Getting the Chains Off

I got enemies at every side, it ain't looking good, I ain't gonna lie Arrows flying, devil's trying to make me think I'm going down this time You might think that I'd be afraid, running scared with a shaken face But the God I know says it ain't over, the God I know is gonna make a way Yeah, though I walk through the valley, I will have no fear No fear, the mighty power of Jesus is fighting for me here No fear, the light of the world makes the darkness disappear No fear, not over my life No fear when I'm walking through the fire, cause I know who's walking me through No fear when the floodwaters rise, if I got my eyes on you No fear, the mighty power of Jesus is fighting for me here No fear, the light of the world makes the darkness disappear No fear, not over my life Not over my family, not over my future, not over my life God's over my life, not over my battles, not over my struggles Not over my life, God's over my life Not over my family, not over my future, not over my life God's over my life, not over my battles, not over my struggles Not over my life, God's over my life Yeah, though I walk through the valley, I will have no fear No fear, the mighty power of Jesus is fighting for me here No fear, the light of the world makes the darkness disappear No fear, not over my life Not over my life, God's over my life Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday dear Christopher Happy birthday to you Faithful through the ages God of Abraham, you're the God of covenants and faithful promises

Time and time again, you have proven you do just what you say Though the storms may come and the winds may blow, I'll remain steadfast And let my heart learn when you speak a word, it will come to me pass great is your faithfulness to me great is your faithfulness to me from the rising sun to the setting same I will praise your name great is your faithfulness to me oh seasons change you remain the same God from age to age though the earth may pass away your word remains the same yeah your history can prove there's nothing you can't do you're faithful and true though the storms may come and the winds may blow I'll remain stay fast and let my heart learn when you speak a word it will come to pass great is your faithfulness to me great is your faithfulness to me Great is your faithfulness to me Oh, your faithfulness It never runs out It never runs out It never runs out Oh, your faithfulness It never runs out It never runs out It never runs out It never runs out I put my faith in Jesus My anchor to the ground He's my hope and firm foundation He'll never let me down, no Say, I put my faith in Jesus My anchor to the ground He's my hope and firm foundation He'll never let me down

Say, I put my faith in Jesus My anchor to the ground He's my hope and firm foundation He'll never let me down I put my faith in Jesus My anchor to the ground He's my hope and firm foundation He'll never let me down He'll never let me down Great, faithful Great is your faithfulness to me So great Great is your faithfulness From the rising sun From the rising sun To the setting same I will praise your name Great is your faithfulness to me I put my faith in Jesus My anchor to the ground My hope and firm foundation He'll never let me down I put my faith in Jesus My anchor to the ground He's my hope and firm foundation He'll never let me down I put my faith in Jesus My anchor to the ground My hope and firm foundation, He'll never let me down. See, I put my faith in Jesus, my anchor to the ground.

My hope and firm foundation, He'll never let me down. He'll never let me down. Oh, great faithful. Great is your faithfulness to me. Oh, great. Great is your faithfulness to me. From the rising sun. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. From the rising sun. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. From the rising sun. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. The rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. From the rising sun. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. From the rising sun. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. Great is your faithfulness to me.

Great is your faithfulness to me. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. From the rising sun. To the setting same. I'll praise your name. Great is your faithfulness to me. I am holding on to you. Because I know you'll make a way. And I don't always understand. And I don't always get to see. But I will believe it. I will believe it. You make mountains move. You make giants fall. You use songs of praise to shake risen walls. And I will speak to my fears. I will preach to my doubts. You were faithful then. You'll be faithful now. I am standing on your way. Calling heaven down to earth. And this will end in victory. And I will believe it. Yes, I will believe it.

