Trapped

Who the son sets free is free indeed.

And Jesus said, in Luke 4 verse 18, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath

anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to

preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them

that are bruised.

Was Jesus sent to anyone here? Were Jesus to stand here today, would he be anointed to

preach the gospel to the poor? He said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom

of God. Were Jesus to stand here today, would he find any broken-hearted youth that would

be in need of his healing touch? It is written in Psalm 147 verse 3, he heals the broken in

heart and binds up their wounds. Is there anyone here with a broken heart? If Jesus came

here tonight, would there be captives to hear his message of deliverance?

I believe I was sent tonight to speak a word of deliverance to the happy youth of Aruba. But

can happy people be captives? Is it possible to be captured and happy in your captivity?

Bow your heads with me as we pray for God to recover sight to the blind and set at liberty

those who have been bruised. (Prayer)

Can I see the hands of those of you who own your own phones?

What about those of you with your own tablets or laptops?

Would you say that you are fortunate?

How many of you think your parents are able to supply your every need?

Are you in total control of your actions? How many of you have the will power to ignore

your phone for a full day without being on punishment?

The reality is that as human beings, we often think that we are in control of our actions. We

think that we are free to do many things, but the question is, ‘how free are we?’

Can you name some things you are free to do?

Those are good examples of freedom, but can you imagine your life if any one or all of these

freedoms are taken from you? So, you are physically free at this time, but are you mentally

free? Are you emotionally free? Are you spiritually free?

The story is told of a young girl who had been kidnapped when she was 9 years old. She

spent four years in captivity being beaten and abused repeatedly. One day, the police found

this girl and set her free. The sad thing was that the kidnapper had killed both of her parents

so she had to be placed in a foster home. One of the things her foster parents noticed was that

she behaved as if she was still in prison. Although they tried to make her very comfortable,

she hid when they were around and apologized for every thing they asked her about. It was

clear that even though she was no longer physically imprisoned, she was still mentally

imprisoned.

Tonight, I want us to explore a mental prison that the enemy has trapped many young people

in. A mental prison is one where a person is enslaved by their thoughts. They create a barrier

that does not let them get higher than their thoughts. A well-known saying states that what a

man thinks is what he is. Who has determined who you are?

Our God says, “I know the thoughts I think towards you. They are thoughts of peace and not

of evil to give you an expected end. The new king James version says to give you a future

and a hope?

When you dream young people, do you dream big? Do you dream like Joseph, the young

Hebrew who saw himself leading his family to freedom from a bondage that did not exist as

yet? Joseph did not know he would have been sold into slavery. He did not know that there
would have been a worldwide famine. He did not know that he would have been promoted to

second-in-command in Egypt. But he dreamt of the experience years before it happened. He

saw the sun, moon and stars bowing before him. That dream upset many of his brothers.

Even his father was disturbed by his dream. But it eventually came to pass. What dream do

you have that you are afraid to share? Fear is a major factor that keeps God’s children behind

mental bars.

I came tonight to tell you that God has not given you a spirit of fear. But of power and of love

and of a sound mind. We can find that in 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 7. What are some things

you are afraid of? Write a few of them down on paper. Share a few. Now write below your

fears, God has not given me a spirit of fear.

Do you know what else the Bible says about fear? It says that there is no fear in love, but

perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He that has fear is not made perfect in

love. This scripture is found in 1 John 4 verse 18.

I recently met a young man who claimed to be in love with a young lady. Perhaps the

problem with that relationship was the fear the young man had of his mother finding out that

he was expressing feelings of love to a young lady when every moment she got she would tell

him that he needs to love God. He felt that his mother would not understand. He was afraid

that if she found out she would do something that would displease him, or even end the

relationship. Fear can make us think of all sorts of circumstances that may never happen, but

we would not know until we apply faith and try.

Fear causes us to hide like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. How dare they think they

could hide from God who knew their every action, even their every thought. But fear, sadly,

tricks us into thinking that we can hide and get away. But hiding is one of the mental traps

that young people get bound by.

