Rising Above Circumstances

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I don’t care about your background. I don’t care about your history.
I don’t care who’s misused you or abused you. You can tell him now.
I’m a child let a kid, because I belong to Jesus Christ, I’m standing up, and I’m a stand up straight.
It doesn’t matter what the preacher says. Doesn’t matter what the people say.
It doesn’t matter what the public says because you know that you’ve been redeemed.
There are far too many people and far too many women who do not know what they’re worth.
And therefore, they have allowed themselves to be devalued by the culture, by men, by other people because circumstances have stripped them of their true value So what I wanna do is is remind you of your value to remind all of us so that you see yourself through kingdom eyes.
And that you have a kingdom vision of your identity.
In Luke chapter 13, we’re introduced to a lady without a name.
Her name is not given to us, so we don’t know what to call her, but we are introduced to her.
In verse 10, and he Jesus was teaching in 1 of the synagogues on the 7th.
And there was a woman who, for 18 years, had had a sickness caused by a spirit and she was bent double and could not straighten up at all.
We’re introduced to a woman. Let’s let’s look at her condition.
Jesus is teaching in the synagogue so the woman was at church.
And she heard the sermon because it says Jesus was teaching. So she went to church.
She got her spot. But when she came to church, she brought an 18 year problem with her.
It says for 18 years, she was bent double.
There was a spine injury of some sort or a spine disease that it caused her to bend over.
And you’ve seen people like that who can’t straighten up, it says. Because she was bent over.
5 too many people a day lived their lives bent over.
In other words, they can’t get stuff straight because it says she couldn’t straighten up.
They can’t get stuff straight.
Stuff saves crooked in their lives, crooked in their relationships, crooked in their priorities crooked in their self analysis.
Now, in you if you are bent over, that means you spend all of your time looking down.
And your focus is always ground level.
In other words, you you can’t look up because you can’t straighten up.
We’re told this woman was bit double for 18 years.
And now we don’t know how old she was, but 18 years is a long time to have the same problem.
Now we don’t know the specific illness.
We do know it had devastating repercussions And I don’t know how long she’d been going to church, but however long she was going to church, going to church never fixed it because she’s still going to church, but she going to church bent over.
I wonder how many people today in this house or in your house listen to the teaching every week bent over.
How many folks say amen while you bent over?
How many folks say praise the lord while you bent over?
How many folks sing the songs while I’ve been bent over because nothing has changed?
The problem you came in with is the problem you leave with.
But we’re given some inside information because we’re told in chapter 13, verse 2, she had a sickness caused by a spirit.
Uh, don’t miss that. She had a sickness caused by the spirit.
Let me take you a little deeper, verse 16.
Says whom Satan has bound for 18 long years.
The devil was behind her problem.
It says the spirit had invaded her physical body, orchestrated by the devil, and the devil was running this woman’s life for 18 years.
Why she went to church?
A number of things can bring about satanic influences in our lives and in our circumstances.
One is there is unaddressed sin that serves as an infection that demons can enter into.
So one possibility is that she had some spiritual issues she was failing to address spiritually creating an open wound that the demons were able to go into and create more havoc in her physical well-being.
In other words, what you need to understand is, like many of the movies you’ve seen, demons need a host.
They need a vehicle through which to express themselves.
And the way they find the host is to find some unaddressed evil that serves as an open wound for them to enter into to cause greater havoc than the wound you started with.
And let me tell you something about demons.
Once they get in, they’re not in a hurry to leave. So we got a 18 year problem.
So something has gone wrong with this woman’s life.
Now every sickness is not due to sin.
Every sickness is not due to disobedience, but there is more that is due to it that we don’t recognize because we don’t have spiritual eyes to see it.
All we see is the circumstance being bent over.
So here’s what I want you to ask your question.
You must ask the question, is my inability to get straight?
To straighten up due to the fact that I got the devil all over me, And I have invited him into my world, and now he won’t go nowhere.
He’s made himself home. He’s built a crib in your physical house.
And so there’s a headache you can’t get rid of. A life ache.
You can’t overcome an addiction. You can’t be delivered from.
See, unless you got eyes to even look in that direction, Kingdom vision, then you you will spend all of your time and all of your money on the wrong thing.
Anybody ever spend a lot of money on the doctor, hospital, or some professional And you’re still no better off?
So that’s our our condition. That’s our situation. This is our problem.
She was being held hostage while going to church.
When Jesus saw her verse 12 says, he called her over and said to her, woman, you are freed from your sickness.
And he laid his hands on her. And immediately, somebody say immediately.
She was made iraq again and began glorifying god.
