Let's Get This Straight | Ps. Keith Pittman

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Amen, amen.

You can go ahead and take your seats at this time.

God is indeed good.

Come on, God is good.

And all the time.

Come on, we're gonna try that again.

God is good and all the time.

We might have some Pentecostals in this building.

I don't know, Vinny.

You ready?

We got some Pentecostals that are with us today.

We're gonna see what God Don't you play with me, man.

The Bibles! Okay, I'm just kidding.

Okay, we're gonna turn.

We're gonna turn.

Oh, that was good for my soul.

We're gonna turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

The Gospel of Luke 13.

And if you're if you're new here with us, welcome.

I'm glad you're here.

My name is Keith, and my wife Megan and I, alongside an amazing staff and incredible teams, have the privilege of serving this church.

And over the past few weeks, um, we've been in a series entitled Free Indeed, based off of um John's writings of chapter 8, verse 36, where it reinforces this idea that who the sun sets free is free.

Indeed, you will truly be free.

We believe that.

And so over the past couple weeks, we've been unpacking what freedom looks like for us not only spiritually but practically in every area of our lives.

And I want to encourage you to go and check out any of our resources to get caught up.

Download the app and join our group so that way you can be in the know of some of the resources we want to put in your hands.

And today we want to continue in this dialogue.

So in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, we're gonna read a couple of passages that I believe is not only meant to be a description of what God did in a situation, but I think it's a prescription of what he wants to do for us.

Luke 13 · chapter mention

Can I get a good amen to that?

If you don't have your Bible, that's okay, it's gonna come up on the screen.

And I want to read this to us.

I want to read this into our spirits and hope that it can stir us just a little bit.

Starting at verse number 10, here's what the word of the Lord says to us today.

One Sabbath day, as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit.

She'd been bent double for 18 years and was able to stand straight.

When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness.

Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight.

Oh, how she praised God.

But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath.

There are six days of the week for working, he said to the crowd.

Come on, those days to be healed, but not on the Sabbath.

But the Lord replied, You hypocrites, each of you works on a Sabbath today.

Don't you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water?

This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for 18 years.

Isn't it right that she be released even on the Sabbath?

This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things that he did.

Today I want to I want to engage this word in a couple of different ways, and we just want to be sensitive to what it is that I think God wants to do in us.

I want to engage this word on acknowledging how the spiritual world influences our natural reality.

I want to talk to us a little bit about God's vision of what it means to be free, but I also want to talk about some of the resistance that we can face from our inner critic and also from culture and from those around us.

So today's thought has a simple statement, but I also believe it's a prophetic declaration for every one of us.

So if you're taking notes, and of course I hope that you are, I want you to write this message title down.

Let's pray and let's see what God wants us to make to us today.

Lord, we thank you for your presence today.

We thank you for these opportunities for us to come together.

We don't take it for granted all the very moving hearts in order for us to be able to be in a space where we can declare your name and the people that serve, um, those that are on staff, those that are sacrificed every day.

God, we we thank you for everybody's individual, yes, that ultimately allows us to have an encounter with you.

So, Father, I just pray.

Um, I pray for our community.

I pray that as we find ourselves engaging your word, that we can be encouraged, we can be enchallaged, we can be stirred up, we can be sharpened.

God, I pray that all of us can decrease so that you can increase in us and get to a point of overflow.

So Lord, I just ask that you give us open eyes to see you and only you.

I pray for open ears to hear your truth above all else.

And God, I pray for open hearts to receive what it is you want to have for us that is provided to us by the incorruptible seed of the word of God and saturated with your spirit.

It's in Jesus' name that we pray that amen, amen, and amen.

Let's let's get this straight.

I I remember several years ago, and and it's almost almost a decade now, um, when Megan and I we were living in in Jacksonville, Florida.

I remember we went through the process of building our home.

And and the the journey of building our home was just a dream come true for us.

And we only lived a mile away from the construction site.

Every day we would go, we would pray on the land, we would we would go and we would visit the the model homes and just kind of get ideas, and it was just part of what we did every single day.

Um and and I remember that each time I would go to the model homes, I would go into different rooms and just envision what life would look like there.

I envisioned like what it would be like with having people surrounding and inside of the kitchen.

I looked, I thought about what it would look like in the backyard.

I would just go and kind of reenact in my mind the vision that I believe that God had given us for our home.

And one of those spaces that I would spend a lot of time in the model home is I would just sit in the living room and just envision having moments of community.

