Robert Morris — Set Free
Alright, we are concluding our "Free Indeed" series, and this is the message that I've been waiting for, and that you've probably been waiting for, and that your wife has been waiting for for you to get free, and so, here it is. I call the message today, "Set Free", and I want you to know that I'm going to lead everyone, if you'll let me, through a prayer of deliverance at the end of this message, and we're going to start down a road of freedom. Freedom is a journey. I did not cover material from our Freedom Ministry and Kairos in the "Free Indeed" series, because I'm trying to get you to go to Freedom Ministry and Kairos.
And, I wanted to focus, I felt the Lord told me to focus on the deliverance part. Remember, freedom involves deliverance and discipleship. Pastor Jack Hayford's quote is, "You can't disciple a demon, and you can't cast out the flesh". So, it's both deliverance and discipleship. I really felt led to focus on deliverance, because many people never get delivered from a bondage because they don't think they can be in bondage. But we talked about, remember, at the very first of the series, we talked about if you leave your door or window open in your home and a thief comes in, he doesn't own your house, but he's in your house.
We talked about that if you took drugs or alcohol into your body, even if you're a Christian, you're now under the influence of that drug or that alcohol, even though you're a Christian. In the same way, if a person begins, we use this illustration, begins looking at pornography, you're opening yourself up to a spirit of lust that will come in, and you'll be under the influence of that spirit, and that spirit needs to be cast out of you, not in a spooky way — it's not spooky, but in an authoritative way in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then you need to train your mind to think differently.
So, we're going to go through and talk about being set free. Alright? So, I'm going to give you four keys to being set free. Here's number one, recognize that you need help. Recognize that you need help. Now, we're going to springboard from the story of the prodigal son, but I really don't have time to read the whole thing, so you could go back and read the whole story. You could actually take the whole chapter in Luke 15 and read it if you want to. But, Verse 17, talking about the prodigal son, says, "But when he came to himself". Another way to say that is when he came to his senses. Another way to say that is when he recognized that he needed help.
Many believers are living in the pigpen. Remember, this was a son. This is a son. He's a son, and he's living in the pigpen, and he comes to himself. Now, I've said this before, but I've got to continue to say this. The only people that I've ever seen, 30-something years of ministry now, that can't get free, are the people that won't admit they have a problem. And I want you to think about that, because if you'll simply admit it, then the Lord can set you free. I don't want to spend much time on that, because hopefully by now you have recognized that you need help, and I need help. All of us do.
So, here's number two, repent to God and others. These next three are kind of really, once you recognize you have a problem, here's what you need to do. Repent to God and others. Verse 18 says, "I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven, and", I want you to notice the and, "and before you". Now, I want to bring out some things about repentance that need to be understood. First of all, repentance and confession are not the same thing. Repentance includes confession. He confessed his sin. He confessed it. But, you can confess your sins and not repent. In other words, you can say, yes, I did it, and I'm sorry, but not really repent.
Now, we need to understand what the word repentance means, because there's a lot of wrong teaching today on repentance. The word repentance comes from two Greek words. It's one Greek word, but it's made up of two. The Greek word is metanoia. Meta means change. We get words such as metamorphosis from meta, the Greek word. It means change. Noia means mind. Mind, it refers to the mind. Repentance means that you change your mind.
Now, listen to me carefully. This is something that we teach in our Freedom Ministry classes. It's not just that you change your mind about your sin, it's that you change your mind about yourself. You change your mind about who God created you to be. You also change your mind about God, in that God is not this person up there just waiting for you to mess up so He can bop you on the head. So, you have to change the way you think. This is a process that Christians continue. You continue to repent from the day you get saved. Another way to say it is this. Romans 12 said it this way. "Renew your mind". Change your mind.
Now, there's some teaching today that is really good on grace, but some people are taking it too far, and they're taking it so far as to saying Christians don't ever have to repent again. Once you get saved, you never repent again. The reason that they feel that way is they think the word repent, and I've even heard pastors say this, and I've even seen some biblical dictionaries define it this way, but I think it's the wrong definition. It includes this, but it's not a full definition. I've had some people say, when you say what does repent mean, here's what they say. It means turn from your sin. That's not what the word means! It includes that if you're in sin.
