Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
The Source Of Sickness | Pastor John Greiner
In this message, Pastor unpacks “The Source of Sickness” through Luke 13 and Acts 10:38, showing that sickness is satanic oppression while healing is God’s covenant good. Jesus’ ministry was teaching, preaching, and healing—and the bent woman loosed after 18 years proves believers “ought to be” free because we’re in covenant (Abraham then, better in Christ now—Jehovah Rapha). He contrasts religion’s “No” with Jesus’ “Yes,” shares recent testimonies (a word for “-itis” conditions), and builds faith for a “milestone” season by highlighting redemption’s legal and functional sides: Christ has redeemed us from the curse (Gal. 3:13) and has already blessed us with every spiritual blessing (Eph. 1:3). Practical takeaways: locate the devil—not God—as the author of disease, receive by faith apart from any man or meeting, keep a present-tense confession (“I have it now”), and discern the Lord’s body rightly at communion. The call to action: shut the door on the curse, speak the Word, and walk in the health and abundance Jesus already secured.
All right, let's reach down and pick up our Bibles. Let's get into the Word today with together. And uh so glad for all of you being here today. Let's lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad. Say this together. Say, Heavenly Father, I'm glad to be in the presence of other folks of light, precious faith. Love plus unity equals miracles. There's a miracle atmosphere here this morning. All things are possible with my God, and all things are possible to him who believes. I'm a believer. All things are possible to me today, in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to Luke 13. And we'll start reading with verse 10. Luke 13, 10. And then also Acts chapter 10. Luke 13, 10 first. And he, Jesus, was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. You know, we sometimes we get the idea that Jesus just roamed around, you know, outside, teaching at the seaside, teaching on the mount, teaching here. He taught in the synagogues where the Jews were because he was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He sent, you know, he didn't always have multitudes in front of him. Sometimes he had small crowds in a synagogue. I've been to a synagogue there in Caesarea, you know, and it's just a very modest little place. They uncovered it, they discovered it, and archaeologists found it. And it had the most beautiful floor you've ever seen. It was just this intricate patterns, and it was just all kind of faded. You've ever seen a rug that's old, an old Asian rug, you know, that's faded and the colors are still vibrant, but it's all kind of a uh a lower, a lower, you know, it's not popping out like that. That's the way that whole floor was gorgeous. I don't know who could have done that. It must have taken ages to build just the floor in that synagogue. But I thought about Jesus preaching there. I I don't know that he did, or I don't know that he didn't. He might have preached right there. So here he is teaching in verse 11, and behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity 18 years. Everybody shout, 18 years. That's a long time. And was bowed together and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and after six months she was made immediately. Everybody shout, immediately. She was made straight and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue, Gavin Newsom, J.B. Pritzker. I mean, it couldn't be more stupid than those guys. They're as stupid as, I mean, you know, this guy right here is stupid with a capital S.
SPEAKER_01:The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because that Jesus had dared to heal on the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_00:And said unto the people, see, he didn't have guts to tell Jesus anything.
SPEAKER_01:Said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work.
SPEAKER_00:And them therefore come and be healed. And not on the Sabbath day. I mean, can you imagine? I want to say one of them said, Well, you know, Rabbi, we came yesterday and the door was locked. Ain't nobody here where you're sure not working. You're not working on the Sabbath or any other day. But he didn't say that. All right. And then the Lord answered, Oh, I love Jesus was not this little meek and mild little person, you know. I mean, he did not give him place to say that. He said, You hypocrite! Did not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound lo these eighteen years, be loosed from bond, from this bond on the Sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed, and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him. Alright, and then in Acts chapter 10, you hold your place there in Luke and flip over to Acts. Now we Jesus has died on the cross and risen from the dead and is ascended into heaven, and now the church is at work, and Peter is preaching and he's talking about Jesus, how that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him. And so today I wanted to share a message entitled The Source of Sickness. The Source of Sickness. Why? Because I want to build your faith for this year of milestones. Just a couple of months later, and of course, you know, we're not giving God a time limit. We just have a we have a faith uh image of milestones happening in our lives. Some of you have milestones, great milestones of financial breakthroughs. Some of you have testimony. I was just talking to one before the service. We're going to hear about that later. We're going to have a Sunday where we have some milestones that we're going to talk about. Is this a