The reading tonight is from Luke chapter 13 verses 10 to 17 and that is found on page 1046. That's Luke chapter 13 verses 10 to 17. 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. 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. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, There are six days for work, so come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath. The Lord answered him, you hypocrites, doesn't each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for 18 long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her? When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated. but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. Amen. Well, I often think that congregations such as this, you really should have seat belts along with the seats that you sit in. because we tend to think that when it comes to the sermon, you know, it's kind of time to sit back and if you can get away with it, just kind of close your eyes maybe, and it's a nice kind of relaxing time when you're able to take in the word of God being preached. You need seat belts. And you need seat belts because the teaching of the word of God is invariably explosive. That's what we find Jesus in this passage doing. He is simply teaching the Word of God and It is really quite dynamic what happens here in this particular situation and we're meant to understand that this indeed is what always happens when the Word of God is Released you remember how the book of the Bible starts Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 it's dark and it's void and it's just a kind of blank canvas and the Spirit of God is hovering over the face of the earth and then we read, and God spoke. The Word of God was released into that, and it was sheer dynamite. I was quite naughty once. Before evening worship, I played Haydn's Creation, at least the first bit of Haydn's Creation. Now, that just shows a little bit of culture for you. Haydn composed this bit of music that really follows through the narrative of Genesis 1. which describes the creation, hence it's called the creation, followed through musically. So there's the music at the background and the words of scripture just being sung through it. And to start with, it is very kind of soft. The earth was without form and void and so on. The spirit of God was hovering over. I mean, it takes a long time to get through all that. And there was a lady, quite an elderly lady, who was hard of hearing and she turned to me because I was sitting at the back by the controls and said, could you turn the volume up? And I thought, oh, you do not know what's about to hit you. But I said, yeah, I'll turn the volume up so that she could hear this soft bit of music that was just playing, you know, as it does. Hansel, you've listened to the creation by Haydn, you know it? So you know what's coming. So this music, to start with, just goes on and on and on. It'd be the sort of thing that if you wanted to send your child to sleep after lunch, you might play that first, but just to gently rock them to sleep. And then all of a sudden, it gets to the bit, and God said, and there is explosion. Just the noise erupts there. And this poor woman, poor woman, I thought she was going to have a heart attack. She literally jumped out of her seat. And this was a kind of 70-plus-year-old lady who I thought really was not up to much. But she just jumped out of her seat and got the shock of her life. I said, turn it down. I said, no. You asked me to turn it up. That's the word of God. God spoke. That's how the whole Bible introduces God to us from the very outset. The number one reality about this God that you need to understand is that he is a God who speaks and his word is absolute dynamite. It brings into being things that aren't. It changes things that are. And where there is void, it fills the void. Where there is darkness, it sheds light. And where there is disorder, it brings order. The Word of God is powerful. And the whole way through Genesis chapter 1, that is underlined for us so that before you get into thinking anything else about God and says, you've got to reckon with this. God is a God who speaks. And when he speaks, things happen. And God said, and it was so. And God said, and it was so. Right the way through Genesis chapter 1. What's Jesus doing? He is simply releasing the word of God. That's how this passage starts. That's what we were thinking about in some ways this morning as well, the teaching of the word of God. And that's what Jesus does. The Word of God being released all over again as it is taught, as it is explained, and as it is put out there into the life of the synagogue. Now it's fine for me to say that, fine for me to say that the Word of God is dynamic, it is explosive, it is creative and it carries with it that whole creative power of God. What does that look like? What does that look like in a synagogue on the Sabbath when people have gathered there as they normally do because they're meant to join together on a Sabbath and the Word of God is taught? by the Lord Jesus, what is happening, what change takes place in people's lives. Well, he says, this is what it looks like in people's lives. And we have this narrative here about this woman who had been bent over and she is straightened up. That's what the word of God does in our lives. And that's what I want you to see. That's why you need seatbelts. Because the word of God, as we gather here this evening, and as that word is open to us, the living God effectively uses that word in a thoroughly creative way all over again. It is invested with power. So hold tight onto your seats. because God speaks to us through his