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  WILL CHRISTIANITY DOMINATE THE WORLD
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon in Luke chapter 13 focuses on the healing of a
woman with a spirit of infirmity for 18 years, emphasizing Jesus'
compassion and power to set us free. It delves into the significance of
the healing in the synagogue, addressing hypocrisy and the true purpose
of Jesus' ministry. The parables of the mustard seed and leaven are
explained, highlighting the growth of the kingdom of God with both good
and bad elements, cautioning against triumphalism and emphasizing the
limited nature of the church's growth. The sermon challenges listeners
to examine their spiritual state and respond to Jesus' call for healing
and freedom.

Duration: 44:15 Topics: "Healing and Freedom", "Growth of the Kingdom of God"
Scripture References: Luke 13:10, Luke 13:18, Luke 4:18, Matthew 13:31, Matthew 13:33, Romans 8:28, Proverbs 14:4, Matthew 7:13

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon in Luke chapter 13 focuses on the healing of a woman with a
spirit of infirmity for 18 years, emphasizing Jesus' compassion and
power to set us free. It delves into the significance of the healing in
the synagogue, addressing hypocrisy and the true purpose of Jesus'
ministry. The parables of the mustard seed and leaven are explained,
highlighting the growth of the kingdom of God with both good and bad
elements, cautioning against triumphalism and emphasizing the limited
nature of the church's growth. The sermon challenges listeners to
examine their spiritual state and respond to Jesus' call for healing and
freedom.

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CONTENT
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All right, so we're in Luke chapter 13, Luke chapter 13, and last time
we dealt with the first nine verses, ending with the parable of the
barren fig tree, and this morning, Lord going to deal with verses 10
through 21. So let's read those verses, Luke chapter 13, reading from 10
through 21. Now, he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the
Sabbath, and 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.

But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said to her, Woman,
you are loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and
immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. But the room of
the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the
Sabbath, and said to the crowd, There are six days in which men ought to
work.

Therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day. The
Lord then answered him, and said, Hypocrite, does not each one of you on
the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to
water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom
Satan has bound, think of it. For eighteen years be loosed from this
bond on the Sabbath day.

And when he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame,
and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were
done by him. Then he said, What is the kingdom of God like? And to what
shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and put
into his garden, and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of
the air nested in its branches. And again he said, To what shall I liken
the kingdom of God? It is like leaven which a woman took and hid in
three measures of meal, until all was leavened.

So we have one account, one story, and then we have two parables which
we're going to deal with this morning. The first deals with this woman
who had a spirit that says the spirit of infirmity. He was teaching in
the synagogue, and remember that this was his custom, this was generally
the custom of those days for those who were rabbis to attend the
synagogue and then to be invited to actually speak in the synagogue.

And so he is teaching, and he is teaching by request of the leader and
the elders of the synagogue. So the synagogues had a leader, which we
read about here, and then there were also elders who governed the
affairs of the synagogue. Now this is the last time that Jesus would
preach in a synagogue until his crucifixion, and so this is a very
significant event, and the event is very important because not only does
it tell us about the healing of the woman, but it makes some important
statements as to the whole environment around the Lord Jesus.

And so he is teaching, and obviously it is on the Sabbath. And behold
there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years. Now the fact
that she had a spirit of infirmity does not necessarily mean that she
had a demon.

It does not say that Jesus cast a demon out of her. It says that he
healed her. So it seems that her infirmity, her weakness, her sickness,
was caused by the devil.

Basically all sickness is caused by him and is a result of the fall. But
to go around and say, well, you know, what did you do or why did the
devil make you sick? That wouldn't be the right kind of question.
Sometimes we get sick for natural causes.

If you don't take care of yourself, you can get sick. If something is
going around, like the virus or like the flu or something like that, you
can catch it. You can get sick.

There may not be any spiritual reason behind it. But in this case, there
is a spiritual reason. And the reason is that God might be glorified and
that Jesus may make a very important point.