You make mountains move. You make giants fall. You use songs of praise to shake risen walls. And I will speak to my fears. I will preach to my doubts. You were faithful then. You'll be faithful now. You were faithful then. You'll be faithful now. And I know that I know you never will. Yes, I know that I know you never will. And I know that I know you never will. Yes, I know that I know you never will. You make mountains move. You make giants fall. You use songs of praise to shake prison walls. And I will speak to my fears. I will preach to my doubt. You were faithful then. You'll be faithful now. You make mountains move. You make giants fall. You use songs of praise to shake prison walls. And I will speak to my fears. I will preach to my doubt. You were faithful then. You'll be faithful now. You were faithful then. You'll be faithful now. I'm calling on the God of Jacob, Whose love endures through generations. I know that you will keep your covenant. I'm calling on the God of Moses, The one who opened up the ocean. I need you now to do the same thing for me. For me, for me.

Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. I'm calling on the God of Mary, Whose favor rests upon the lowly. I know with you all things are possible. I'm calling on the God of David, Who made a shepherd boy courageous. I may not face Goliath, but I've got my own giants. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. But your faithfulness, I'm standing on, never changes. You heard your children then, you hear your children now. You are the same God, you are the same God. You answered prayers back then, and you will answer now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You were providing then, You are providing now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You moved in power then, God moved in power now.

You are the same God. You are the same God. You were a healer then, You are a healer now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You were a savior then, You are a savior now. You are the same God. You are the same God. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. Oh God, my God, I need you. Oh God, my God, I need you now. How I need you now. Oh rock, oh rock of ages, I'm standing on your faithfulness. On your faithfulness. You are the same God. You are the same God. Jesus, you're the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. You are the same God. You're the same God. You're the same God. This is who we worship tonight, yeah.

He's the same, he's the same. Oh, how I need you, yeah. How I need you, yeah. You freed the captives then, You're freeing hearts right now. You are the same God. You are the same God. You touched the lepers then, I feel your touch right now. You are the same God. You are the same God. Never changing. Oh, forever. He's the same. Oh, you're the same God. You're the same God, yeah. I'm calling on the Holy Spirit. Almighty River, come and fill me again. Sing that out. Come and fill me again. Come and fill me again. Thank you, Jesus. Can we just give him some praise right now? Just lift it up, just thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah, we thank you, Father God. Lord Jesus, we thank you so much for all the blessings that you've given us. Lord, I also thank you for the trials because I wouldn't be who I am now without them. I wouldn't know anything that I know without them.

You know, I heard this thing that says, you can't love the sky if you don't love it when it's also raining, right? And the Lord loves us even when we're shining, but he loves us especially when we're dark. And that's when we need him the most, is when it's dark. We also have to remember that. Remember when we are the light, we're supposed to be there for the ones that are in the dark. Jesus doesn't just call us to sing and praise. No, he calls us to go help our brothers and sisters, to go find them, to bring them here. He tells us to go out in the streets and to preach his name, and to preach his love, because that's what really matters, how much he loves us. Oh, I just wanna pray. Thank you, Jesus. Father God, Lord, I wanna thank you for these beautiful people that are in here. Father God, I thank you for bringing them to celebrate recovery and giving them a family that they don't have to feel bad about telling their struggles to, because they shouldn't have to. And Lord, I'm just so blessed to be able to worship with them, because I've never seen such hearts so ready to worship. And Lord, I just wanna lift you up

for the rest of this service, Father God. I pray that your presence be heavy on all of us. I just thank you and I just praise you. It's in your name that we pray, amen. Can we just give him one more shout of praise real quick? Thank you, Jesus. Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo! Good evening, welcome to recovery. Good evening, good evening. Shut up. Okay, someone touched the button. Good evening, how are you doing? Woo! All right, it is great to be here with you tonight. I love coming to celebrate recovery. How about you? Woo! All right. Turn to two people beside you and say, I am so glad you are here tonight. I am so glad you are here tonight. We are working our way through the 12 steps and tonight our assignment is on inventory, taking personal inventory, openly examining your life and confessing to the Lord Jesus. Matthew 5, eight says,

blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. How many are planning on seeing God? Amen, amen. Well, how does that happen? By having a pure heart before God. And we have available for you when you are leaving this evening, a personal inventory worksheet. They're at the center island out in the middle of the foyer out there. I would encourage you to take one of those and work through this worksheet, but I would encourage you to not do it alone. How many of you know that we are doing this in community? We're not doing this all on our own. I play in a Tuesday morning golf league over here at Lambert Acres with about 100 or so other guys. And I play with the same guys every week. And when we walk off the green, all four of us know what all four of us shot on that hole, because we're all paying attention to what everyone is doing. We're not only paying attention to our shots, but we're paying attention to what everybody else is doing. Maybe about once a week, I'll sneak out and play a little bit on my own just to practice. I couldn't tell you what I shoot on those practice days,

