Do You Feel Bound? Jesus Wants to Set You Free! Encouragement from Luke 13:10-17 (A Touch from Jesus Series - Part 3)

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Hello and welcome back to Grace for My Home. I'm Audrey McCracken and I am delighted to be back with you again this week. I hope that you're doing well. We are doing great, getting ready for prom. Nothing more exciting than that. I have three boys, which makes it a little less stressful because you know we just have to pick out a tux and the girl tells us what color. So it's it's a fun season. Um, and I have a lot going on at the coffee shop these days. We have our our summer specials coming out soon, and that's the fun part. You know, if you're gonna run a coffee shop, you you gotta enjoy the the specials and the seasonal drinks, and and that's that's the fun part. You know, the not so fun part is the paying the bills part, you know, those kind of things that have to be done. You know, it's kind of like home. Those things have to be done, but they're not your favorite parts. Today I am continuing with a series that I started about two weeks ago. I'm really not sure what to call this series. Before this series, I did a series on praying for your children. And I thought this series was going to be on praying for yourself, but it's really turned into more of just reaching out to Jesus, you know, believing Jesus to meet you where you are, where you need him. And I with the Praying for Your Children series, I did four studies of parents in the Bible who went to Jesus on behalf of their children. And in this series, I'm doing a series on people who struggled for a long time with a problem, and Jesus met their needs. You know, before Jesus, there really wasn't a whole lot of hope before Jesus, but when Jesus came, he brought light to the entire world. As I'm recording this, we're in Holy Week. Today is Tuesday of Holy Week, and you know, I try to take some time each day to stop and think about what does Jesus mean to me? What does my salvation mean to me? And we're so blessed, we're so extremely blessed that Jesus came to the earth and he brought hope, not just for a little group or a few people, but for the entire world, those who will believe, those who will receive. And I just I thank him for that. I thank him that he did not leave me where I was. He came, he found me, he touched me, he touched my heart, he changed me forever. And that's what this series is about. It's about when Jesus comes on the scene, doesn't matter how dark it is, doesn't matter how long it's been that way, he speaks into the darkness and he brings light and he brings hope. And this is a season of hope. Jesus warned his disciples, I'm going to be crucified, I'm going to die, and you will scatter. And they didn't get it, they didn't understand. I don't know if it was just uncomprehendable, but Jesus warned them. And when he lay in that tomb, I know that it had to be the darkest of nights, the light of the world that these men had believed in, had dedicated their life to, was dead. And I'm sure many of them felt a heavy weight of responsibility because they scattered just like he said they would. They ran and left him by himself. But that dark place was going to be interrupted by the light of him returning, of him being raised from the dead by the power of God, by the power of his father. And that is our hope today. That is our life today, that Jesus is alive. The story I want to share with you this week comes out of the Gospel of Luke, and it starts in verse 10, and I'll read it for you. It says, And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath, and there was a woman who for 18 years had had a sickness caused by spirit, and she was bent double and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and he said to her, Woman, you are free from your sickness. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. But the synagogue official,

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because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, There are six days in which work should be done, so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day. And the Lord answered him and said, You hypocrites, does not each one of you on the Sabbath untie his ox and his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? And this woman, a daughter of Abraham, as she is, whom Satan had bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from her bond on the Sabbath day? As he said this, all his opponents were being humiliated, and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by him. So here we have Jesus. He goes into the synagogue, he's teaching on the Sabbath, and he sees this woman. And you notice in this story, unlike the last one, unlike the story I shared last week, where the woman pressed into him, in this situation, he calls her out. He calls this woman out and he touches her. She's been bent over for 18 years. He lays his hands, his hands on her, and immediately she is she's healed, she's raised up, she can stand up straight, and she begins glorifying God. Don't you know we would too? I mean, you've had this ailment for 18 years, and out of nowhere, unexpectedly, God touches you. She is ecstatic, and instead of being excited, overwhelmed in awe, the official of the synagogue is angry because it's the Sabbath. And he tells them it are six days for work, and why don't you come back during one of those to be healed? Not on the Sabbath. And I just I there's a part of me, I don't know the situation, the scenario, but I just find this humorous. You know, how many miracles had this man seen on the other six days is what I want to know. You know, it sounds like, oh, we we have healings all the time. Come one of those days and and be healed, but not on the Sabbath. You know, here is a woman who for 18 years has not been able to stand up straight, and God immediately touches her, and everybody is excited, and he's just mad because of the day of the week that it is. And Jesus, being Jesus, he sets the record straight. He says if it's a Sabbath and you have a donkey or you have an ox, you're gonna untie that animal, that beast, from the stall, and you're gonna lead him to drink. And how much more important is this woman? She is a child of God, she is a daughter of Abraham, and she's been set free from her bondage on the Sabbath. How much more important is she than your donkey or your ox? And he points out the hypocrisy of this. In another run-in that Jesus had with the Pharisees, he and they rebuked him for doing something on the Sabbath. He said, I am the Lord of the Sabbath. You know, Jesus knew the law. He kept the law, he did not disobey the law. And if he says that this was not breaking the Sabbath, it wasn't. They had created so many rules and regulations, and the point of the rule and the regulation was to keep the law. But those rules and regulations had become laws in themselves that didn't even mirror the heart of the law that it was supposed to protect. And this is one of those situations. They had so regulated what was allowed and not allowed on the Sabbath that Jesus couldn't even do a miracle on the Sabbath without being accused of breaking the Sabbath. See, God cares about the person. God cared about this woman. Jesus