So the fact that she had been sick for 18 years and had been a member of
the local synagogue because she is permitted to enter and she is known
as a—he calls her a daughter of Abraham, so she's a Jew or a Jewess—and
it means that God was preparing something for this particular event, for
this particular moment. And you'll see the significance of what Jesus is
doing. There are many times that things happen in our lives that we
don't understand.

Sometimes we deal with problems and with issues for a long time, and
there seems to be no good reason for it. Yet all of these things are
working together for the good to them that love God and are called
according to his purpose. So nothing is by chance.

Nothing just happens. God has a plan. Sometimes his plan is evidenced.

Sometimes it is not. Sometimes his plan is simply to conform us more
into the image of his Son. Sometimes his plan is to do something in our
lives that is visible, that is miraculous, or that would be a sign to
other people around us.

There are many things that God does in our lives as he uses evil for our
good. God does not cause evil, but he uses evil for our good. He uses
good things for our good.

Remember when it says all things in Romans 8.28? It is not just bad
things. We quote that verse only in the context of bad things that
happen. But it says all things, and that includes good things.

And when you read the context of Romans 8.28, it includes good things
and bad things. It speaks about the love of God. He uses his love for
our good.

It speaks about adversity in Romans 8, and he uses adversity,
difficulties, and trials for our good. And so that good may be many
different things. God had a plan for this woman, and so he allows this
situation to continue that Jesus might make a very important statement.

So for 18 years she was bent over and could not raise herself up. Now
apparently this is a fairly well-known medical condition, and I don't
speak Latin and so I can't pronounce the terms, but I think many of us
have come across people who are like this. Basically the spine is fused,
and they are bent over.

For those who go to Lowe's in Burbank, there's a greeter there at the
door, and I always admire him because he's always ready to smile and to
greet you friendly, and yet he's literally doubled over like this all
the time. And so this was her condition. She could not stand up.

And obviously with this comes a real psychological problem, because she
can't look anyone in the eye. In order to look at someone, she has to
look up at an angle. And so she's not able to meet anyone at their
level.

She's always sort of below everyone else. Everyone's looking down on
her. But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him.

Again, it shows us his compassion. You know, we see people, and I've
just mentioned the man at the store in Burbank. He moves me with
compassion, but I don't have the power to do anything about it.

And yet many people will walk past him and be greeted by him as they
enter the store, probably thousands of people a day, and not think
anything of it. Some people will look down on him and say, oh, well, you
know, he's just a cripple. No, Jesus looked at this woman, and he had
compassion on her.

He felt her pain. And so he calls her to himself. And he says, woman,
you are loosed from your infirmity.

The thing that has bound you, this disease that has tied you down and
tied you literally to be hunched over and to be bent over double, you're
loosed from that thing. Now, that is, of course, easy words to say if
they are meaningless. But of course, Jesus has the power not just to say
the words.

I'm so sick and tired of preachers who declare people who are sick to be
healed, and nothing ever happens. It just—not only does it mock God and
his power, but it messes with people's minds and hearts, saying, you
know, you're healed. You know, just get up and do whatever you need to
do, when in fact they have not been healed.

But Jesus does not play these kinds of games. When Jesus gives an
instruction, he gives the power to do what he tells us to do. And so
when he says that he's going to heal, when he tells us that we are
healed, whether it's spiritual or physical, he is able and he does heal.

And so be set free, Jesus says, from your infirmity. Now, each one of us
may be bound by various things—by habits, by lifestyles, by thought
processes, by sickness, by mental issues, by all sorts of things—that we
feel that we are tied down, that we are bound, and that we are not free.
I believe that he is still able to set free.

But at the same time, this is his sovereign will. God heals some and he
does not heal others. And we don't understand why he does that.

But he is wise. He is all-wise. And he is compassionate.