because if I hit a bad shot, I'm gonna drop another ball and hit another shot, you know? And I think sometimes if we're on our own, we don't have a true accounting of what's really happening in our lives. And that's one of the reasons that we need to do it in community. And so I wanna encourage you to take that step of personal inventory. But I felt like the Lord laid a message on my heart that I wanna share with you this evening, and I wanna just jump right into it. The title of this message is Getting the Chains Off. How many of you are interested in getting the chains off in our lives? I'm interested in getting them off and keeping them off, keeping the chains off, amen? In Acts chapter 16, there is an account of Paul and Silas, and they're arrested. They are going to the place of prayer, Acts chapter 16 says, they're going up to the place of prayer, and there's a slave girl there who has a spirit in her, and she really begins harassing Paul and Silas. And Paul turns around and cast that spirit out of her, and she was a fortune teller. And when Paul cast that spirit out of her, she no longer could do fortune telling, and her slave owner couldn't make money off of her. So he began to protest against Paul and Silas.

He gathered a group of people together. They all began to protest against them. They went to the magistrate and they ended up throwing Paul and Silas in prison. There's some interesting words that describe their incarceration and I want you to hear these words because I think they speak to us tonight. One of the reasons I wanted to share this message with you is some of the language in Acts chapter 16 here. It says that when they threw Paul and Silas in prison, that they were stripped, they were beaten, and they were bound. I want to say those things again because I think they're relevant to our lives. They were stripped, they were beaten, and they were bound. I want to tell you that's exactly what Satan wants to do in your life. He wants to strip you of every good thing that God has planned for you. I believe that God has a wonderful, glorious plan for each and every one of you. How many of you would agree with me tonight that God, the Lord God Almighty, has a plan for your life? Yes, he does. And it's a plan for success. It's a plan for victory. It's a plan for overcoming. But we have an enemy who is here to steal, kill, and destroy, and you need to know you have an enemy. How many of you, I'm not just going to say how many of you ever been in a fight because probably a whole bunch of us have been in a fight, but how many of you have ever been in a fight but you didn't know you were getting in a fight until you were already in it? Probably didn't have a good outcome. You need to know, Steve said, she whooped me, okay, amen. You know, you need to know that you have an enemy and he is out to steal, kill, and destroy every good thing that God wants to do in your life.

First of all, it says they were stripped. How many of you know the enemy wants to strip you of your pride? He wants to strip you of your self-respect. He wants to strip you of your future. He wants to strip you of everything that God wants to provide for you. The second thing it says is they were beaten. I want to tell you something. The devil wants to beat you down, but God wants to lift you up. And I'm so thankful that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. The enemy may want to pull you down, but God is here to lift us up. And then it says they were bound, they were stripped, they were beaten, they were bound. And as I was thinking about this passage of scripture with Paul and Silas in prison, I began to think, you know, there's a, there's a lot of different kinds of prison. I'm speaking to some people right now who are incarcerated and you're sitting behind the jail cell somewhere. And some of us have been in, in, in the same situation in our past, but there are, there, there, there are jails that are not just made of concrete and iron bars. Uh, there are all kinds of other prisons that the enemy wants to incarcerate you in. Uh, there's prisons of hurt. Any, anybody in the room been ever been hurt? You know, hurt can incarcerate you. Hurt can bind you down. Some have been hurt by parents. I was thinking about this just today. You know, to drive a car, you have to take a test.