If you're in sin and you change your mind about your sin, then you would turn from your sin. Okay? But, what if you're not in sin and you change your mind? Do you see what I'm saying? You need to continue to change your mind. If Christians don't need to repent, then Jesus used the wrong word when He spoke to five of the seven churches in Asia Minor, because five out of seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, Jesus said repent. As a matter of fact, this word in the Hebrew means the same, and it's used about God. But, there's no translator that will do it repent.
Every time else they translate it repent, but when it came to when it said God repented, the changed the P to an L, and they made it relented. God relented from the harm He was going to do. Because they thought, well, God can't turn from His sin. It doesn't mean turn from your sin. It means change your mind. God changed His mind. Now, let me explain. He never changed His character, but He changed His mind. We need to change our mind about our sin, so we need to repent to God, but here's the key, and to others. He went to his father and repented to his father.
Let me show you a Scripture, how important it is to be right with someone else so you can be right with God. Matthew 5:23-24, "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift". In other words, here's what God says. If you want to get right with me, go get right with your brother first, first, then come and get right with me. James 5:16, "Confess your trespasses". One version says faults, one version says sins. "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another that you may be healed". The definition of this word, healed, means to free from errors and sins. Okay, here's what this just said. Confess your sins to one another that you may be free.
Now, hear me. Think about an area of your life that's been a bondage for you. How many times have you confessed it to God and said, I'll never do it again, but you still do it again? Okay. Repentance means that we confess it and repent, not only to God, but to those around us. See, he goes to his father. The prodigal son said I've sinned against God and, he didn't say against you, he said before you. You saw me do this. So, he confesses it to his father. We need to confess sin.
Listen, you don't have to stand up here with a microphone and confess it, but you need to confess sin, if you're married, to your spouse, to those you're in relationship with, those you're accountable to, to spiritual authority. Here's what I'm saying. Bring it out in the light. Satan works in darkness. And here's what we do. We fall to this sin. We say, Lord, I'm sorry. I confess it to you. I ask you to forgive me. And we go right on, and we keep it in the dark. If you really want to get free, bring it out in the light. Put as much light on it as possible. So, repent to God and others.
Here's number three, renounce the lies of Satan. Renounce the lies of Satan. Let me just make a very clear statement. Every bondage begins with a lie. Every bondage, whatever bondage you have, there's a lie that you've believed, and you have to renew your mind, change the way you think, so you can get out of that lie. Look down at Verse 25. Luke 15:25, this is talking about the older son. "Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. And he said to him, 'Your brother has come and because he has received him", in other words, your father, "has received him safe and sound, your father has killed the fatted calf'. But he was angry".
The older brother was angry. "And would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you'". Now, I want you to watch the absolutes that he uses, absolutes like always and never, okay? "Lo, these many years I have been serving you, I never transgressed your commandment at any time, and yet you never gave me a young goat that I might make merry with my friends".
Okay, well, let me just show you, there's two lies right there. Okay, he said, "I never transgressed your commandment at any time". Okay, I know that's a lie, because he was not Jesus. Anybody here have children? Does anyone here have a perfect child? No. They transgress. Here's what he said. I never disobeyed you. I've never done one thing wrong. That's a lie! He believes a lie. The other lie, I can show you that it's a lie. He said, you never even gave me a goat. Never even gave me one goat. Okay. At the first of the story, the younger son goes and says, give me my inheritance. Let me show you this, Verse 12. "And the younger of them said to his father, "Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me". Now, watch this carefully. "So he divided to them his livelihood".
Do all of you see the word them? So, he divided to them his livelihood. And, because the firstborn, the older, according to the Bible, he actually got twice as much. So, the younger son got a third, and the older son got two-thirds, but he said you never even gave me one goat. I think the father's thinking, uh, I gave you two-thirds of the company. I never gave you one goat, I gave you two-thirds. Here, look at this, too. Verse 31, he said to him, "Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours". "You are always with me, and all that I have is yours".
