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Well, listen, our Atlanta locations are streaming in today.
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Make some noise for atl, everybody. Come on, Jersey. Make some noise for atl.
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Man, we're excited. We're excited about all that God is doing. And let's get to the word. We're in the book of Luke today. Chapter number 13. Man, I'm super excited. We're in part 11. Okay, I got 13 people excited. Let's try that again.
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Every location. We're in part 11.
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Of the go to series. Luke 13, verse 10 says, on a Sabbath, Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. And when Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up. Praise God. Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and she praised God. I want to tag this title to this text in our time together, I want to talk from this subject. I need some straightening. Clap your hands everywhere if you're ready for God's word. I need some straightening. Family, in one of his most popular works, author and thought leader Peter Scazzero says in his book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality that it is impossible to be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. In other words, spiritual growth requires emotional healing. Holiness, Come here. Requires wholeness. After Christ gives us a new heart, he has to help us work through some old hurts. So, family, it's important for us to know that even though my spirit is saved, my soul is still carrying some scars. And as a consequence, I can be forgiven. Still fractured on my way to heaven, while still carrying some hurt, delivered but damaged.
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And is there anybody in any location that is honest enough to admit, I'm.
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Traveling down your street, have pulled up.
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Into your driveway, came in the living room, didn't even ring the doorbell, went into the kitchen, got some Kool Aid and some Red Bull.
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Come on.
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Delivered and damaged. And when this is not accurately understood, individuals are unable to live out their purpose because they're stuck in their programming. See, our past doesn't just pass away. Our past produces patterns. And a lot of what we're calling our temperament might actually just be our trauma. And a lot of what we are calling our personality might just be our pain. Maybe we aren't wired that way. Maybe we've been wounded that way. Maybe we aren't Built that way. Maybe we've been broken that way. And if we don't deal with the damage, we will turn seasons into cycles and we'll confuse our dysfunction with our design. But I believe I'm talking to some people at every location today that have a revelation that is going to cause a revolution in your life. That you were not wired to live wounded and you were not saved to stay stuck. Hallelujah. That God did not bring me out of Egypt just for me to die in the wilderness. If he brought me out of Egypt, I'm going all the way into Canaan. I'm not settling for first way. I'm not setting a tent in second way. I'm settling for third way. I cried too much, I prayed too hard, I fasted too long, and I survived too much to stay here. The enemy owes me back pay, and I'm coming for everything he owed me. And if this resonate, if this revelation is resonating with you, I've got some good news for you this morning. I said, if this revelation is resonating with you, I got some good news for you. I said, if this revelation is resonating with you, I got some good news for you. Yeah. I can't be a gospel preacher and not give you some good news. Do you want some good news? Here's the good news. Your Savior is also a surgeon. I feel like running. I said, your Savior is also a surgeon. He's called the great physician. And this surgeon has never lost a patient. He doesn't just treat the symptoms. He deals with the sickness. His sickness scalpel is the truth. His anesthesia is grace. And his operating room is the church. You didn't just come to a service today. You came to surgery. And I want somebody that wants Jesus to work on you. To throw your hands up in the air and say, work on me, Jesus. Work on me until I get free. Work on me until I get strong. Work on me until I get focused. Work on me until. My testimony is that a weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning. Work on me. Why y'all got me preaching so happy this morning?
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Our Savior is also a surgeon.
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He doesn't just stitch wounds.
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He restores wholeness. So if you bring him your brokenness, he'll bring you his wholeness. If you'll surrender your scars, he'll supply the strength. And when he's done operating on you, your testimony will be the testimony of Job.
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When Job said, he knows the way.
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That I take, but when he has tried me, I shall come forth as pure gold.
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My past helps explain me, but my.
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Past won't define me.
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Did you hear what I just said?
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My past may explain me, but my.
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Past won't define me. My past may be the reason I am the way I am, but my past is not the reason I have to stay where I am. Because my Savior is a surgeon and the surgeon wants to do some straightening.
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And everything I'm trying to articulate is here in the text that we just read together in Luke, chapter number 13. Luke chapter 13 exposes us to an encounter Jesus has when he is teaching in a synagogue, when he is exposed to an issue that Luke describes this way. A woman is crippled by a spirit for 18 years. I'm going to say that one more time. I said, luke says there's a woman in the synagogue who's crippled by a spirit that has her unable to straighten up her back for 18 years.
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I'm going to say that one more time. Luke says there's a woman in the synagogue. In the synagogue who's. That's it.