great one? We have others. We have people that have received their healing. And, you know, last Sunday, you know, it was an unusual Sunday. In the fact that on the night before, on Saturday night, I had a word of wisdom, which is a gift of the Spirit, a revelatory gift. And I heard the word itis. God wanted to hide uh healed everyone that had something that ends with itis, arthritis, bursitis, cellulitis. I mean, there's all kinds of inflammation. Idis is inflammation. And uh and I and I saw myself laying hands on people for that condition. And I mean, when I called that out, I mean the whole front filled up with people. And instead of, you know, having the life team come up and everybody has hands laid on them. I mean, I saw myself ministering in that way. So we just followed the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is in charge of every service. So whether we have gifts of the Spirit in manifestation or whether we just have a wonderful day in the Word, both of them are valuable. This message, whether there's any gifts of the Spirit associated, this message will feed the faith that you've already got. It will also cause it to grow. It'll also give you information maybe some of you have never heard before, and all of a sudden you've got a seed planted. Either way, this word, this word that's being preached this morning, it's both seed and water. And we need both of them to bring forth a harvest, a harvest of what? Of a milestone. I mean, I'm believing God for miracles. Are you? How about one that took 18 years? Everybody say 18 years. And so for this to be our milestone year, we're going to have to exercise faith. And thank God we have a covenant, and that covenant includes healing. So here we have in Acts 10, 38, we find the source of sickness. It's just right out there. Peter is pre uh preaching this, and he said, you know, whom Satan, you know, he said he went about doing good healing all who are oppressed of the devil. See, sickness is oppression of the devil. Don't get don't get the author of sickness confused with God. It's not God. Some of you raised in the Baptist church, you know, when Brother Hagin, I mean, we I stand on the shoulders of great men and women that I heard when I got saved. I was so blessed to get to sit under the ministry of John Osteen and Dodie Osteen. They're both in heaven. Dodie just passed last month. It's amazing. And uh she's gone. She lived a great long life, so fruitful. And I learned so much from her. I learned so much from Brother Osteen, my pastor, my father in the faith. Of course, Brother Hagin. I just think about Brother Hagin was on the bed of sickness when he's 14. Was there, you know, in two years or more, couldn't walk. He had born with a malformed heart. We used to call them blue babies. Their heart was messed up. I had a cousin that was that way. He had a blue cast about him. He was dead before I was born. But I saw pictures of him. Of course, you know, you can't tell anything in an old black and white photo. I don't have any cut photos of him. But anyway, I know where he's buried, Forest Park Cemetery. You know, he died as a young man. It's kind of like Brother Hagin. When I hear about Brother Hagin, I think about my cousin Glenn and uh Glenn Patterson. And so anyway, he uh no, it was Greiner, Glenn Greiner. The other one was Patterson. Had another cousin that died. But uh I think about Brother Hagin, you know, the the doctor said, look, you know, he he can't live very long, even if he survives this thing that he's in right now, even if he survives it. People with this uh these blood diseases, this malformed heart, they just don't live long lives. And so you need to you need to be honest with this young man. And the Baptist preacher came by in his presence and said, Look, you're gonna have to talk to Kenneth and get him to accept that he's going to die, that healing has passed away. And there's just no healing for him. Not a thing we can do for him. He just needs to accept that. Aren't you glad he didn't accept that? Aren't you glad he got into the Word of God and dug in there, and he didn't have the Holy Ghost, he didn't have the baptism of the Holy Ghost, just a young Baptist boy that just refused to die. Thank God he fought. And it wasn't the only time he had to contend for his health. I mean, there were several times when the devil attacked him in his ministry and gave him symptoms that were so serious that it looked like he was gonna die. And he had to stand firm on what? On this word. So thank God for instant miracles and thank God for the gifts of the Spirit. They're available. And so we heard from Diane Abel. Diane just looked like she always did, just glorious and bright and happy on Sunday morning. I wasn't aware that she heard all over, but the Holy Ghost knew that she did. And we, you know, we had that it is, you know, and she came up and I laid hands on her, and she reported that Sunday afternoon that every bit of pain in her body was gone. She completely just all it was all melted away. It wasn't instant, but I mean by the end of the day. Praise God. Are y'all with me now? Thank God for those kinds of manifestations, but I'm teaching you things that you can use to possess your healing, whether there's a man, a movement, or a meeting. I mean, we don't need anybody but you and Jesus to get your healing. We we you know, we we want to facilitate your healing. We want to agree with you. And when the when the Holy Ghost is moving, we want to release healing. And we do all of those things, but you know, the best way to know how to maintain your health is get into the Word of God and know what belongs to you and who