Now, all the other spaces were filled with just these Holy Spirit moments and praying and man, God's gonna do some incredible things in this space.

But what I did in the living room, my prayer there was declaring that the Philadelphia Eagles were going to win the championship.

And God heard those prayers and we seen that it was a reality.

So you just gotta name it and claim it.

So I remember when I was in the process of building our home, I was like, okay, so yes, this is where we're gonna mount our television.

It was a vision, I seen it just as clear as day.

But as I began to envision exactly where I wanted the TV at, it wasn't gonna line up perfectly with where the beams were.

I was talking to a friend of mine back at the church and he said, Hey man, listen, he said, bro, he said, I don't have a problem with coming to the construction site and putting some extra wood in between the beams so that way you're not kind of locked into like having to line it up with the beams.

You can put it wherever you want.

I'm like, bro, is that like illegal?

He's like, Well, if you don't say something I won't, I'm like, well, come on, let's go break in my house.

So we went, we went to the site.

I remember talking with the general co general contractor.

I said, hey man, listen, I said, like, a friend of mine and I were gonna come by.

I said, hypothetically, of course, I said, if you guys were coming to put the drywall up and you saw some extra wood in the walls and things like that, some extra insulation for sound, what would your reaction to that be?

He said, We're not having this conversation right now, and when I get there, we're just putting the wall up.

I don't care what you put in there, it could be a body.

I'm like, note it.

So, cool, wish I'd had somebody in mind, but nothing came to mind at the time.

So we went there, we we we we extract, we re-insulated all the rooms where we were gonna have the TVs at.

And so when we finally closed on the house and we finally moved in, the very first thing I did was like, man, I'm gonna go and mount my television.

This has been a division that I've been building for almost six months.

And so one day my family went out, and I was thinking to myself, like, man, I'm gonna mount the TV, my family's gonna come home, and they're gonna think that I'm a hero.

That's what I'm gonna do.

Like, no one's anticipating this.

I do this all on my own.

So I go to the store, I get the mount, and I mount my television, and I'm home about a couple of hours before my family comes in.

And so I'm sitting there and we have no furniture.

My priorities were definitely in the right place.

So we have no furniture, but my TV was mounted.

And I remember coming in feeling so full of pride, so full of excitement, so full of joy.

Like there's certain milestone as men that when you check that box, you're like, I'm a grown man today.

When I mounted my television, that was it for me.

And so my wife comes in, and I'm like, filled with joy, and in a way that only a truth-telling wife could do it, she said, looks crooked.

I said, It is not crooked.

She said, It is crooked.

Like, like, look at it.

I'm like, it's not crooked, it looks perfectly fine.

She's like, Keith, the TV is crooked.

So I'm like, okay, let me go and prove it to her.

I go outside and I find my my little my little shed and I got my little my little leveler, I bring that out, and I line it up on a TV, and lo and behold, my thing was crooked.

It was it was slanted.

And and here's the thing: I still don't understand how for two hours I was watching TV, for two hours I was playing on my video game, and and I realized that I began to compensate for the crookedness by just adjusting my head just ever so slightly that I had to compensate in my brain to completely ignore the fact that there was something crooked that I had just begun to normalize.

But it but it took someone on the outside to come in and to recognize and see, like, hey, I I see the vision, but there's something that's a little bit off right here.

I don't mean any harm.

I certainly don't want to throw you off of your momentum, but but I'm seeing this, and I believe that you've begun to normalize something that's crooked that actually still has an opportunity to become straight.

I think what can often happen to us as followers of Christ, that we can normalize our dysfunction in such a way that if I look at it the right way, I won't even necessarily invite God into the situation.

That if I can squint just enough, there's actually nothing wrong with this.

But I believe that we serve a loving Savior who shows up with his toolbox that is filled with grace and that is filled with truth.

And he's willing to say to us, hey, I love you as you are, but there's some things in your life that are not quite lining up as of yet, and I want to help you to get this thing straight.

Will you allow me to restructure this a little bit?

I believe that God sees where we are, he sees the areas where we haven't invited him into it because we've normalized the dysfunction just a little bit.

This text brings us into one of those scenarios that I think can be very interesting for us when we engage it on its terms.

The Bible tells us that this incredible miracle takes place in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

The Sabbath would arrive once a week.

It was like a fresh air, fresh breath for the soul, where once a week, no matter if you were rich or whether you were poor, there was an expectation that everybody would come to a standstill and rest in God, delight in his goodness, and remember what he has done.