And while he may heal some and may not heal others, he has a plan for
each one. And he is able to cause his plan and his purpose to be worked
through us, in spite of the fact that we may not be loosed, that we may
not be set free from the things that bind us and the things that hold us
back. And so he heals this woman.

He says, be loosed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her,
and immediately she was made straight and glorified God. I think I
mentioned to you, when I was first born again, when I was 16 years old,
like a couple of years ago, one of the things I did was read through the
Gospel of Luke.

Well, I read through the Bible, but I specifically remember reading
through Luke and being struck by this word immediately. And I took the
Bible I had—in fact, I haven't checked. I think that I have that same
Bible with me in my study here.

But I went through and I underlined every place in the book of Luke. I
didn't know about a concordance or we didn't have computer actual Bible
programs yet, but every place in the book of Luke. And I was amazed at
how many times this word immediately appeared.

And so, again, let me remind you that when God does something, he may
delay before he does it. In this case, he delayed 18 years. But when he
does it, he does it, and it's immediate.

Again, this idea today of preachers saying, well, you know, be healed,
receive your healing, and go away, and you will gradually get better.
It's not in the Scriptures. Jesus never sent anyone away and said, well,
you'll gradually heal over a period of time.

When he healed people, they were instantly and immediately healed. There
was one exception, and again, that had a lesson and an important message
for us. And that was, remember, the man who was blind, who goes and he
washes, and he comes back, and he can see, but he's not seeing too well.

Well, that was for a specific reason. It was not the normal way in which
God healed. And so when God heals, it is immediate.

And so immediately, she was made straight, and she glorified God. What a
powerful testimony to all in the synagogue. It seems that this happened
in front of everyone.

Whether it was inside the synagogue or outside, we don't know, but
clearly the people were there because we see that they rejoice. The
leaders were there because they're offended. So everyone saw this.

And I think that it should have brought about worship in a profound
sense of saying, God is good. But as we'll see in a moment, it doesn't.
Can you imagine that if Jesus walked into Lowe's in Burbank, and that
old guy who greets at the door is there, and Jesus touched him, and he's
healed, and the next time somebody comes in, and they see the same gray-
haired man, but he's not hunched over anymore, he's standing upright,
and he's looking you in the eye.

Can you imagine the response that we'd get? And so immediately she was
made straight, and she glorifies God. Now, Jesus then says, later on,
that she is a daughter of Abraham. So she is a Jew, and she is
representative of the Jewish nation.

And I'll explain that in a moment. But the ruler of the synagogue—so he
is the, I guess today we'll call him the pastor, but he really wasn't
that. He was the guy who ran the synagogue, and you remember that in the
book of Acts there's a man called Jason, if I remember right, who had
the same function, and Paul then come across him.

But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation. I just don't
get this. And yet we see the same thing happening over and over even
today, that when God does something, when God reveals himself in some
way, that people react instead of with worship, they react with
indignation, because there's some technical detail that they feel had
been missed.

And so he answers with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the
Sabbath, and he said to the crowd, there are six days in which men ought
to work. Therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath
day. Now it's interesting, he doesn't tackle Jesus.

He doesn't confront Jesus. Now I'm not sure whether he's scared of
Jesus, or scared of the crowd, or what his deal was, but his problem is
with the people who brought the sick to Jesus. And obviously they
brought other people to him as well.

And so he says, you know, you can get healed on every other day, but you
can't get healed on the Sabbath. In other words, God is powerless on the
Sabbath. God doesn't work on the Sabbath.

God doesn't heal on the Sabbath. No, God heals on every day. God is no
respecter of the day.

And so Jesus's answer is hypocrite. Hypocrite. Probably the worst name
you could call someone those days.

And in fact, he was a hypocrite, because he had two standards. He had
one standard for himself, and he had another standard for Jesus. And
Jesus calls him out on this, and he says, does not each one of you on
the Sabbath day, or Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and
lead it away to water it? And so the law—not the law as in the Old
Testament, but the law as the Jews had interpreted it, and they have,
you know, all of these thousands and thousands of laws that govern every
detail of their life, including the Sabbath, permitted you to loose your
animal if it was in the stall or tied up, and to take it to drink water.