word. Now we'll come to the word of God in just a moment, but I want you to look just first of all at this woman who is center stage in the early part of the narrative. This woman is crippled with a spirit of infirmity and has been so for some 18 years. She presumably has tried every which way she knows in order to be free from that. I imagine she had gone to the doctors. I imagine she'd perhaps even tried any number of doctors that she knew, and anyone who was maybe able to help her. She said, are you able to kind of meet me in my need? Are you able to tell me what the cause of the problem is? Are you able to tell me how to get rid of this? Are there any tablets I can take? Any exercise I can take? And so on and so forth. She'll have tried the doctors. For all I know, she'd been alive today. She probably would have gone to the sports physios. Knocked at their door, taking out a good few quid and said, you know, I don't know how much it costs, but I'll put it on the table. Just help me to get out of this condition. For all I know, she's probably even tried Pilates or something like that. However you do it, Pilates. Anything in order to get herself shot of this crippling condition. For 18 years, I imagine she has tried everything and she has not been able to do or find anything that releases her and delivers her from this condition. Does she enjoy it? Of course she doesn't enjoy it. Every time she gathers in the synagogue, and the crowd of people gather there in the synagogue, and it comes the time to sing the songs, and the songs go up in the PowerPoint, she can't see them. She can't stand up straight, and there's tall people in front of her, and she can't see what is going on. When they do action songs, and the worship leader says, right, all the adults, you all join in as well. She can't join in. When the church has a keli, she can't share, participate as fully as she might in that. When the church organizes a kind of walk out in the country and things like that, she can't join in like that. There's a whole load of things that she's not really able to participate as fully as she would like in the life of the people of God. Sometimes I imagine it's embarrassing for her. All the time I imagine it is exceedingly hurtful, painful, distressing for her. And she's tried everything. And without any remedy at all, she's still, as she gathers again on this occasion in the synagogue on this particular occasion, she is crippled, bent over. And this is what happens. She's straightened up marvelously by the Lord Jesus. Why does Luke record this for us? It's not primarily because Luke is a doctor and he has a particular medical interest in instances of the healing, restoring, straightening power of the Lord Jesus, such as this. It's not primarily for that reason that he records it. The primary reason why Luke records this is because he wants us to understand, as Joel was indicating earlier on, that right at the heart of the gospel is this reality that we are all crippled. We're all crippled. We are crippled by sin. That's what sin does to us. It cripples us. and means that we are not able, despite all our best efforts, despite all our best intentions, despite all our best endeavors, we are simply not able to rise up to be the people God means us to be, calls us to be, and requires us to be. We all fall short. And we can't raise ourselves up to that. That's the gospel. That's the starting condition that is our dilemma, our whole problem as human beings. We are in that sort of condition before Almighty God. Now, why am I so sure that that's why Luke records that for us? It's partly because he records this whole gospel right the way from beginning to end in order to help us see that this Jesus is the one who alone is able to save us, deliver us, rescue us, restore us, renew us, raise us up, and enable us to come before Almighty God, but also because in this very passage, he wants us to see just how crippled We actually all are. It's not only the woman that is mentioned here. There's one other person that's mentioned in the narrative, the synagogue ruler. And he's the kind of top dog in the synagogue, I guess. He'd be a combination of the minister and session clerk all wrapped into one bar, something like that. And if there's anyone that you would think is OK, is measuring up, has got it all together in terms of where he's at, spiritually speaking, before Almighty God, then you would figure, well, it's got to be that guy. This guy's been around for a while. This guy runs the place. This guy knows what's going on. And this guy knows the scriptures, knows what it's all about. and has got it all together. And when you find this guy, this guy is crippled. He perhaps doesn't realize it, but Luke records for us what we have here in order that we might see and understand just how crippled this man is. The only other guy that is mentioned in the narrative, he also is crippled. Now look at the text, see what it says. He's crippled emotionally, first of all. We read there that in the immediate aftermath of this woman being healed, the man is indignant. Goodness me. The word means, it's a kind of combination word, it means much grief. He's not just slightly put out, this guy. He is in an emotional turmoil. Why are you in an emotional turmoil? Because this woman, this woman who's presumably been pitching up at his worship for the past 18 years, this woman has been healed. This woman has got to her feet. This woman is praising God. What on earth are you meant to be doing in the synagogue if you're not meant to be praising God? Here's a woman who at last is able to praise God, and this guy is indignant. That's emotional. The guy's emotions