That was the rhythm of what was expected of the community.

They recognized that even if I stand still, the world continues to spend.

It was breaking them out of the system of constant commerce, getting them out of the slave mentality of constantly pursuing, forcing them to come to a place and slow down and rest in God's goodness.

A part of their regular rhythms when they would have the Sabbath day is that they would then also gather in the synagogue.

The synagogue is one of these things that was birthed as a result of the people being scattered.

And so in every community, they would have a synagogue or a small local assembly that would be a little bit smaller than what an average local church would be, but bigger than a small group.

And people in that community would all come together and they would huddle around God's word and they would read God's word together, and they had a format to the way that things would typically flow.

They would start off with reading the Shema, something that was very powerful for the Israeli culture, and even, I believe, for us, it would hear, O Israel, the Lord thy God is one.

Worship the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and all your strength.

They would declare this to set the tone for their gathering.

They would then begin to read from the book of Psalms, reading praises or having a moment of worship similar to what we just did.

And then they would have a reading from the Torah, a passage of scripture from the first five books of the Bible, and then they would have a reading from the prophets.

And then you would have a preacher get up and expound on whatever the reading was and how to apply it to their everyday life.

They would conclude the service with a blessing and a giving moment, and that is literally a part of the structure in the way that we have our formats today.

Beautiful.

People gather, they they worship together, they they they huddle around God's word, they're encouraged together, and then they talk about application, they give, and then they would go on with the rest of their week.

And there will be these moments when there will be a guest preacher in the house.

This would be a person who maybe travels from town to town, they called them rabbis, and these were people who were students of scripture, and they would often have their own philosophical approach to how they engage God's word, and so they would often go to the synagogue on the Sabbath to kind of share their perspective on varying portions of scripture.

And you just never knew what you were going to get.

You can get someone that comes in and they're saying, was creation a literal seven days, or was it hyperbolic?

And it would be the type of things that they would discuss and wrestle with because the beautiful thing about the complexity of faith is that they didn't enter into it with a certain degree of certainty.

There was always room for mystery, which meant that there was room for growth.

I think one of the greatest travesties that can happen to us as people that are believers is approaching the Bible with certainty because we miss the opportunity for growth if God wants to expand our understanding of a given idea.

And that's exactly what we see here.

On this given day, Jesus steps into the room and people are familiar with Jesus.

He's beginning to expand in notoriety.

People are recognizing that his reputation and the fact that there's this rabbi who goes from town to town and he heals people.

So people began to anticipate that when this man from Nazareth would show up, that let's see how he expounds and engages the scriptures.

The tradition would have been that Jesus would have unfolded the scroll, he would have read a passage of scripture and he would have begun to unpack it.

But on this particular day, the Bible says that there was a woman who was in the audience.

And what I love about the way that the Bible describes her situation is that it bypasses the human diagnosis.

In fact, what Luke the physician says when he refers to this woman, he says, is there is a woman who was there who was bent over with a spirit of infirmity, or a spirit of weakness, or a spirit of infliction.

What we're recognizing here is that he's naming the source, not the symptom.

What he's beginning to do is he's helping us to recognize that an x-ray may reveal that it's scoliosis, but an examination in God's word recognizes that it has demon origins to it.

I believe that there are times in our lives that it's possible that our dilemma has a diagnosis, so we don't even seek deliverance from it.

That sometimes our struggle can be so clear and so black and white and so practical that we don't even recognize that there's a spiritual thing that's happening behind the scenes that isn't making an effort to keep us oppressed.

That when our pain has a name, we don't often seek God's power.

Watch how this works.

Anxiety can look a lot like insomnia.

So instead of us seeking deliverance, we buy melatonin not recognizing that we're being tormented by a spirit of fear.

That a person who's not doing well financially, they can just think it's financial mismanagement when they don't recognize the generational poverty that has been passed on from their family from generation to generation, and they never silence a devourer through their generosity.

That whenever there's conflict and tension with people, it's easy for us to diagnose it as that's personality clashes or that's a difference of perspective.

So we plan a retreat or we read a book or we have these discussions and we never muzzle out the gossiping negative spirit that's causing the bickering in the first place.

What can often happen is that we can begin to recognize that when a pain shows up in the form of back pains, that prescriptions are much easier than prayer.

That we treat the symptom while the serpent still has a hold of our spine.

But but what if, what if the thing that we have just diagnosed as that's just the way it is?

What if the thing that's in our life that we've just gotten so accustomed to saying that this is my lot in life, that what if that is actually a demonic spirit that needs to be cast out of your home?