is the source of sickness. I mean, you know, if you've been taught, like Brother Hagin was taught, that God didn't care about your teenage years and didn't care enough to get provide, all he wants to do is get you to heaven. He doesn't care about your miserable sickness and paralysis. No, no, that's a lie, that's religion. So Jesus pointed out three truths. Get back to Luke 13. Jesus pointed out to uh, you know, the rabbi, rabbi Dufus, uh Rabbi, whatever his name was. He he pointed out three truths about healing. And he said, number one, the woman ought to be loosed. Ought to be loosed. If you have sickness, you ought to be healed. If you're in bondage, you ought to be loosed. If you're broke, you ought to be fixed. Are you with me now? If you're poor, you ought to be rich. See, it's it's interchangeable because Jesus died for all of those conditions. So this woman ought to be loose. Number two, Satan had bound her. Now, see, it wasn't God that sent it and teaching her a lesson. See, that's another thing many of you have taught as children. You went to you went to you know vacation Bible school way back when, and somebody taught you that God's got this holy purpose for you to be, you know, have sickness. Brother Hagen, uh uh uh not Brother Hagen, brother uh uh I can't think of his name now. But anyway, one one fine famous preacher, uh Norval Hayes, brother Norval, remember anybody remember Brother Norval Hayes? I I we I was his chauffeur in Houston for lot several years. I drove him all over town. When he'd come to town, he requested me to drive him. So I'd I'd take off and drive him to his meetings. But and even when he wasn't preaching at Lakewood. And uh, but Brother Norval, when he was a kid, his mother died of cancer when he was like eight years old. Baptist, you know, good Baptist lady. And the ladies came in there and said, Oh, Brother Norval, it's gonna be okay. You know, mother with just a little flower. God wanted to pick a little flower in his garden. It's gonna be okay. Well, he got mad at God. He blamed God. He he his mother is gone. He's seven years old. He has to grow up without a mother. And in those days, and his father, you know, back then, I mean, people weren't tenderhearted and everything. It was hard growing up. And he was 30-something years old before he finally heard the truth about who killed his mother. He finally found out there was a devil. He finally found out the enemy is behind all of that kind of suffering and death and demons and disease. Are you with me now? So uh the woman ought to be loosed. Satan was the one who had bound her, and she had a covenant right to healing. She ought to be loosed. Why? Because she's a daughter of Abraham. Well, that's the Old Testament. And we've got a better covenant found upon better promises. I mean, if it was true of her, it should be true of us. Well, but yeah, but this this disease, well, this infirmity, no, it doesn't matter what it is. It all comes from the devil, and Jesus is the healer. So, you know what happened? Well, religion said no.
SPEAKER_01:No, you shouldn't do that. It's the Sabbath. Healing has passed away. You're here at the wrong time. You should have been here yesterday. You should have been here last week.
SPEAKER_00:No, that's religion. Religion. Everybody say religion. But Jesus said yes. And what is what is yes? It's it's yes, yes to healing. And what is healing? Well, according to Acts 10.38, healing is good. Jesus went about doing good. He didn't go about go about doing bad. He went about doing good, healing all. I got another message. Healing for all. I mean, healing is for all. He's for healing is for unbelievers as well as believers. I've seen unbelievers healed. In fact, a couple of the greatest miracles I've ever seen were done on people that weren't yet born again. And one of them never did really get born again that I know of. I hope he did after that, but he didn't when I was trying to get him to after he got healed to something great. That healing is for all, but especially for us, we have a covenant right to it. The devil has no right to stop us from getting our heal from receiving our healing. Are you with me now? So you have the good, which is healing, and you have the bad, which is sickness, and you have the ugly, which is religion, or the devil. The good, the bad, and the ugly. In fact, I almost I almost named this message the good, the bad, and the ugly. Don't look so innocent. I know you watch the movie. I watched the movie too. Clint Eastwood is one of my favorites. I was in college when that movie came out. And I went to see it. Everybody say the good, the bad, and the ugly. All right, so you know, when you go back to the old covenant, let's flip back here real quick. Jesus taught. A lot of people think that Jesus went about just healing everybody, and he did. He went about doing good, but I mean, it wasn't just healing. He his ministry composed was consisted of teaching, preaching, and healing. So, what was he doing at the synagogue? He was teaching, and this woman was there. See, so look at the contact. He didn't just walk in there and saw the woman bowed over. She had a great view of her toes. She'd been seeing her toes really well for 18 years. She knew all about her toenails. That's all she could see. Just think about having to live like that. Bowed over at the waist. 