That would be the humanitarian thing to do. That would be the right
thing to do. You can't leave the animal tied up for 24 hours and not
have it have a drink.

And so notice the word loose. He says that the woman was loosed, and he
says, you want to loose your animal, but you don't want to loose people.
You want to set your animals free to drink on the Sabbath, but it's not
right to set people free from their bondage and from their infirmity on
the Sabbath.

This is hypocrisy. And so ought not this woman being a daughter of
Abraham, whom Satan is bound? Think of it, he says, for 18 years she was
bound. Should she not be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath? And
obviously he's using a classical Jewish form of argument, which we call
from the lesser to the greater, and so if it is right to treat an animal
this way, should we not treat people—the lesser to the greater—should we
not treat people in the same way? If we're going to be kind to animals,
should we not be kind to people? So this is where we speak about animal
lovers.

One of the evils of our time is people who love animals more than they
love people. It's not wrong to love your animals. We love our cat, and
it seems to love us and complains when we go away, and I don't believe
that we should be cruel in the way that we treat animals.

But when we treat animals better than we treat people, something serious
is wrong. And yet that seems to be an acceptable form of behavior today.
And there are people who are not even ashamed to tell you that I love my
dog more than I love people.

Well there's something sick about that. Animals are not at the same
level as people, even though they like to say that they are. Animals are
at a different level.

I think most rational people understand that. And yet we don't treat
animals badly, but we treat people badly. Any of you has a pet—a dog or
a cat—you don't just walk in and kick the thing.

I know there are sick people who do that. And yet when we're angry and
frustrated, do we kick our—verbally—our kids, or our wife, or our
husband? Say things that hurt them, and yet we won't hurt our dog or our
cat. And that's the point that Jesus is making.

He says, you're more kind to your donkey than you to this woman, because
you will loose your donkey on the Sabbath, but you will not loose this
woman on the Sabbath. Elsewhere he says, if your animal falls in a pit,
will you not dig it out or pull it out of the pit on the Sabbath? And
yet you won't allow God to heal on the Sabbath. You see, we've got to
get our priorities right.

The way that we treat lesser things should not be better than the way we
treat more important things. And of course the same problem we have is
that we worship things that are less important rather than things that
are more important. We worship things like money, and gold, and motor
cars, and houses, and jobs, and we don't worship God.

It's the same problem. It's the same dichotomy. If you're going to treat
your money in a particular way, should you not treat God in a better
way? If you're going to treat those things that you love, if you're
going to spend so much time and effort and money on those things that
you love, should you not spend more time and money and effort on God,
who is greater? You see, it's the same thing.

You say, well, you know, these are the things that are important to me.
Well, that's exactly the thing. What these men were saying is that
donkeys are more important than people.

Animals are more important than people. God help us that we not be
swallowed up by the modern thinking that has become so pervasive in our
society. And so please understand me, I'm not encouraging us to be
abusive to animals, to mistreat animals in any way.

But at the same time, we cannot treat animals better than we treat
people. And so when he said these things, all his adversaries, his
enemies, were put to shame, and all the multitude rejoiced for all the
glorious things that were done by him. Again, you see the division.

And remember that in the last few chapters, you're beginning to see the
division. Initially, they all thought that Jesus was great. They all
thought he was wonderful.

But the gap is increasing now. The common people are still following
him. The common people are still glorifying God on his behalf.

But the rulers and the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they are
increasingly turning against Jesus. And then we know how that will end,
that ultimately they will call for his crucifixion, and they will
persuade the crowd to go with them instead of to go with Jesus. But his
adversaries were put to shame, but all the multitude rejoiced for all
the glorious things that were done by him.

