coming to Church.
It will take developing new habits before you can get rid of the old habits of sin. But let me tell you how great our God is. He will forgive you. And he will “Uplift, Untie, Unchain, and set you Free.” He will put you in a new life.
When he does you will soon realize that you don’t have to keep making payment on an old house that you no longer live in. John 8:36 “if the Son makes you free you really will be free.” Temptation don’t just go way.
But the power of the devil against you has been broken. And after a few months of being surrounded by the people of God a community of faith, who love you and support you. Your heaviest load will start to be lifted. Galatians 5:1 “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage”.
Freedom has been called by many names — set free from bondage, released from servitude, deliverance from captivity, rescue from oppression, relief from a burden, liberated from a weight of suppression, emancipation, released, unshackled. We have all been set free from something, in varying degrees and in some ways still are.
Jesus said in Matthew 11:29-30 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Sin is the chain/yoke Satan places on humankind today that enslaves us.
There are many people who cry, I am unable to forsake some sin in life. They say I want to stop own my own but I can’t because on your own you will not be able to leave it behind. The memories will keep drawing you back in. The voices will keep talking back. Satan will place the chains of old habits in front of you again and again trying to trap you and enslave you again. But there is one word “Liberty: from the Greek: eleutheria Strongs 1657 1658 1659 means to: liberate, to deliver, unrestrained, Godly pleasure, as a citizen not a slave.
“And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing”. Isaiah 10:27 The church is a place that where all people can feel loved, accepted, forgiven, free. That is the community of faith where I want to be a member and belong. The best place to live “freedom” is in with your new found family of God.
CLOSING: Stop living chained up, bound, beat up, abused, mistreated, hopeless, lost, undecided, confused, sick, oppressed, depressed, lonely. Let faith in Christ take the chains off my feet oh Lord. Allow me to dance for you. I can’t praise you bound in these chains of sin. Lord I need you to set me free through your Son Jesus Christ, for when he sets me free I am free indeed. I want to be “Uplifted, Untied, Unchained, Free” - so let your grace, your forgiveness, your anointing fall on me. Amen.
