HOW TO BE MADE WHOLE
PART SEVENTEEN – STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND
 
 
REVIEW

So we have been learning for some time now how we can be made whole – understanding first that God indeed wants us healed. But He doesn’t just want us healed and made whole partially; He wants us healed & whole completely and wholly.
 
We’ve learned this from our golden text for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23 – where the Holy Spirit says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
 
Now I want you to notice how we are not just talking about being made whole in our spirit and our body: Sure, God wants us, first of all, to be spiritually made whole – that is, to be saved & born again. And yes, God wants us to also be physically made whole, healing all of our sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities. But notice in First Thessalonians 5:23 that the apostle Paul includes our soul in the middle. That means that the Lord also cares about our inner well-being. Yes, He wants our mind to be made whole. He desires our emotions to be healthy. He wants our will to be strong & not compromised.     
 
We know this to be true because when you look at Isaiah 53, where we have prophesied what Jesus would accomplish for us through the Cross, we see that the chastisement for our peace was also laid upon Him. So His crucifixion was not just about our iniquities & transgressions. Nor was it just about our sicknesses & physical infirmities. No, by His stripes we are healed also includes healing for our soul.
 
So let’s receive our wholeness completely & wholly. Let’s not just reserve it for spiritual things or just pursue it for physical things. Let’s go after our soul being made whole as well. Amen?
 
So what we have been doing is looking at several examples of people who were healed and made whole in the Gospels and learning from those real-life stories what those individuals did to receive their wholeness.
 
Last week, we looked at the healing of the man with dropsy and learned how the Lord has redeemed us from any and all curses. That means that the price has been paid for us to be delivered from everything that is included in Deuteronomy chapter 28 where every damnable curse imaginable is described.
 
So we looked at how our calendar changed when we were made a new creation in Christ Jesus and now, old things have passed away and all things have become new. So now we are blessed. Now we are saved. Now we are delivered from all the power of darkness. Our past does not hold power over us – for we are the redeemed of the Lord and we need to say so! Amen?
 
 
 
THE HEALING OF THE MAN WITH THE WITHERED HAND
 
This week, I want us to look at another example of healing in the Gospels that is very similar to the healing of the man with dropsy. No, not similar in the nature of the infirmity, but the setting itself was almost identical. Let’s look at it …
This story is told in three of the four Gospels (Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 6), so I want to jump between them, but we will mainly camp in Mark’s Gospel …
In Mark 3:1, our story begins with – “And He entered the synagogue again …”
Now we made this point last week, but you know that Jesus did not have a great track record when He went into synagogues, don’t you? Yet He kept going into them and attempting to minister to them.
I remember a time on one of my trips to India where I was invited to a particular location (i.e. Madurai) and, like it is everywhere, there was just this religious spirit that covered the church services and pastor’s conference that we were ministering at. Well, I was questioning what we were doing and my friend that travels with me, Trinity Elisha, said, “They deserve the gospel too.” When he said that I realized something at that moment – that Jesus never shied away from the religious people. Paul always went into the synagogue first. So just because people reject and do not receive the truth you are bringing them does not mean you weren’t led in giving it to them. The Lord just likes to give us opportunity after opportunity to repent and will continue to strive with us to “get it.” This is all out of His goodness and His longsuffering—because He is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth.
So here is another lesson to be learned: if you continue to hear the same message coming to you, don’t continue to reject it. Understand that it could be the Lord attempting to establish in your heart that very truth in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Amen?   
Then in the rest of Mark 3:1, we are told – “… and a man was there who had a withered hand.”
The word “withered” literally means “dried up, shriveled, paralyzed or an atrophied limb of the body.” In other words, it describes a hand that had shrunk due to being atrophied.
 
This same word is actually used in John chapter 5 in the account of the healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. In verse 3 it says, “In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.”
 
Now the word for “paralyzed” is the same word used for “withered.” So we see here that this was a hand that was either specifically paralyzed or at least had similar effects of paralysis. And because of this non-use, his hand had begun to atrophy, which is why it was called “withered.”  
 