Again, it's interesting to see that the common people could see truth,
when in fact the learned people could not see truth. Now, what is the
significance of the story? Well, the significance is that this was
symbolic of what Jesus had actually come to do for Israel. Remember that
he had come to set the captive free.

In Luke chapter 4, Jesus entered in the synagogue again, the synagogue
on the Sabbath, and he reads from Isaiah 61, and he says, today the
scripture has been fulfilled in your ears. In other words, this is the
purpose I've come for, to set the captive free. The captive is not just
those who are captive spiritually, physically, like this woman was bound
by this disease, but the captive are those who are captive spiritually.

And he has come to seek and to save that which is lost. He has come to
set free those who are bound by sin. And he has specifically come to
Israel to set the Jews free of their spiritual captivity.

You see, and of course they were looking for a political liberator when
Jesus had come as a spiritual liberator, to set them free from their
sins, but also set them free of their dead tradition, the traditions and
the religion that they served and that they were bound by. These kinds
of rules you can't heal on the Sabbath day. Jesus had come to deliver
them of this dead religion and to bring them into a right living
relationship with God.

And so what this woman was was a symbol of what he had come to do. He
had come to set Israel free. And of course that is still what he is
looking to do today.

Many Christians are bound by various things that we spoke about earlier,
but many Christians are also bound by dead religion, by going through
formal form of godliness but without any power, going through the
rituals of doing various things, but there's no spirit in it, there's no
life in it, there's no real redemption in it. It's all just a show.
Jesus had come to set us free of those things, that we might be able to
stand up and that we might be no longer bound by these things.

Now he tells two parables, and these two parables are difficult to
interpret, but we must understand them in the context. And I'll explain
that in a moment, I hope. What is the kingdom of God like? And what
shall I, to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a
man took and put in his garden, and it grew and became a large tree, and
the birds of the air nested in its branches.

Now this parable and the next one, about the leaven, is easily
misinterpreted because they are so difficult. You say, well it's just a
one-sentence parable. What can be so difficult about it? And the next
parable is also just a one-verse parable.

How can that be difficult? Well, they are difficult. And as I wrestled
with this, this is my understanding. What Jesus is clearly speaking
about here is gross.

The mustard seed falls into the ground and it grows. That part is
universally accepted amongst Christian teachers. The problem is that the
vast majority see in that what we call triumphalism.

In other words, the church will grow and control and dominate the world.
That is not what Jesus is teaching here, and I'll give you a very
specific reason for that in a few moments. So he is saying that the
kingdom and the gospel—and so the mustard seed is like the gospel which
is brought into the world, and it grows.

And the kingdom has grown over the last 2,000 years, so that the gospel
is preached in every nation in the world today except a few unreached
tribes. And so even in Russia and China and Iraq and Iran and Arab
countries, the gospel is preached. It may not be universally accepted,
but it is there and it is preached, and there are believers in every
nation in the world today.

And so the kingdom and the gospel and the church has grown. It has
become a big tree. But the parable does not say that it will dominate
the world.

It will rule the world. It does not even say it will dominate America.
And yet the vast majority of evangelical Christians believe that what
Jesus is saying is that Christianity will dominate America and will
dominate and control and rule the world.

No, it will not. That's not what Jesus has said, and I'll bring the
balance to this in a moment. So there is growth, but it is limited
growth.

And with the growth comes good and bad, because as the tree grows, it
says that the birds of the air will nest in its branches. Now when you
go to the gospel of Matthew, you find the same two parables, but there
seems to be a different emphasis in Matthew to the emphasis in Luke. But
in Matthew, the birds are evil.

In fact, they are demons, because what they do is they pick up the seed
that falls on the wayside. So while the tree is growing, it attracts
good and bad. It attracts those who are truly born again, but it will
also attract those who are not born again, which in the parable passage
is called the tares, as opposed to the wheat.