What if that's a demonic spirit that needs to be cast out of your family?

What if that's a demonic spirit that needs to be cast out of your marriage?

Sometimes what we often can do is that we don't believe that anything is supernatural until we miss the supernatural power of God.

I believe this is the space that the enemy loves to operate in our lives.

He gets us to a space where we naturalize everything, which means we spiritualize nothing.

And we end up dealing with things in our own power.

I still vividly remember early in my faith when, you know, when you're you don't have all the academics, you don't have all the knowledge, you don't have all the degrees, and before I went to Bible school, before I had all of that stuff, all I had was the Spirit of God and I had faith.

And I remember being at church and a young lady coming up to me and one of our deacons is saying to me, Hey, like in my household, I just feel so disturbed.

Every night, my daughter has night terrors.

Every night she wakes up screaming.

Every night, there just seems to be these heaviness in our home, and I don't know what to do about it.

The academic intellectual version of me would have easily began to try to diagnose what's happening inside of the inner psyche of the child.

And while that still has value, the faith-filled, spirit-filled version of me linked arms with our deacon and said, Let's go to our house and let's begin to pray.

So the Bible, so what we ended up doing is when we got to her home, we walked in and we literally could feel the heaviness according to the spirit.

So we got some anointed oil and we began to walk through her home and declaring the name of Jesus over every area of her home.

And when we began to say, in the name of Jesus, anything that is not like you, God, we cast it out.

In the name of Jesus, anything that is robbing them of rest, we cast it out.

In the name of Jesus, anything that is bringing fear into this home, we cast it out.

And all I'm telling you is that when we began to declare the name of Jesus, there was a lifting that took place in that household, and that little girl never had another bad dream again.

What I'm saying is maybe there's some areas of our lives that we're approaching it in our own strength, and we haven't engaged God's power.

The Bible is telling us that this woman had an affliction and that people were looking at her, and it would have been so easy to say that it was scoliosis.

It would have been so easy to say that it's arthritis, but Luke the physician says that may be the technical title for it, but there's a demonic spirit that's behind it, and that is what Jesus came to deal with.

Maybe you're in here with us today.

Maybe you're watching online right now, and there's some things in your life that are weighing you down, some things in your life that has you doubled over, some areas of your life where you don't feel like you can stand up straight.

I believe that there's something in this word today that can help us to stand on our two feet.

Can I get a good amen to that?

I want to share a couple of thoughts with us that I hope can be an encouragement for us.

Here's the first thing that I want us to write down, no matter where you are, no matter what season you may find yourself in, here's the first thought that Jesus sees us.

That he sees you where you are.

And I know that that may seem so simple.

I know that may seem so cavalier, but I want you to hear me from the depths of my soul that Jesus sees you.

When we understand the context of women being inside of these gatherings, which they were welcome at, we also know that they didn't sit front row.

They didn't sit front and center, that often they would kind of gravitate towards the back and they would sit and listen in silence, and the men would debate scripture.

So it would have been easy for this woman to come in, sit in the back row, listen to the words of a pastor or preacher expounding on these truths, and then and then sneak on out.

But on this particular day, the Bible says that as Jesus is unpacking the scroll, he looks up and he sees this woman.

And I want you to know that it's not just sees her in a sense of I recognize you.

It's not in a sense of glancing by and recognizing a face, but what the language actually insinuates is it says that he fully perceives her, which means she was fully known by him.

What we would call this in the world of counseling is it's called being attuned to one another.

Typically, with parents and children and with spouses being attuned is when you're so in tune with what's going on in the life of your loved one that you can see simply by their facial expression if something is off.

You can look into their eyes and see if they had a good day at school.

You can look into their eyes and see if they're sad.

You can look into their body language and recognize if they're filled with joy and excitement.

That's what it means to be in tune.

The Bible's telling us that Jesus was attuned to this woman.

He was dialed into her frequency and exactly knew where she was.

And for 18 years, this woman was unscathed.

Seen.

For for 18 years, this woman was unrecognized.

For 18 years, that's 6,570 sunrises.

She never was able to look a stranger in the eyes because she was so bent over she couldn't even give eye contact.

For 18 Passovers, instead of her looking at the bread on the table, she was forced to look at the sandals and the crumbs that were on the ground.

For 18 years, 18 birthdays had passed by, and she wasn't able to watch a sunrise as a result of her affliction.