are all over the place. He cannot cope with a scenario like this where something happens that has not been in the order of service that got printed earlier in the week. He's kind of got ecclesiastical OCD, you know, if it's not in the order of service, it has to happen, and this way everything has to follow immediately after. Any interruption, any intrusion, I can't cope with that. You know, it's emotional turmoil like that. Can't cope when someone else perhaps is the center of attention. But it's an emotional turmoil. This guy is crippled emotionally. And if that wasn't bad enough, he's crippled relationally as well. You know, you kind of easily slip over this sort of thing when you look at the narrative. But Luke means us to understand this woman here is not a kind of isolated instance, not a kind of oddball. We're all crippled. We all need the same Jesus to restore us, to straighten us up. And so you find he is crippled relationally. You're maybe looking at the text, don't see that. Well, you do. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people. Now, you know, pause at that. Who is the problem for the synagogue ruler in this particular scenario? It's Jesus. You know, Jesus is the one who has kind of stepped out of turn and done things that you shouldn't do and has interrupted the order of service and has brought healing to the woman. So who does he speak to? He doesn't speak to Jesus, he speaks to the people. He speaks to the people rather than to the person who is the problem. Now, that's relational problem that the guy has. And anytime when you are troubled by something, you are hurt by something, you are offended by something, you are put out by something that someone else has said or has done, and you don't go to that person to speak with them about it, then that too is indicative of how bent over you are relationally. The person to speak to here is Jesus. The synagogue, if you've got a problem with what's happened, go speak with the guy. Go speak with Jesus. Say, hang on. You know, I'm having problems with this. What's going on here? But he studiously will not speak to the person who is the problem. He will speak to the people about that person, behind that person's back, perhaps, but he will not speak to the person himself. The guy is relationally crippled. More than that, the guy is intellectually crippled. Jesus picks up on that and says, come on, you know, how inconsistent can you be? What have you already done this morning? He's saying to the guy, if you've not been out to your ox, your donkey, if you've not fed them, if you've not led them out to the water, if you've not been involved in actually helping them to kind of get on their feet and be able to sustain another day on their feet in life. Sure you have, you've already done that before you get togged up in your single clothes to come out your Sunday best type of thing to worship. You've already done that. He says, what are you complaining about? When I come and I actually deal not just with an ox, not with a donkey, but I actually deal with a human being. and put that person on their feet again. What's the problem with that? Utterly inconsistent. If you can't see how inconsistent it is, you have a problem, he says. He doesn't mince his words, obviously, either. So he is here, this synagogue ruler is crippled emotionally, crippled relationally, crippled intellectually, and crippled, too, spiritually. He just doesn't get what the Sabbath is all about. He just hasn't twigged for all his learning, for all his years as synagogue leader, for all that he's been involved in. He simply has not got what the Sabbath of God is all about. The day of rest, the day of refreshment, the day of renewal under God. When that kind God who knows us through and through and who understands the needs that we have and understands our need ultimately of engaging with Him, the great Creator, the great Savior, the great Deliverer, and sets aside one day in seven in such a manner that we may be truly restored and rested and refreshed, And when it happens, the guy can't even see it. He doesn't get it at all. He doesn't get what God is about. He doesn't get what the gospel is about. He understands the gospel. He understands the message of the Bible to be all about rules and regulations and rituals. And if you stand outside all those rules and regulations and rituals, you don't follow them through, you have gone way off beam. And he simply hasn't a twigged that it's all about a relationship with the living God, this great, glorious, wonderful God who does amazing things, the great creator God who in the very beginning spoke into that world and things happened. That same God who speaks into the life of the synagogue, into the lives of the people who have gathered there, and things happen, and change takes place, and a woman who has been bent over for 18 years is able at last to stand on her feet. Hallelujah! Not this man. He just didn't get it. Very, very religious. Very religious. And very highly respected and very highly regarded. And everyone, I don't doubt, speaks well of him and kind of curtsies and bows before him as he passes by because he's a highfalutin sort of guy. He doesn't get it, though. And Luke means us to be able to see here that there are all sorts of different ways in which that which cripples us, namely sin, finds expression in our lives. And that at the heart of the gospel is this great God who in Jesus comes in liberating power to put us on our feet again. And he means this, therefore, as we read this, to be able to get a feel for the way in which the bottom line for us all is that we too are crippled. We're crippled by sin. And some of you, even