Jesus: Our Healer, Restorer, and Champion of Justice

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"And here as we look at this first picture of Jesus, the battered reed he will not break off. Notice just the fact that he's not in the business of breaking off and casting away. The world might look at you and me and say, oh well, there's not much power there, there's not much strength there. Let's just pull that off and remove that and dump that and let that go. That's not really of any value. But that text says the Lord does not do that, and I am so grateful because it refutes all those lies that the devil throws out about how inconsequential one human life is." [08:12]

"Jesus bruised for you and I, and he knows what it feels like. He knows all of the feelings of our infirmities, the scriptures tell us. You cannot go to Jesus with something that has happened that has hurt you, that has grieved you, that has broken you, and he is going to say, wow, never heard of that before. He knows, he understands all of the feelings of our infirmities, and how wonderful that is to know that the Savior fully understands." [06:43]

"Let me take just keep your finger there in Matthew 12 and 20 and let me take us over to Luke's gospel for a moment to the 13th chapter, and let me give you a biblical illustration of this, if we could from verses 10 through 17 of Luke 13. And he, Jesus, 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 a spirit and she was bent double and could not straighten up at all." [09:34]

"Now here's a wonderful incident where the Lord Jesus takes the service, and here is a picture of this thought that a bruised or battered reed he will not break off. Think with me for a moment or two, but the service that day there were perhaps important people who came and maybe the mayor of the city was in the service that day, maybe some of the local officials, people of authority and rank were in the service that day." [11:18]

"Could I say to you this morning that very same Lord Jesus is looking just at you, and just as he looked that day at that woman, he knew exactly what her need was. And you know we can picture this in our imagination, can't we, this little lady and so on, but do you ever stop to think that this woman is you and me? She is a picture of you and me." [13:12]

"Because if you read that story, you see that that woman was not always like that. It says that she had been like that for 18 years. She had been bent over, and it tells us that it was a work of Satan. And as you think upon this, think about the human race. They were created in the image of God, walking before the Lord with him in that garden, but along came sin, disobedience, and then there came that separation." [13:34]

"And you know when I think about this lady, I think about so many things that rush through my mind and my heart. If you're bent right over like this, well, you know you can really only see the grind on your feet. That's what sin does to us. All we can see is the things of this earth and ourselves. Eighteen years the devil held this lady captive, and I'm sure many people had discounted her completely." [14:40]

"It is Jesus who comes into that place where she is. It is Jesus who looks at her and says, come, come to me. He calls her, and I love that sense, don't you, of how the Lord calls. It's so personal and it's so wonderful, and you know it is so individual. It is essentially for her that day that he is reaching out and saying, come." [15:52]

"She had to take that step and come to that place before him. He knew her need, and she is there in obedience to his call, and everything changes in that moment of turning away from the things of Satan and self and the world. There comes freedom. Our world is spending millions of dollars every year trying to bring freedom to places, and really all that we need to bring is Jesus, and he is the great freedom giver." [19:34]

"Sometimes it seems that the flame is gone and all that remains is just a little smoke. I always run into people on my travels who say, I used to do this for Jesus, I used to do that for Jesus, I used to do all these things, and I say, what happened? And you know if you put all of those answers together, you'd come up with this statement: the fire is almost out." [24:00]

"And we read in John 6:37, the one that comes to me I will never, never, never, never cast a might. Man, what a verse that is. So as you think about this, if the Lord is not going to snuff it out, what's he going to do, church? If the Lord's not going to take that little smoking bit that's left in your heart and snuff it up, what is he going to do?" [26:18]

"Think about that whole picture that is given to us. Isn't it an exact picture of what Jesus is talking about, using the words of Isaiah, a bruised reed? That's exactly what she was. But the Savior, as he steps in, oh what a change there is, and I imagine that woman must have walked out of there that day up straight." [18:00]

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