Latest / Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ) / "Doubled Over with Difficulty" by Neal Pollard

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"Doubled Over with Difficulty" by Neal Pollard · Cumberland Trace Church of Christ (Formerly Lehman Ave Church of Christ)

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And Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day and there was a woman who
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for 18 years had a sickness caused by a spirit and she was bent over double and she couldn't
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straighten up at all.
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And Jesus called her to himself and he said unto her, woman you are freed from your sickness.
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And immediately she was erect and she began glorifying God.
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But the synagogue official, indignant that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath day, began
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saying to the crowd, there are six days in which work ought to be done.
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Come on one of them and be healed and not on the Sabbath day.
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And Jesus answered and said to him, you hypocrites, which of you on the Sabbath day would not
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have an ox or a donkey and would untie them and lead them out to water?
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And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, though she is, whom Satan has bound for 18 long years,
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should she not have been released on the Sabbath day?
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And his opponents began to be humiliated and the whole crowd began rejoicing over the glorious
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things that they saw him doing.
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We read that in the previous chapter in Luke chapter 13 verse 10 through verse 17.
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Have you ever been bent out of shape over something?
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Perhaps something has you bothered, has you troubled, but you haven't been literally bent
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out of shape.
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There was a woman on this occasion who is described for us as one who is bent out of
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shape because of a sickness that she has.
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As we see this sickness as it's presented to us, it is something that has her so that
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she could not straighten up, she could not unbend her back.
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She was afflicted.
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But if you'll notice, she wasn't the only one who was bent out of shape.
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The synagogue official who was present on this occasion is bent out of shape because
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of his perceived perversion of the Sabbath day and the law of Moses.
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That's the way he saw things.
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You would even have to say that Jesus was bent out of shape over the hypocrisy that
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he was witnessing on that occasion.
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It's possible that you have come in here tonight and you feel bent out of shape over something
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that you're going through.
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It may be that you have been carrying around some problem, some burden.
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It might be physical.
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It might be emotional.
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It could be that it's spiritual.
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And as you find yourself in this condition, perhaps you can relate to this woman we read
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about tonight.
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Luke is the only one that says anything about her in Luke chapter 13 verse 10 through verse
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17.
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As we see her, we ask ourselves, why is this included in the scriptures?
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Outside of the extraordinary length and the terrible condition in which she is in, how
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does it relate to us tonight?
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I believe as we look at this text a little bit more closely, there are at least three
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things that we can glean and we can take away that can help us when we're doubled over
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with the difficulties that life brings our way.
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I want you to look with me into the text as we notice these three things together.
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First of all, I'd like you to notice with me that though this woman struggled, still
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she assembled.
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There's no indication that she knew that Jesus was going to be present that day.
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So far as we can tell, this seems to be the very custom that she was following, that she
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wanted to be there.
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This was the Lord's day.
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This was the Sabbath day.
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And so she found herself present with all others who were there.
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She had her problems, her difficulties, but she wanted to be there.
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You know, sometimes we face some problems, some struggles, and they literally keep us
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away from the assemblies.
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There are some that we have listed in our prayer list and that we go and we visit and
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we call and we talk to who because of sickness are not able to physically be present, who
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are so burdened down with problems, or maybe they're a caregiver for someone who can't
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get out and so they're stuck at home.
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Or maybe there are others who have other limitations and it keeps them from being present.
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We should always have our hearts open to this and have an empathy that causes us to reach
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out and help those who are in such a condition.
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And I wonder, is it ever the case that the things that we have that are bothering us
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begin to be excuses that keep us away from the assembly?
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When we consider this woman, we see her circumstances being what they are.
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She still found herself among the saints.
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Perhaps we might use some excuses that keep us away.
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One of those excuses that we might use is that we don't feel like being around people.
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You know, there are some who are extroverts and they draw their energy by being around
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people and there are others who are introverts and they drain themselves when they are around
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people and that's something that certainly is recognized by the psychiatric facilities
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and the professionals of the world.
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And yet you notice that the Bible doesn't give us one set of commands for the extrovert
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and for the introvert.
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Our Lord says to all, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith,
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having our bodies washed with water and our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.
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And let us draw near with a full heart and full assurance of faith.
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And let us consider how to stimulate one another unto love and good works, not forsaking the
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assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another in so
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much the more as you see the day approaching.
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I notice it's interesting that there's no disclaimer by the Holy Spirit that says that
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David loved being around people when he says in Psalm 122 and verse 1, I was glad when
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they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.
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Or in Psalm 100 and verse 4, let us enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts
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with praise.
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Bless his holy name and give thanks to him.
