SET MY PEOPLE FREE

Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Yanaen, a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

Acts 13:1-3

..."Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Barnabas and Saul had been called by the Holy Spirit for a specific work. This call had been burning in their hearts for a long time.

- Now they were to be set apart.

- Now it was time to begin.

Jim, John and Rick were called by the Spirit of God long ago. Now they are being set apart for a specific work among us. And while these three men are being set apart by us, after months of thought and prayer and fasting, there is something quite similar happening to every man and woman among us who is under a call from God. You could say that we are all being set apart ... that as a congregation we are being set apart ... that the time has come for us to translate our call into specific action.

For many years Moses knew that he was under a call from God, that there was a destiny he had been born to fulfill. When he killed the Egyptian who had been abusing a Hebrew, Moses was acting from this sense of destiny which was in him. But it didn't work. Nothing good came of Moses' heroic action, because, though he was called, he knew in his heart he was called, he had not been set apart. Then came the day when this call which had been burning in his soul since his youth came into focus .... when God says,

"Now, I'm setting you apart. Now it's time to begin."

Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian; and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush; and he looked, and lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, "I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here am I." Then he said, "Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground." And he said, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, "I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt." Exodus 3:1-10

If you look at the life of any man or woman of God, in scripture or in the history of the Body of Christ, there is always this turning point ... when the call of God in their hearts is ignited with the command,

"Now! Do it!- Come for all is now ready.

- Launch out into the deep.

- It's time to begin.

- From now on you'll be catching men."

It happened with Moses, Joshua, the Virgin Mary, Peter, Barnabas and Saul.

"Set them apart for the work to which I have called them."

And when the time comes for us to be set apart, our initial response is almost always fear. And why shouldn't we be afraid? God is sending us to do something which is utterly beyond our own strength.

"Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt. — Set my people free!"

Every person ever called by God to serve his kingdom is set apart to do exactly that..."Set my people free!"

To Joshua God said the same thing, "Take my people into freedom."

In Isaiah 61 we read:

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound...."

- "Set my people free!"

Our Lord, the true Joshua, came out of obscurity at the age of thirty ... came out of his baptism, came out of the wilderness, and was set apart by his Father to begin his work. So he went to his hometown and entered the synagogue.

...and he went to the synagogue, as his custom was, on the sabbath day. And he stood up to read; and there was given to him the book of the prophet Isaiah. He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed

me to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Luke 4:16b-21

- "I have come to set God's people free."

We are being set apart as a congregation of disciples with the same words: "Go, set my people free.

- People you deal with in your daily life.

- People I will be sending across your path in the coming days,

....who are in bondage, ....who are sick,

....who are blind, ....who are walking dead.

I set you apart now to set them free, to bring them from darkness to light, from the realm of Satan into the life of my kingdom."

Now to fulfill this call for which we are all being set apart, what we need is not more training or some new technique. What we need is the boldness to speak and live the word God has already given us.

When God set Moses apart he didn't give him a course in witnessing or a seminar on self-esteem. He gave him a rod, and that rod was divine boldness.

When God set Joshua apart to lead the people across the Jordan to take the promised land, his one command to Joshua was,

"Be strong and of good courage .... be bold!"

And the one thing we need to translate our call into divine power so that we can set his people free is boldness, courage, strength that endures.

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' minister, "Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, as I promised to Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will not fail you or forsake you.

Be strong and of good courage; for you shall cause this people to inherit the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you; turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:1-9

The word of the Lord not only to Jim, John and Rick as we set them apart, but to every one of us as the Lord sets us apart as a Body, is fourfold:

1. "Be strong.

2. Be of good courage.

3. Don't be afraid.

4. Keep pressing on....and you will set my people free."

1. "Be strong and you will set my people free."

Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might.

"The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom shall I be afraid."

When the Lord told Joshua to be strong, he was saying, "Here is my strength ... use it!" Now he is saying to us, "Here is my strength ... be bold with it!"

"But I'm a little nervous about talking to this person in the neighborhood or at work. He might be offended ... she might laugh in my face."

The command of the Spirit is to be strong ... don't mumble ... speak up!

Years ago when our children were small, we took them to Belle Isle on a Sunday afternoon. They had little carriages drawn around the track by small horses. Half way around the track this horse decided to stop. I got out and timidly tried to pull the horse along. I didn't want to hurt it ... I didn't want to upset it.

"Come on, horsy",...... no results.

If the horse could have talked he would have said, "Dummy! I'm not going to listen to you! You don't know what you're doing!" Fortunately we had with us that day a young missionary from Denmark who would soon be going to Africa. This man knew horses. He got out of the carriage and took charge of the horse. He was bold. His signal was clear ... and the horse responded.

If you're going to get the job done, don't be timid.... be strong!

2. "Be of good courage and you will set my people free"

... good courage ... confidence in God.

"You aren't going out there on your own, I am with you," says the Lord. "Trust me. Be confident in me."

Four times in that first chapter of Joshua, God says to Joshua,

"Be strong and of good courage. Only be strong and very courageous. Be confident. Be sure."

Satan loves it when we pussyfoot and tiptoe and hem and haw. He waits behind a tree, jumps out and says, "Boo!" and we're undone. But when we are sure of things hoped for, certain of things not seen, when we walk with our eyes on the King and our hearts fixed on his promise to be with us, Satan himself shrivels and draws back and stops his mouth.

"Lo, I am with you always. Trust me. You cannot fail ... you cannot fail. Be of good courage."

3. "Don't be afraid, for you will set my people free."

God said to Moses, "Don't be afraid." To Joshua, "Don't be afraid." To Peter, "Don't be afraid." And to us, "Fear not."

"But I'm still afraid to go up and talk to people. I'm afraid to walk in among the surging masses and tell them of Jesus. So what do I do?"

You defy your fear. Don't let that fear push you around ... you push that fear around.

"I will speak ... I will act." And as we do the fear gives way to the peace of God.

4. "Keep pressing on and you will set my people free."

Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that you may do the will of God and receive what is promised. "For yet a little while, and the coming one shall come and shall not tarry; but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him." But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and keep their souls. Hebrews 10:35-39

We look at those people walking around in their chains. We look at those iron gates of death locked and bolted against us, and we have two choices. We can shrink back and give up or we can press on and conquer.

Joshua knew the Canaanite cites were formidable. Those cities were dangerous! But it was either shrink back and be destroyed or press on and conquer. And to free the captives to whom we are sent will take the tenacity of God that presses on and endures.

If the man who went to his neighbor for bread had given up when his neighbor told him to go away, nothing would have happened.

If the widow hadn't kept pestering the unjust judge, nothing would have happened.

If the Canaanite woman hadn't kept hounding, nothing would have happened.

If Jacob hadn't kept wrestling with the angel, nothing would have happened.

And we have to press on with God in our prayers ..... with man in our witnessing, and with Satan in temptations.

- Don't shrink back!

- Press on!

While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off.

We have been called ... we are being set apart by the living God to set his people free. As we lift up our eyes and see that harvest and the impossible work that needs to be done, our hearts will faint unless we listen to the Lord who says to us, "Be strong, be of good courage. Don't be afraid. Keep pressing on and you will set my people free."

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; be not frightened, neither be dismayed; for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go."