Now in Luke’s Gospel, sticking with his propensity for giving more specific details of people’s infirmities, Dr. Luke tells us that it was his “right hand (that) was withered.” (See Luke 6:6). So by indicating that this was this man’s right hand, it shows us that it likely was his most usable body part. This is an important piece of information because this one account shows us that the Lord is touched with the feelings of our infirmities—knowing what our needs are—and desires to heal those areas of our bodies and lives that we have need of.
  
Then in Mark 3:2, we are told – “So they watched Him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath day …”
 
Again, we made this point last week, but why would they do this unless Jesus had the reputation for healing everyone? Amen! Let that sink in today… Jesus was known for healing people everywhere He went, so this is what caused even these unbelieving religious Jews to actually have the “hope” (i.e. the confident expectation) that He was going to heal somebody in their midst. Would to God that God’s children would have that same level of expectation today!
 
Now they were watching Jesus while He was teaching to see whether He would heal this man. Now you understand that Jesus was probably doing a good job of teaching right here, right? He was saying something important, I’m sure. But they were not hearing Him; they were looking at the wrong thing and missing the rich revelation coming from the Master.
 
And don’t be deceived, people still do this all of the time. It is devilish to sit there and try to find fault, to go to a meeting to find something wrong that the person is saying. Likewise, we are wrong if we are allowing our attention to be turned towards someone else in the crowd while God is doing something else.
 
Church, don’t let the devil use your mind like a playground! Don’t be distracted from the point God is making, looking at something else. 
 
Mark 3:2 goes on to say, “so that they might accuse Him.”
 
Let me give you a great lesson in life here: If ever we are in the “accusing mode” we are not operating by the Spirit of God. God does not accuse; He excuses. Amen! The margin of my Bible says here for “accuse” – “to bring charges against.”
 
Romans 8:33-34 says, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies! Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.”
 
What these verses are basically saying is that God is not in the condemning business; He is in the justifying business! Amen! But the answer to those questions of “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?” and “Who is he who condemns?” is simple – it’s the devil, who is also known as the “accuser of the brethren.”
 
So never forget this: When accusations come into your mind regarding your brethren, never entertain those thoughts! They are never from God, and they are always from the “adversary” – that is, the prosecuting attorney himself, satan. Amen!
 
Luke’s Gospel specifically tells us that Jesus “knew their thoughts” (See Luke 6:8) – specifically during the part where they were watching him closely to find an accusation against Him.
 
The word “knew” here comes from the Greek word “oida” which literally means to “see” (or, to realize, recognize or possess information). So what we are seeing here is Jesus operating in the word of knowledge. He actually saw their thoughts!
 
You see, contrary to popular belief, Jesus did not always operate in the complete omniscience of God. No, He had to hear from the Holy Spirit and depend on His gifts to know the things He did.
 
Then in Mark 3:3, notice what happens next: “And He said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Step forward.’” (Compare with Luke 6:8 where it says, “and He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Arise and stand here.’ And he arose and stood.”)
 
In fact, Luke’s Gospel had it right – the command to this man of “Step forward” literally means “Arise into the midst.” 
 
You see, what Jesus was doing here is by telling this man to “arise and stand in the midst of the people,” He was wanting them to see the man above their doctrine and their theology. In other words, Jesus was wanting them to see that this was a real man with a real need, and they were only focused on their doctrinal stance.
 
You see, we need to understand what is really important to the Lord – people. People are important – even more than our doctrinal stance. And the moment we begin to become more dogmatic regarding our beliefs on the jots and tittles of God’s Word than we are on loving and ministering to people, we are in error. Amen?      
 
But I’d like to use this phrase “step forward” to illustrate a big first “step” (pun intended) towards being made whole …
 
A lot of times our miracle is directly tied to us taking a step of faith. You see, we are specifically told that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. That means that our Christian walk is predominantly going to be full of steps of faith – meaning, it’s not always going to make sense, we aren’t going to have any evidence, it defies logic, etc. Yes, the walk of faith contains many steps of the Lord leading us to do things that are contrary to conventional wisdom.
 
And this will certainly be the case when it comes to being made whole. In fact, we’ve already seen this a lot in these various healings – the Lord asking people to take steps of faith to get their miracle. So if we see this theme in the Gospels, then if we are walking with the Lord correctly today, it will be the theme of our lives as well.
 