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Who's crippled by his spirit that won't allow her to straighten up her back for 18 years.
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Now Luke tells us what's happening with her. Charles Spurgeon tells us how what's happening with her shows us what happens with us.
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See, Spurgeon says that the literal miracles.
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In the New Testament can be metaphors for the spiritual miracles God wants to work in your life. So Spurgeon says if all we do is look at the literal miracles literally, then we minimize the ministry of the Master. Because if all Jesus can do is heal physical sickness, when we got an emotional issue, we're in trouble. When we've got a relational issue, we're in trouble. So when you see Jesus healing blind eyes in the Bible, even if you're not physically blind, you ought to be excited and ecstatic. Because that means just like he healed phys. Physical blindness, he can heal spiritual blindness. Cause sometimes you hadn't lost your sight, but you lost your vision. Let me go to this side. I said sometimes you didn't lose your sight, but you lost your vision. And when Jesus heals blind eyes, he restores your vision back to you. I feel a little Pentecostal and prophetic this morning. I pray that God give somebody who's lost it they vision back. I don't know what took your vision. Maybe failure took your vision. Maybe pain took your vision. Maybe stagnation took your vision. But just like he healed blind eyes in the Bible, he can heal your vision. May 2025 be the year you get your vision back.
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Am I making sense? So when you see a miracle in the Bible and Jesus enables someone who couldn't hear physically to be able to hear, what Charles Spurgeon is saying is.
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That you need to look at that.
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And recognize that there are times when we can't hear spiritually. Where's my honest section?
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Right where?
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Okay, well, maybe some of you just hear God all the time. You just.
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No, Pastor, that's not me. I always. Well, for the rest of us who.
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Sometimes find ourselves in situations where we've.
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Got to make decisions, and we know the importance of decisions. We know that every decision is pregnant with the potential to produce a season. You didn't hear what I just said. I said every decision is pregnant with the potential to produce a season. Some people are living through a whole season based off one decision. You can decide it in three seconds and have to deal with it for three months. Come on here. So when you understand the consequential nature.
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Of your choices, when you understand that.
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Your ability to choose is a gift.
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From God, when you understand that when.
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God created the human species, he created the human species with something called volition. We call it free will. He says, create man, put him in the garden, and then let them eat. So they had the ability to choose because God could not create a species, the human species, that he wanted to love him without giving that species the power to choose.
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Love requires choice.
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So am I making sense here?
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So now.
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And this is what happens when people don't understand this. They blame God for when humans mismanage the gift of choice.
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Right?
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So when. So when. So when bad people make bad choices, and those bad choices create bad consequences for other people, then we end up looking at God saying, God, what are you doing? And God's like, that's not me. I gave them the gift of choice. That's not me not being God. That's not me not being all I'm supposed to be. That's them not being all they're supposed to be. Because the gift of choice is like a brick.
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You can build a home with it, or you can injure somebody with it. The problem is not the gift of choice. The problem is who's doing the choosing. And he gives the gift of choice because this is how you co create with him. He gives you vision, which is a picture of a preferred future. This is what I want to do with your life. Then he gives you choice, and he wants to influence those choices. This is what the Old Testament Calls ordering your steps.
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Come on here. So he gives a preview of where he wants to take you.
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That's called vision.
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We might call it destiny. That's his desired destination for you. And he's already given you the gift of choice. And you have to use the gift of choice to choose in alignment with what he's chosen.
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So he wants to influence your choices. And that's called ordering your steps.
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The steps of a good man.
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Now, I know some of y'all grew up Baptist.
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You should have helped me preach right there. I'm gonna do it one more time. I said, the steps of a good man.
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Are ordered by the Lord. Steps are systematic and sequential patterns of movement that move you from one place to the next.
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Systematic.
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Left foot, right foot, right foot, left foot, sequential, one after the other. So your steps are your decisions because you make systematic and sequential decisions. And it moves you from one place to another. So when God says, I'm going to order your steps, he's not saying, I'm going to move your feet. He's saying, I'm gonna influence your choices.
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Are you hearing what I'm saying?
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And those of us who understand the power of choice, at some times, if you're honest, we deal with anxiousness when it comes time to make some choices, when we don't feel like we clear on what choice God want us to make.
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Am I making sense?
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Sometimes it's like Jesus, now, I need to do something here, but I don't.
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Know what to do. And you know what to do. But I want to do what you want me to do because I got some experience that I know how to do what I want to do. Yeah, but doing what I want to do hadn't seemed to work out for me. So at this point, I'm like, here are the keys. I'm just. I got to get somebody else to do it. I don't even trust my own decision making at this point. But I need you to order my steps.