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David recognized that there was an energy that was drawn by being among the people of
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God.
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And so as we see these encouragements to us in Scripture, they draw us to want to be rejuvenated
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by our time together.
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Another excuse that is given is that we might say that our heart is not in worshiping.
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May I suggest that all of us go through that, that it is a natural response that all of
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us experience from time to time, and I don't believe anyone is exempt from that.
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I believe that that prayer request that we often pray is one that we all need, Lord,
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help us to remove all the distractions from our heart and our mind as we worship you.
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And yet how many have found that by going through the exercise of being here that they
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come away feeling more energized as the result of their time with God's people and in the
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presence of God and worshiping him.
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We also see that this excuse is one that has a problem of inconsistency.
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Sometimes our problems keep us away from the assemblies, but they don't keep us away from
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other places.
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On occasions through the years, has it ever been that we would bump into someone who is
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in the grocery store or at a restaurant or in some other public place, but whose sickness
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and whose sorrow and other circumstances have kept them from being among the people of God.
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Perhaps when we find ourselves challenged in this way, the words of Jesus in the Sermon
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on the Mount can help us.
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In Matthew 6 and verse 33, where Jesus says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his
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righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.
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But making excuses is an ancient practice.
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In fact, Jesus even centers a parable around this very idea that he, that there was a man
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who had prepared a feast and had invited many, and when the dinner hour was come, he sent
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out his slave to call all those who had been invited to his feast saying, all things are
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ready, come to the feast.
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And they all alike began to make excuse.
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And one had said, I have bought a piece of land, I must go and look at it.
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Consider me excused.
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And another said, I have bought five at yoke of oxen and I must have them tested.
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Consider me excused.
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And another one said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come.
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Luke 14 verse 16 through verse 20.
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This woman would have still been bent over double as she stayed home, but she wanted
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to be among the saints.
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And sometimes we can let excuses keep us from serving the Savior with the saints in
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the services of our Lord.
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When we look at this woman's circumstance in Luke chapter 13, we see that though she
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struggled, she still assembled.
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But the second thing I want you to notice as we look at this text is that though she
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was bound, Jesus set her free.
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This woman is suffering from something that has been somewhat the source of debate.
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Is this a physical problem or is this something that is demonic in its nature?
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Some would say that this sickness that was caused by a spirit is the idea of demonic
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possession and so she has Satan tormenting her by actually being inside of her.
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Many others say that perhaps the idea is that there's a sickness that Satan is using to
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torment her and to use this affliction.
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Sometimes we are bound by physical and emotional problems.
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Other times we are bound by something spiritual that Satan wants to use to try to torment
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us.
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And you'll notice that Jesus says that she was bound by this.
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He says that she was in the bond of Satan.
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The word bond means a fetter or an imprisonment.
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It is a physical infirmity or an illness.
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So here this woman comes and she's bound.
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What's remarkable is that as you begin to walk through the text, you'll notice five
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things that Jesus does on this occasion to help this woman who is bound to set her free.
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And the fact is as we look at this, we see her situation and we can make application
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to ours.
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When you begin to see Jesus' interaction with her, well you notice these things that first
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of all, he called her to him.
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In verse 12 we see that when Jesus is teaching and he notices her, he calls her to him.
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Have you thought about that?
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Here she is having great mobility issues.
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Why would Jesus summon her to come to him?
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There's no doubt that the very exercise of it would expose the extent of her problem
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to everybody who's present.
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The whole crowd is gathered, the synagogue is there, and here this woman goes across
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to Jesus.
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Surely, it would have had the effect that when Jesus performs this miracle, people would
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see not only how bad things were for her, but how great a deliverance that he had provided
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for her.
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John tells us that the purpose of Jesus' miracles in John chapter 20 and verse 30 is to create
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belief and through the faith that is obtained that one might have eternal life.
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And so we can't miss the fact that Jesus calls her to himself, but then second I want
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you to notice that he is willing and he is also able to help her.
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We see this in the same verse.
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Jesus frees this woman from her problem.
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I would challenge you to look throughout the Gospels and see if you can see any occasion
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where Jesus is encountering somebody who has any kind of illness or disease or sickness,
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some kind of problem that's presented to him and he does not solve it.
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In fact, in the book of Matthew alone, there are seven times where we read that people
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came to him with every sickness and every disease and Jesus healed them.
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Earlier in Luke's Gospel, in Luke chapter 4 and verse 40, we see that as the sun was
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going down, that they were bringing to him, they're sick and they're afflicted and those
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with diseases and he was healing every one of them.