Okay, I want you to think about something. That statement, you know, I consider myself a grammarian, you know. Grammar jumps out at me, just jumps. I try not to let it, but it does. It's going to no matter what. No matter what, it's going to. Debbie will ask me to read something, and she'll say to me, I'm not asking you to correct the grammar, I'm just asking you to look at the content. I say to her, Sugar, I can't see the content until I correct the grammar. Okay? So, just let me do it my way, alright?
So, okay, this statement is odd grammatically. It's absolutely true scripturally, obviously, but it's odd. It begins in second person, ends in first person. He says, "You are always with me, and all that I have is", all that I have, he now is the subject, "is yours". I would have thought it would have said, I am always with you, and all that I have is yours. Because see, we know God's always with us. God said I'll never leave you or forsake you, and I'm with you until the end of the age, always. He makes this statement. "You are always with me, and all that I have is yours". Here's what that says to me. As long as we're with Him, all that He has is ours. That's what He's trying to say. Son, you were here with me the whole time. You had everything.
Okay. The older son never left home, but he still went into bondage. He was in bondage to bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, hate, jealousy, envy. His younger son comes home, he's not going to the party. Now, hear me. When we tell the story of the prodigal son, there are many, many people in church that think, that's not me. Well, there are two sons in this story.
Now, I just want you to just be honest. Do you have a tendency to be the older son? Do you have a tendency to think, well, I've never left home like those other people have? I've never transgressed the Father. I mean, I've made mistakes, but I've never, and then, Lord, look how you're blessing them. You haven't blessed me like that. Jealousy, envy, strife, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment? I'm going to tell you something maybe you've never thought of. The older son was just as in bondage as the younger son, just as in bondage. Now, this is a lie that is all through society, let me say it that way.
Let me use some examples, and I asked their permission if I could use this example. Debbie has a sister named Mary. It's only the two of them. Mary lives here now. Mary and her husband, Lloyd, own some insurance companies, and they lived in west Texas for years. They still have the insurance company in west Texas. They have another one in another part of Texas, and they have one here now. But, they moved here a couple of years ago, and let me tell you why they moved, because they saw the benefit of being a part of a church where they could really grow in their relationship with the Lord. And so, they moved here and started another company, and run their other companies from here so they could be a part of Gateway Church. Okay.
In the process of talking one day, now, you're going to relate to this. Debbie and Mary are talking, and in the process of talking, they have great parents, love the Lord, mother lives here. Debbie and Mary's mom lives here, father's gone on to be with the Lord, but they grew up in a great Christian home. But in the process of talking one day, they realized that at some time in their life, each of them believed that the other was the favorite. Each of them believed the other one's the favorite. Anyone relate to this? Okay, can I just tell you what that is? That's a lie. It's a lie of Satan.
Let me go on with some lies. Have you ever heard this? People say things like this. Well, I was the oldest child, so I always have to be in control. Why don't you just say it straight out? So I have a demon of control. Well, I'm the youngest child, so I always have to have my way. Why don't you say it? I have a demon of selfishness. Well, I'm the middle child, so I'm the neglected one. Or, I was an only child, so. I grew up in a large family, so.
Listen to me! You've been adopted into a new family. A new family. It doesn't matter what family you grew up in, you're in a new family now. I'll tell you who you are. You're a child of God. You were born again by the Word of God, kept by the power of God, sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption. Seated in heavenly places, He's put all things under your feet. He's given you authority over all of the power of the enemy. You're more than a conqueror through Him, you always triumph in Him, and greater is He in you than he that's in the world. That's who you are! That's who you are now.
So, if you're going to get free, you're going to have to renounce the lies of Satan. And here's number four, receive the gifts of the Father. Receive the gifts of the Father. Obviously, this one point could be a series. Verse 22 says, "The father said to his servants, bring out the best robe, put it on him, put a ring on his hand, sandals on his feet". So, what do they represent? Quickly, the robe represents the robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61:10, "He's covered me with the robe of righteousness". If you're going to get free, you're going to have to receive forgiveness and the righteousness of God. You're righteousness comes from God and what Jesus did on the cross, not from your own works.