18 years. And that sweetheart came to synagogue. She didn't stay home. I mean, wonder what in the world. I mean, you know, eight and never heard anything to help her, and even though it's in her covenant. I mean, her her her rabbi should be fired. He doesn't teach the word, he doesn't teach the people what their covenant says. So let's go back. Let's go back, because they they preached out of the Pentateuch, they preached out of Genesis and all of that. It's all in Genesis. They have no excuse. So Genesis chapter 12. God has dealt with Abram, who became Abram. And he and he said, you know, get out of your father's house, leave your kinfolk, go to a place I'll show you. Verse 3, and I, number two, I'll make of thee a great nation. I will bless thee and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing. See, if you want to be a blessing, you have to be blessed first. And no, you can't be a blessing if you're not blessed. So God said, I'm going to bless you to be make you a blessing. Not just, I'm not going to bless you just so you can wear it on your big old medallion around your neck. I'm blessed. Ha ha. And you're not. Ha ha. No, you're blessed to be a blessing. Be something. What are you? You're a blessing. That describes you. That's your part of your DNA. And verse 3, I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. I get a little bit nervous about people talking bad about Israel. They're stupid. They need to read their Bible. I mean, there's a lot of these people just, you know, spouting off about Israel, how we ought to quit giving them so much money and how we ought to do this and how we ought to do that. No, we ought to bless them and shut up. Shut your ignorant mouth. You don't know what you're talking about, Candace. She used to be on the center of the road and now she falls off in the ditch. I don't know what happened to the woman. She's crazy. Claims to be a Christian, but she's anti-Semitic now. All of a sudden, just turned. Wacko. There's a lot of these people. Marjorie Taylor Green, completely wacko. I mean, what happened to this woman? She was in the middle of the road, pro-Trump, and all of a sudden anti-Semitic. No, let's not give all this money to Israel. Let's let them twist in the wind. How can you see one of those videos and not want to help them? Anyway, I will bless them that bless thee and curse them that curse thee. And in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed. Don't you think we owe Israel something? There ain't no blessing without them. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Abraham, you idiot. I don't know. It makes me angry. I'm sorry. I'm just sorry. I mean, I'm not going to put up with that. And I don't care if they got an R by their name or not. I don't care whether their name, what their name is. I don't care if their name is Trump. I don't care. I'm not going to put up with anti-Semitism, and I'm not going to put up with trying to wring Israel's nose when their enemy is all the way around them. Okay. So then in Genesis 15, just a few pages over, I'll just, you know, you can read it later. It's worth reading the whole chapter. But basically, Abraham is getting older and he's saying, okay, God, you're saying all this stuff about my wife hadn't had a baby yet, and you're saying you're going to make me, you bless me and make my name. You're telling me all this stuff about my future. How do I know you're going to do it? How do I know? See? And God said, get me a heifer. In other words, go get me an animal to slay, and I'm going to cut the covenant with you. And that's my life that's that's going to be on the line. If I don't perform my word, I'll cease to exist. I'll die. How many of you know God didn't die? But the animal did. The animal died. He split that thing wide open from tail to head, laid the halves, and drove the birds off, and then toward dark, here comes a burning lamp, and it and it goes through that burning and it consumes that sacrifice. And then Abram walked through that blood. He walked through that blood. And the oral tradition of God's word that goes back to the earliest time says that he walked in a figure eight, which is what? Infinity. It's forever. It's forever. God said, I swear. I can't find anybody bigger to swear by, so I swear by myself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. Did he do it? Then the covenant is in effect. There's no question about that. And it's forever. It's not just something for back there, it's right now. And then we've got a better covenant found upon better promises. Hebrews 8, 6 says. Alright, so then if you go all the way back to Adam and all of that and start looking at how long they lived, Adam lived like 980 years after, you know, he, you know, 980 years and he died. And then you had Methuselah and you had all these guys, 960 years, 900, and then you got to Noah. Noah's, you know, eight generations down, Noah, you know, 950 years. I mean, it's getting a little smaller, but not much smaller. But by the time Tirah shows up, who is Abram's father, that he was supposed to leave behind. I mean, we're just in Genesis 1. Now we're in Genesis 12, and now we've got Tirah in Genesis 11. And Tirah lived to how long? 205 years. So, really, if you if you add it up, it's about 2,000. It took the devil 2,000 years to shorten man's life. It took him 2,000 years, and so that implies it took him 2,000 years to release enough sickness in the earth to cause people's lives to shorten. And so let's not get the devil all built up on how powerful he is. We have got the greater one living on the inside of us. We've got the authority of God's word. We've got the Holy Ghost quickening our moral bodies. Are you with me now? I want you to take this word for what it says. And so it implies the curse of sickness shortened lives than it does today. Because sickness is a curse. God curses? No. It said there, I will curse them. And so when we see God curses in Genesis 12, we think