Rising Above Circumstances

Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually.

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 their 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. Amen.
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 you in 1 of the synagogues on the summit.
And there was a woman who, for 18 years, had had a sickness caused by a spirit and she was bit 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 being bent over because nothing has changed.
The problem you came in with is the problem you leave 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.
Oh, 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 a Raimo word. Alright.
A Raimo 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 erect 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. It’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 just a 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’ve 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 getting a praise on according to verse 13, you know, because when when god comes through for you, you can’t keep it to