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But sometimes all the other voices are so loud, I need him to heal my hearing. So the physical miracles in the Bible are metaphors for spiritual miracles. So when we see Luke telling us that there's a woman who's dealing with this condition that has her crippled, I don't want you to just see her in the text. I want you to see you in the text. Because this woman being crippled. Watch this. This is important. Means her movement wasn't absent. It means her movement was limited. She wasn't paralyzed.
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That means she couldn't move at all.
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But her Movement was impaired.
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Come on here. She could step, but her steps were slow. Her posture was slowing down.
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Her pace, her acceleration was impacted.
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She was moving, but she wasn't moving at the speed of her potential. She was moving at the mercy of her pain. And if we would all pause and be honest for a minute, we would have to admit, if we are objective, that there are some areas in our life where we moving, but we moving slow. Where we're progressing, but we're not progressing according to our potential, progressing at the mercy of our pain. Is there anybody honest enough to say there are some areas of my life where I want them to be moving faster?
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And there are times where others are perplexed as to why you're not satisfied with your pace. Because they're coveting a pace you're not satisfied with.
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And they don't understand how you are.
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Not satisfied with your pace. It's because they're comparing their pace to.
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Your pace when you're comparing your pace to your potential. Because I'm not going to be held accountable whether or not I'm faster than you. I'm gonna be held accountable with how I'm stewarding what God gave me. And you might be happy with where I am. That doesn't mean I have to be happy with where I am. Because I know what God put on the inside of me and I gotta be accountable for my potential. So you're not satisfied? No.
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Content, but not satisfied.
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I'm grateful, but not satisfied. I'm thankful for what he's done, but I'm anticipating what he's getting ready to do. I'm a praise him for what he's already done. And then I'm going to praise him prophetically for what he's getting ready to do. And if you don't believe he's getting ready to do something, be quiet. But for everybody that believes God for.
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18 years, her pace is at the mercy of. Of a pain. Luke says something that was interesting, though. He says, Donna, he says there's a spirit that caused a crippling.
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Did you hear what I just said?
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She says there's something that we can't see that's causing the condition that we can see.
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Say that one more time. Luke says there's a spirit, right, that's contributing to her condition. So we could see her condition. She can't straighten her back up. Making sense. But there's something we can't see that is causing. Contributing to the condition that we can see. We see the symptom. Luke tells us the source Listen to me. I'm going to say this one more time, and I believe every location is going to get this when I say this one more time. There was something that we couldn't see that was contributing to the condition that we could see. There was something we could see she couldn't straighten out.
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Who's going to help me preach this?
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We could see she couldn't straighten her back out. But the reason she couldn't straighten something out was because of something we couldn't see. Did you hear what I just said? So no matter how many muscle relaxers she got, you aren't talking to me. No matter how many chiropractors she went to see, no matter how much stressing, stretching she got done, she couldn't have straightened it out. Because if there was a muscle relaxer or a chiropractor or stretching, they would have been dealing with the symptom, but not the source. Her back was bent, but that's not what was broken. So you couldn't straighten out what you could see until you fixed the thing that you couldn't see. And there are some things now, if you Baptist, you should have said something right there. There are some things.
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That we can't straighten out because there are some things we haven't dealt with that we can't see. This is another one of a million reasons why the Bible prohibits judging. Because we see the condition, but we don't see the contributor.
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And you don't know what shape you would have been in.
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Let me go over here.
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You don't know what condition you would have been in had you experienced the spiritual warfare she was experiencing. This was not a godly spirit that was affecting her. This was an evil spirit that was affecting her. This is a result of spiritual warfare. Notice this. I need somebody to talk back to.
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Me at every location here.