here this evening, you maybe are conscious of the extent to which you are crippled by guilt, things that hang over you from the past. that weigh you down and keep you really ever from rising to your full stature because you can't undo all of that. Despite your best efforts, despite all the ways that you might want to and try to be free of that, it just weighs you down and you cannot get up. Everything you've tried just does not do the thing at all. Some of you are crippled by fear. Some of you are crippled by anxiety. Some of you are crippled by hurts that you've received. Some of you are crippled by addictions that you can't break. They can be of any number of different sorts, not just addicted to drink or addicted to drugs, but addicted to money, addicted to fame, addicted to popularity, addicted to any number of different things. You simply can't break those things. They have enslaved you and they drag you down and make you not the person you mean to be and want to be or are called to be. Addictions that you can't break. Crippled by them. Crippled by attitudes that you won't be rid of. Crippled by hurts that you can't forget. Crippled by habits that you can't forgo. Crippled by failure that you can't forget. But crippled. And Luke means this to understand that's the human condition. That's where we're at. And it's into that that the Lord Jesus comes and speaks his word through the word of God. And that's what we have here. Jesus is simply teaching, teaching. And that release of the word of God as it is taught, that's what it does in people's lives. It changes people's lives. Now, look with me at the Word of God and what we'll learn here about the Word of God as it is spoken into the lives of ordinary people. First of all, the Word of God is very, very personal. What you find here is something extremely personal. The synagogue there with a whole range of different people And what I mean when I say it's personal are these things. Four, I think. One, Jesus sees her. This is the woman who is bent over. This is the woman whose head hardly appears above the line of all the people in front, the people that no one else really notices because she is so low down, because she is so insignificant, because she is so tainted in many ways. No one else really notices her. Jesus sees her. The Word of God, very personal, we're meant to see that, understand that, and grasp that so that here this evening there is no hiding place for you from this Lord Jesus. Every single one of you, He knows you and He sees you this evening. And that's for your comfort. That's for your encouragement because sometimes you must wonder if anyone really understands where you're at, understands the struggles and the trials and the problems that you're facing and you can't really share them with anyone else. And despite all your best efforts to be rid of them, you kind of feel you have got absolutely nowhere. You're still where you were a year ago or two years ago or even 18 years ago for all I know. but Jesus sees you this evening in this very building. He sees you. Second part of that personal dimension of the word of God is that Jesus calls this woman to the front. That's literally what the word means, calls her out towards him. And that's how Jesus speaks to you this evening. He speaks to call you in a way that means God's word is directed to your heart, and while you're maybe thinking about other people. and maybe kind of consoling yourself somehow that this really applies to other people. Because we're pretty good at that. When the word of God is being read and is being explained, we're thinking, well, I wish so-and-so was here because it would really be good for them to hear just how crippled they are. And we automatically think of other people that it maybe relates to and don't appreciate that actually it's the Lord speaking to us, the Lord speaking into our situation, our needs, our circumstances. and addressing us and calling to us as individuals, as we gather here. So he sees her, he calls her out, and then he speaks to her and says to her, woman, you are set free from your infirmity. It's very personal. Sometimes the way that the Bible is explained, it's just sort of set out in kind of very general terms, very much just propositions. You know, Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus is our Savior, and Jesus is risen from the dead, and Jesus is alive today. And that's good news for us all, because in Him there is forgiveness, and in Him there is renewal, and in Him there is the hope of that eternal life. And we think, yeah, that's pretty good. Not a bad combination of things, but it's much, much more personal. You, woman. Man, here this evening, you are set free from your infirmary. Very personal indeed. And more than that, he actually places his hands on her. You just do not get any more personal than that. As he ministers that word to her, so he lays the hand of almighty God upon this woman to bestow on her and to minister through to her the healing and restoring grace of God himself, so that the great creator God, who spoke in the very beginning, speaks into her life and this woman is straightened up. Powerful stuff. The word of God, extremely personal. Sometimes the Lord puts his foot down, as well as his hand. That's what we did with Saul of Tarsus. You know, Saul, this blazing zealot for Judaism, is rampant on the campaign to obliterate all who have anything to do with this Jesus. all who would proclaim Jesus as the risen living Lord and Savior. He wants nothing to do with that. He will destroy them all. He will use whatever means he can to get rid of them all. And he's marching with anger blazing out of him, smoke