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When we see Jesus in motion, we see that there's nobody that he will not help who comes to him.
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Then I also want you to notice that he lays his hands on her.
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No one ever had any kind of condition that was so bad, it was so undesirable that Jesus
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could not lay or would not lay his hand on them.
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Not even lepers.
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Dr. Andrew Bergesi in a TED Talk was talking about the importance of touch in the medical field.
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He was saying that there is a physical component of a doctor putting his hands on a patient
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that serves to provide comfort.
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It's a great diagnostic tool and so as the hands are making the examination, perhaps
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can find things that can't be found in a mere questionnaire or a discussion.
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But not only is it the diagnostic ability, but when one lays their hands on another,
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they are giving the greatest instrument of compassion and of sharing compassion.
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When Jesus lays his hands on them, he understands this, the great physician.
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He was going into all of their villages and their towns and he was teaching in their synagogues
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and he was preaching the gospel, the kingdom of God and he was touching them and he was
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healing every sickness and disease and they were dispirited and distressed like sheep
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without a shepherd, Matthew chapter 9 verse 35 and 36.
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Jesus is showing acceptance by touching her.
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Then we also notice that his healing was immediate.
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Compare that with modern day claims of faith healing who will tell someone to go home to
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hope and to pray and to wait.
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Jesus erases 18 years of affliction and difficulty in a moment's time and she is literally standing
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tall in the next moment.
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And then notice that he felt for her in verse 16.
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It's not just in the fact that he laid his hands on her.
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There are a couple of things that are rather subtle in the text that show us how much he
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valued her as a person.
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As Jesus is identifying who she is, notice how he refers to her.
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He wraps himself up so that he can identify with her.
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He says, this woman who is a daughter of Abraham.
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She's in the synagogue.
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She's a Jew.
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Perhaps she is devalued by others around her.
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But Jesus says, you're on the same plane with everyone else.
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You're on the same plane with me.
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I'm a son of Abraham physically speaking.
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She's not only a daughter of Abraham, but notice that Jesus qualifies not just that
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she has been suffering for 18 years, but 18 long years.
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Isn't it wonderful to have a Savior who pays such close attention to the difficulties that
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we have in this life?
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As you see Jesus, as he interacts with and ministers to this woman, I want you to be
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reminded of the fact that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
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Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 8.
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And so as he did on that day with her, think about how he acts in our lives today.
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Jesus still calls us today.
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From the very beginning of the church, he has been calling all to himself.
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Remember in Matthew 11, 28 through 30, he says, come unto me.
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But through Peter, when the gospel is preached.
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Think about what he says, Peter, when they say, men and brethren, what shall we do?
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When they're told the plan of salvation, he follows it up by saying, the promise is unto
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you and unto your children and unto those who are afar off, even as many as the Lord
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our God shall call.
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God calls you and me through the gospel.
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It is a conditional call.
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It is a call that is obeyed through faith and trust and obedience.
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He calls us.
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Furthermore, he is still willing and he's still able.
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For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he himself likewise took
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part in the saying that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that
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is the devil, and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
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to bondage, Hebrews 2, 14 and 15.
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Jesus still wants and still has the ability to help us whatever it is that we bring to
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him.
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Then third, he still feels compassion on us.
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I love what the Hebrews writer says, it's a little bit later in that epistle when he
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says that we do not have a high priest who cannot be sympathetic with our weaknesses
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but was at all points tempted like we are yet without sin.
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Therefore let us come boldly before the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
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grace for help in time of need, Hebrews 4, verse 15 and 16.
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And that word sympathy means to feel for someone else, but it's stronger than that.
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It means to do so with an eye toward providing the help that's needed.
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When we think about the Jesus on that day with a woman with that kind of an affliction,
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we see that he still feels that deep compassion for you and me.
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We also see that his healing is still immediate.
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When we see what Jesus is able to offer, why would we ever delay?
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Here is Saul of Tarsus sitting in Damascus for three days, when Ananias the preacher
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comes to him and says to him, and now why do you delay, arise and be baptized and wash
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away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord.
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We have a God who calls to us and says, why would you wait, James 4, verse 13 and 14.
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You don't know that tomorrow is coming, Proverbs 27, verse 1.
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Steve Jobs had a rare form of pancreatic cancer, it was a very slow moving cancer, one that
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was treatable with surgery.
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Doctors urged him to immediately have that surgery, but for reasons that I don't know
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have ever been fully explained, he opted to go for other approaches.
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And so he turned to acupuncture, and he turned to diet changes, and he turned to herbal remedies.
