A Deliverer is Born, Part 2

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You can find out more about Ravi Zacharias and the team at www.rzim.org. Prison. Prison. What a horrible life in prison. Have you ever thought of sin as a prison within you that's locked you up? A lot of people want to be free, in theory. But sometimes it's hard to give up the chains that bind us. But how can God use us if we're slaves to sin?

Hello and welcome to Let My People Think with author and apologist, Ravi Zacharias. If you've ever watched TV, you know commercials hold the secret to a good life. The right drink, the right car, the right clothes, and you're on your way to a happy life.

But what if the things the world says set you free, just create a really fun prison? What if sacrificing the good life brings a better one? Here's Ravi with the conclusion of his message, a deliverer is born. As Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, took all of the comforts and all of the carefreeness and wants to move on where God wants him. Secondly, he left. He left and moved on because his calling called him. His community needed him and his message more than anything else compelled him. When I look at people like Hayden and look at people like Thomas Wedge and I look at my own life when I was 17 years old, so messed up. I think to myself, how does one take this message and communicate it to the world so that the world will understand what hope and beauty there comes in this salvation? I want to give you and paint for you two pictures.

The first picture I want to paint for you is this. A week ago, a very tragic story in the life of somebody all of our staff knows. In what he promises and claims is a totally false accusation and we believe him. He took two lie detector tests, passed both of them, but the prosecution would not allow this to be admitted. They offered him a plea bargain. He said, not on your life.

I have not done what you're accusing me of. The man is 71 years old, but through all of the machinations of the system, he is given 35 or a 45 year old sentence to go to jail. He's 71. So his wife is shattered.

Our staff knows her. Many of our staff were actually, I was on the road, they were attending the trial and saw some of the farcical nature of it all. And all of a sudden he moves from a dignified businessman in a suit to overalls with chains around his wrists and his ankles, and he's not even given a chance to say goodbye to his wife and he's taken out. And his wife is shouted down not to even make a move. None of them are allowed to visit him. He's in a maximum security prison making an appeal. Being a minister, they allowed me to go in.

So his wife and Margie and I are driving this distance to a prison in another city in Georgia. They were told they may not even be able to park there, but they gave them permission to park. I walk in, they check my papers, they check everything and they bring me in.

She takes all my, whatever, they felt they didn't allow me. I was just allowed to take my Bible. And all of a sudden the steel door shuts behind me and I'm alone. I walk about, about the length of this hall here, all alone. And I come up to the end where they told me there would simply be a staircase that was so hidden I was not sure I'd find it.

I found it. Got me up, there was a guard waiting for me there. He takes me to another area where a steel door opens and puts me in and that steel door shuts. And now I'm between two shut steel doors.

And that second steel door takes about 30 seconds to open up. And I'm standing here thinking, I'm a visitor and I'm terrified. That second door opens and I move past it. Then I go to another crossover, a final door where there are two guards standing and I'm taken in. They take me into a corridor.

I wait about 10 minutes and he comes in his prison outfit, a shadow of himself, lost 10 pounds in the last two weeks. He says, we're given food only twice on the weekend. I'm given some slop at about three to five in the morning. I have to have a concert. There's no chairs. I have to sit in my bunk. And because it's so low above the one above me, I can't even sit up all day.

I sleep about 14 hours a day. So have you been out? He said once in two weeks and his head is shaven and he's sitting there looking almost zombie-like. And I read to him from the Bible, ask him some questions. I said, can I pray with you?

And he puts his hand on the glass and I put my hand on the glass and pray with him. And I walked out shaken up. I finally make my way back.

I breathed this sigh of relief. I actually just stood there and stood in front of that sign to read the name of the warden and so on to see if I can make some calls, which we did. So and so forth. Prison. Prison. What a horrible life in prison. Have you ever thought of sin as a prison within you that's locked you up?