pouring out of his ears, marching up towards Damascus in order to do that. And the Lord just puts his foot down, stops the guy in his tracks, and says, Saul, you know, that's the Word of God. Very personal indeed. And the Lord is quite able to put his hand down and quite able to put his foot down sometimes. He's not fussed about how he does it, but he intrudes into our experience sometimes in the most scary sort of ways, but always in a very personal way because he views us in his love. He views us as the individuals, the people, the persons that we are, and he loves us. And he doesn't give lectures. He ministers his word into the lives of persons. So the word of God is personal, first of all. As that word is read by us, as that word is heard by us, as that word is preached to us, as that word is released to us, it is always a very personal word. Secondly, the word of God is powerful. You hardly need that underlined. but it is always powerful. This woman, for 18 years, has been unable to straighten up For 18 years, despite her best efforts, despite the best efforts of the doctors, despite the best efforts of the whole medical profession, despite the best efforts of every single person that she can lay her hands on, no one has been able to help her. Nothing has been able to help her for 18 years. She has struggled on in the face of this condition, and it seems nothing on earth is able to help her. And immediately, as the word of God is addressed to her in that manner, immediately she straightens up. Isn't that astonishing? Isn't that wonderful? That's the power of the word of God into our lives. And that's what we're meant to understand, that from beginning to end, it is the release of the word of God. So the narrative of the scriptures, right on through the Old Testament, right on through the New Testament, the people of Israel are there, and they are slaves in the land of Egypt. And they are, as a people, they are bent over. They are weighed down with the enslavement that there is that has crept in upon them and has dragged them down and has seen them in this condition where now they are slaves. They are a weak people. They are not able to face up to the might of Pharaoh, up to the bureaucracy that Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has. The military strength that he has, they're simply not able to resist that. They don't have an answer to it. They're going to be slaves forever and a day, it would seem. They are bent over, they are crippled by that enslavement there. And what does God do? He says into that, he speaks his word, let my people go. You know, through his servant Moses and Aaron, they confront Pharaoh. It's crazy in a way. You know, these two people come from the slave people of Israel, and they come to the great, powerful Pharaoh with all his majesty, with all his might, with all the strength of his army, with all his officials there. They come, and they simply bring the word of God to him. And what is God's word? God's word is very simple to Pharaoh. Let my people go. Pharaoh says, you're having none of it. And God pulls him back and says, hang on a minute, Pharaoh. You know, you may be Pharaoh, you may be king of Egypt, and you may have a lot of strength behind you, but hey, I'm God. And I just said, you maybe didn't hear it too closely the first time, but I just said, let my people go. When Pharaoh says, no, God just speaks it again. And says, you know, you maybe didn't catch this, but when I speak, I mean it. Let my people go, and he releases that word. Very simple. into the life of the people of Israel, into the land of Egypt. And it doesn't matter that Egypt is ruled by the mightiest person in the world and by mightiest army at the time in the world. They are set free. Israel, the land of the people of Israel, they are set free from their infirmary, from their captivity. By the word of God that is spoken into that situation. And same all the way through the scriptures, right on through to the ministry of Jesus. Not an isolated instance, this one that we find here in Luke chapter 13. John chapter 11, you remember? Lazarus, Lazarus whom Jesus loved, the brother of Martha and Mary, has been ill and then he's died. And then he's been died for four days, been dead for four days, and then he's buried, and he's entombed. And, you know, a big stone in front of the tomb and everything like that. Dead! I mean, that's how bent over that guy is. He is absolutely bent over and there is no way this guy is ever going to be able to stand up straight again. He's dead. And what does Jesus do? He just stands at the entrance to the tomb. And you can think, people scratch their heads and think, what's this guy on about? You know, I mean, the guy, this guy's not just ill. This guy's not just a little bit wobbly in his feet. This guy's not just struggling with a little bit of ill health. This guy's dead and buried. It has been so for four days now. Jesus stands there and he speaks into the tomb, a word that is very personal. He's not sort of saying, you know, God raises the dead. He says, Lazarus, dead man in the tomb. Lazarus, a man who is down and dead and utterly bent over in such a way that he will never be able to stand up again and rise again. Lazarus, come forth. And that word spoken into the tomb sees just the most remarkable thing. This guy Lazarus straightens up and comes walking out the tomb. Powerful, the word of God. As it's taught, that's all Jesus does here, teaches the word of God. And people are changed. And the bent are able to stand. The dead are able to live. The Word of God, personal and powerful. Woman, you are set free from your infirmity. Lazarus, you are set free