Oh, this is sweet. Jesus is teaching.
She’s bent over and it has become a lifestyle.
Jesus sees her.
Now she’s not the only one in church.
But he zeroes in on her. But he does something else.
The verse says he calls her over to him. It’s out.
I don’t want you to miss that.
See, you can be in church and still not come to him.
She has a decision to make.
Jesus calls, but will she come?
That decision becomes critical to her health and her healing that when he calls her over, She comes in, and he says to her woman, you are freed from your sickness.
Let’s not go too fast.
Up until this time, we’re told he was teaching.
So he’s preaching the word.
But when she comes, He no longer is speaking generically to the whole congregation.
He says woman, meaning he’s talking to her.
He says, you are freed from your infirmity. That we call that arraignment word.
Alright. Arraignment word is a personal utterance.
See, you can hear that word, but never hear a rhema word.
A rhema word is a word from god that has your name on it.
He’s calling you by name. He’s speaking into your personal situation.
When you come to the synagogue, the church house, you don’t just want to ask god to give you the word, you want your word, uh, a word that speaks into your life.
We’re told that he laid his hands on her.
She got a personal touch. That’s what the Holy Spirit does now.
Physically, Jesus did it when he was alive, but that’s what the Holy Spirit does.
Now it gives you a personal touch and immediately.
She was made a rep again and began glorifying god.
The reason why she needed a touch from Jesus is that a demon and the devil needed to be dealt with.
Not a bad’s fine. A bad spine was fruit, not root.
But because Jesus saw the spiritual, which you’ll see again in a moment, he could touch the reality And I love the word because it shows up so many times in scripture immediately.
Yeah. It says she was made a wreck She stood straight up. Wait a minute.
Are you telling me? You can be messed up for 18 years.
Doctors can’t help you, friends can’t help you, your peeps can’t help you, your passing can’t help you, you can be tow up from the flow up for 18 years and just a touch.
I I I guess the touch from Jesus can turn that thing around overnight.
You’ve been drunk for 18 years. You’ve been a crack head for 18 years.
You’d been going through divorce after divorce after divorce.
You’ve gone through mental anguish for an extended period of time, and you mean to tell me just a touch.
From Jesus can turn that thing around overnight.
But only if you’re willing to recognize the spiritual, and not limit yourself to the circumstantial.
So she she’s getting a praise on according to verse 13, you know, because when when god comes through for you, you can’t keep it to yourself.
So she getting the praise on, she glorifying god up in the house.
But the synagogue official, like the senior pastor, not me, him.
But the city guard official, verse 14, indignant, that means kicked off Because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath began saying to the crowd, because he has a crowd in the house, and this woman had gone crazy, because she glorifying god, there are 6 days in which the work should be done.
So come during them and get healed and not on the Sabbath Day.
Translation, we’re trying to have church up in here.
You didn’t mess with the auto service, but the lord answered him and said, you hypocrite Yeah.
You hypocrites. You too faced.
Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox and his donkey from the stall and lead him away?
To water him.
In other words, you’re not gonna use the Sabbath to deny the responsibility of giving life and well-being to your ox.
You you’re gonna you’re gonna take care of your ox.
Now why are you gonna take care of your ox?
You’re gonna take care of your ox because that’s making you your money.
You see, because in a farming and all of that, you use the ox to plow and all that.
So you, you know, when your money get funny, You’re gonna adjust the rules on the Sabbath. Yeah.
If the boss requires you to work on Sunday, and you’re gonna adjust the rules on the Sabbath.
In other words, what you just condemned, you do.
You take care of needs on the Sabbath that affect you because it’s your ox.
So that affects you. Now everything comes down to what I’m gonna say next.
And this woman, I I don’t know a name.
A daughter of Abraham. So you didn’t you didn’t hear that.
And this woman a daughter of Abraham as she is.
Should Satan have bound her for 18 long years, Should she not have been released from the bond on the Sabbath Day?
He says, Let me tell you about this woman.
She’s a daughter of Abraham.
Now I don’t know a name But Jesus gives her an ID.
Should not this woman who is a daughter of Abraham.
It’s the only time this phrase is used in the Bible.
For some reason, she didn’t get that this was the devil and a spirit causing this.
She runs back Smack into Jesus who sees the spiritual issue.
And he says, to the senior pastor, you hypocrite, This is not merely a bent over woman.
This is a daughter of Abraham.
In other words, while not denying her condition because he had to fix it, He clarifies her identity because far too many women have been given the wrong name.
You’ve you’ve not been given the name based on who you are.
