Set Free

Set Free

A bricklayer had an accident on a construction site and had to file a detailed report for his insurance company. This is what he wrote: "I’m a bricklayer by trade, and on the date of the accident I was working alone on the roof of a new six-story building. When I completed my work, I discovered that I had a sizable pile of bricks left over, and rather than carry the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel using a pulley that was attached to the edge of the roof on one side of the building. After securing the rope at ground level, I went back up to the roof, swung the barrel out, and loaded the bricks into the barrel. I then went to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to ensure slow descent of the bricks. You will notice I stated in block number 2 of the accident report form that I weigh 150 pounds. The bricks, I was soon to discover, weighed slightly more than 500 pounds. My weight was not enough to keep me down. Because of my surprise at being jerked off the ground by the weight of the bricks, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded up the side of the building at a rather rapid rate of speed. In the vicinity of the third floor I met the barrel on its way up. This accounts for my broken ankle and lacerations along the left side of my body. This encounter with the barrel slowed me down enough to minimize my injuries when I landed on the pile of bricks on the ground. I’m sorry to report that as I laid on my back looking at the empty barrel six stories above me, I again lost my presence of mind and let go of the rope. The empty barrel weighed more than the rope, so it came zooming back down. This explains my broken right arm."

There are some people who are living wounded lives this morning.

You have come in here with a weight and burden that has shackled you and burdened you to the point of distraction.

Listen to this story from Jesus life on earth.

“He was teaching in one of the meeting places on the Sabbath. There was a woman present, so twisted and bent over with arthritis that she couldn’t even look up. She had been afflicted with this for eighteen years. When Jesus saw her, he called here over. “Woman, you’re free?”!” He laid hands on her and suddenly she was standing straight and tall, giving glory to God.

The meeting place president, furious because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the congregation. “Six days have been defined as work days. Come on one of the six if you want to be healed, but not on the seventh, the Sabbath!

But Jesus shot back, “You frauds! Each Sabbath every one of you regularly unties your cow or donkey from its stall, leads it out for water, and thinks nothing of it. So why isn’t it all right for me to untie this daughter of Abraham and lead her from the stall where Satan has had her tied these eighteen years?” Luke 13:11-17

She had known nothing but misery, defeat and frustration for 18 years. She was set free in a moment of time.

When you read the spirit of this story it does no injustice to the text to infer the attitude of Jesus on this day.

It is as though He were saying to her, “You have had this for eighteen years. It’s enough! You need to be set free!”

Today those who have planned this service have been praying that you will hear Jesus say to you, “Isn’t it about time you found deliverance from the thing that have you bound and fettered?”

Some of us today in this room are imprisoned by some sin or sinful thing which we can never seem to be set free from.

We have been chained, hand-cuffed, shackled, imprisoned, and trapped.

It is an incredible dilemma to know the pardon of the Lord but not know His power to deliver.

Some of you are chronically bound. Sometimes you find a way out only to find yourself back in the chains of some sin which seems to easily sidetrack you.

In Romans 7, Paul describes what Adam Clarke says is a person in a pre-Christian state. Someone who has been awakened to God but has not yet accepted His pardoning power.

“Yes, I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. . . I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions such as they are don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.”