For 18 years, she would come to the synagogue and listen to people get up and pontificate on scriptures and even hear, possibly from the book of Psalms, where it says, The Lord watches over the righteous, but yet wonder why he keeps passing over her pew.

For 18 years this would have been her reality.

But on that day, the rabbi showed up.

On that day, Jesus walked into the room.

On that day, the same eyes that beheld Satan as he was kicked out of heaven was the same eyes that locked eyes with her.

The same eyes that was hovering over the brokenness of the world and called light out of darkness is the same eyes that were looking at her.

The same eyes that says, I see the affliction of my people and I'm here to bring them deliverance, is the same eyes that looked at her.

And his compassion said to her, Daughter, the drought of being invisible ends here today.

Jesus is inviting us into this space and letting us know that I see you.

I'm attuned to you.

I know exactly where you are, I know exactly where you've been, I know exactly what you're walking through.

And I suspect that there are some among us that that maybe you feel unseen.

Maybe you feel unseen in your marriage.

Maybe you feel unseen at work, maybe you feel unseen in your community.

And I'm here to encourage you that while you may be unseen by man, you are fully known by God.

He sees you where you are.

And when Jesus sees you where you are, he draws closer to you to bring you to a place of healing and relief.

Can we give God some praise for that?

Here's the second thing that I want to encourage you with.

Jesus sees us, but also Jesus calls us.

Because not only did he see this woman, lock eyes with her and have this moment where he fully is immersed into her world, but then we see the word who became flesh spoke words and called the flesh to come into alignment.

The same words that said, Let there be light and galaxies were ignited, the same words that said, Lazarus come out is the same one that called to this woman and invited her to come closer to him.

He says to her, Woman, which is a title, which is a term of dignity, a term of value.

He he recognizes her with dignity, a woman who would have been overlooked her entire life, but he sees her and he calls her over to him.

The beautiful thing about this calling is that it wasn't a singular call, but it was a call that was continuous when you look at the Greek language.

So he's continuously calling her and inviting her to draw closer to him.

He's continuously calling her and inviting her to have a moment where she can have an intimate encounter with the divine.

She's continuously calling to her.

And maybe for some of us, we may feel that maybe I've ignored the call of God one too many times.

But I'm here to give you a theme for today's message: the devil is a liar.

That we serve a God that pursues you and he continuously calls you.

He stands at the door and knock, he continuously inviting us into a place of deeper fellowship.

The scripture tells us that she is referred to as a daughter of Abraham.

This is a daughter of covenant.

This is a daughter who has value.

This is a daughter who has a seat at the table.

This is a child of God.

That by the Torah standard and her dysfunction, she may have been invisible, but by the Messiah's standard, she's indispensable.

Maybe for some of us, there's been some titles and some names that have been spoken over us.

But again, I'm here to tell you the devil is a liar because you are a son of God.

You are a daughter of God, that you are made in his image and you have value and you have purpose.

The divine doesn't summon us to bark orders at us, but he woos the wounded and makes sure that we're visible and knows our worth.

He calls this woman closer to him and then he issues a profound declaration.

He says, Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.

You're loosed from your affliction.

You're you're loosed from the demonic stronghold.

The language would indicate that there's chains, that there's bondage, there's things that have literally kept her in this afflicted position.

But one greater than the affliction was speaking to the pain with a legal pronouncement of saying that the words that he's about to speak, they cannot be nullified.

She is healed, she is set free.

Woman, you are loose.

But the powerful thing that happens here is that as Jesus utters these words, the breakthrough doesn't happen instantaneously in that moment.

Because there's a moment when the word of God becomes out and it doesn't go back void, but there's also a moment when our reality needs to keep up catch up with God's truth.

And what we see here is a moment where he speaks to the situation before he lays hands on it.

I'm here to encourage somebody because maybe you've been hearing the word of God declared over your situation and you haven't seen the breakthrough as of yet.

So maybe you're a little bit discouraged.

Maybe you've been reading scriptures and highlighting your Bible and trying to claim some things in your life and you haven't seen it yet.

But I'm here to encourage you to hold on because the word of God cannot return to him void.

In other words, if he said it's going to come to pass, it's going to come to pass.

When he said, Woman, you are loose, even though she wasn't loose in that moment, her freedom was coming.

I'm talking to some people that are still waiting for their breakthrough.

Your freedom is coming.

I'm waiting for people that are still waiting on their miracle.

Your freedom is still coming.

I remember looking at the history of even our country and knowing that in 1863 the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, but it still took two and a half years for all of the slaves to be released.