And notice here what direction this step of faith was – “forward.” No, it wasn’t backwards. It wasn’t staying where we are at, even. No, the Lord desires for us to always move forward.
 
It’s kind of like with this man’s withered hand – the reason it was atrophied was because of non-use. Now this guy had an excuse because, physically, he could not use this paralyzed hand. But when it comes to you and I and the various things we need to be made whole of, it’s very rare that we “cannot” do something to “step forward.”  
 
It’s like the saying – “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Well, that’s truer than we think when it comes to spiritual things. The things God has given us are not meant to remain stagnant and not being used. God doesn’t look favorably upon people who hide & bury their talents. No, He expects us to use it, thus multiplying it for His glory.
 
So you could say, if we are not moving forward, then we are going backwards. It’s time for us to step forward, saints! To arise out of the pack of “this is how everyone does it” and stand out from the majority and do things God’s way. Sure, it’ll make you different, but this is what holiness is all about – letting that light shine and being a light to the rest who are walking in darkness.
 
Turn to someone and tell them – It’s time for you to step forward.
 
Then in Mark 3:4, Jesus asked a question – “Then He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they kept silent.”   
 
Isn’t it interesting that Jesus made the comparison of doing good and saving life to the healing of this man?
 
You see, this is the way the Lord views healing. He sees it as a priority. He sees it as more important than our doctrine. Far too many people will hurt and abuse others in the name of religion. In other words, they hold truer to their doctrine than they do to simply loving others and helping them. And this is what the religious leaders here were guilty of. They loved keeping the Sabbath more than they loved this man who was suffering. This is the tendency of religion. Let’s not be that way.
 
Then in Mark 3:5 – “And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts …”
 
Well, we learn here that Jesus gets angry too. And we learn specifically what He gets angry with.
 
Jesus was angry here because of the hardness of their hearts. They were insensitive to the man with the withered hand and to his need. They were more sensitive to their doctrine and traditions – namely the Sabbath. This is a problem when we are more sensitive to a doctrine & tradition than we are to the person and their need.
 
Mark 3:5 goes on to say, “… He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’…”
 
First of all, notice that Jesus did not say “extend your arm.” Why would Jesus ask a man with a withered hand to stretch out his hand? He couldn’t do that. But a man with a healed hand can stretch forth his hand!
 
So what was happening here? Jesus was calling him whole! What if this man would have said, “But Jesus, I can’t stretch out my hand; it’s withered! Can’t you see that?”
 
This is the key to miracles, folks—acting on the promptings of the Holy Spirit to do something you seemingly cannot do in the natural! Faith without works is dead! 
 
Now let’s look at this command “stretch out your hand” metaphorically:
 
You know, some of us see ourselves like this man with the withered hand when it comes to ministering to other people and laying hands on them. Many of us see our hands as “withered”—that is, weak, small and useless. We cannot see ourselves as having the strength or ability to stretch out our hands to do anything of significance for the Lord.
 
So do you know what the cure for this is? It is following the command of Jesus here in this account – “stretch out your hand.” We might say, “But Lord, I don’t feel like I can stretch out my hands and set them unto anything! I see my hands as weak, small and insignificant.” But if we will just obey this command and get off our hands and start putting them on people, we will see the strength of God, the healing power of the Almighty at work through our hands! Glory to God!  
 
But when it comes to us being made whole ourselves, there is meaning behind – “Stretching out our hands.”
 
You see, sometimes people’s biggest problem is their unwillingness to “reach out.” In other words, they try and handle everything themselves and don’t ask for help.
 
Now there is a time and a place for standing on your own and fighting your own battles. This is in no way insinuating that we never need to pray & believe God ourselves. But it is also imbalanced to never reach out to others, ask for prayer, and seek the counsel of others. I’ve just seen how we tend to get in one ditch or the other when it comes to this. Christians either tend towards never opening up to others, seeking help, asking for prayer, etc. or they tend towards reaching out too much and calling every prayer line they can think of when they are going through something. There is a balance.
 
But today, I’m addressing the ones who never seem to do any reaching out whatsoever and not letting others in.
 