saw her. You know, I wonder how many people she walked past who just ignored her or didn't make, couldn't make eye contact with her because she's been over. You know, she's been around for a long time, 18 years like this. People probably didn't even acknowledge her anymore. You know, she was part of the furniture, part of, you know, just something that that we're very familiar with. But Jesus saw her. Jesus cared about her situation. To him, she was a person. She wasn't work. She was a person that God cared about and wanted to set free. You know, I've often thought about Jesus and you know, he came to the earth and he wasn't trying to impress anyone. He was trying to obey his father. And he spent a lot of time with sick people. You know, he spent a lot of time with the down and out, with those who had needs. God meets needs, and he reaches out and touches those who need him. And if you have a need today, if you feel like you have an issue today that is just, it's just a burden on you, it's bending you over, it has you bound. I just want to tell you that you're in good company today, because that's where Jesus is. That's who he hangs out with, those in need, because he has the answer to our needs. He has the answer to our problems. He is the answer to our problems. And we're other people perhaps they don't recognize that we're bound, that we're bent over, that we're struggling. Maybe, you know, they're they've got their mind on other things. Jesus sees and cares, and he calls this woman out. I don't know her situation. I don't know her circumstance. I don't know if she had any hope that she would ever be healed. But Jesus calls her out and says, Woman, you are set free. Isn't that awesome? You are set free. And Jesus loves to set us free. For 18 years she had struggled with this. And from one touch of Jesus, she was she was healed. She was redeemed. She was set free, and she was glorifying God, and everybody else was glorifying God with her. See, when God does something in your life, when you can share what God has done in you, it will it will stir faith in the hearts of other people because what God has done for you, he can do for others. Will he do do it for others? Does he always do the same thing for others? No. But if we don't know that he does miracles, if we don't know that he answers prayers, then we don't pray. And then we never get to see God move in a miraculous way. But when we build each other's faith, when we see things like this in the Word, where God is saying, This is my nature. I am a healer, I am one who delivers, I am one who cares about the down and out, I am one who cares about the things that are weighing you down. That builds our faith to ask. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you shall find, knock, and it will be given to you. And this is an example for us today that Jesus cares. You are a daughter of God. Jesus wants to set you free. He wants to touch us. He wants to use our story to bring glory to him and to bring hope and faith to others. His nature is to heal, to redeem, to set free. He is gracious and compassionate. He is not legalistic. This synagogue leader couldn't even rejoice in the miracle of God because of his religious and legalistic mindset. He had in his mind what God could do and couldn't do. And if we live that way, we'd miss out on the miracles. And how sad. You know, God is doing something new right in front of this man. And instead of participating and enjoying it and seeing the power of God move and being excited for that, he's angry because God doesn't play by his rules. He can't figure them out. Won't you let the Lord do a miracle in your life today? Won't you let him set you free from things that have had you bound? Ask him. Reach out to him. Let this woman's story light the hope in your heart that not only can he do it, but he wants to do it. And what he's done for others, he can do for you. And then you will have a testimony. You will have something to share with other people who need to hear that God does miracles. I can't promise you what God's gonna do. We talked about this a few weeks ago when we talked about the mother of James and John who went to Jesus and said, This is what I want. And Jesus said, I can't give you that. But I can promise you your kids will have a place in my kingdom. She wanted to pick the place, and Jesus said, I can't I can't give you that, but I can promise you they'll have a place. And see, that's that's how it is when you serve God. You get things that you never would have imagined, but you don't necessarily get exactly what you asked for. And part of that is learning to trust, learning to let go of the outcome, learning to believe that God can meet me where I'm at, he can set me free from these things that bind me up, he can give me a new mind. But I have to trust him that he wants the best for me, that he has good things for me. And I encourage you this week to seek him, to ask for miracles, to allow him to jump out of your box, the box you've put him in, and said he can do this and he can do that, but he can't do this over here. Let him, let him do, let him work his way. Let him do whatever he wants to do in your life. Let him expand your hope so you can see things in a new light. I hope that this has been encouraging for you this week. I love coming in to you and sharing. You know, when I share the word, understand that I I get it too. Like I can't prepare these messages for you and not be blessed because God's word is life and it's light, and it's just a reminder to me that I can pray, I can ask, I can seek, and he cares. He has compassion on those who come to him. I would like to ask a favor of you this week. If you know someone who could use this message, if this message has spoken to you and you know a friend who could use this message, would you please share it with them? That would mean the world to me. That's why I do this. You know, why spend the time and the energy and the money to do this if it's not going to go to as many people as it possibly can? So if you have a friend, your sister, your mom, whoever, whoever you think would be blessed by this message, would you share it with them this week? I would really appreciate that. And before you go, I'd like to pray with you. Father, in Jesus' name, we come to you today, and I pray, Lord, for my friend. And I pray, Lord, for renewed hope and strength. I pray, Lord God, in heaven, that you would shine your light on her, that she would not walk in darkness, but Lord, that she would see your marvelous light and run to that. I pray, Lord God, that where there has been doubt, where there has been fear, where there has been unbelief, that Lord, you would show her that you are already there. You are working on her case. Lord, I ask you to give her hope in her heart, Lord God, and a joy that, Lord, only you can bring. God, let her see all the circumstances in her life, everything she's been worried about, everything that's troubled her mind. Let her see those things through your eyes, Lord, that you're not afraid and you're already there and you've got her back. And Lord, when you're on our side, Lord, what can the enemy do to us? What can man do to us? Lord, you are our strength, and we love you and we give you honor in Jesus' name. Amen.