Have you thought of that? How it binds you. As Edward Hubble Chapin said years ago, the worst effect of sin is manifested not in pain or suffering or in bodily defacement, but in the disground faculties, the unworthy loves, the low ideals, the brutalized and the enslaved spirit. The worst effect of sin is not in pain or suffering or bodily defacement, but in the disground faculties, the low ideals, the brutalized and the enslaved spirit. That's what sin is all about. That's what we see happening in our culture today, trapped in a prison of rebellion against God. When you walk out of a physical prison, you say, what an incredible relief, how terrible it is in that physical prison to be trapped in there.

And I say to you how much worse it is to realize when sin itself is holding on to your soul. I want to read for you a letter that I got in from Malaysia some time ago. And this will tell you actually the interesting thing to me is that as I left Hayden from the Philippines, they were trying to convince me to stay on in the church, but I had a commitment and went on to Malaysia this June.

I get a letter immediately after that. He says, I'll try to keep this email short as I'm sure you'll see hundreds, if not thousands of similar emails from the individuals touched by your messages. I'd just like to thank you personally for what you've done for me. We met three Sundays ago at DUMC Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and I said to you, thank you for your message last night.

I was almost ready to leave it all behind this Christian life, but I stopped myself after hearing your message. Here is my story. The night before we met Saturday, 26 May, 2013, I planned to go out with two close friends of mine on a drinking and enjoyment night. The night outing would be at the tail end of how the three of us had recently become single men. He goes on to describe all the horrible things they were planning to do. Our objective was to spend money, meet beautiful women, would be catered to as drinking partners.

It all sounds quite sleazy to you, and we'd never actually done this, but we were that frustrated. We wanted to end it all and go down this road, and he talks of all the pain that he had suffered, and he tries to describe his night that night. He says, I was prepared that very night to compromise the rule or code I had observed since the late coming to Christ at 27 years of age.

I'm not being melodramatic, but I'd become a Christian nine years ago, and in this period, I've seen the worst that organized Christian religion had to offer. I would prefer not to go into it in too much detail why I feel this way, but enough to say I'd been through the highs and lows, and even from being slated to leadership, he talks about all the things that he had planned on going. All that changed as I was planning to spend that night of self-destruction, when you came and preached, and you reminded me of who God is, the one with Jehoshaphat's prayer, and he goes on to talk about the message that night. Understanding this message was enough for me to rethink who God is to me, a personal God who cares for my every step, and it serves as a reminder that he's the reason I started out on this journey in the first place.

If I heard you say it right, you were asked to stay away and not come to Malaysia, but you told them you had made your commitment, and you were coming. You could not ignore the fact that you'd planned on coming. As skeptical as I am, I'm deeply humbled that God taught me worthy enough to have sent my favorite Christian apologists and author to speak to me, and nobody. Thank you again, Dr. Zacharias, from the bottom of my heart, that weekend was indeed unforgettable because we both follow and serve a great God. I thank you for coming.

You saved my life. I didn't. I didn't. I just happened to be there. I read, you know, I've got about 30 or 40 of them here, which I read occasionally.

One just came this week, too. One guy from New York, after a set of meetings we had with one of you here or had organized, and he wrote to me from New York. He said, I'm just struggling to the temptation to take my life. Please help me.

Please help me. And he sends that to the general delivery. And I got on one night and I called him. This happened a few months ago.

He's now attending a Bible study and he writes to me and he says, I've been pre-meeting regularly. How dramatically my life has changed. The rescue from the prison of sin. So I want to ask you tonight, is it possible in an audience like this? Some of you are in those chains. You say to yourself, help me, help me.

It can very easily happen. And so like Moses, the deliverer, he refuses. He leaves because he saw the bondage of his people. The deliverer moves forward and where does he stand? He stands in front of the burning bush and here's where the challenge really comes. First he says, who am I that you should send me? Then he says, who are you to send me? And then he says, what if they don't believe who you are, who I am?

And finally says, Lord, I can't speak. You know, it's an incredible thing to come to the realization that God desires to use you. That God desires to use you. God had a king size battle on his hands with all of the resistance and finally God got so upset with this man that he says to him, look, if you don't want to do it, I'm going to have somebody come alongside you and I'll have Aaron come and help you along. There's a healthy side to it when we believe we really are not qualified.