You see, a lot of times that’s pride. Sure, we might call it something else, but I’ve found that a lot of those times are because we don’t want to admit that we need help. We want to pretend like we have it all under control, like we don’t need any help. But here’s the truth of the matter – there’s not one of us that doesn’t need help at some time or another. Yes, we all have times where we need some advice, some prayer, etc. and to think otherwise is straight up being deceived.
 
And here’s the kicker – If we have any of this yucky pride in us, it can keep us from receiving the grace of healing – because the Bible teaches us that the humble get the grace and God resists the proud person (See James 4:6).
 
I don’t know about you, but I don’t want divine resistance; I want divine assistance. Yes, I want more grace, not less of it. And humility is the key to receiving more of His grace.
 
So what does this humility look like? I’m glad you asked …
 
It’s important to understand that it is first directed towards God. In other words, it’s me reaching out to Him and asking Him questions, and not assuming I already know the answers. It’s me looking to Him for everything and submitting to His instructions which are unique for every situation.
 
You see, I know a mistake I’ve made before is this – that I do what I think I know to do. I do the last thing that worked. In other words, I lean to my own understanding – and this understanding is oftentimes of spiritual, Scriptural things.
 
I’ve learned that this is not always best – because what might have worked for someone else or even for me before, isn’t necessarily the right thing for this particular challenge. So the solution is what? It’s being led in every situation and reaching out to the Lord for my everyday answer.
 
This is humility, church! It’s learning to lean on the Lord every day and in every situation.
 
But this “extends” (pun intended) to others as well: We need to have the humility to know when and how to ask for help.
 
In my experience, I’ve found that when I’m in the middle of a storm, my judgment might be a little clouded (put intended, again) – because when my emotions are involved, it might not be as easy to hear from God as it is at other times. So having other Spirit-filled believers who are full of wisdom is an asset because they might be able to hear more clearly what the Spirit is speaking to me.
 
But if I’m one that is bent on handling my own stuff and not opening up to others, I might miss God’s wisdom. Two is better than one, right? We are taught this about marriage. And I can tell you this – Shannon and I have certainly experienced it!
 
You see, when you have two people who are filled with the Holy Spirit working together for the same purpose and towards the same goal, you have at a minimum “double” the chance of hearing correctly from the Lord. But it’s actually more than double; the Bible teaches us that if one can put a thousand to flight, then two can put ten thousand to flight!
 
So do you reckon it might work this way when it comes to getting better traction in results with being made whole? I guarantee you it does! No, you don’t have to be married for this to work, you just need to have others in your life that will join together with you and hit that area of brokenness in the multitude of counsel, strength, and anointing! Amen!  
 
Now you might feel a lot like this man with the withered hand, saying, “But Pastor, I just can’t do that. I’ve been hurt too many times. It’s just not my personality or temperament.” Well, what do they say is the definition of insanity? Doing the same things and expecting different results.
 
If you want to see some change from the way things have always been, then your answer might be in doing something you have yet to do – specifically, the thing that your flesh kicks and screams about.
 
It might just be that you are going to have to trust someone again. It might be that you are going to have to get out of these pews and praise & worship God in a way you’ve never done before. It might be that you are going to have to crank up the volume a little in your house – referring to lifting your voice and shouting because for some stains, you gotta shout them out. No pain; no gain, church.     
 
Then Mark 3:5 goes on to say, “and his hand was restored as whole as the other.”
 
I’ll tell you – When God heals, He heals it, brother! 100% complete restoration for this guy! Hallelujah! 
 
How many of you would like to see that kind of restoration in your life? It can be a physical restoration like with this man, or it can be the restoration of your soul like the 23rd Psalm promises us. Yes, it can be in our body or our soul.
 
Our God is all about restoration because it is threaded throughout the Scriptures: The example I am reminded of the most right now is with Israel as a nation.
 
How many times did they do dumb stuff – forsaking the fountain of living waters Himself and turning to broken cisterns who could hold no water? Yes, they would turn away from their God and unto other gods. And the result was always the same – the “Ites” came in, stole their land, carried their families away in captivity, and oppressed them. It’s a reoccurring narrative in the Old Testament, and maybe it is in your life too.
 
Maybe you are in the same boat as them. Well, God promised them time and time again that He would RESTORE – that He would restore their land to them, that He would bring them back to it, that He would even restore to them the years that were waste (See Joel 2:25).
 
