Off The Chain

While in Illinois visiting my mom, this lady, Ms. Evelyn, started talking or rather preaching about being “off the chain.” Now, my generation uses “off the chain” to mean the same thing as cool, awesome, hot, etc, but Ms. Evelyn took it to a place I never thought about, and she told me that I should talk about it in one of my blogs. So here I go.

A chain can be used in many things such as machinery, bicycles, fences, and so forth, but in this instance I’m going to be talking about the chain that they use on prisoners. Chain as in a fetter. A fetter’s a shackle or chain for the feet. A fetter can also be described as anything that confines or restrains from motion. In a nutshell, a fetter or chain is a restraint. When I first started looking up verses to help me out, the story of Samson came to mind. His restraint was a woman named Delilah. Samson was in love with Delilah so that he let the fact that Delilah was trying to weaken him blow over, and for a minute it worked. Delilah got him to confess that his strength was in his hair. Samson fell asleep in Delilah’s lap and a man came in and shaved his head. How many of us are lying in the lap of what’s trying to kill us? That’ll preach. Anyway, with the hair went Samson’s strength. How many of us have let the chains in our life take our strength? I’ve heard Tye Tribbett say it like this, “We love stuff that we know is trying to kill us.” Hello?

So going back to the word fetter. An old hymn, specifically Hymn 121 in the Yes Lord COGIC Hymnal, that the churches used to sing says this, “Jesus breaks every fetter, and he sets free.” That song came from the first part of II Peter 2:9, which says, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver..." In other words, the Lord knows how to get you loose from the chains binding you up so you can be “off the chain.” With that you could sing the old worship song that says, “I am free/Praise the Lord I’m free/ No longer bound/No more chains holding me/My soul is resting/It’s such a blessing/Praise the Lord/Hallelujah/I’m free.”

Now many of us have our own Egypt to deal with. We’re singing about getting back to Eden, but we’re still bound up under Egyptians. I found these verses, Exodus 6:6-7, that say, “I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched arm, and with great judgments: And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God, and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God, which bringeth you from under the burdens of the Egyptians.” Now if God did that for the slaves under Pharaoh, don’t you think he’ll do the same thing for you and make you “off the chain?”

Some of us are dealing with the chain of not reading and studying the Bible. The Bible is the truth, and John 8:32 says, “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” Further down in that chapter, in verse 36, it says, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Bottom line, if you read and study the truth, the Bible, then God will make you “off the chain.”

Some of us cause chains to stay and tighten because we continue to stay in sin when we’re supposed to be dead to sin. Romans 6:1-2 asks this, “What shall we ask then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” We ask God to free us, but God is saying to stop living in the sin you’re dead to, and you will be free. Romans 6:14 says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, but under grace.” Yet, we still give sin more power than we should.

If you look at Romans 7:1-6, it talks about that in marriage, the wife is bound to the law of her husband as long as he lives, but after or when the husband dies, the wife is loosed from the law. So while the husband is alive, the wife can’t marry another man, or she’ll be committing adultery, but if the husband is dead, her marrying another man would not be adultery. You get to the fourth verse of the 7th Chapter of Romans, and it says, “Wherefore my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be raised from the dead, that we should bring fourth fruit unto God. “ Then verses 5 and 6 say, “For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in the newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.” In other words, God can deliver you from the chains of the flesh, and make you “off the chain.”

Do y’all know that we have been called to be “off the chain?” Galatians 5:13 says, “For, brethren, ye have been called into liberty…” Liberty is freedom, and if you go up to the first verse of that chapter, it says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” You are “off the chain,” stand in it. You’re called to be off the chain.

Some feel like the chain of darkness has you bound up. Colossians 1:13 lets you know God can and will deliver you from the power of darkness and bring you into the kingdom making you “off the chain.”

So now you’re off the chain. You’re free. Please don’t be malicious about it. 1 Peter 2:16 says, “As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as servant of God.” For those asking, “What is the malicious word this guy is using” Well the dictionary defines it as harboring ill will or enmity; spiteful; malevolent; malignant. Basically, don’t use your freedom to look for revenge. You do something like that, and you can be a chain to your own self. Some of us think we know everything, and some of us think we can help God…that’s a chain. Some try to predict when Jesus is coming back…that’s a chain. We don’t know the day or hour Jesus is coming back. Yes, time is winding up, but don’t get crazy and predict the rapture. Some believe that we will be the people to see the rapture. Well ok, Awesome, but what if we’re not? Again no man knows the hour of when Jesus is coming back. We just have to be ready either way.

Chains are not a good thing. Chains can hinder things like church growth, or our Praise and Worship. How? We’re supposed to enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and enter into his courts with praise. Do we? Chain. We worry about what’s going on at home or whatever and don’t bring our minds in for praise and worship. Chain. We don’t give God 110% because we are worrying about the chains that have you bound. The late Bishop G.E. Patterson used to say, “Jesus is a habit breaker. Now I got this for you, “Jesus is a chain breaker. With Jesus, you are off the chain.”

Now to be truly off the chain, you must be saved. You must be born again. If not, then the chains of sin still got you on hold. Romans 10:9-10 says, “That if you confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” The key word in all that is believe. Acts 16:31 says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.” And once you got Jesus, you got the key to break the chains. Now, you’re off the chain.

Stay Saved,

Daniel Richerson