Like a mouse, waiting for the dead of night to sneak out and get a morsel to eat, he’s been

hiding all day, but just when he thinks its okay to come out, he runs right into a trap and

meets his demise. I don’t want youth to meet their demise because of fear and hiding. I want

youth to know the truth. Write that down on the paper. Write youth must know the truth.

Why should youth know the truth? The Bible says, “And you shall know the truth and the

truth shall set you free.” Where is this taken from? It is taken from John 8 verse 32.

Has anyone ever told you the story of the young man who had saved up enough money to go

on a cruise? He wasn’t a very wealthy young man but he knew that he always wanted to go

on a cruise. So he saved every last dollar that he had and because he had never been on a

cruise before, he thought that he needed additional money to purchase his food on the cruise.

The day came for him to board. HE was very excited, but he was also a little bit fearful.

“This cruise is for seven days. What will I eat in those seven days?” The young man decided

that he would just hide to eat some crackers that he had packed. As the days went by, he

found himself having fun on the cruise, but all the sailing made him very hungry. The aroma

of all the nice food was not helping at all. He found himself being impatient about docking

so he could get off the boat and get some real food. It happened that the day before he was

expected to dock, a friend he had made on the boat invited him to go to lunch in the ship’s

restaurant. Ashamed and afraid because he knew he was not allowed there as he had no

money to pay for the meals, he made all different excuses why he could not go. The new

friend sensed something and said, “So all this time you’ve been on this boat you haven’t gone

to the restaurant?” “I haven’t.” the young man confessed. His friend asked to see his

boarding pass. As he took it from him, he showed him the fine print that said that this pass

entitled the holder to receive three meals a day.”

Young people, don’t we do the same thing sometimes? We fail to read the fine print of our

boarding passes and because we haven’t, we do not know the power we possess. We’re
afraid to eat from the banquet table because we are mentally imprisoned by our own thoughts

planted by the common pleasures and ways of this world.

For some of us, our parents make us think we are powerless. When we start to dream, they

shoot us down and tell us we have no money. We cannot rise above our economic

circumstances. For some of us, our friends shoot us down, they are like the strange woman in

proverbs 5, whose path leads down to death. For others, it is the music we listen to – the

lyrics of those songs tell us to end our lives because we’re worthless, the lyrics tell us if it

feels good, do it, don’t study your parents or any of those adults who try to hold you back.

The lyrics tell you that if someone hurts you, hurt them back. Serious negative thought

imprisons us from the music we listen to. We are imprisoned by money, the love of money is

the root of all evil. We also find ourselves trapped by appetite, eating and drinking things that

do not promote health. We find ourselves in bondage of sickness. God says beloved I wish

above all things that you will prosper and be in good health even as your soul prospers. We

are also imprisoned by We are also imprisoned by the games we play. We’re trapped in mind

craft, trapped in among us, trapped in free fire, trapped in roblox, we find ourselves addicted

to things that make us too busy to spend time with God; they make us too busy to spend time

with family and friends; they make us feel good to be alone, but it was when Eve was alone

that the perfect trap ensnared her.

The sad reality is that what we do in our free time sometimes imprison us. What do you do in

your free time? Give me a quick sentence please. Write, “In my free time I like to …..”

Now ask yourself, how does this bring glory to God? What else could I do that would help

me fulfil my purpose? What is your purpose? I’m glad you asked. Ephesians 2 verse 10

tells us, we are God’s handiwork. We were created in Christ Jesus to do good work, which

God prepared in advance for us to do.

The reason many young people are in mental traps is because we do not know our purpose.