To be a parent, you just have to be healthy. Think about that. You know, some, some of our parents may not have done the greatest job, but they probably didn't even halfway know what they were doing. You know, when, when I came home from the hospital with my firstborn child, I had a packet of diapers and a little blue blanket and a, and a, and a pat on the back. Good luck. I didn't know everything I was doing. I didn't do everything right. You might've had a parent that didn't do everything right. And you may have been hurt by that. You may have been through an abusive situation and been hurt by that. You may have experienced rejection and been hurt by that. But I want to tell you, God wants to set you free from the prison of hurt this evening. He wants to liberate you from that. Prisons of jealousy, jealousy will incarcerate you. It'll handcuff you. You know, we, isn't it something that it's so easy for us to look at other folks and think that their life is perfect. Oh, they got that nice car. They got that nice house. They wear those nice clothes. You have no idea what's going on in their lives. Behind closed doors, their lives might be an absolute wreck and all the enemy wants you to do is compare yourself with others, with others, people's jobs, with their families, with their finances, or even with their gifts, a prison of unforgiveness. I believe one of the most powerful prisons is a prison of unforgiveness.

The greatest gift that we've ever received in our lives is the gift of forgiveness. I had the privilege of officiating a wedding this afternoon, and I stood in front of that couple upon a mountain off of Wears Valley Road, and I talked to them about forgiving one another. Ephesians 4, 32 says, be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. I want you to know that the greatest gift I've ever received in my life is the gift of forgiveness. If God can forgive me, how can I withhold forgiveness from anybody else? How many of you here in the room tonight have experienced forgiveness from the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, if you have received forgiveness, be a forgiver, because unforgiveness will destroy you. Somebody said one time that refusing to forgive somebody else is like drinking poison and thinking they're going to die. No, you're not hurting them. You're destroying yourself. You're keeping yourself in chains. You know, people have been hurt, mistreated in church. I talk to people all the time that have been hurt in church situations. You've got to forgive. You know, there are no perfect people in church. I used to say in our membership classes, I'm not a perfect pastor. This is not a perfect church. If you find a perfect church, don't go there. You'll mess it up. People fail in churches. If somebody has hurt you in the past, you need to let that go and forgive them in the name of the Lord Jesus.

How do we get set free from the chains of prison? Well, there's different things that people try. How many of you know one of the most common things that people do is just deny, deny. How are you doing? Oh, I'm fine. I'm wonderful. I'm fine. You're a big storyteller. Fibber, fibber. What did somebody say one time? Liar, liar, pants on fire. Denying is never going to get you set free. We're talking tonight about taking an honest evaluation of your life, an honest inventory of your life. Denying will never get you out. How do some other people try to get out of prison? Well, they try to escape. How do they try to escape? Through substance abuse. I mean, if you've tried that route, you try to escape your problems, drugs, alcohol, and all it does is get you further and further and further bound. That's never going to get you out. Some people try to escape through possessions or position or power. Other people try to escape from their prisons through sexual misconduct. But I want to tell you, you cannot escape from the enemy on your own. You do not have the power by yourself to escape from the prison of the enemy. But I've got good news for you. God has provided a pardon. He's provided a pardon through the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we access that pardon?

We believe we do it exactly as Paul and Silas did it in Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16 says, and at midnight, when Paul and Silas were in prison, they had been beaten, they had been stripped, and now they're in chains. And at midnight, it says they prayed and sang praises unto God. So how do we get out of prison? Let's take a cue from them. Let's learn from their example. They prayed unto the Lord. Let me tell you, there is power in prayer. And how do we start our prayer up? Lord, forgive me for my sins. That connects us to God. And then we have that avenue open that we can communicate with God. There is awesome power in prayer. Pray the Word of God. You say, I don't know what to pray or how to pray. Pray the Scripture. Do you know what the Scripture says about you? The Scripture says you're a more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ the Lord. The Scripture says that you're not under, you're over, you're not going down, you're going up. The Scripture says I am victorious. The Scripture says I'm an heir of God and a joint heir with Jesus Christ. The Scripture says I'm more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ my Lord. The Scripture says I'm a joint heir with Christ. Pray the Word of God. Pray the Scripture over your life each and every day. Here's a beautiful example of the power of prayer in Acts chapter 12. Peter is in prison. We are looking at Paul and Silas in prison.