Well, you might say, “But I’ve just made so many stupid decisions. I’ve made my own bed, so now I guess I just am going to have to sleep in it.” Well, so did they. These things didn’t happen to Israel & Judah because God dropped the ball; it was because they dropped it. Yet even in that situation, God said He would restore.
 
Finally, we see in Mark 3:6 – “Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.”
 
How many of you know that this is definitely not how the Pharisees should have responded to Jesus’ healing of this man? It should have read – “Then the Pharisees lifted their hands and praised God, and started trying to figure out a way to celebrate Him.”
 
But of course they didn’t – The Scriptures teach us that they went out and immediately conspired against Him that they might destroy Him!  
 
Church, again, this is one of the reasons why you don’t see any of these religious leaders getting healed – because you will get out of a ministry what you put into it. And if this happened in Jesus’ ministry, you can bet it will happen in ours.
 
Let’s not let that be our testimony. Let’s “step forward” and “stretch out our hand” so that the Lord can put our wholeness on full display and become exalted as a result. 

REVIEW

One thing is for sure, God wants all of us to be made whole. Yes, the same way God wants all men and women to be saved is the same way God wants all of us to be healed & whole.
 
We’ve learned this through First Thessalonians 5:23 as well as through the myriad of examples in the Bible where Jesus healed them all!
 
I know religious people will argue that God sometimes will leave a person broken so they will learn to depend on Him or that He doesn’t heal everyone because for some, He has a person in their infirmity for a purpose. Some call their infirmity, their “cross to bear.” But that’s ridiculous! Why? Because Jesus told us to that we can take up or lay down our cross. So if our “cross” were a physical condition or handicap, then how can one choose to lay it down? No, they are “bound” to that infirmity, barring God heals them and sets them free.
 
No, choosing to take up one’s cross and following the Lord is correctly understood as dying to yourself and choosing to lay your life down for the Lord. Now that’s something everyone can and should do.
 
But only religion can pervert this and make something out that the Old Testament directly calls a curse and the New Testament specifically shows us we’ve been redeemed from sound like it’s a part of God’s redemptive plan for us. All that is, is man’s poor attempt at explaining why bad things happen to good people, but those philosophies of man are a stretch to say the least.  
 
And the reason why I can say this is because of all of the examples we have from the life & ministry of Jesus where He healed all who came to Him in faith – which is where the apostle Peter got the following statement that he made to Cornelius’ household— “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38).
 
What a beautiful summary of the ministry of Jesus, which reveals to us the heart of God because Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing!
 
Yes, Jesus always was doing good! So this is why I like to add something to our well-known Christianize – “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.” You see, we are accustomed to saying God is good all the time, but we need to also add that He does good all the time too (Psalm 119:68).
 
What else was Jesus doing all the time? He was healing all who were oppressed by the devil, which was a point that we made last week – that sometimes our brokenness and the areas of our life that need healing are not just physical. No, sometimes there is a demonic control or influence that needs to be dealt with in order to be made whole.
 
We looked at this in the example of the blind & mute man last week – how he had these physical conditions, but they were a result of being “demonized.”
 
So what we learned last week was how to resist the kingdom of darkness so that if our sickness, disease, infirmity, or any other physical, mental, or emotional issue is demonically inspired, how to fight it off and receive our healing. And it is with those “It is writtens”, using God’s Word, we have the power to destroy the kingdom of darkness and resist the devil. This is how we can run off the works of the devil and become healed & whole like this blind & mute man did on that day – by seeing what we need to see and saying what we need to say. Amen!
 
THE HEALING OF THE MAN WITH DROPSY
 
Now this week, I want us to move into another account of healing where a man was made whole from a unique kind of disease called “dropsy.” This healing is mentioned in Luke 14:1-6.
 
Now in verse one, our story begins – “Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.”
 
So, this host was not just any old Pharisee; he was one of the rulers of the Pharisees. In other words, he was the head-honcho! Therefore, you have to know this was a nice house and a prestigious dinner that Jesus was invited to. However, their motives were not completely pure in their hospitality. This is obvious by what is said at the end of verse one …
 
Notice how “they watched Him closely”: Now they were obviously not watching him closely to be blessed by Him. No, they were watching him closely to find fault with Him and accuse Him. You know, this is what someone who is offended does with those they are offended with: they will look for something else that will further substantiate their offense. But guess what the one will do that is not only not offended, but truly loves the other person? They will only see the good in them, magnifying their positives and not their negatives. Yes, you will watch closely or listen carefully to the person or thing that your heart is inclined towards.
 