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And as the cancer began to progress, he went back nine months later and found out that
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it had spread to other organs in his body, and so finally he decided that he would make
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the move and have the surgery, but doctors say it was too late.
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His life was cut short severely because he waited.
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With the only eternally fatal disease that there is, why would we wait?
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And God waits to eradicate completely and immediately that which stands between us and
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a right relationship with him.
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He still has immediate healing, but he also loves us more than we love us.
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You see how he behaves on this day in Hebrews chapter 13, as he shows that compassion and
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value for this woman.
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Scripture says that's still the God we serve.
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He loved me and gave himself for me, Galatians 2 and verse 20.
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He says that I will be merciful to their iniquities and their sins.
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I will remember no more, Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 12.
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Thomas O. Chisholm was born down in Franklin, Kentucky in 1866.
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And Chisholm grew up and at first had a career in journalism.
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He was the editor of the Franklin newspaper for five years, but in 1903 he entered into
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full-time ministry.
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And not only was he a preacher, but he was also a prolific songwriter.
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Did you know that we sing one of his best-known songs?
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Bring Christ your broken life, so marred by sin.
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He will create anew, make whole again.
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Your empty, wasted years he will restore, and your iniquities, remember no more.
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Bring him your every care, if great or small, whatever troubles you, O bring it all.
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Bring him your haunting fears, the nameless dread.
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Thy heart he will relieve, and lift up your head.
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This woman was bound by the thing that had her captured for so long.
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And perhaps you can come up to me tonight and say, I've been dealing with something
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for this long and I don't see any hope for it to go away.
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But with the greatest struggle that we face in coming to Jesus, he can and he will set
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us free.
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And so we see that though this woman struggled, it did not keep her away from where she knew
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that God wanted her to be.
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And with it in her ability, she came.
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And she came bound and broken.
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And with that broken life, Jesus set her free.
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Then third, I want you to notice that once she was better, she glorified God.
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It wasn't just the healing that was immediate.
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You notice that the rejoicing and the glorifying was immediate?
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She was willing to glorify God immediately.
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It says in verse 13 and 14, and it wasn't just her, but look at the crowd.
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The whole crowd, when they saw what Jesus had done and all the glorious things that
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he had done, they were also rejoicing immediately.
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You know, when we think about this state that is demonstrated here, we see a response that's
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common throughout the book of Luke.
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That when Jesus' power is demonstrated or his glory or his person is known, there's
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this common response.
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It goes all the way back to when he's a baby.
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And the events that take place when the shepherds come cause them to glorify him, Luke chapter
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2 and verse 20.
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And then there's the response of the lame man.
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In Luke chapter 5 and verse 26, when he's made whole again, he glorifies God.
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We see all the people who were going to the funeral, when Jesus stops it and the widow
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names a son who is dead, he touches the beer and he comes back to life and they all glorify
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him, Luke 7 and verse 16.
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You remember when the ten lepers are healed and only the one, the Samaritan, comes back
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in Luke 17 and verse 15 and he glorifies God or Bartimaeus, he's blind and he's a beggar
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and as he's on the side of the road, he cries out to God and Jesus restores his sight in
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Luke 18 and verse 43 says that he glorifies God.
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And then there's the centurion, not even a believer when the day begins.
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And here's Jesus hanging on the cross in Luke 23 and verse 47.
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He glorifies God saying, surely this is the son of God.
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There is a response that happens when we acknowledge and recognize who Jesus is.
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And when he heals us, what should our response be?
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The response that we see is a response that is of gratitude and that leads to glorifying.
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Knowing what we have been released from, there should be gratitude in our heart at all times.
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In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 20, we are to be grateful to God in all things.
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In 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 18, in everything to give thanks.
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When we see the healing that is brought into our lives, we ought to glorify.
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That glorification comes in a life that's lived that demonstrates the appreciation that
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we feel.
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Gratitude should lead to glorifying.
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You were bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and your spirits which are
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1 Corinthians 6 and verse 20.
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In Romans 6 and verse 13, the apostle Paul says that you are not to yield yourselves
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members unto sin for unrighteousness, but to present yourselves as members to God and
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the members of your body as instruments of righteousness.
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Having been set free, God wants us to use our mouths, our mouths to share the good news
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of him to others, to speak the truth and to encourage others.
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To use our hands to serve and to help in the ways that it's needed, to use our feet
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to go only where God would want us to go and never to be where he would not want us to
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be.
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In Romans chapter 12 and verse 1, the Bible says that our bodies are a living sacrifice
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to be given to him.
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In 1 Peter chapter 2 and verse 12, we are told that we are in our works to glorify God
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so that those who see the lives that we're living, even though they may speak evil of
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us, may glorify God in the day of visitation.