It keeps you humble, but there's an unhealthy side to it when you're stubborn and say, I really don't want to do it. When I look at the way this country is going after living here 40 years, it's going to take a deliverer like Moses, but it's going to take deliverers in individual offices and in individual places where they will shine the light of Jesus Christ in that arena. When I was a new Christian, a Canadian gentleman by the name of John Tabe, lives in Calgary.

He was Youth of Christ director at that time. And on the last day that he's in India, imagine after years and years of living in the country and you and your wife and children are leaving, he phones me and said, I want to take you out. I said, Ms. Tabe, you're leaving the day after. He said, I want to take you out. So John Tabe comes, picks me up in his car and I don't know what he wanted to talk to me about.

Took me out for a nice tandoori chicken dinner. And we were sitting across enjoying it and he leans forward, this big tall man, long bony arms. And I was leaning forward, listening to him like this, and he grabs both of my wrists and here's what he says to me.

He says, Ravi, I want to leave something with you. You are going to go only one of two ways. You will either be the biggest failure you could possibly be, or God is going to use you in ways that you've never dreamed of. He said, that's why I'm taking you out for dinner tonight. You're going to go one of two ways. He knew my personality.

I was sort of the guy who would either go all in or just say, ah, it's not going to work for me. And every time we are anywhere in the vicinity of Calgary, last time we were there, now he's in his senior years, Margie and I were there and John Tabe came to see me and he just sits and stares at me, just stares at me. I know what he's saying with his eyes. If you believe this gospel of the kingdom that delivers you from bondage within you and breaking the stranglehold of sin so that you know this is the temple of the living God and you know you honor him and you know he comes to dwell within you. If he changes your hungers, changes your desires, changes your longings and puts his word into you like a fire within your bones. And that's what we are meant to carry to a world that is despicably lost and hopeless. And I just want to say to you that when you stand before the word of God and the burning bush that he calls you and me to, let's not fight him.

Let's not say I can't do this, I can't do that. Let's believe what he is actually saying, that he has called you and me into his service. That he's called you and me into his service. Who am I?

An instrument. Who are you? The I am.

Who are they? They will see that I will use you and he leads you on. This moves me then to my final thought. What was his constant need? His constant need was this, I will not go unless you go with me and I want to see your glory. I will not go unless you go with me and I want to see your glory. Do you know in life we all have the need of a presence.

We all have the need of a presence. You know Fred David who passed away in February in California, he was living in a trailer. He didn't want to trouble his kids but the trailer was in the vicinity of his daughter's home. You know what his daughter Tammy told me? She said Uncle Ravi, it was so incredible to see what happened a few days before he died. She said a blind woman in our church who never knew my dad because he used to live in LA and had moved now to where his daughter was, would come every day with some oil in her bag.

A blind woman and would massage his dry and calloused feet and he would just cry and say she's touching my dirty feet every day. He needed that touch and then she says, Tammy says you know what he did uncle? My husband Bruce and I went to visit to go and see him many times a day and he called my husband and said Bruce can I ask you to do something? He said sure dad. He said just hold me for a few moments in your arms.

Just hold me and she said the saddest thing to see my dad who never had a son just wanting the nearness of me and his daughter who stroked his face and my husband to hold him. Presence, touch, nearness. Nothing is nearer than God touching your soul and yet there are times we say will you show me yourself just one more time please? I need to see you in the situation of mine and I ask you to think about this because you know Moses was a tough guy but he said I'm not gonna go unless you go with me and I want to see your glory and then he made this question how will I know you've brought me there? He says after you have reached there you will worship me in that land.

Now you know what I find amazing? Moses doesn't get to really set his foot completely just goes on top of the mountain and God became his undertaker. God buried him. Must have had a very close fellowship with him. Buries him and then some years go by like 1400 and Peter, James and John the Peter who always wanted to do it his way cut off with a sword you know take the boy's ear off.

Not as bad as Moses I want to kill them. This guy just says take the ear off you know and now he comes to the Mount of Transfiguration and sees the body of his Lord glowing. What does he say? Let's stay here. I want to stay here and Moses probably wanted to say to him listen boy go back down there because you ain't seen nothing yet.