We need to understand too that they were watching Him closely because they expected Him to break the Sabbath somehow, likely by healing someone. This is faith- is it not!?! They were watching, looking intently, for Him to do good on this Sabbath like He had done before (i.e. The healing of the man with the withered hand). Therefore, these Pharisees and religious leaders were in more faith for a healing than most of us Christians. 
 
Then notice verse two – “And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.”
 
The word “before (Him)” reveals to us that this man was “in front of” Him. He might have been sitting across the table from Jesus. We don’t know. But herein lies a good principle – our ministry is what is “in front of” us (i.e. before us). Too many times we are looking for opportunities to minister and miss the opportunities that are before us.
 
For example, there are many out there who feel called to preach and teach and complain because they don’t have anywhere to preach. Listen, there are plenty of places for us to minister: the prisons are always looking for ministers. Nursing homes would love to have you come minister there. Stop just looking for places you want to go, and go where the need is. So, what is before you, or let me ask it this way—what are the needs that you see and are staring you in the face? Oftentimes, those are the people or things that God wants you to directly minister to or simply pray for. 
 
Then notice who it was that they brought before Jesus – It “was a certain man … who had dropsy”
 
Now we will get into what this specific disease was because I doubt there are too many folks here today that know what “dropsy” is, but how many of you know that you don’t even need to know what this is to know you don’t want it?
 
Now this brings up an important point: Did you know that you do not really need to know everything about a certain infirmity or disease to get healed of it? In fact, it is generally those who know everything there is to know about a certain disease that have the hardest time getting healed of it. They spend countless hours doing research on their illness, and the problem with this is it can fuel the unbelief that would hinder the miracle. Now I am not saying that we should bury our head in the sand and be naïve, but there is a proper balance to simply being informed and letting that information spawn unbelief in our hearts.
 
Then in verse three, Jesus asked those in this ruler of the Pharisees’ home – “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
 
Notice that Jesus did not ask what was “unlawful.” Rather, He asked what was “lawful.”
 
You see, religion focuses only on what you can’t do. Yes, the Law liked to focus on what you can’t do and what you aren’t doing. The royal law- the law of love- focuses more on what you can do and what we should be doing. So, for Jesus to ask what was lawful, He is coming at it from a New Covenant perspective. Things like healing, doing good, setting people free, etc. were never forbidden under the Law. Therefore, instead of majoring on what we shouldn’t be doing, they should have majored on what we have the right to be doing.
 
The Old Covenant mentality says, “I got to do this to get that.” The New Covenant mentality says, “I get to do this because I already got that.”
 
So in verse four, we see how Jesus healed this man with dropsy – “He took him, and healed him, and let him go.”
 
Notice the process of healing here: Jesus first “took” him which indicates that He laid hold of this man with His hands. Then He healed him, and then “let him go” – meaning that He set him free and released him. That shows me that sometimes healing is sandwiched in between laying hold of something and not letting it go until they are healed.      
 
Finally, in verse five, Jesus used an analogy to drive His point home: He said, “Which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?”
 
Jesus here compared the healing of a person to helping an animal in an attempt to show us how, just as we would not think of not helping our animals, we should not think twice about helping a person who is in physical need. And in this instance, the pit was being compared to the infirmity.
 
Church, sickness, disease, and infirmity is not a blessing. It is a “pit” – that is, a trap or an inescapable place! Hell is referred to as a bottomless pit. So here infirmities are likened to the same thing hell is – a pit. Therefore, sickness and infirmity are in no way a part of the liberty that we have been called unto. It is evil. It is hell. It is a curse. And therefore, we are redeemed from it. Amen.  
 
Which is the point I want to make today – what we are redeemed from.
 