And so while the tree grows, it becomes a home for all sorts of things.
The church has grown, but it has also become a home for all sorts of
things. Good stuff, good people, good ideas, and bad stuff, bad people,
and bad ideas.

And this is true of the church universal, but this is also true of the
local church. As long as the church is just me, well then it's pure,
because I'm always right. But as the church grows, people join, and that
growth is a mixed blessing, because as the church grows, good people
come, but also bad people come, who come with their own prejudices and
their own bad doctrine and their own hypocrisy and all sorts of other
stuff.

And that's just part of growth. As the book of Proverbs says, is that if
there is cattle in the stall, there's going to be a mess. The only way
you can have a cattle stall that is clean is by not having cattle in the
stall.

The only way you can have a perfect church is by not having anybody in
the church. The moment you have people, there are going to be problems.
And this is part of the growth process.

All right, now he tells the next parable, and this one becomes even more
difficult. Again, he said to what shall I like in the kingdom of God? It
is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal
until was leavened. And that's where he leaves the parable.

Now why this is difficult is because whenever leaven is used in
Scripture, it is bad. It speaks of fermentation. It speaks of basically
rottenness.

And together with that fermentation, what happens is growth, but that
growth tends to be air, gas, not substance. And so Jesus warns in the
previous chapter, the wear of the leaven of the Pharisees. And so the
Scriptures speak of sin as leaven, it speaks of doctrine as leaven, it
speaks of hypocrisy as leaven.

Clearly in this passage, what Jesus is saying is that the kingdom will
grow. And so if you've ever tried to bake a ball, and as the leaven does
or the yeast does its thing, it becomes bigger. But it becomes bigger
partially because of the leaven.

But that makes it grow. Now you can't take this parable too far and say,
well, you know, we need to introduce unacceptable practices into the
church, because then the church will grow. Because that's the thinking
today.

Well, you know, let's just have a rock band. Let's just, you know, have
girls dancing up here in skimpy outfits. That's what they're doing.

Because this helps us to grow. This gets people in. Most of you may not
remember that there was a pretty famous preacher in Glendale, who died a
few years ago, who would show videos of girls in bikinis.

Because what happens is, he says, and I actually heard him explain this,
that the girls will, that men will see these girls on the TV and they'll
watch. And I can zap them with a word. No, we cannot use these
unacceptable practices to cause the church to grow.

That's not what the parable is. So what is the parable saying? It's
simply saying the kingdom will grow. How do we know that the growth is
limited? Because that's the point I've been emphasizing.

I've been saying it's going to grow, but it will grow with problems. But
the growth will not be universal, in the sense that it will not take
over the world. And of course, we live at a time when I think that many
thinking Christians are becoming a little more realistic.

I think that in the 60s and 70s and 80s, we really, and I included,
really believed that Christianity will take over the world, will take
over South Africa, where I was at the time, and America and England and
these Western countries. And yet we now live, as we know, in a post-
Christian world. And we recognize that in fact, it's not going so good
with the gospel.

It's not going so well with the church. In fact, while I was away, I
read research by a very respected research group called Barna, who did a
survey and discovered that less than six percent of—now I've forgotten
whether these were evangelicals or Americans, but I think Americans—less
than six percent Americans still believe the Bible. And yet the numbers
tell us that 70 percent of Americans are evangelical.

And yet of that 70 percent, only a small fraction actually believe the
Bible. We're in trouble. The church has grown, but it's not going to
dominate the world.

That's the bad news. Remember I spoke about context. These two parables
are sandwiched between two other things.

The first is the raising up of the woman, symbolic of the raising up of
Israel, the raising up of the kingdom of God. But next week we will see
that Jesus speaks about the narrow way and that few are saved. So can
you see what he is saying? He is saying that the kingdom is powerful and
will raise up people.