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They see how we react when we're frustrated.
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They see how we use our time.
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They see how we value the things in the kingdom.
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When we are set free, because we've been set free, we should find ourselves like this woman
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glorifying God with our lives.
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You know, it's interesting that there is in the gospels when Jesus is performing his public
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ministry, there is this alternating between his teaching and his miracles.
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And the miracles come along to serve as confirmation of the message that is taught, to show that
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what he's doing is the truth and it's right and that he is the son of God.
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But it's also done to separate those who are believers and those who are followers from
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those who are unbelievers and those who are opponents, verse 17.
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When we look at the people who are presented for us in Luke 13, verse 10 through 17, we
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have the woman.
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And we have the ruler of the synagogue who ought to have been glorifying God.
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He's not grateful that this daughter of Abraham, this spiritual sister of his, has been made
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well.
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And he's certainly not being grateful, but he's grumbling against the son of God.
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If we have a faith that causes us to be grumbling and have personal prejudice against God, the
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then we realize that we're in bad company with this man.
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But then there's the crowd and then there's the opponents.
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And these four groups of people show us five responses.
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The first response that we have to Jesus in this story is desperation.
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In verse 12 through 14, can you imagine what it would be like to have something for 6,500
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days in your life?
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She had had this for 18 years.
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Think about how long 18 years is.
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There are some of you here tonight who can't remember back 18 years.
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Or you're so young that you were maybe born, but you don't know anything about it.
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You know what's happened in the last 18 years?
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Uber came along in the last 18 years.
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There was Venmo in the last 18 years.
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Self-driving cars, that came along in the last 18 years.
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Reusable rockets came along in the last 18 years.
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iPads.
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The facial recognition technology.
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All of that.
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For a long time.
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That's how long this woman had been suffering.
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But even with that length of time, she comes to Jesus desperate, hoping.
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Do you remember this is something Luke does in Luke 8 and verse 43.
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There's the woman who has the hemorrhaging for 12 years and she spent all of her money
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trying to get better and she's not any better, but she's been made worse.
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Isn't it wonderful when someone feels their sense of desperation and they reveal their
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need of Jesus?
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This woman shows us one way that we respond to Jesus and that's in desperation.
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Sometimes I have sensed the greatest power of God in my lowest moments in my greatest
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needs of desperation.
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Knowing that I've reached the end of myself and I can't produce any more to see God at
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work is a powerful moment.
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Then we also see the response of glorification.
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The natural response when God has helped us is to give glory to him.
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You'll also see that there's indignation.
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It's surprising that this synagogue official would be so upset that Jesus would do this
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instead of recognizing his Godhood and submitting to him himself.
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Then there's humiliation.
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Jesus is equal to every test and he comes out shining all the better when he is challenged.
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Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 2 that there's coming a day in which every knee is
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going to bow to him.
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He calls for us to do that in this life, but it's one response.
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It says that all those who were opposed to him began to be humiliated.
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Then there's jubilation.
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Do you see the crowd?
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When we get a good and a proper look at Jesus, joy is the only response that's possible.
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Joy because of what he's done with our past, joy because of what he's willing to do with
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us as we walk with him today, and joy as we look ahead to the future that he's promised.
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True, there's no life like the Christian life, a life in following him.
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When we see what happens in this text, we see a woman who was dealing with great difficulty
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and as she struggled, she knew her need to be with the people of God on the day of God,
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worshiping God.
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We also see that she did the right thing.
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She was bound and she came to the right source and when she came to Jesus bound, Jesus set
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her free.
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Whatever it is that we struggle with, of whatever nature it is, there's nothing so great that
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God cannot set us free.
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Maybe not from the actual thing that holds us.
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Maybe as long as we're in this life, we're like Paul and we're going to have to deal
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with that.
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2 Corinthians 12 and verse 7.
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But he promises a freedom.
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John 8, 36, if the son makes you free, then you're free indeed.
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But once we're freed, what do we do?
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He wants those of us who have been healed to help.
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He wants those of us who have been set free to go and to serve.
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Tonight it may be that you find yourself in need, bound, bound by sin in need of the freedom
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that only he can provide.
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The invitation that's extended to you as Andy is going to lead us in just a moment is to
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come to him and he will set you free.
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Our Lord will save those who in sincere and obedient faith come to him, repenting and
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being baptized.
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And as children of God, he promises to help us to set us free from the struggles that
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we face.
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Maybe you're dealing with something that you need help that's bigger than you and we can
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help you with it.
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If we can, we would love to do that.
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We would urge you to come right now as we stand and sing.