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And Luke says, Chris, Luke says, she's in the synagogue. I need somebody to help me preach it. She's in the synagogue. She's in church. Still not straightened out. On the Dream team. Still not straightened out. Went through change track. Still not straightened out. Cause the synagogue doesn't straighten you out. The Savior straightens you out. But she had enough resilience to keep coming to the synagogue. Because what if she decided the one Saturday that Jesus was going to show up is the one Saturday she skipped? But she happened to be in the right place at the right time. And that's why somebody got in their car and they drove and they got through the traffic. Because Jesus might just show up. She kept coming. Cause Today might be my day. Today might be my day. Today might be my day. Today might be my day. Worship was good, but I didn't get healed. But today might be my day. Today might be my day. And what ends up happening is she gets introduced to not just the Savior, she gets introduced to the surgeon. Did you hear what I just said? She didn't just get introduced to the Savior. She got introduced to the surgeon. Jesus used her situation as an opportunity to give a revelation of an aspect of him she didn't know existed. They just knew him as a rabbi. They just knew him as one who could teach. But Jesus is using their situation to show them, I can do more than teach. If you're gonna be goaded, I got to do more than teach you. You gotta let me touch you. It is God showing us a side of himself in the midst of our crisis. I don't know who's in a situation, but God might want to use your situation as an opportunity to give you a revelation that I'm more than a teacher.
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I can touch. 18 years, she is dealing with a wound that's a result of warfare. And somebody has probably diagnosed her condition by the symptom. If somebody asked her what was wrong with her, she would have probably said, I got a bad back.
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Did you hear what I just said?
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For 18 years, she's thinking, I got a bad back. And when I was reading this Wednesday, as I was preparing this, I'm saying to myself, brother Ira, I said, wait. It seems like the gospel writers randomly tell us the amount of years certain people dealt with certain issues, just like randomly, like John 5, the man of.
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The pool of Bethesda, it tells us 38 years.
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Mark 5 with the one with the issue of blood.
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It tells us 12 years, right?
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The man who we talked about a couple of weeks ago, whose son was dealing with the spirit that would cause.
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These seizures, he was dealing with it since birth.
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And I started thinking about this woman. 18 years.
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Why did the gospel writers do this? I don't know, but here's what we.
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Can learn from it. The time and the tenure that you deal with an issue reveals who you really believe has the last say about your issue. Did you hear what I said?
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The time that we deal with an.
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Issue reveals what you really believe is sovereign.
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Because if I dealt with this 18 years, it's easy to believe that I am going to have to deal with.
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This for the next 18 years.
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Because if it hasn't changed in all of this time, what makes me think it's going to change this time. That attitude is an indication you believe time is sovereign, not God. Come on here. Whenever you get a revelation of sovereignty, you understand time. Two things can't be sovereign at the same time. Two things can have power at the same time, but two things can't be sovereign at the same time. Somebody's gotta have the last say. And I wanna ask you, does the time of the issue have the last say, or does your savior have the last say? I came to tell somebody. It doesn't matter how long it's been. 18 years, 38 years, 12 years, or your whole life. When your issue meets your surgeon, then your issue has to bow its knee to your master. Y'all ready to go?
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I don't want us to just see her in the text. I want us to see us in the text. Because there are certain things that we can see that we can't straighten out because we hadn't dealt with what we can't see. And there was a spirit that was at work in this woman. And I would imagine. I'm making an exegetical assumption here, but I would imagine you don't have that condition without some pain. Y'all see where I'm going here? We're turning the corner. You see where I'm going? I said I would imagine you can't have that issue that long without some sort of pain. So part of the way she was an object of spiritual warfare was pain. And as it was with her, so it can be with us. The enemy can use pain to keep us from being able to straighten some things out. This was pain in her body. But the enemy will use pain in our soul because a broken soul leads to a bent life.
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Come on, Church. You remember last week we talked about soul wounds which are injuries to our innermost being that occur as a result of negligent acts of omission and harmful acts of commission done to us or by us. And many people can't straighten family out or company out or emotions out or relations out because their soul wound won't let them straighten up.
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So I need some straightening, and the surgeon wants to do some straightening. Jesus, listen to this. Jesus. Family has paid for our healing. Did you hear what I just said? But we gotta position ourselves to receive it. Healing is not automatic. It requires our participation. Just as a doctor can prescribe treatment and the patient's gotta take the medicine. God offers healing, we gotta position ourselves to receive it. So there are some specific postures and perspectives we need to embrace to fully walk in the healing he provides I'm done.
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Here it is.
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Let me give you these postures and perspectives. Number one, we've gotta. We have to make sure we acquire the right perception. Somebody say perception? You can't heal what you won't see. I didn't say, come on here.
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Don't help me preach now. I didn't say you can't heal what you don't see, what you can't see. I'm saying you can't heal all that's true, but you can't heal what you won't see. Come on here. Am I making sense? Yeah. You can't fix what you won't face. And here's some people's issue.
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Some people have done this. They've come to their own conclusions about their condition. They've diagnosed themselves.
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Did you hear what I just said? Yep. You may be right about what you're dealing with, but that doesn't mean you're.
