God can rewrite your story - Part 4 1/27/13 HCC Text: Luke 13:10 We're in a series called God can rewrite your story! It's about - Letting God write a new chapter into your life It's about - Letting God rewrite over some of the chapters we're not too proud of Remembering what Paul told the church of Philippi - Forgetting those things which are behind - Press towards the things of God - The things pertaining to the upward call of God in your life! In other words - Let God rewrite your story! - Allow for God's word to bring a renewing of your mind Allow for the Holy Spirit to turn our natural thinking processes into a kingdom mindset - A mindset that allows for change Because The way we are used to changing isn't lasting - I'd help for a moment - But then it wouldn't stick - We keep falling back - To those same old habits - Same old patterns - And not get anywhere So we have to change the way we're changing - And to do that we have to change the way we're thinking! We started off our series Looked into the life of Zacchaeus - Who was tired of his story
- But God met him out on a limb and wrote a new chapter into his life In our second week - We taught about the dangers of being an optimist - That Hope deferred makes the heart sick - That we're to look down the road at the long run - For He who endures to the end will be saved And Last week - We came against the world's idea that we can earn it - That by putting in the time we have some sort of wages coming - That God somehow owes us It's called a "works -based faith" and it is not of God! That's why When you're having trouble forgiving others? - It's because you feel "they" have to do something first That's why When you're having trouble affirming others? - It's Because you feel "they" have to earn it first A performance based religion has to deal with the expectation of always having to receive something after you have given! - This only sets up a fall - It allows for you to presume upon the Lord - That you have earned something - And that's wrong! - It's more blessed to give than receive Listen The power to change has to come from a deeper place! So this journey to change has to begin somewhere - So let it begin here and now! Turn with me to Luke 13:10 This Morning: I want to take you to a story in the Bible where for 18 years this person was in bondage... - For 18 years it crippled her - For 18 years it inhibited her walk
- For 18 years it kept her from looking up She really wanted to change - She really wanted to be set free - But it didn't happen She'd go to the doctors - She'd go to the priests - She'd even attend church - But nothing was changing - And for 18 years nothing had changed! Till one day Jesus show up and God rewrites her story! In Zachariah 4:6 The word of the LORD came to Zerubbabel saying - 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD. The Lord was reminding Zerubbabel - That his weakness - That his frailties - That his mistakes were not going to stop the flow of God's anointing That God was about to do a work that isn't based upon human strength - A work that can't be affected by the strength or power of a man - A work that isn't controlled by the actions that one does or doesn't do It's a work of God By the Spirit of God! We are the clay and He is the Potter - What can the clay say to the Potter? - What control does the clay have in the hands of the Master? So it's time we start trusting Him - It's time we start believing in the work that He is doing in our lives Luke 13:10 says - "Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. He was teaching in the Church - What was He teaching?
Was He teaching from Luke 4:17? - Where He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: 18 "THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR; HE HAS SENT ME TO HEAL THE BROKENHEARTED, TO PROCLAIM LIBERTY TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED? Was He teaching from Mat 11:28 - Where he tells them to "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest?" But it says as he was teaching - Luke 13:11 that behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. 12 And when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." "Woman - What is holding you back - What is keeping you down - What was preventing you from looking up - I release you from!" "Lady You're no longer bound! - You're no longer shackled and chains! - You're no longer going to be tormented by this infirmity" "I'm rewriting your story!" Luke 13:13 And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. Immediately she was cured - Immediately she was made whole - Immediately her condition changed It doesn't take long for God to write a new chapter in your life Things started looking up for her that very moment!
Quit trying to do it on your own strength - Quit trying to make it happen with your own abilities Surrender to the Power and Spirit of God! I like what Jesus told all the skeptics who were complaining that a miracle was done on the Sabbath (verse 16) "Shouldn't this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound think of it for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond?" Something was pressing down on her - A burden? - A hurt? - Her economy? - Her insecurities? - Her failures? - A demon? Whatever it was - It might have depressed her - It might have oppressed her - It might have even possessed her All the matters is. she's now set free! - Just one touch - One touch from the Master! Now look at the change - No more looking down! - She can now raise herself up - She can now put her eyes on things of above - She can now look up to the heavens and glorify the Lord How do you know when God is rewriting a new chapter when you start seeing these signs.