We think that when we reach a certain age it is to be trapped in a relationship. But we don’t

see the relationships as traps. We see them as an opportunity to express our emotions. You

have a lot of love to give and a lot of life to live, so let’s find someone who wants to share

this love and life with. That’s a serious trap. In fact, someone wrote an entire book on it and

called this one Sex Traps. And I want you to catch the pun in the title. A pun is a play on

words where the words say one thing but they also mean something else. Look at it, sex traps

tells us that there are traps that look sexual in nature, so sex has traps, but it also tells us that

sex is a trap. So the trap can be a verb or a noun, based on how you look at it. Well, when

you are very young and fresh and lovely, you feel certain emotions and you look at the adults

around you, especially those on television and in movies and shows, and you think that young

people must be in a relationship to be happy.

That is a truth and a lie. Why? The truth is that God created us to be social beings. We need

company to survive. The lie is that we do not have to be hiding in dark places or secret

places with the company to rub up and make ourselves warm in each other’s company to be

happy. That is a trap that leads to death and destruction.

Samantha was a thirteen-year-old girl who felt her mother did not love her. She saw how her

other friends were happy with their moms, but she felt her other never had any time for her

and her father was no where in the picture. So, she thought if she could get a boy to like her

for who she was, she would be very happy. Soon enough, her body took on an admirable

form and a few of the boys started noticing her. There was one in particular that she liked.

Samantha was happy for the attention she was getting from this young boy. Sadly, he had

one intention and as soon as he got what he wanted from Samantha, he left her for another

girl. Samantha was hurt. She thought that she and this guy had really had something special.

Soon, another schoolmate started telling her that he was the one for her. He sympathised with
her and she thought that this one really cared. But soon, he also got what he wanted and

moved on to greener pastures. Samantha found herself trapped by desire. All she really

wanted was someone to love her. Why were these boys leaving her. She was now convinced

that she wasn’t good enough. She was convinced that no one cared.

Let us reverse Samantha’s actions. Imagine if when Samantha had felt lonely, she had

confronted her other about it? Imagine if when Samantha had felt alone, she had gone to her

pastor or her youth leader. Imagine if she had gone to her Boarding pass, her bible and she

had read the final print. Imagine if she had read where God says when your mother and

father forsake you, I will take you in. Imagine if she had read where God said I have loved

you with an everlasting love. Imagine if she had read where God said that his plans for her

are perfect. Or imagine if she had read that God’s love for her was perfect and he loved her

before she could love him. Imagine if she had known the truth all along. Would she have

ended up being tousled and rejected by those boys? The feeling to mingle can be strong and

feel satisfying, but the truth is, when the mingling is done, we don’t feel free, we feel trapped.

Youn people, tonight, I was sent to share a liberating truth. I was sent to tell you that you

have a lot of value in Christ. I was sent to tell you that it does not matter what others think of

you, it matters what God thinks of you. God thinks you’re a perfect lump of clay that he can

mold and fashion into an admirable vessel. Have you seen what clay looks like? Its like a

lump of poo. Thankfully it does not stink. It can be shaped into anything the mind thinks.

God’s thoughts towards you are perfect. Would he make anything less perfect out of you.

When the clay is formed, it goes through intense heat. If the clay had feelings, it would jump

right out of the heat. But it can’t feel the heat. But we can. And what do we do when we feel

the heat? When we are being fashioned and formed and placed in the heat to toughen up, we

bawl and jump right out, and we remain soft and easy to fall apart. Young people, I have

come to tell you to stay in the potter’s hand. The dreams he has for you aren’t just to set you
free, they can free multitudes, just stay in the potter’s hand. The feelings of love you want to

give away don’t really belong to you they belong to Him. You were created to worship him.

Wherewith shall you rob God? It’s by taking his feelings and giving it to our friends. When

we should latch on to God is open, we latch on to friends in secret. Secret love is no good.

The bible says it is just like open rebuke.

Are you trapped? Who isn’t trapped? If you think you’re not yet trapped, don’t wait to be

trapped. Accept God’s freedom. Write down on your paper, “I want to be free…cause who

God sets free is free indeed.”

What keeps us trapped is fear.