captives

Most people live with some kind of a cause.  It’s their passion and drive and what gets them up every morning to go do what they do.  But sadly, life can run over us and cause us to be so busy we completely forget our cause.  Sometimes it’s fear that causes us to forget or disregard our cause.  This is what happened to Israel’s army in their battle with the Philistines.  Goliath came out each day for forty days defying the army of the living God.  Goliath was the commander of the entire battlefield and he even set the rules in place.  The rules were as follows:

“Choose you a man for yourselves, and let him come down to me.”  “If he is able to fight with me and kill me, then we will be your servants.
But if I prevail against him and kill him, then you shall be our servants and serve us.”  I Samuel 17:8-9

The shear fear of Goliath caused all of Israel’s army to forget the cause for which the challenge had been made.  Fear has a way of blinding us from our purpose in life.  Coming upon the fortieth day, Israel’s army even forgot about the challenge, all they could see and hear was the giant spewing threats morning and evening.  But David showed up willing to fight against the oversized Goliath and asked, “Is there not a cause?”  David was saying, “There’s something worth fighting for here!”  Think about it, the cause was embedded in the challenge and it’s the same thing we must fight for today—freedom.  If Israel wanted to continue to live in freedom, they needed a freedom fighter to kill the giant.  David believed the freedom of his family was worth fighting for and the freedom of his countrymen was worth fighting for. 

On March 23, 1775 It was Patrick Henry who said, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”  Many churches and followers of Christ today have forgotten our cause.  Our cause as a church is not to build big fancy churches or to have thousands attending our services.  Our cause is not to dress up and line up every Sunday morning ready for battle but never do anything.  Our cause is not to impress those who are watching.  Our cause is great and was given to us by Christ Himself.  He sacrificed and died on the cross so that we might be set free.  Our cause is helping those who are in bondage to be set free by the power and grace of God.  Our cause is in declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ by which all people can be set free.  There are those today who need to be set free from the Goliath of their sin, the power of darkness and even dead religious rituals.  

As you go out into the world today, remember you have a cause.  Jesus came to set captives free and your cause as a follower of Christ is to show captives the way to that freedom. You can be free in Jesus’s name and if you are free, do what David did, help someone else get free.