That means that even though freedom was available, there were still people that were trying to keep others oppressed.

But the message continued to go out and freedom continued to be established.

Listen to me.

When God says that you're free, there's an enemy that is still trying to hold on to your soul.

That when God says that you're free, there's an enemy that doesn't want you to be liberated.

But Jesus has sent his reinforcements.

They showed up on the shorelines and said, If the Son has set you free, she's freeing thee.

Loose my daughter, loose my son, loose my child.

They are free in the name of Jesus.

We serve a God that knows how to show up.

And when he speaks a word, it may not be our reality, but we hold on until we see it become real.

Because the world may say one thing, but God's word says another.

The world may call you an addict, but the word of God says that you're redeemed and restored.

The world may say that you're anxious, but the word of God says that you are a carrier of peace.

The world may say that you're a failure, but God's word tells me that you're more than a conqueror.

The world may say that you're an orphan and your parents didn't love you, but God's word says that you've been adopted by God.

The world may say that you're unwanted, but God's word says that you are chosen and desire.

The world may say that you're damaged goods, but the word of God says that you are a new creation in Christ Jesus.

The world may say that you're insignificant, but according to God's word, you are a masterpiece.

The world may say that you're disqualified, but the Bible says that you are called and you are equipped.

Let me help you get this straight.

We don't respond to what the world says about us, we respond to what Jesus says.

When Jesus calls us, he brings us into a place where we can get the crooked things in our lives straight.

Here's a third thing that I want to share with us when we see in this text.

Not only does he see her, not only does he call her, but he also heals her.

Jesus heals us.

I want y'all to understand that Jesus is still a healer.

Jesus is still a healer.

Jesus is still a healer.

Theologically, we wrestle with things that Jesus never wanted us to wrestle with.

Do we think that healing still takes place?

Do we?

Man, what are we talking about?

Jesus said, the power that I have, I give to you.

And I give you the authority to walk on every serpent.

I give you the authority to have dominion over the enemy.

And while we're intellectually arguing about God's dominion, we're missing out on the authority that God has made available to us.

Yes, you are healed in the name of Jesus.

Yes, healing still takes place.

Jesus is a healer.

And what we see in the text is that after Jesus sees her and calls her by name and speaks the word of truth over her, he then lays hands on her.

In the kingdom context, the laying on of hands was meant to serve as a pipeline of God's power being infused into the body of the person.

It was meant to serve as a supernatural touch point where the Spirit of God connected with a faith-filled believer could then begin to reorient the literal cells of a human being's body.

Jesus doesn't quarantine the soul from the cells.

The great physician writes a prescription that says that you are saved, sozo.

And that's a holistic salvation.

That means that you're saved, you're healed, and delivered all in one felt swoop.

That is what it means.

But unfortunately, we can have been in such an afflicted condition that we can have a somatic response.

When I got surgery, and and I remember when I went through the therapeutic process, even to this day, sometimes I forget that I am whole.

So when I get out of the bed, I walk a little more sensitively, not realizing that I'm actually stronger on this side than ever because I have a titanium plate in my ankle.

But my mind can be so reminded of the affliction that I still end up walking with a limp.

This is what happens in the life of the believer, that our identity has been so attached to our affliction that even after Jesus brings it to a place of wholeness, we're not walking in the deliverance that God has really made available for us.

But what Jesus is showing us in this passage is that not only can my healing ratify your body, it can also reactivate and engage parts of your mind so that not only are you walking in healing, but you actually begin to believe that you're healed.

Because for this woman to have been in this condition for 18 years, imagine the muscles that would have begun to atrophy.

Imagine the discomfort that she would have had.

But the Bible says the moment that Jesus laid his hands on her, not only was she healed, but she was able to walk in her healing without having a limp, without having any thoughts of it.

So he healed her holistically.

I want you to be encouraged in here, church, that maybe there's some areas of your life that you've had it for so long that it's become such a part of your identity that even the concept of being whole and being healed is hard for you even to wrap your mind around it.

But I'm here to let you know that Jesus is still healing.

But he's not just healing the body, he's healing the mind, he's healing the soul, he's reorienting your actual selves so that things that should have taken you years to walk in, you can walk in it overnight if you trust the power of the living God.

Jesus is a healer.

And when he healed this woman, he also healed her ability to now get a vocation.

Because when she was doubled over, she couldn't actually work.

But now she's in a position where she can stand up tall and begin to earn a living for herself.