Now now watch this. It says she is a daughter of Abraham, which means for 18 years, She’s been a daughter of Abraham since she currently is a daughter of Abraham, but just because you have the identity don’t mean that you are living in the identity.
Only when she met Jesus, why she dubbed who she really is.
In Genesis chapter 12 verses 1 to 3, God made a promise to Abraham.
And he told Abraham, if you do what I tell you to do, I’m going to bless you.
I’m gonna show favor to you.
And when I show favor to you, here it is, through you, all the nations will be blessed.
So when god made a covenant with Abraham, it was to show favor in order to use the favor to be a blessing to somebody else who needs to see divine favor.
Sometimes god gotta wait, Joe. He knows you ready to open your mouth until you’re ready.
To praise and declare the glory of god. You know what he’s saying?
She’s got the right to be delivered. Oh, yeah. She got the right.
If you got the right to feed your ox, I got the right to feed my daughter.
If you got the right to take care of an animal for your financial game, I got the right to take somebody who’s an offspring of the promise I gave Abraham that says I’m gonna show favor so she can give favor don’t tell me I can’t do what you do every Saturday.
But he makes another point. He says, all y’all talking about is the Sabbath.
Now in the old testament, that was a 7 day, Saturday.
But here’s the key of the Sabbath. For 6 days, you worked.
And then on Saturday, you didn’t work, you worshiped, and you enjoyed and celebrated the goodness of god.
It was a time of freedom and rest.
Jesus say y’all don’t understand the Sabbath.
The Sabbath was designed to set you free and give you rest.
Don’t misunderstand rest. Rest is not sleep. No. On 7th day, god rested when he created.
He didn’t go to sleep. On 7th day when he rested, he enjoyed what he had done the previous 6 days.
When he created the world. So on 7th day, God didn’t take a nap.
He looked out and said, um, I’m good. Oh, I’m good.
He was enjoying what he had done. So you know what?
The Sabbath is for most of us that Sunday, is looking back and seeing the goodness of god over this last 6 days.
God took care of me this last week. He provided for me this last week.
He fed me this last week. He called me this last week. Week.
He sustained me this last week. He empowered me this last week, and I’m just going I’m just going rest.
And celebrate the goodness of god and the land of the living.
He says she got a right to be healed.
She got a right to be delivered.
I want to suggest to you ladies today that you are Couture, not bargain basement.
Because you are a daughter of Abraham.
You say, but but that was Old Testament, not quite.
Because when you read Galatians chapter 3, he says in Galatians 3 verse 6, verse 6.
Even so Abraham believed god, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.
Verse 9, so then, those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.
He says in verse 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written cursed as everyone who hangs on tree.
Verse 14, in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith.
But I’m not finished yet, verse 28. There is neither you nor Greek.
There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male nor female.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendant, heirs according to the promise.
Somebody ought to get excited up in here.
He says, if you have come to Jesus, You are Abraham’s daughter, you’re Abraham’s son, and you are a descendant of the promise which means nobody can put you down anymore.
You walk with your head up high now. Nobody. I don’t care about your background.
I don’t care about your history. I don’t care who’s misused you or abused you. You can tell him now.
I’m a child of the kid. I’m a descendant of Abraham because I belong to Jesus Christ.
You can call me what you want, but I ain’t bent over no more. I’m standing up.
And I’m a stand up straight. If they call you the n word, it don’t matter no more.
You’re a child of a guard.
If they call you another name, it don’t matter no more, the because you know who you are.
You’re a son or daughter of Abraham. If they put you down, it don’t matter no more.
Because once you know who Jesus says you are. It doesn’t matter what the preacher says.
It doesn’t matter what the people say.
It doesn’t matter what the public says because you know that you’ve been redeemed. And guess what?
You gotta right to be sustained.
You gotta right to be proud. You gotta right to be victorious.
You gotta buy the right to be strong.
Oh, don’t don’t don’t don’t bend over no more because Jesus has straightened you up.
When you come to him.
When you become a citizen of a country, you get the rights and privileges that go with that citizenship.
When you become a child of god, there are covenantal privileges that belong to you that are your rights to claim.
The tragedy is when you don’t even know those rights or you don’t utilize those rights, so you don’t benefit those rights But even though you possess those rights, well, if you’re a kingdom citizen, if you’re a child of the king, then you’re underneath his covenant umbrella.
And god wants you to know what to lay hold of, what to lay claim to so that you can benefit from all the good graces that he has provided you as a member of his family.
So don’t live in this world as a citizen of heaven without benefiting from your true citizenship.
Because when you do, you will discover that this world doesn’t have the last say so.
That world that you really do belong to does.