The Jesus Touch Series

The Jesus Touch

or,

“The Day No One Remembered Jesus’ Sermon”

Topic: Freedom from Crushing/Debilitating Burdens through Jesus

Thesis: Make Use of the Reality Jesus Sets us Free from Oppressive Burdens

Obviously need to rework the above . . . .

Aim: To motivate people to seek and give healing/releasing freedom in Jesus

INTRODUCTION

A dilapidated, vacant storefront near downtown Monroe is getting a makeover

that could turn the building into a real beauty.

The former Monroe Hobby Shop at 317 S. Monroe St. is being remade into a

sprawling office complex with enough space to hold up to five businesses.

Cincinnati businessman Paul Bartel bought the property in January to house a

statewide distribution center for his Baroque Violin Shop, a full-service shop

that rents, repairs and sells stringed instruments.

After purchasing the storefront and neighboring vacant lot, he began the process

of gutting and rebuilding the structure. Extensive renovations have been ongoing

to rebuild the floor, roof and walls of the structure, which was previously declared

a dangerous building by the city.

Mr. Bartel, who calls himself a "renovator," said the idea is to transform the space into a usable gem with a lot of character.

"We should have something really unique when it’s done," he said. "I like to take things that are pretty run down and make them into something special."

Don’t most of us love stories that take something run down that get turned into something special? That take something

• Broken and give it Healing

• Restore what is beyond Repair

• That Release what is Oppressed

• That Free what is bound

Many of us can identify with not being quite right. With people not accepting us for who we are—afraid that if people REALLY knew us we wouldn’t be welcomed. Maybe that is what draws us to stories of redemption and transformation—even if they are fairy tales like the “Ugly Duckling.”

Let’s take a look at the life of one woman who experienced such redemption and transformation in

LUKE 13:10-17

Jesus teaching: Jesus teaches like no other. The Bible says in several places that crowds are “astonished” at how he teaches, because he has authority, and doesn’t just build off of what other rabbi’s have said. But what I thought was interesting is that NO MENTION is made about WHAT Jesus taught that day. It is as if NO ONE REMEMBERED what he preached. Now, I am not surprised if you don’t remember what I preach—but JESUS???

Maybe it is something about what he did that day? What did he do?

He simply took a woman who had been bound for 18 years, buckled under the weight of Satan somehow, and SET HER FREE! He gave her total freedom that day, with JUST A TOUCH> Don’t we all long for the touch of Jesus? TOTAL FREEDOM:

FREEDOM from her physical torture—after 18 LOOOONG years

FREEDOM Before God: Immediately she began to praise Him

FREEDOM before Man: Jesus called her a “daughter of Abraham” and when

she stood tall before them, it wasn’t just physically that she was tall

and straight. All her shame and pain was whisked away.

FREEDOM from Satan: Somehow he was behind it all and now he longer had a grip on her

FREEDOM Apart from Man’s pettiness and hypocrisy: sometimes we sinfully would rather keep people where they are at. Fortunately Jesus is greater and will give Freedom to us even if others would refuse us.

If we gain nothing else today, we need to grab on to the fact that

Big Idea: Jesus Offers—and Delivers Freedom From the Oppressive Weight of Satan

All evil and sin in this world is the result of our collaboration with Satan, the Father of Lies, who is bent on our Destruction. In one way or another we can trace all evil, all hardship, all disease, all brokenness back to the Garden of Eden, and “the Fall of man.”

Most of us all all too aware of him. And while some are enamored by him—glorying in evil and darkness, his most effective work might be the deception that he is not at work at all in the world. That we don’t see him in anything, especially physical brokenness

The woman that Jesus healed on that Sabbath Day experienced a physical healing—to be sure—she had been bent over for 18 years! But we shall not miss that her crippled state was somehow tied to the work of Satan. However Satan was involved in her malformation, we must never forget that he is alive and at work in many ways in this world, and our battle is not just about the redemption of our physical nature—though all creation and those that are in Jesus Christ will be physically redeemed and transformed on that day, the day of the Lord—but our battle is a spiritual battle that deals with our minds and hearts, with our spirit, our soul!