In the book of Malachi chapter 3 we are once again talking about the baptism of
fire. It says here, But who can endure the day
of his coming and who can stand when he appears. For he is like a refiners fire
and like launderers soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. He
will purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may
offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness. God Almighty likens our
relationship to him with a goldsmith's relationship to gold. And I'm gonna share
with you quickly for those of us who don't know exactly how that works,
when a goldsmith comes and gold comes to him it's in a raw form. And the gold
comes and the goldsmith needs to attend to this gold, to refine it, to purge it so
that it can be pure. The goldsmith first of all has to put up the heat.
He puts the gold on top of fire and the fire is so hot that the gold changes
from a solid form to a liquid form. When that gold changes to a liquid form he
increases the heat even more so that every impurity that was in that gold
will rise to the surface. This is deliverance. This is so similar
to how deliverance works. When the fire of God comes, impurities come up to the
surface and the goldsmith cleans and wipes off all the impurities from the
top of the gold. And do you know how a goldsmith knows that this gold has now
been refined? I have now finished my work with this gold it has now been purified
and can be used as gold should be used. He bends over into what he has been
working on. He looks down and he sees his own perfect reflection. This is
deliverance. This is why we are delivered. We are
delivered for the reflection of Jesus Christ to shine through our hearts, to
shine through our lives so that when we go out, people look at us and say wow!
What's so different with you? What is going on in your life? It's Jesus!
Jesus has refined me and it's not until Jesus refines us, it's not until the
goldsmith refines the gold that he can put it and pour it into molds and use it
as he likes. And he will say this piece of gold,
it was once dirty and unpurified, now it's pure. Let me pour it into my mold
and make a jewelry out of it. Let me make a ring out of it, let me use this to create
this thing out of gold. That is deliverance. God Almighty can't use us
at our fullest potential until a refiners fire goes through our life. That
is why we are here. So that we can be raised up to deliver others to show the
reflection of Jesus Christ in our life and say yes, I was once like that.
But now I am at my fullest potential. Now I am gold for the glory of Jesus Christ.
Hallelujah! We are coming to the end of this sermon. I need to still touch on one
area and that is the post deliverance. In the book of John 5:14 and many other
places it says that after your deliverance you still need to work on
your journey with Jesus. The biggest change for me after my deliverance it
was in fact when I received my deliverance I thought that I would never
have another nightmare. That was genuinely what I thought. I thought that
now is gonna be a perfect life and I'm gonna be in heaven on earth. But you
know what happened after my deliverance? Shortly after that I still have another
nightmare. You know what the biggest difference was? That nightmare was not
coming from inside. The thief was now outside making noise, telling me that
that dream it still has power over you. But when I woke up I realized these
nightmares that has caused depression these nightmares that have caused anxiety,
these nightmares that have caused me to have emotional tendencies. It's gone. It's just
an empty shell. That is the biggest difference.
When you receive deliverance, attacks may still come. Issues and situations would
still come but as long as we keep going and follow Jesus Christ, he's gonna see
us through. In the book of Mark 10 it says that when blind Bartimaeus received
his sight he immediately followed Jesus on the way. When you receive your
deliverance you need to take a step and follow Jesus on the way. If you keep
standing still it's like on a treadmill. You're gonna go backwards. You need to
keep walking, keep moving. Because the hardest target for the devil to hit is a
moving target.
And if you cannot follow Jesus Christ physically because he's no longer around
follow people that follow Jesus. Find a living Church, find people around you
they have come further than you, that can encourage your faith. You cannot go one
day without relating with a brother or sister in Christ and say this is the
issue, at work it's tough. People are not encouraging my faith and they are there
to help you, to mentor you and tell you well, this is what Jesus says. One last
thing that I want to touch on before we go into prayer it is the fact that when
we receive our deliverance and we walk with Jesus Christ, it's gonna be rough
from the beginning. Many times we take small steps and we're learning and we
fall and we get back up. But at some point in our life we begin to walk by
ourself. Jesus is leading and we are following in
his footsteps. From time to time the devil will come and he will strike you
down and you fall down on your knees
and you are struggling with guilt. You're struggling with shame, you're struggling
with does Jesus still love me? And the devil is counting down, he's saying yes I
got him down. I brought him down, he's no longer walking on his path with Jesus
Christ. You know what the Bible says? The Bible says for you and I as Christians
here is where we are strong. This is where we are the strongest, on our knees.
Whatever happens in your life mistakes come. You may do things that you think
God can never forgive. Well I was delivered from that exact thing and I
did the exact thing again. Back to your knees, back to your knees. This is where
Jesus Christ will help us. This is where Jesus Christ will come and meet us as
long as we come to him and say I don't give up I messed up but I'm here again God. I
know I messed up but I'm coming to you again God, as long as we come back to our
knees, He's gonna pick us up. This is the strongest position that we have as a
Christian. Guys, just want to say thank you for being a part of our amazing Life
Group today. I just want to let you know that this June 28 through 29 we're gonna
have our Freedom Weekend and I really really encourage every single person to
sign up today and be a part of that amazing weekend. You will never regret
that decision