God's sitting up in heaven, I'm going to curse him. No, it's He released His Word. And the conditions for blessing are in the Word. And if you don't meet the conditions of the blessing, the curses are automatic. It's not about God deciding to curse you. He set the standard with his word. Here it is. Walk this way. Do this. And when you don't, you automatically get over into a place where the devil can hurt you through that curse. He can, he can, the devil is the one that that executes the curse. Really, the curse is here because of the fall. If Adam had never fallen, we would never have a curse, and you wouldn't have lions eating little lambs, and you wouldn't have snakes devouring little deer, and you wouldn't have all, you know, you wouldn't have this carnivorous atmosphere. You wouldn't have man eating man. Chewing people up. You wouldn't have assassinations and attempted assassinations. Assassinations of character. Calling people Hitler. I mean, it used to be that when you said that, the anti-defamation league would sue you. Because what you're doing is you're cheapening what the Holocaust did to Israel. There's nobody like Hitler. You cannot call somebody Hitler unless they've killed six million Jews. See, that's the whole point. And we've lost that. Nobody's saying that now. Isn't it a mystery? I don't want you to forget these kinds of things, they have to come back into our culture. And the church is going to be the driving force. Are you with me now? So, no, God doesn't curse, but it's here as a result of the fall. And God's blessing really is holding back the curse. I mean, without God, you'd be cursed. That's it. So the curses of Egypt, when you see that, you know, the curses where they really didn't come from God. They came from the fact that they mistreated Israel. It was automatic. So you've got to get the eye, get off the idea that God is somehow in charge of assigning you a sickness so you can teach you a lesson or punish you in any way. I mean, it's absolutely a lie. You can't believe that. See, I'm talking about locking out the doubt of that now. See? And so then on later on, then, in Genesis 15, after the covenant was cut, God spoke to Abram and said, No of a surety, in verse 13, your seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs. You're talking about Egypt. God is prophesying himself to Abram, so Abram would know what was going to happen to his offspring. They're going to go into Egypt, essentially. And there'll be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict them 400 years. And also that nation whom they shall serve, I will judge. That's Egypt. And afterward they shall come out with great substance. That's Israel. They came out rich. They came out, they were slaves, and overnight they were rich. Why? Because Egypt paid them to leave town. Would you get out of here? We're tired of the curse. Here, take everything. Here's Grandma's silver. Here's Uncle Charlie's coin collection. Please get out. And they shall go to the and you shall go to your fathers in peace. You shall be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. So there's two things that had to happen before Israel could be delivered out of Egypt, and that is Egypt had to fill up a cup. Of affliction and that land where they were going, the promised land, Canaan land, they had to fill up a cup, a cup of judgment. Sin fills a cup. And when God, that cup is full and they fulfilled it, then God is justified. God does everything legally. He does not do anything on emotion. He doesn't do anything because of any kind of syrupy feeling. He does everything legally according to his word. And when this nation and this nation both of their cups filled, they were able to spoil the Egyptians and leave them and take their wealth and go into Canaan land and take that land away from them. And so that brings me to America. You know, American Indian. Fine. But you didn't build this country. It was built by civilization. It was built with the gospel in mind. And the Indians got the gospel by and large. A lot of them didn't, but a lot of them did. A lot of them got saved. So all this idea that we this nation is a nation of immigrants, you know, and they're trying to what they're trying to do is open the borders so they can change the nation. Do you understand what they're trying to do? And they're using that as an excuse. They're using it as an excuse. Let's get back to the truth. Very similar to what happened in Israel. Very similar. So the blessing in Exodus 15, then, you know, finally his word came to pass, and here comes, uh here comes Moses, and Moses, it came into his heart when he was about 40 years of age. He's the deliverer of Egypt. He didn't obey that. He committed murder. He had to flee to the backside of the desert. And God visited him at the burning bush. And so he went back at age 80, and he goes, and he he brings the children of Israel out of Egypt. And they crossed the Red Sea. And in Exodus 15, you know, they uh they got into trouble with God. Let's look at it real quick. I'm talking about covenants right now, and talking about the source of sickness. In Exodus 15. So um, verse 23, when they came up to Marah they could not uh drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called bitterness or Marah and the people murmured against Moses, what shall we drink? And he cried unto the Lord. The Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast it into the waters, the water was made sweet. And there he made for them a statute and an ordinance, and that there he proved them. And uh what does he mean he proved them? Well, he he gave them a chance to find out what they were all