from your captivity. Israel, you are set free from your enslavement. I love the Word of God. Hope you do too. And the Word of God is praise-inducing. That's the last P. It's kind of not a word that exists, but we have to make one up to fit here. But it's praise-inducing. Don't miss this either. It's just a kind of phrase at the end of that sentence there. Immediately, she's straightened up. What does she do? She praises God. What's she doing when she goes back home that lunchtime after synagogue on the Sabbath? Is she kind of tearing the sermon to shreds and saying, well, you know, it was a bit boring and a bit long and things like that? Not at all. Is she saying, well, you know, I mean, I kind of got ignored at the door when I came in. No one really spoke to me, type of thing. Not at all. She's not bothered about that, even though maybe no one spoke to her on the way in. That's neither here nor there, so far as she's concerned. There is something infinitely bigger and something infinitely better that has happened. She has met with this Jesus who has changed her life and raised her up onto her feet. And that's all she's preoccupied with. I don't doubt, clearly, there were a whole lot of things that she might have come back to the dinner table with. How much did the whole bang shoot at them? They're just a load of hypocrites, because Jesus said that much about them as well. But that's not what she's saying. She is on her feet, and she is dancing. And you cannot keep this woman quiet. She is saying, what a great God he is. What a glory. I don't understand a half about this person, Jesus. But what I do understand is enough to make me thrilled to bits where this person, Jesus, he is altogether lovely, altogether worthy, altogether wonderful. She is on her feet bobbing up and down, as you should be. You can hardly kind of sit back and think, well, yeah, kind of interesting story. Not at all. Why? Because that Jesus speaks to you and to me this evening. I don't know most of you. I know some of you. But most of you, I don't know, which is probably just as well, because that means you can't imagine that I've just been kind of reading up on you and checking out your background. I don't know you at all, but God does. And he knows your circumstances this evening. And I have no doubt in my own mind, under God, that there are at least some of you here this evening who, as this word is read and then is preached, are feeling the force of it. At least some of you who are, I feel, crippled. You maybe wouldn't put it in those terms, but something that has kind of dragged you down. And it may be in a very physical way that you have felt that, known that, and experienced that. And it has spoiled life for you. I say it may be a physical thing, for all I know. It may be an emotional thing. It may be something that is just dragged on for years and years and years. And the clues that there are are in the ways that you react. And you find yourself just flying off the handle sometimes at different things. Because you can't contain and control your emotions. This man here is indignant. How emotionally warped, twisted, bent can you get that in the face of a poor woman who has struggled for 18 years with this condition, seeing her rise to her feet, and you're indignant? You are kind of blowing a gasket over that? Come on, guy. You've got problems. And it may be you You're aware, even as we think this through together this evening, God putting his finger on a relational issue in your life that has crippled you. And the one person that you haven't and the one person that you won't speak to, it may be is the one person that you need to speak to. You maybe speak to a whole lot of other people as this guy here does, but you won't speak to the one person you need to. And that's crippling. that doesn't simply damage your relationship with that person, it damages you as well. And it may be that you've kind of racked your brain and tried all sorts of things and you just don't know how to sort that out. You haven't a clue. And maybe you've tried all sorts of different ways of somehow getting that sorted and dealt with in the past so that it doesn't hang over you like a great big burden like that. And you just can't do it. It's crippling in its own way. As I say, I don't know you. I don't know your circumstances. But I do know the word of God, and I do know that the Lord speaks through his word into your situation. And this evening, you need to know that he sees that. He sees you. And he sees you because he cares for you. And he sees you because he cares for you, and because he knows that that's not a condition that you can remain in. and he doesn't mean you to remain in that condition, that state. And so he sees you and he calls to you through his word this evening and he speaks to you and he says to you, and I want you to hear this, and I want you to know this, that he speaks to you this evening and says to you, woman, man, You are set free from that infirmity immediately. What does the woman have to do? I mean, she doesn't have to go through a kind of alpha course or a 10-week Christianity Explored course. She doesn't have to go through counseling or any of that. You know, he's not saying, no, we've got to sort this out, you know, and we need a little bit of counseling here and things like that. Not at all. He just speaks the word to her. And she straightens up. And there are some of you here this evening, God means, through his words, somebody to straighten up this night, to know that he has spoken to you and has said to you, you are set free from that infirmity. Now, it may be the most profound infirmity of all, which is our relationship with