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Right about why you're dealing with it.
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And some people can't fix the what.
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Because they've already come to the conclusions about the why.
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They're like the man at the pool of Bethesda when Jesus simply asks the man, do you want to be made whole? And Jesus. And this man starts giving Jesus all the reasons he isn't whole yet. Well, the angel only come one time a year and stir the water. And when somebody. When he stirred the water, somebody get in the water before me. And I don't have anybody to help me. Everybody hating on me, they throwing shade at me, they crashing out on me. Jesus said, do you want to get up or not? See, I'm trying to show you the reason you think you're stuck is not the reason you're actually stuck. And if you'll let me show you the reason you're actually stuck, I can get you unstuck.
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So I need a soul check.
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Am I protecting my wounds instead of.
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Allowing God to heal them? I need the right perception. I'm done, man of God. I need the right posture. Healing flows where humility grows. Our healing requires our participation.
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But you can't be healed if you'd rather be right.
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It's got to be a recognition. God, I can't do this. I've been able to fix that, but I can't fix this. I can't do surgery on myself. Soul check is my pride keeping my soul in prison. Number three, the right process. If you rush the process, you risk relapse. Because God uses the process to create some things to make freedom permanent. If you rush the process, God won't build in you the things you need to properly steward the freedom he's going to provide. If you look at the text, her freedom was processed. He spoke. King James says, woman, thou art loose from thine infirmity. That's what he spoke. Then the text says, he laid hands on her. He touched her. Come on. Then she straightened up and praised God.
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So when he spoke, her body didn't get free.
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Her body got free when he touched.
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Cause God's like to straighten you out, I gotta deal with your mind, your spirit. Then I can get to your body. Come on here. I gotta deal with your ego, your assumptions. Then I can fix the relationship. It's a process.
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It's a process. Soul check. Am I committed to healing or just looking for quick relief? Number four. The right partnership. The right people accelerate healing. The wrong ones reinforce brokenness. Soul check. Are my relationships leading me toward healing or keeping me in cycles of hurt? I'm going to say this and then I'm moving on to point five. I promise you. Just, you might want to write this down or memorize it or something. It might apply now or it might apply later. It's hard to stay healed if you walk in with the reason you broken. All right, number five. I can't get fully healed before I'm re injured. Number five. Patterns. Healing is not just about removing the wound. It's about retraining your soul so you no longer return to patterns that are product of your pain. Your pains created some patterns. And even when God removes the condition, you got to relearn new patterns. There's got to be a new normal that you got to develop. Like if you've been hurt and betrayed. When you feel somebody start getting close, there are patterns. Some of you start withdrawing. It's too good to be true. Something wrong. Patterns. And so even when the pain is gone, the patterns still take time. Lord, don't just deliver me from the pain, deliver me from patterns. Soul check. Do I love the old me more than new freedom?
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This is the way I've always been. But that's a pattern. That's a product of pain. And God just dealt with the pain.
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We have to shift the pattern. We're done. We're done. Hallelujah. Jesus wants to do some straightening. My father's pinky finger doesn't fully extend. I was 13 years old. We were playing basketball. I hit it, it broke. My dad, old school, he didn't go to the doctor. So he can use it, but he can't straighten it. So because he can't straighten it. It's limited in its use. Here's what's cool though. It don't hurt, but he still can't use it fully. It doesn't hurt because it healed. It just didn't heal straight. And so one day I asked him, I said, rev, why do you ever get your finger fixed? He said, well, I went to the doctor and she told me she'd have to re break it. And some of our hearts look like my dad's hand. There's something that happened. It doesn't hurt, but you don't have full use of the heart for Jesus to do some straightening. He says, you're going to have to let me touch that hurt place again. You don't want to think about it no more, but you're going to have to let me touch that again. And it's going to feel like I'm hurting you, but I'm healing you. Because if you'll let me touch it one more time, you're not just going to heal. You're going to heal right? Receive this, Father. I pray for each and every person under the sound of my voice that needs some straightening. Would you, kind Father, do it as only you can. You heal the brokenhearted, and you bind up their wounds. I pray for Father wounds of abandonment. I pray for wounds of abuse. I pray for wounds of betrayal. I pray for wounds that were incurred during divorce. I pray for wounds that come from bad business partnerships. I pray for wounds that come from bad breakups. And I pray that the potter would put the broken pieces of people's hearts back together again. Do it all. I pray in the name of Jesus. Somebody say yes. Say Amen. Clap your hands everywhere.