all what they were made of. He knew what they were made of, but they needed to know what they were made of. He gave them a chance to see how silly they were. I mean, this is the same God that did all those miracles in Egypt and they forgot all about it. And the first time they get a little bit thirsty, they start griping and complaining and murmuring against the leader. It's all Moses' fault. Why didn't he leave us there? Well, you didn't want to be there, did you? You'd rather be a slave? You know, some people would rather be a slave than be free to make their own choices. If that's you, you need to stop that. Anyway, so uh the people murmured, what do we drink? And so he cast the tree into the waters. They were made sweet. See, that's a type of the cross. The cross of Jesus Christ made the bitter waters sweet. He took the curse. Isn't this beautiful? Types and shadows. And he said, If you will diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord your God and will do that which is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians. That's in the permissive sense. I've read, Brother Hagin gave the name of the Hebrew scholar, and he said, all this thing about I put I put that on Egypt, I I put these diseases, it's in the permissive sense. It's because they, it's because they violated the law. He said, You I'm gonna curse those who curse thee, bless those that bless thee. It's in the word. He didn't have to do anything, he didn't look at them and curse them. He they just automatically, it's curse is there because of the fall. Are you with me now? It's God's hand of blessing holding back the curse. Everyone that's out there that's not saved, they're all walking in the curse. Did you know that? They're all walking in the curse. I don't care how rich they are, they're walking in the curse. There's only one way out, Jesus. And so, uh anyway, he he revealed himself as Jehovah in the last part of that verse. I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord that healeth thee. So God revealed himself there at the waters of Mara as I am Jehovah Rapha, I am the Lord that healeth thee. That's covenant name of God. Jehovah is the name of God in covenant. Are you with me now? That's Old Testament. We got a better covenant found upon better promises. So I got to wind this message up today. Three truths about the curse of sickness. Because it is a curse. Amen. All right, first one, very simple. Galatians 3 13. Let's turn there. You getting anything out of this? Well, remember, you've heard it before, but now it's watering the seed you've got. It's reminding you, because all of us need to be reminded, especially when we're facing uh, you know, diagnoses or maybe you've got symptoms or things that are going on in your life. I mean, I have to remind myself every day I'm healed. Remind the devil I'm healed. All right, Galatians chapter 3, verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us. Past tense, hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. What we just got through reading, the curse of the law is in Deuteronomy 28. And he gives all the curses that are associated with violating God's word. Well, Christ redeemed you from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through faith, that they might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Through Jesus Christ. The blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that they might receive the promise of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit through faith. So Christ has redeemed us past tense. So the power and penalty of sin, sickness, poverty, all has been broken. It's all about substitution and identification. Jesus was our substitute. He took our sicknesses so we could be free and we have his health. You can't find in the Bible anywhere where Jesus on earth was sick. Well, no, Pastor, he was the Son of God. Well, you need to think about that. He is the Son of God, was the Son of God, but He didn't minister on earth as the Son of God. He ministered, Acts 10, 38 says, he ministered as a man anointed of the Holy Ghost. So therefore he laid aside, the Bible says he laid aside his deity, and he took on himself the passions of a man. He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin. Are y'all with me now? And so his body, he had an earthly body. If he hadn't been, if he hadn't risen from the dead, that body would have decayed, it would have rotted, but he was risen from the dead on the third day. So he did not have uh his ministry had nothing to do with the fact he was the son of God. His ministry had to do with the anointing that he received from his father. And as such, he's subject to sickness. He could have been sick, but he never was. Why wasn't he? Well, it wasn't because of the anointing, it was because he knew what the word said, he knew what the covenant said, and he walked in health. I mean, he didn't say, oh, cancel the meeting up there in the Sermon on the Mount. I can't make it. I got laryngitis. I'm sorry. Another itis. Laryngitis. I've got laryngitis. I'm sorry, I can't make it. No, he didn't say that. Oh, no. Oh, cancel, cancel that meeting. I've got I'm I've got 105 fever. Man, I gotta go to bed. Got any chicken soup? He was never sick. Why? Not because of his son of God. He was he was he knew how to walk in covenant health. And he taught that. Are you with me now? So it's all about substitution and redentification. Everybody say the legal side of redemption. See, there's two sides to redemption: legal and vital, or in vitae according to life. I like to call it functional. Legal and functional. Legal is what Jesus bought and paid for. Functional is what