Not only did he heal her body, but he also healed her relationally because now she can stand up tall and began to look people in the eye and begin to pursue whatever her next steps were going to look like.

Not only did he heal her body, not only did he heal her relationally, but he also healed her spiritually because the Bible says that now she was able to lift her hands up and to give God praise.

Because at one point her affliction was so serious that she was limited in how she could worship God.

But the Bible says that when Jesus set her free, her first reaction was saying, I've been wanting to worship God with all of my heart, with all of my mind, and with all of my strength my entire life.

And now that I am set free, I'm gonna give God some praise, I'm gonna give God some glory, I'm gonna stand up, I'm gonna lift my hands up and say that God, you are good, you are faithful.

This is my response when I have an encounter with God.

Jesus is absolutely still a healer.

The Bible said he's come with healing in his wings.

The Bible says that by his stripes we are healed.

The Bible tells us that every sickness and disease he would cast out.

The Bible says that Jesus said that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, He's anointed me to cast out devils and to set the captives free.

Over and over again, we're reminded of the healing that God makes available to us.

And even John tells us in 3 John 2 that I wish that you prosper and be in good health, even as your soul prospers.

He doesn't just want us to be whole in fragments of our lives, he wants us to be whole in mind, body, and spirit.

Let's get this straight.

Maybe there's areas of our lives where we just expected that this is just what it is, but Jesus wants us to be whole, fully saved, and fully redeemed.

Can we get a good amen to that?

Here's my last thought that I want to share with us before we go into some time of worship.

Jesus has the final say.

I'm not sure if you heard that, but Jesus has the final say.

I still don't know if you heard that.

I said Jesus has the final say.

Now we're talking.

Because the Bible tells us that after Jesus performs this profound miracle, that there was the voice of a Pharisee that said, Who signed off on this?

That after Jesus performs this profound miracle, that there was a voice of criticism and cynicism that began to address the audience in a way to try to take the glory from God.

Isn't it interesting that whenever deliverance walks in the room, criticism seems to get louder?

That there's an inner committee that tends to get lost in the technicalities and we're missing out on the powerful move of God.

Jesus confronts any system that puts protocol above people.

I can imagine them saying she's making a scene, he didn't follow the proper protocol, he could have done his healing in a little bit tighter.

Why didn't they take her into the back room?

Why didn't they do that in such a way that it wasn't as much of a distraction?

And as this person begins to talk, it can begin to spread around the community, and now they put a lid on what they can expect when Jesus is in the room.

It's interesting how we can shift to judgment so quickly.

One of the lessons that I've learned in my own life with my own self and even what I've observed in others, it is so easy to carry judgment because compassion is so heavy.

It's easy to shift into criticism.

It's easy to shift into they should have done it this way.

Why do you do it that way?

Because compassion requires a lot more from us.

Whether it's from pulpits, whether it's from small groups, whether it's from families, it's possible that we get stuck in these circles where the criticism becomes louder than the power of God.

But it's in these moments that we have to be reminded that Jesus has the final say.

Of how we can extend grace in this area, but not to that area.

We can extend grace to this person, but not to that person.

Jesus says, that's hypocrisy of the highest order.

He said, I literally healed this woman from an affliction, and you're getting caught up into the way that I did it.

You're getting caught up into the time that I did it.

This child is a child of Abraham.

He confronts the system, he returns her dignity, he reframes the Sabbath, and he says that Jesus has the final say.

Maybe there's some amongst us.

And and and you've been on this journey and you've seen where the voice of opposition has been so critical that it made you not even pursue total healing.

We've all been there.

Man, I'm starting to go to church.

Well, I heard that before.

Well, man, we're gonna start going to counseling.

Well, you know that's not gonna work, right?

Like, just the voices of negativity and criticism was so encouraging in these moments because these voices may be so loud as if they have no authority over your life.

The devil is a liar, and Jesus has the final say.

Jesus has the final say of what happens in your life, and some people may even be well-intended, but the execution and the delivery could absolutely dampen our faith.

I remember my mom telling me stories of when she was three months old.

She had a skin affliction, and we didn't know exactly what it was, but the doctor said to her parents, she's gonna die.

Just take her home and let her die at home.

And my Pentecostal holiness, fire and brimstone grandfather said that the devil is a liar, took my mom home, bathed her in anointed oil, and declared the promises of God over her life for 24 hours.

Spoiler alert, she made it because I'm here.

The doctors and orthopedic surgeons said, listen, ma'am, like the injury you sustained is something that we would see from major car accidents or from an NFL collision.