You think this is fantastic go back down into the valley you ain't seen nothing yet. The Lord of glory takes him up and brings him into his presence. I want to read for you a letter as I close and challenge you to play the role of a deliverer in somebody's life even if it is not in national life. Nabil Qureshi and I we're walking into Dartmouth and there's a long lineup waiting for the doors to open and as we are coming up to the front a solidly built guy whispers something and he says can I talk to you for a moment so I did. Stayed back so Nabil and I chatting with him he's there with his girlfriend and somebody else and he tells me you'll never know what your books meant to me in battle when we were in the trenches when we were on dangerous missions and then he goes on to talk about what happened to a friend of his who was killed in Afghanistan and Nabil and I are listening to this story so Nabil writes back to him and says will you send that to us and describe it all over again and he says yes I'll do it and so he writes good day to you my brother he writes to Nabil I apologize for not responding sooner but I sought out to reach the parents of my army friend who had passed in order to have their blessing they agreed with me that my testimony would have a profound effect on those seeking the way fortunately I'm able to now share the details here it goes sometime towards the end of February 2008 I had a mission that was to begin at about 0 600 hours at Basra Iraq to Kuwait the mission was to provide security for key personnel that were attached to our unit about three hours later I was in Kuwait and I received the terrible news from the gate guards that the border an army and an army unit had passed by earlier had sustained an attack from an IED I guess that's an improvised explosive device while en route to Kuwait as well as I'm quite more into the incident I found out that the unit had had been attacked was a regular army unit and that my good friend Jonathan had been attacked as well upon arrival at our mission at the end that point which was where Jonathan was taken I immediately asked to go and see him I received permission and went the base medical center upon arrival was directed by an army major to the room in which Jonathan lay as I crossed the threshold of the doorway I could see that my friend was in a world of pain he had tubes that seemed to come out of other tubes leading to God knows where with both legs having being severed in the attack and so as I walked over to him biting my lip so as to hold the tears back he looked up at me and he smiled and said you should see the other guy as he was coughing and having trouble being breathing I stayed with him for only about 10 to 15 minutes and as he entered into shock from blood loss and fatigue seeing him this way and knowing the end was near I asked God to receive his humble servant and allow Jonathan the privilege of spending an eternity close to him you see Jonathan was a part of the kingdom of God long before I was since he could remember as I prayed Jonathan suddenly stopped looked up towards the ceiling as a shocked into life while observing the heavens Jonathan's greatest gift to me was his last words of life which would become a cornerstone for the love of Jesus Christ for me that has enveloped my heart he looked up and said wow wow it just looks exactly the way they always told me it would a smile stretched across Jonathan's face and he was gone I has not seen ear has not heard neither has entered into the kingdom of God the things which God has prepared for them that love him what a way to go Wow exactly the way they said it would be Moses just saw land no wonder when he came to the mountain and Jesus body is transfigured Peter wants to stay Jesus says no go on God tells you and me how important it is in life to refuse some things to leave to stand in front of the bush the Word of God and ultimately to plead for his presence but the greatest presence is what we await after he calls us home let's together recommit our lives to Christ to make sure we're the right kind of instrument that God wants to use and resubmit ourselves with our wills to refuse the things that the world will want to seduce to stand in front of his word and to know that at the end we will need his presence all the way through till we see him in a consummate way it's come and bring your heart afresh before the Lord because that's the instrument that he wants to make with you and me to kill that ego to refuse the pleasures of Egypt and to take that stand knowing that we will never cross over without him we hope Ravi's words have been encouraging to you and that you'll examine your life to see whether Christ is first if you would like to purchase a complete copy give us a call at 1-800-448-6766 and ask for the title a deliverer is born you can also order any of our resources online at RZIM.org or RZIM.ca for those listening in Canada each week we receive letters and emails from listeners like you that tell us about the impact RZIM has had on your life we are grateful to come alongside you in your walk with God your gifts make a huge difference as we strive to share the gospel of Jesus Christ find out how you can partner with our ministry by again giving us a call at 1-800-448-6766 or sending us an email at RZIM.org thank you for your continued support let my people think as a listener supported broadcast and is furnished by RZIM in Atlanta Georgia