Here's Peter in prison. And the church gets together and they begin to pray that Peter will be set free from prison and God delivers Peter from prison. Peter shows up at the prayer meeting and he's knocking on the door. Now, they're on the inside praying that Peter would get out. Peter's already out, he's knocking on the door trying to get in. Young girl comes to the door, who is it? It's Peter. Can't be Peter, he's in jail. How many of you know that God responds to our prayers sometimes bigger than our own faith? Yes, he does. Sometimes God responds to our prayers bigger than our own faith. You see, they were praying for Peter to get out, but they thought he was still in. But God heard their prayer and God answered their prayer. You pardon through prayer, pardon through praise. Can I encourage you to do something this evening? Become a praiser. Start praising God. Start glorifying him. Develop a praise vocabulary. You know, I may have told you this, but years and years ago, my pastor in Georgia, his son was a missionary in Mexico and he came home from the mission field for a few weeks. And my pastor, I was like 16 years old. He encouraged me to spend some time with his son, Buddy. And I remember particularly specifically riding around in Buddy's red Dodge pickup truck and we're driving down the road. He's like 27, 28 years old, I'm 16 years old. We're having a conversation, driving down the road and he goes, thank you, Jesus.

And I looked around, did a car almost hit us? Well, why'd he say that? You know, we go down the road a little further. He takes one hand off the wheel, Lord, I just want to bless your holy name. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. We stop at a gas station. I'm not making this up. We stop at a gas station. He goes in, pays for the gas, comes out, pumps the gas, gets back in. He climbs in the vehicle and before he even starts it up, he goes, Lord, I just want to bless your holy name. You're so good, Father. I thank you for your love. I thank you for your faithfulness. And I said, Buddy, you got to explain this to me. I'd never been around anybody that just praised the Lord like that. And he said, oh, I've committed myself to praise God because he's worthy of praise. You don't have to wait for God to do something spectacular in your life to praise him. He's worthy of praise right now. He's worthy of praise because of who he is. I love what David said. David said, I will praise him in the morning. A little bit later, he said, I will praise him in the afternoon. A little later, he said, I'll praise him before the sun goes down. And then he wraps it all up. He said, from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, I will bless the name of the Lord. Become a praiser of God. You don't have to have this, all this religious knowledge.

All you have to do is just say, Lord, I just want to thank you for your love. I want to thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. I want to thank you just for who you are because he is worthy of praise. And I can promise you something this evening. Praise will liberate you. Praise will set you free. Praise will break the chains in your life. Through the power of prayer and the power of praise, God breaks the chains. I want you to look with me at verse number 26, the second part of verse number 26. And it says, and at once all the prison doors flew open and everybody's chains came loose. Let's say that again together. And at once, all, everybody say all, all the prison doors flew open. I don't care what prison you're in, what cell you're in, how strong the bars are, you begin to praise God. You begin to lift your heart to the Lord in prayer and those things that have you captive, those doors are going to fly open. All the prison doors flew open. And what's the next word there? Everybody's. Look at over your neighbor and said, that includes you. That includes you. Everybody's chains came loose. There's a couple other things it says in there. It says the very foundation of the prison shook. The foundation of the prison shook all the doors open and all the chains fall off. My prayer for each and every one of you tonight is that the very foundation of the enemy will be shaken. That every door that has been a barrier that is hold had held you back from growth in God from success in your life that those doors are going to fly open and that every chain will fall off.

There is no reason for a child of God to be in chains because Jesus has provided liberty for us through the finished work of the cross. That's my prayer for you tonight. God bless you. Thank you very much. That was a good word. As always, Pastor David, thank you for your faithfulness to minister to us. We are so thankful for you. Amen. All right, guys, let's go ahead and stand. We're going to pray out. All right. So together we start with God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference living one day at a time enjoying one moment at a time accepting hardship as a pathway to peace taking as Jesus did the sinful world as it is not as I would have it trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with you forever in the next. Amen. Amen. Thank you all so much. I want to thank our online community for joining us. Please tune in next week. Also, if you're looking for a way to connect and you're not in our area, check out celebrate recovery dot com.

They've got resources on there for you. So really quick.