have we received by faith. And what does it look like in our life? It might not look like Jesus died for your sickness because you're always sick. Well, you need to turn up the heat on your faith and start believing God for your health. And there's lots and lots of ways that we teach on that. This is one. Remember, he was your substitute, so we can be his substitute. He identified with our sickness so we can identify with his health. Alright? Alright, second truth about the curse of sickness in Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us. Past tense, who hath blessed us with all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. It's in Christ. We're blessed with all the spiritual blessings that heaven itself enjoys, one version says. How is that true? It's in Christ. In Christ, we are blessed. So if the blessing hasn't shown up for some reason in some area of your life, you need to start meditating on the fact that you quit looking at yourself in the natural, quit looking at yourself like a human being. You're a new creature now. You've been born again, and you have a covenant with Almighty God. He was your substitute, and you have access to every spiritual blessing they've got in heaven. Are they poor up there? No. Are they sick up there? No. Is there any sin up there? No. Is there any bondage up there? No. But you've got access as if you were there here. Oh, come on, lift your hand now. So I like to say it this way: the blood, when you got saved, the blood of Jesus was applied on your side of this. He did that way long time ago. You've had this paid for. This has been paid for all your life until the day you got saved, and then that's when it actually manifested. When you got saved, here it is. So the blood changed your status from cursed to blessed. Just think of a ledger. Some of you done some bookkeeping. Some of you might even be CPAs. You got assets and liabilities. You got a ledger, you know, one side and the other side. And all of a sudden you you move from the liability side to the asset side. You went from cursed to blessed. Just like that. Legal. But now the vital, the functional side is what if you believe you've received now? The rest of it's on you. Because it's already been done. It's up to you to what? Receive it. Receive it. Hand-eye coordination. So you move from the sick to well. How are you doing? I'm well, thank you. Praise God. I'm well. And you're you're hacking. It doesn't matter what the symptoms are, you're well. Why? Because you've been moved over out of one ledger into the next. I mean, it was a stroke. It was one stroke. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, you moved over from cursed to blessed, from sick to well, from poor to rich. Rich just means having an abundant supply. It may not have showed up yet. Well, you know what? It's on the way. Because your status is still, God looks at you as if it's finished. So that's why it's just, you know, begging God for money. You don't have to do that. Call the money in. The money's supplied, you've already got a supply. If you've sown any seed at all, you've got a supply. And besides that, I've never seen his seed bedding bread, you know, the righteous forsaken his seed begging bread. Even people that don't tithe, and even people that don't give anything, if they're saved, I mean, bless their heart, they need to be taught better. But even in that case, God still loves you and he'll supply. He's not going to just write you off and say, Well, you scumbag. I don't have anything to do. No, he loves you. You're walking in a part of the curse, though. We just spent five weeks teaching on these things. I hope you, if you weren't able to come, you'd be sure and get the media on that. So everybody say the blood changed my status. And so the last one is in Galatians 3.13. It says that we've been redeemed from the curse. Christ redeemed us from the curse, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. It might come. So the might is on our side. The might is what are we doing? What are we believing for? What are we speaking? How are we acting? Are we acting healed? Are we speaking health? Are we always going around talking death, talking sickness, talking disease, talking about our trial, talking about how hard life is, how disappointed, how frustrated, how blah, blah, blah. See, you with your mouth, you dig yourself a hole, and it's real hard to get out. There's only one way out, and that's to change what you're talking and change how you're acting. And so you don't have to go back, you just start right now. If I've hit something that you need to address, address it now, today, and start doing things different, and you'll start seeing things change. Praise God. In 1 Corinthians 11, let's turn there real quick. I'm winding this one up. You know, Paul is talking about communion time in the Corinthian church, and he wrote them two letters. They were a very carnal church. They were came out of the occult. They were very skilled in the in the uh art of the dark arts, you know, the occult. And when they got saved and came out of that, you know, a lot of that kind of follows you along and keeps you in bondage, and you've got to you've got to contend and get your mind renewed to the Word of God and and forsake that world. I mean, we have a supernatural that we can walk in, but you know, we don't want darkness. We don't want any of the spirits of darkness. We don't want any witchcraft. We don't want any any of that going on. We don't we don't have Ouija boards and we don't play, you know, play with games that are full of demonic figures and stuff like that. Keep your chat children away from those