Now as promised, I wanted to describe to you what this specific disease is – the disease Jesus associated a pit with: This term “dropsy” is not a common medical term today, but it might be referred to today as “edema” (a-deme-a), which is a disease characterized by fluid retention and swelling. “Dropsy” is a symptom of a disease of the heart, liver, kidneys, or brain. This condition involves the accumulation of water fluid in the body cavities or in the limbs. Thus, other translations say that he was a man whose body, arms and legs were swollen.
 
But there is power in specifically knowing what these things that our so-called experts have given names to are because then we can uncover what we are redeemed from.
 
You see, the fact that we are not that familiar with the term “dropsy” is a point I’d like to make today.
 
In the Bible, there were a lot of physical conditions, diseases and illnesses, that were unique to the day & age they lived in. And while we can certainly associate these symptoms with certain diseases & illnesses that we have in our world today, the fact is there were certainly physical conditions they had back then and in the part of the world that they lived in that differ from the physical issues that we deal with here in the United States in 2024.    
 
One of our most detailed examples of this is found in Deuteronomy chapter 28 where the Lord gave His covenant people a long list of curses that would come upon them if they broke His law and didn’t heed His voice. Yes, there is a very specific list of issues that they would have if they did not keep His commandments.
 
Now in Deuteronomy 28:1-14, we first see God give them the blessings of keeping His law and following His voice. But then in verses 15-68, which is a whole lot more verses than the blessings, we have some pretty horrendous curses for violating His law and not following His voice. These curses ranged from physical diseases (some of which we are going to look at today), mental & emotional issues, financial & business problems, and relationship issues such as brokenness in the family arena. It was bad! And it was clear that all of these things described in these 50-plus verses were considered “curses.”
 
You see, the dictionary defines being “cursed” as being “damned, doomed, devoted to destruction, (Now we don’t want to get “D’s” in this class, amen? We want to get “A’s and B’s”- Absolutely Blessed!) afflicted or plagued.” In our modern-day terminology, we might say it is to be “jinxed, unlucky, or unfortunate.”  
 
So why would anyone call any of these horrible things “blessings” or “blessings in disguise?” A lot of people in the church today do. They consider certain things like cancer, the death of a child, certain handicaps, etc. “blessings,” in an attempt to find the silver lining when those things happen.
 
No, friends, a curse is a curse, and a blessing is a blessing! Don’t try to make things that God calls a curse out to be a blessing in disguise. We are told here that these bad things are curses for violating God’s law and if you look at what God said through the law to the children of Israel, He said that they would dwell in the land of promise, promising them healing, prosperity, and peace (i.e. wholeness).
 
So it’s rather clear from God’s perspective what is a blessing and what is a curse, and it’s pretty much common sense. Yes, a blessing in God’s eyes is what a blessing is to most people, and a curse in God’s eyes is what a curse is to most people.
 
Now it is rather clear that there are those of us who seem to have these types of things called “curses” in the Bible that follow us around, that are abnormal and unnatural. I’m referring to those things that are reoccurring and seem harder to shake than the average infirmity.
 
It’s for this reason that we have people cite causes of this and refer to them as “generational curses.” Now there are such things …
 