We were able to piece your bones back together, but but you're gonna walk with a limp for the rest of your life.

And my mom, who's the daughter of that Pentecostal holiness, tongue-talking, fire breathing pastor, father, said to this orthopedic surgeon with 28 degrees, the devil is a liar.

I serve a God who heals me, and my mom walks better than me today.

What I what I want you to understand is that we absolutely don't have a faith that's devoid of reality.

But I do absolutely want you to know that Jesus has the final say.

That maybe there's been some things that have been declared over your life, but Jesus has the final say.

That that maybe there's been some sicknesses that the doctors say it's not going to end well, but but Jesus has the final say.

There may be some dynamics in your relationship that makes it very rocky, and you don't know a path forward, but but Jesus has the final say.

I I don't know who you've been listening to, and I believe in getting counsel, but if there's anything that is contrary to God's word, my position is always this the devil is a liar, Jesus has the final say.

The Bible tells us a story about a young girl who was dead, and when Jesus showed up, they said, It's too late, just let her be gone.

But Jesus said, Get up, and the girl was alive because Jesus has the final say.

I know the story of Lazarus where he was dead and decomposing for four days.

They said, Don't remove the gravestone, the aroma is going to be offensive.

But Jesus said, Lazarus come out, and he came out fully healed because Jesus has the final saint.

The Bible tells us that we were born in sin, shaped in iniquity, and there's nothing we ever could have done to heal ourselves.

But over 2,000 years ago, my Savior got on the cross and said to telestime, which means it is finished, which means that my sin is no longer counted against me because Jesus has the final safe.

My friends, I want you to hear me.

Your sickness doesn't have the final safe, your addiction doesn't have the final say, systemic injustice doesn't have the final say.

Jesus has the final say, Jesus has the final safe.

And when Jesus said it is done, it is done.

When Jesus said just wait, we wait.

When Jesus says you're healed, you're healed.

When he says you got your breakthrough, get your breakthrough.

Because Jesus has the final say.

Sometimes we just gotta call the devil a liar.

And I know that that may be something that's cultural for me, but I want it to be a reality for you.

That when something is spoken over your life that doesn't line up with God's word, the devil is a liar.

That whenever you're finding a situation that seems to be invading your peace and tells you that you're always gonna wrestle with anxiety, the devil is a liar.

When you look at your marriage and you see that we don't seem to be making progress no matter how much we try, and I'm giving up hope, the devil is a liar.

That when you see a child who hasn't returned home to God yet, and you're still praying and fasting and believing, and you don't know when it's gonna happen, and the enemy tells you in the middle of the night that your child is gonna die in hell, the devil is a liar.

What we gotta do is rise up and recognize the devil is a liar, the truth isn't in him, and I will stand on God's word, I will be unshakable and unmovable because what Jesus said, He has the final step.

And maybe for some of us, we're in that posture of waiting.

He sees you, he's called you, and and now that he's begun to lay his hands upon you, we're in that space where we're waiting for the breakthrough to take place.

But the Bible says something so significant about this woman.

It says that the moment that she had an encounter with Jesus in the truth of his word, her response in that moment was to give him praise.

I don't know who needs to hear this, but maybe you're still waiting for your breakthrough.

Why don't you still give him praise?

Maybe you're still in the lion's den, but you can still give him praise.

Maybe you're in the midst of the fire right now, but we can still give him praise.

Because what I've seen in scripture is that praise ushers in the presence of God.

And then praise also ushers me out of the situation.

So either way, I'm praising God because I'm not alone in this situation.

So what I believe we have an opportunity to do as a community is that even if I'm in the flames, I'm gonna give him some praise.

Even if I'm disappointed, I'm gonna give him some praise.

Even though I'm still struggling with depression, I'm gonna give him some praise.

Even though my marriage isn't perfect yet, I'm giving God some praise where I'm at because he is worthy.

And all I can say is hallelujah.

And I trust that God is working all things together for the good.

So what we're gonna do as a community, I want everyone to stand on their feet and we're gonna go into a moment where we give God praise.

We're gonna give him some glory, we're gonna lift our hands up and we're gonna acknowledge that God is working on your behalf.

We can give God some praise in your church.

And as we praise God and the blessings go up, I think the power of God comes down and we will see chains get broken.

Let's give God some praise.

Thank you for joining us to learn more about Celebration Orlando, a church devoted to reaching the lost, equipping the found, and helping the hurting.

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