kind of things. Our society is filled with them and Halloween. I mean, my goodness, it just it's gotten bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger. You'd think, I mean, this guy, when they see him, one of these days they're gonna think, why did we celebrate that guy? They're gonna look at him like you know, they're talking, look at the devil. They're gonna look at the devil and say, is this the one? It says that in Ezekiel. Is this the one that we were afraid of? Have a 15-foot skeleton outside your house. I mean, golly, are you kidding me? What's wrong with you people? Thank God we celebrate life with him. All right. So in 1 Corinthians 11, uh, they were using the occasion of communion to have a party. They're partying down, man. I mean, they're they're gonna have a get together. And he said, I verse 17. Now in this I declare unto you, I praise you not that you come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when you come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it, factions, cliques. For there will also be heresies among you, that they which are mayor approved may be manifest among you. But when you come together, therefore, into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's supper. For in eating everyone takes before his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. So see, they're not even coming to receive communion. They've got these heresies, they've got these cliques, they have this contention, they have all this stuff going on. Instead of having communion, mean common union, I mean, that's our unity with Jesus. We're celebrating something that He put in place at the Last Supper. Jesus said, is that when you come together, do it this way and say these things and remember what I did for you. And here they are having a party with a lot of arguing and drunkenness and everything else. What? Don't you have houses to eat and drink in or despise the church of God and shame them that have not? In other words, ones that couldn't bring anything to the party. What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. He's getting on their case. And then he talks about what God told him. He talked about the communion. And he goes through that whole thing just exactly like they do in Matthew. And then he says, verse 27, wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily or in an unworthy manner, like you've been doing, drunk and with clicks, and you're bringing uh, you know, prime rib roast when your brother can't even bring peanut butter and you're making fun of him. I see, that's what this is, that's what he's talking about here. He's talking about lording it over people that aren't as well off as you. Where did they get that? They came, that was in their culture before. You see, whatever you were in, it's gonna want to hang around until you drive it out. And communion is the time to put up, put up the stops on all that. So he said, if you receive communion in an unworthy matter, you're guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. You examine yourself and clear that out before you eat and drink the Lord's Supper. Verse 29, he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation or judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. In other words, the word discerning really it means doubting. You know, you're really not, you don't have faith that what you're doing is representative of Christ's body. It doesn't become Christ's body. The bread is the bread, the wine is the wine, but it represents holy things. It represents Jesus' body and Jesus blood. What it represents is holy. And you better not treat it like it's prime rib, just another part of the menu. Are you getting? So they're guilty of doubt and unbelief when they come to communion instead of thinking about, hey, where do I not line up with this covenant? Where can I shut the door on the curse and walk in the blessing? Oh, I tell you, when we're not having communion, it'd be a good time to have communion today. But but the next time we'll talk about it again. But this is a good time to shut the door on the curse and open the door to the blessing. Hallelujah. The curse and source of sickness has been broken. We've been set free. Come on, lift your hands and receive today. Glory to God. Come on, let's rejoice in it. Hallelujah. Come on, let's shout a little bit. Glory to God. The nuns used to say no. Don't shout in church. Shh. Religion is ugly. The nuns were nice, but they represented a bad situation. Praise God. Let's all stand together. Where I'm leading a confession, and then I'm going to open the altar. Let's all stand together. Let's say this all out loud: a good confession about what we just heard. Lift your right hand to heaven. Everybody say this. I am in Christ. I'm born again. I'm a new creation. Therefore, the Bible says I'm in Christ. And because I'm in Christ, I'm redeemed by his blood. He was cursed so I can be blessed. I'm blessed with all the spiritual blessings that heaven itself enjoys. That means I'm a healed person. I walk in hell. The bondage of sickness has been broken. And I am free. I have an abundant supply. I'm a rich person. I was poor, but now I'm rich because I'm in Christ. Jesus got it for me. I don't have to get it. I've received it. I'm healed. Come on, let's rejoice of it. Hallelujah. Glory to God. Glory to God. Now learn to talk like that. Learn to say that in the face of everything that's going haywire. See, anybody can talk about their trouble, but when you can stand in the face of everything that's to the contrary of what you just see, that's calling things being on as though it were. There's such power in that.