the living God, our having fallen short in terms of our best efforts. Simply do not measure up. the manner in which we've lived our lives, perhaps quite respectable, perhaps quite upright, perhaps quite religious, but we have sought to do it in our own strength and find our own solutions, and they simply do not measure up at all. We fall short of the glory of God. We are bent over before Almighty God. We don't have a leg to stand on before Almighty God, and we do not see Him, and we do not enjoy Him as we should. Here's the gospel. that God himself comes to us and speaks to us through his Son and in his Son and is able and pleased to set us free. Set us free from the weight of that guilt before Almighty God. Set us free from the power of that sin that has dragged us down and set us free and enabling us to rise up and to stand up and to live out that new life as a child of God. Set free. If we were Pentecostal, we'd be up on our feet, we'd be arms in the air, and we'd be saying, hallelujah, praise the Lord, and we'd be clapping our hands, and we wouldn't simply allow it just to bounce off and say, well, you're not got a good sermon, bad sermon, so, so. We would be thrilled to bits as this woman is here. She'd be on her feet. She is delighted, overwhelmed by the wonder of this, and she's, he is your Jesus. I'll get a hold of that. This Jesus is your Jesus, my Jesus, my Savior, the one who puts me on my feet, the one who enables me to rise up after all these years of being dragged out, rising up to be a new person because I'm set free. Why? What have I done? Nothing. He's done it all. He has set me free like that. No, I don't usually do this, but tonight I'm going to. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask you, if that's you this evening, and you really have felt that God has spoken to you, if you are aware that that's what God has been speaking into your situation, and you have longed for that because you have been dragged down by something, it may be any number of different things over this past while, a year, 10 years, 18 years, even 20 years, whatever it may be, if that's you, and you would like to have a kind of final confirmation of that and follow that through, then, yeah, as we sing our next hymn, just come out to the front there. I'll be there singing the hymn. Come out, and I will pray with you in such a manner that you will leave here this evening knowing that that has been dealt with. That is now past. That is now history. because you have been raised to your feet by this Jesus. What a great, glorious, wonderful Jesus he is. I want you to know that. I want you to discover that. I want you to share that. I want you to proclaim that. I want you to tell the world about that because when you know that, this woman, there is no holding this woman back. She is praising the Lord. Is that how you're spending your life these days? Are you praising the Lord? Are you preoccupied with Him? How great He is, how good He is, how glorious He is? Or are you just preoccupied with all the problems that you have? Scratching your head and thinking, oh, how are we going to sort this out? God means that you should be preoccupied with Him. his greatness, his great creative power, genius, glory, and his astonishing love. Then he comes into a synagogue, you know, a place that's full, on his own admission, full of hypocrites. He just comes into it. He doesn't say, well, you know, stuff you lot, bunch of hypocrites that you are. He says, yeah, you're all crippled. But see what I can do? I can heal people who are crippled. I can get them on their feet again. Woman, yeah, you. Synagogue ruler, you as well. All you people. That's what I do. I put people on their feet again. And it would be wonderful if we all left here this evening and we marched out, straight and tall. because we've been straightened up by the Lord. We had heard God himself speak into our situation, said, you are set free from that infirmity, set free from that captivity, set free from that deadness, and you are raised up to new life. I march out of there this evening and say to the folk that you meet tomorrow when they say, well, you know what we do over the weekend? You tell them. the most amazing weekend. You know what? I met Jesus. He changed my life. He raised me up, made me a new person, gave me a new future. And so as I say, if you would like to have someone pray for you this evening, Just come out of the front there. It's not too obtrusive, as we sing that final hymn. Or even thereafter, I won't bother going to the door. Stay near the coffee. And just come and be assured of that, that the Lord has spoken to you and made you new. given you a new start so that tomorrow is very different from what you anticipated perhaps when you came in here this evening that it would be. May God bless his word to us, let's pray. Living God, how we thank you for all that you reveal about yourself, that you are that God who not only in the very beginning spoke the word and it was so, but in Jesus spoke that word and it was so and continued through your word by your spirit to speak that word, and it is so. So would you speak that word even now into our hearts, our hearts as individuals, our hearts as a congregation. Speak that word, Father, please, even this evening. So that even as we bow before you, there may be that sense of your own hand, the hand of Almighty God laid upon us, with all the healing, restoring, straightening, strengthening power of heaven itself being ministered through to us. It's such a matter that we might stand and sing and sound out your praises now. And we'll gladly give our Lord Jesus Christ all the praise and the glory for it. Amen.