John K. Jenkins Sr - The Reasons for your Drama

I wanted to talk about this for a few moments today; this 61st chapter of Isaiah is where our focus is. The book of Isaiah was written by a prophet who was raised up and given the assignment of speaking to the divided Kingdom of Israel. At this point in its history, it is divided into two nations, and Isaiah has the assignment of speaking to one of those nations, Judah in particular. He has the assignment of prophesying and speaking to Judah, and what he must tell them is about the difficult times they are about to face. In fact, he has the assignment of warning them and letting them know that there will be some drama in their lives. How many know that folks don’t get excited about drama? No, nobody jumps up and says, «I can’t wait for the next dramatic experience to come into my life!» But the reality is, if anyone is going to accomplish anything and go anywhere in life, they 're going to have to go through some drama. The thing I’ve tried to preach, tell you over and over again, and help everyone understand is that anyone who has achieved anything significant for God has had some drama in their life. Look at your neighbor and say, «I must be going to do something big with all the drama in my life.» Tell your neighbor that I’m getting it together here; I must be about to go ballistic. God is about to blow me up with all the drama in my life. Take your time, Pastor, take your time. This 61st chapter of Isaiah is particularly interesting because there, in Luke chapter 4, don’t turn there, the Bible says that Jesus had the assignment and the responsibility of, when he walked into the temple one day to worship God, picking up the scroll, unrolling the scriptures, and reading Isaiah 61. As a matter of fact, it is this exact section of scripture that Jesus read from Isaiah when it says, «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.» Listen to what Jesus said: «The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me.» Jesus was anointed! How many of you know that Jesus was anointed? He was the Anointed One. And here’s what he was anointed to do, as it lays out right here: all of the assignments given to Jesus. He was anointed to preach good tidings to the poor; he had the assignment of bringing good news to people who were without the comforts of life. He had the assignment of telling people who were meek and poor, struggling with life, who didn’t have all the necessities and comforts of life, that there was some good news. Not only was he given that assignment, not only was he anointed to bring good news to the poor, but the text says he was sent to heal the brokenhearted. That means he had the assignment of bringing healing to people who had experienced broken relationships. Is anyone here ever had any broken relationships? One, two, three… Okay, well, if you haven 't, the rest of you are going to have something happen in your life where there is some relationship that has been scarred or broken or bruised. Jesus said, «I’ve come to let folks know who have gone through the agony and the pain of a broken relationship that it can be healed .» He also says he was anointed to proclaim liberty to the captives. Somebody say, «Liberty to the captives!» It means to bring freedom to people who are captive to sin and habits. Does anyone here have any habits or sins that they’ve been captivated by? There you go, lying again, like you haven 't got any issues! Y’all must tell the truth; everybody in here has something that they are tempted by or, at some point in their life, have been held captive by. I know that the Sunday-go-to-meeting Church crowd tries to act like they don 't have any drama and no issues in their lives, but if the truth be told, if we followed you around just for a couple of minutes, it wouldn’t take long to find out that you’ve got some vices up in your camp! Go ahead, look straight ahead, act like I’m not talking about you, but you know I’m talking about you with your jacked-up self! We all have some areas in our lives where we need some liberty. Somebody say, «I need some liberty!» Ain 't nobody in here perfect; ain’t nobody here dotted every «i» and crossed every «t.» Why y’all acting like you' ve got no issues? Jesus had to come for you and me because we were jacked up; we were held captive! And Jesus said, «I came to bring liberty.» Not only did he come to bring liberty, but he’s also anointed, the scripture says, " to open the prison to those who are bound.» He has the assignment of coming and bringing to us the message that God has given him the power and authority to open up the dungeon and release us from bondage. We are in the dungeon, and we are bound. The prison means that we’re in the dungeon. Jesus said, «I’ve come to open up those prisons and let you be free from being bound.» Bound means, in Hebrew, to be joined in battle. It means that you are enslaved in a battle that you can’t seem to end-a battle you can’t seem to get over. It seems that as soon as you think the fight is over, there’s another one that comes.