You Can Be Delivered!

Are you ensnared with an addiction? Are you troubled with the pain of troubled emotions and fear? God speaks through Isaiah and he can speak to you tonight. Are you bound by the wiles of Satan, do you feel lost in a sea of sin? The prophet Isaiah speaks from this book tonight. There is a process that must take place in the life of the individual trapped in sin. He must turn to a source outside himself/herself and look to the Lord. When I was a young man, I tried a lot of things. The thing that really turned me on was speed. I loved to ride my bike fast, then it was a motorcycle. Finally, it was high-powered automobiles down the expressways around Detroit and Canada. Outside Windsor is an expressway that leads all the way up to Toronto and Montreal. It runs straight as an arrow, and it’s called the 401. I was sixteen when I rode my dad’s Mercury up 401, and opened it up. I never felt that way before, as the wind blew through my hair. It was there that I was addicted to speed. Later, many years later, I was traveling home to Valerie after a long day and night of work. It was zero degrees outside and first my thoughts were of Valerie at home cuddled in her bed, and my two little ones tucked in. But I was also thinking that there was noone on the road, and it was a straight shot down I-75, so I wanted to see what the V-8 would do inside that Ford Torino. One-hundred, one-ten, one-fifteen, one-twenty, the lines in the highway blurred and viaduct after viaduct passed like boards on a picket fence. Suddenly, the driver’s side front tire blew. I mean it blew to smithereens. The sound was deafening from the blow, but also from the noise of that disintegrating wheel. The car shook. The car swerved. I fought the wheel. I fought the swerve. I fought the Devil. I fought and fought and fought. Finally, I skidded that car to a stop on the side of the expressway and got out to survey the damage. There was the smell of burnt rubber and the tink-tink of the hot metal as it cooled. I couldn’t believe I escaped alive! As I stood there with my hands resting on the hood of that car, I heard the voice of God. Now I know, many of you don’t have that happen, and some of you only a few times, well, God speaks to me now and then and when He does, He does so in capital letters. He said: "DON’T YOU EVER LEARN?" I literally looked over my shoulder to see if God was right there. Those words rang in my head as I fixed the tire, as I drove home, and crawled into bed. I would never be the same. I surrendered my life to Christ a few days later. It’s been a journey. It’s been hard taming me, but God has brought me to places I never knew. Brought me life and brought it more abundantly.

The 52 Chapter of Isaiah is that type of chapter. Verse one speaks to Zion, and to the city of Jerusalem. The voice of God is saying to these people, to awake and put on their strength. To get up and move out, the unclean and uncircumsized will not hold you back. They won’t be coming around your door anymore. The Lord has made a way.

Verse two: What a call to the sinner and the addicted! Shake thyself from the dust; arise and sit down, loose thyself from the bands of thy neck. Take God as your guide and deliverer, pull off the bands of addiction that rob you and steal from you and take from you again and again. God will help you to do that. He will break those bonds.

Verse three explains it: You, the addicted and the sinner, have sold yourself for nothing, and you will be redeemed by grace. The grace of God will free you from your sin and pain. He will deliver you with love and grace. We don’t deserve it, we cannot pay for it.

Verses four to six tell of how God views our bondage. He says we are ruled by wicked people that oppress and hurt. We can also be ruled by demons that trick and kill through drugs and deception. He says it is He that speaks.

Verse seven is the masterpiece: God brings to man the good news of salvation. He brings peace. What a gift! Our God reigns and rules.

Verse eight: Deliverance. God brings song to our voices. The most I ever sang before I was saved was the Star Spangled Banner off-key at a Tiger game!