In Exodus 34:6-7, the Lord God told Moses –  “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’”
Now most of us are guilty of reading verses like this and focusing on the negative part – that God by no means will clear the guilty, but will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and grandchildren, even to the 3rd and 4th generations. But did you notice that it works in reverse as well? Verse 6 teaches about how merciful and gracious God is, how longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth He is. And how He keeps mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
But I want you to notice that when this “generational cursing” is referred to, it just says this is for the “guilty” and doesn’t quantify who all and how many we are talking about. However, for “thousands” He forgives iniquity, transgressions, and sin! Glory to God!
So this isn’t one of those kind of things where there’s going to be five out of ten families that are going to be cursed and the other half won’t have to deal with it. No, what we are seeing here is that God’s propensity is for blessing, not cursing. Yes, He is the forgiver, being full of mercy and gracious. Therefore, the “guilty” referred to here has to be some abnormal, accentuated kind of sin for it to not fall under the umbrella of His grace & mercy. In other words, in order to be the guilty that the Lord is referring to here, a generation has to do some pretty heinous things or some specific kind of sin that falls outside of all of this mercy God tends to give.   
And I don’t think we really need to speculate as to what this is because in Exodus chapter 20 we get a glimpse:
When giving the children of Israel the Ten Commandments, The Lord said in verses 4-6, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Notice that the specific thing that God said sparked Him to jealousy and to visit their iniquities up to the 3rd & 4th generations is idolatry. Yes, worshipping graven images of false gods is something that the Lord specifically noted would cause these generational curses upon family blood lines. These are those whom the Lord says, hate Him. 
This is why we see some of the most impoverished nations in the world as being those who practice idolatry. It’s because this particular sin hates God and opens people up to the fruit of their gods, which is never anything close to a blessing.
But my point is that, odds are we are not under some generational curse that requires some special form of ministry to break. No, the odds are we fall under this “thousands” category that has been shown a whole lot of mercy, grace, and compassion from the Lord even though we all have certainly sinned and fallen short of His glory. Praise the Lord!
But again, it is clear that there are things that might be tendencies and are hard to shake. So we need to learn how to break the power of these things, but I believe one very important thing to break first is the belief system that we have. And if we believe that there is something that has power over us whether that be some kind of generational curse or some demonic power or spirit, then that can hinder our healing & deliverance because in our hearts we’ve given it a right to be there.
Church, I can promise you that nothing of the kingdom of darkness has the right or power to be there. These things are dealt with through the same means that the big generational curse was dealt with that we were all born under.
Now you might be wondering – What is this generational curse that we all have in our bloodline? I’m referring to the ultimate curse of Adam’s sin.
You see, the apostle Paul taught us that “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—" (Romans 5:12).
Well, that sounds like a generational curse to me, how about you? 
So this generational curse of sin started with Adam in the Garden. Because of Adam’s sin we are all born under the curse of sin. This curse causes us all to be born with a sinful nature which is the true catalyst of any sinful behavior we exhibit.  As King David said, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5).
And if left undealt with, sin will run its course and it will end in eternal separation from God Himself. This is the ultimate generational curse.
So how was this curse dealt with? Jesus had to come and become the propitiation for our sin, dying on the Cross in our place. So in order for you and I to become cured of this curse of sin, we must call upon the name of the Lord, receiving His work of grace, and be born again. Once this occurs, that generational curse of Adam is removed, and we become a new creation where old things pass away and all things become new (See Second Corinthians 5:17). Yes, we go from being cursed to being blessed of God. No, not by our own works or by any other self-effort on our part, but by simply receiving the grace of God by faith. Amen?
Well, if this simple action is what took care of the biggest generational curse, then why would we think that we have to jump through all of hoops to get free from other curses? As we’ve learned already through this series, the same way we got saved is the same way we receive all of the other benefits of our salvation – by grace through faith. So if I want to get free from these pesky little issues that plague my life, then I just need to receive the grace of God by faith in Him. Amen!  
The apostle Paul teaches us this: Romans 5:17-18 says, “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.”
Yes, the remedy to break the curse of Adam’s sin and the consequence of your parents’ sin are both found in Jesus Christ. Any person born again in Jesus Christ has been made brand new and you are no longer under the curse of any sin. Consider this verse:
Again, Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]”
Regardless of what has happened before, once you are in Christ it is all made brand new. This one decision to repent and choose Jesus as your Savior ends any generational curse or consequence that you feel prone to. If salvation breaks the ultimate generational curse of original sin, it will also break the consequence of any sins of your fathers. The challenge for you is to continue to walk out what God has done in you. If you are in Christ, you are no longer a prisoner to your past, you have been set free.
Honestly sometimes the scars of your past life remain but you don’t have to remain victim to them because Jesus has set you on a new path. As Jesus has declared in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
And it is for this reason that I tend towards believing in “generational blessings” because of what Christ Jesus has done for us.  
You and I were born under a curse and a consequence. The curse of original sin and the consequence of our parents’ behaviors. The good news is that just as sinful behaviors can be passed down, so can Godly behaviors. Once you are in Christ you can begin a new family heritage of people walking with God from one generation to the next.
Yes, because you belong to him, you can transform your family line from generational cursing to generational blessing. You are new in Christ, you are free in Christ, so walk in that newness and freedom. Regardless of what has happened before, because of Christ you have victory. I implore you to live in that victory and change the course of your family’s future for generations to come.