December 05, 2020

 Happy Saturday 

Jeremiah 34

Freedom for Slaves

 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves.  Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.  So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free.  But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

Mental Slavery? 

We can free each other!

2020 SLAVERY

What say ye? 

1. Is it possible to be enslaved by what others think of you?
2. Even good things like church can make you slave. It can become a YOKE if you allow people to put it on you. For example we try hard to fit in and we forget about pleasing God. It is trying to please the pastor and act different because you want them to like you. Our mental slavery becomes the idea the pastor can take you to heaven. Guess what Jesus did not fit in. Translating what he experience to us today. The leaders over the temple did not agree with him. But he went on with the will of God after their rejection and he continue to serve God. He set himself free. Life with God does not stop if your pastor has rejected you. If they called you the devil. If they say you are not from God. Keep calling on the name of the Lord. He does not judge as man judges. Sometimes people cannot see as God sees. He sees as God Jesus did not change because someone said we question who you are. He said, "I know who I am" I know where I come from. This is mental.
3. Doing things for the acceptance of others is bondage

Slavery is not though a person or persons. Today there is no such thing as a physical slavery but some people may agree with me that when we allow people to affect us or we allow their behavior to dictate our behavior then we can experience mental slavery. The devil uses rejection, hate, lies and hurtful things to enslave others mental. God does not operate in this manner. 

Mental Bondage

• A Jewish man was followed and harassed daily by a religious organization and one lady told him; You will never be free from them. They are going to continue this behavior. This man prayed and he wrote a poem. "I am free to go. It seems that you have chained yourself to me and you cannot seem to stop doing what you do to me. You mock me. You break and damage my property. You lie about me. When I go left. You will be there. When I go right. You are there too. Every little step I take it seems like you will be there too. I guess I will take you to Lord. Come follow me I invite you"
•  If he is wise he knows the slave is the one whose behavior is dictated by the other. Moving left or right is freedom. Rather he does good or bad this man is free. The person who follows him is the real slave because  he or she has to move left or right. They  can only go where he takes them. It is the devil but he is using people. This man refused to take him anywhere where they can caused damage. He begin to go specific places. Learn how to take captivity captive. If they followed then he decided to lead them where he wanted them to go.
• Back to the idea that someone follows you around doing bad things means you are enslaved. But I want to say if  you come and go as we please in what way has this person enslaved you? 
•  Some people go to churches for people and for the wrong reason. This is another type of following someone around. Maybe the person is famous. Or you seek to follow people who have money because you think that they can help you get ahead. This is mental slavery. Your life and actions is dictated by this person. That is not freedom.
•  Once again it is the idea of following someone for the wrong reason. This is a mental slavery. For example if I move across the room and you follow me it just means that you followed me. It does not mean that I am enslaved to you. It tells me that something in your mental status is thinking some kind way about me. Rather you say I am a good person or bad person.  That person is more enslaved to me because they cannot break free from the evil spirit that causes them to act in the manner in which they act. God has given you the liberty to move and do as you wish. Don't let what people think dictate what you do or feel (right or wrong) whatever you do; do it by FAITH. That just means God inspired you. God caused you to move. His word moved you not a person. Don't follow people God didn't tell you to follow or be around. That is not faith that is mental slavery. If you do for some weird reason the devil has your mind. And every little step you take it is under the control of another person. 
• Another idea about freedom is being free means doing whatever you want to do. That is the greatest lie the devil has ever told people. Freedom is freedom to do right. Any fool can do wrong. It is easy to be a crook, liar, and thief. It takes no thought or hard work to be bad. The bondage is in doing whatever you want. You lack self control. Real freedom is doing what is right not because someone is watching is you but because I am free and what I want to do. No man makes me do anything. If I do wrong and you watching me who cares you cannot bring me up or down. If I go down it was because of the wrong I did not because a person judge me or the idea they saw me do it. If I do good it is because God told me to do it. We don't do what is right because a person is watching us or we need their approval.
• God sees everything and a man watching is not going to affect me because I know God sees everything about me.  I refuse to let a person put a YOKE on me. I will grow; and we will grow as our faith increases not as a man desires but as God desires. 
• If I do wrong it is because I have not gain freedom in that area. It has nothing to do with another person. People cannot enslave you nor can they set you free.
• Real freedom comes from God. In today's world freedom is following what you believe to right. Even if people hate you for it. Even if they harass you or follow you around. We are free to live the way we believe is right. They can talk, act, and disrespect you but it does not affect another's person's right to go one place or refusal to go another place. 
• You have the right to gain weight or lose weight. Slavery to me would be: I eat to much and a person makes fun of my weight. So I feel inferior and I need your acceptance so I lose weight. It is not by FAITH but it is by your disapproval my actions are motivated. I called that mental slavery because you have influence and God calls it sin because I am FOLLOWING a man or woman. But I say eat that donut and lose weight or whatever else you need to do when you do it because God loves you and he inspired you to do it. 
  
• You do not have to  please a person or a church. If someone does not like you for the bad you do. Then God has not given them the grace to accept you or they are not called to be your friend in life. 
• If a person only likes you for silly superficial reasons then you need to have the freedom to know who is for you and who might be against you. Never be a slave to what someone thinks about you. God will judge you. We need to have this attitude towards God not a silly man, preacher, group, community, or city that wants to control you. Reject their mental slavery they want to put on you.
  
• A person can be a slave to sin (anything you cannot stop doing) it is inability to free one's self from a cycle, idea, or just bad thinking. 
• Slavery is when you under complete dictatorship. They tell you were to go, what to do, what to say, how to treat people. When you allow people to tell you how to act that's bondage. You don't have freedom to judge things as you feel. You have to do what everyone else is doing because you desire their approval and acceptance. 
• If a friend influences you to do WRONG, you are mentally enslaved to that person. Set yourself free. Whatever you do do it because you wanted to do. 

LET US BE UNYOKE WITH PEOPLE BUT YOKE WITH GOD

"HIS YOKE IS EASY AND HIS BURDEN IS LIGHT"

"PEOPLE ARE WAY HARDER THAN GOD

 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:  “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said,  ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’ Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me.  Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.  But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.

Set people free in your MIND (today it is not physical but mental)

• Give grace
• Give acceptance
• Give liberty but allowing God to be God
• Set yourself free
• Forgive
• Let it go
• Stop accusing
• people are not perfect and neither are we
• change your thinking about others
• God calls for all slaves to be set free
• The Lord moves forward 
• He does not need to Follow a man
• But he told men to follow him
• Later on they became leaders too
• As a Christian you should not be following others

 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.  Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.  The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf,  I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.

 “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.  I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

Have a great day!

I am mentally free!

It was all in my mind!

But today I set my mind free!

I can move by his word!

It is as I BELIEVE!