The kingdom will grow as the tree grows, as the leaven grows, but few
will be saved. This is what we mean by context, and this is absolutely
crucial, because if you take these two parables on their own like most
people do, you will come to the wrong conclusion and you will hold to
what we call triumphalism or dominionism, saying that Christianity will
dominate the world. No, you have to read the next verses, and the next
verses tell you that while there may be many who would join the church,
few will be saved, because in the next verses, which we'll deal with
next week—don't worry, I'm not going to preach next week's message
today—but he says to them, they will say, but Lord, didn't we eat and
drink with you? In other words, we'll see that next week, so keep that
in mind.

So Jesus is saying the good news is the church is going to grow, the
kingdom is going to grow, and I'm using these terms interchangeably,
although they're not 100% interchangeable. The kingdom will grow, but
the growth will be limited, and the growth will bring with it its
problems. So obviously the question this morning is, first of all, am I
part of the legitimate growth? Am I part of the tree, or am I one of the
birds that have attached themselves to the tree? Am I the flower, the
meal, or am I the yeast? Am I still bent down and bound by all sorts of
things, particularly traditions and ways of thinking and lifestyles,
when in fact Jesus wants to set me free and wants to make me stand
upright? I'm not promising you that he will heal everyone, and I'm not
promising you that we will not struggle in our faith.

We will do those things, but at the same time I don't believe it is his
will for us to be emotionally and to be spiritually bound by stuff that
comes from our former life, and that he wants us to be emotionally and
mentally healthy and free to worship him, but we need to come to him.
You know, it's interesting that it says that he called her. He didn't go
to her.

He called her. Now it doesn't tell us that she came to him, but it's
obvious in the context that she came to him, and sometimes we deal with
our problems, and we say, well, it's just the way it is. But maybe this
morning he's calling you, and he's saying, I want to do something in
your life, but you need to respond to him.

You need to come that he might touch you as he touched this woman and
might be restored. Father, we thank you for your word, but above all we
thank you for the power of the gospel and the power of the Lord Jesus.
And Lord, we thank you that Jesus healed this woman, and that he still
heals today, and that he's particularly interested in healing us of our
spiritual infirmities and weaknesses and sicknesses.

And Lord, we live in a sick society, Lord. Our thinking is infected by
so many ideas and so many thought processes that do not glorify you,
that bind us, cause us to not be able to stand up. Lord, I pray that
even to this morning, that those amongst us who find it themselves, who
find ourselves in a situation where we need to be delivered, Lord, that
we would come to you.

You, after all, are the only one who can. It doesn't say so, Lord, but
I'm sure this woman in 18 years had tried all the potions and all the
cures, but nothing helped. But you can heal.

So Lord, I pray that this may be true. I pray, Lord, that we may have a
right perspective of the kingdom, Lord, that we may not be swallowed up
by the world's way or the liberal church's way of thinking that the
church is going to dominate the world. We thank you that Jesus is
coming, and when he comes, he will set up his kingdom, and then he will
rule and reign, and we will rule and reign with him.

But in the meantime, Lord, help us just to be the salt and the light
where we are. And so, Lord, help us. We've said many things this
morning.

Help us to understand. Help us above all to live as those who are part
of the kingdom. We ask this in Jesus' name.

I pray, Lord, that you'd go with us now, that you'd keep us and protect
us and bring us together again safely on Thursday. We pray, Lord, for
this week as Henry celebrates his 101st birthday, Lord. We pray that it
may be a great time of rejoicing and thanksgiving for your goodness to
our brother, the way that you've blessed him and helped him these many
years, the way that you've used him in your kingdom.

And, Lord, we pray that you would bless him richly, and as he thinks
about the years that have gone by, and as he looks forward to the day,
that you will call him to yourself. And so, Lord, we pray that this may
be a precious week for him and for the family, Lord. We thank you for
Carol and Byron who are able to be with us this morning.

And, Lord, we pray that you would bless the family in Jesus' name. We
ask these things in his name. Amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/aq_JFDYM-oM.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/will-christianity-dominate-the-world/
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