Secondly, the ring of authority. The ring represents authority. When Pharaoh put Joseph in command, he gave him his ring and he said no one can go anywhere or do anything without your authority, you're the second highest in the land. And he gave him his ring to prove it. Jesus gave us authority in Luke 10:19, "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions". That's demonic spirits. It represents demonic spirits, and you can go back and read the context to see. "And over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you". We have to receive God's authority over the enemy. These are gifts from the Father.
The third, the shoes of power, the shoes of power, and the gift of power from the Lord is not something, it's someone. Acts 1:8, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you". I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. In just a moment, I'm going to pray over you. I'd like to pray over everybody in the church, and here's the reason I say that. If there's any bondage in your life, wouldn't you want to get free? Sure you would! So, in just a moment, I'm going to ask you to stand. As you stand, I'm going to lead you in a prayer, and then I'm going to take authority over Satan. So, I want to pray for you, and the whole church, at every campus.
So, I'd like to ask you, if you want to get free, to stand up. Just stand up right where you are. And I really want to pray over everyone. I don't want you to feel embarrassed if you don't want to stand. Maybe you're a guest or something, but I'd really like to pray over every person here, and just take authority over the enemy and tell him to go. So, I'd like to ask you to just pray after me out loud, alright? I just want you to say Father, I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin, and I ask you to release me from every bondage, in Jesus' name.
Now, I want to pray for you. Lord, right now by the authority you've given me, I take authority over Satan, and I address every demonic spirit that's held my brothers and sisters in bondage, in Jesus' name, and I command you to go, in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, it is not the authority of my voice. It is the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. My brothers and sisters are covered by the blood of the Lamb. They overcome by the word of their testimony. They're born again and not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible seed that lives and abides forever, and the angels who are mighty in strength watch over your word to perform it, and the Word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. It's sweeter than honey and purer than gold, and His name is the Word of God, and by the Word of God and by the blood of the Lamb, we are set free today.
I take authority over every spirit of bitterness, or unforgiveness, or resentment, or hate, or malice, or envy, or jealousy, and I command you to go right now, in Jesus' name. I rebuke every spirit of insecurity or inferiority, fear, rejection, self-hate, self-pity, self-destruction, in Jesus' name. Suicide, I command you to go right now, in Jesus' name. Every spirit of anger, or rage, or murder, or violence, or lawlessness, I command you to go, in Jesus' name. Every spirit of sexual immorality, sexual impurity, adultery, fornication, lust, pornography, all forms of sexual impurity, I command you to go right now, in Jesus' name.
Every spirit of pride, or lying, or Jezebel spirit, rebellion, deception, manipulation, control, I command you to go, in Jesus' name. Every spirit of criticism, judgmentalism, arrogance, prejudice, or racism, I command you to go, in Jesus' name. Every spirit of greed, materialism, selfishness, covetousness, selfish ambition, I command you to go, in Jesus' name. Depression, anxiety, worry, suicide, I command you to go. Addiction, alcoholism, drunkenness, drugs, gluttony, I command you to go, in Jesus' name. Every spirit of legalism, or religious pride, or heresy, or false doctrine, I command you to go, in Jesus' name.
Every spirit of stealing, or slothfulness, laziness, unbelief, rebellion to authority, go in Jesus' name. Every spirit of guilt, shame, embarrassment, humiliation, I command you to go, in Jesus' name. Every spirit of sickness or disease, infirmities, chronic health issues, I say go in Jesus' name. Every spirit of witchcraft, or the occult, or blasphemy, I command you to go, in Jesus' name. I break every word, curse, and spell spoken into my brothers, in Jesus' name. Every generational curse, I command you to go right now, in Jesus' name. Every demonic spirit that has held my brothers and sisters in bondage, at every campus, listening to my voice on the internet right now, on television, I command you to go right now, in Jesus' name.
Thank you, Lord! Isn't it amazing that we have the power to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy? And I just took authority over every demonic spirit coming against you, and I promise you, they have to go by the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ — not my authority, but the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to encourage you to continue this process of freedom.