A vacant storefront in Monroe is undergoing renovations to become an office complex, bought by businessman Paul Bartel to house his violin shop. The narrative transitions into a biblical account where Jesus heals a woman crippled for 18 years, illustrating themes of redemption and the power of faith. The document emphasizes that Jesus offers freedom and healing from various forms of bondage, encouraging a supportive community for individuals struggling with personal burdens.

2. A dilapidated, vacant storefront near downtown
Monroe is getting a makeover
that could turn the building into a real beauty.
(circa: turn of the century 1999-2000)
The former Monroe Hobby Shop at 317 S.
Monroe St. is being remade into a
sprawling office complex with enough space to
hold up to five businesses.

3. Cincinnati businessman Paul Bartel bought the
property in January to house a
statewide distribution center for his Baroque
Violin Shop, a full-service shop
that rents, repairs and sells stringed
instruments.

4. After purchasing the storefront and neighboring
vacant lot, he began the process
of gutting and rebuilding the structure.
Extensive renovations have been ongoing
to rebuild the floor, roof and walls of the
structure, which was previously declared
a dangerous building by the city.

5. Mr. Bartel, who calls himself a "renovator," said
the idea is to transform the space into a usable
gem with a lot of character.
"We should have something really unique when
it’s done," he said. "I like to take things that are
pretty run down and make them into something
special."

6. Don’t most of us love stories that take
something run down that get turned into
something special?
That take something
• Broken and give it Healing
• Restore what is beyond Repair
• That Release what is Oppressed
• That Free what is bound

7. Many of us can identify with not being quite
right. With people not accepting us for who we
are—afraid that if people REALLY knew us we
wouldn’t be welcomed.
Maybe that is what draws us to stories of
redemption and transformation—even if they
are fairy tales like the “Ugly Duckling.”
Let’s take a look at the life of one woman who
experienced such redemption and
transformation in ;

8. NIV On a Sabbath Jesus was
teaching in one of the synagogues, and a
woman was there who had been crippled by a
spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and
could not straighten up at all. When Jesus
saw her, he called her forward and said to her,
“Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.”
Then he put his hands on her, and
immediately she straightened up and praised
God.

9. Indignant because Jesus had healed on the
Sabbath, the synagogue leader said to the
people, “There are six days for work. So come
and be healed on those days, not on the
Sabbath.”
The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites!
Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your
ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to
give it water?

10. Then should not this woman, a daughter of
Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for
eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath
day from what bound her?”
When he said this, all his opponents were
humiliated, but the people were delighted with
all the wonderful things he was doing.

11. Jesus teaches like no other. The Bible says in
several places that crowds are “astonished” at
how He teaches, because He has authority, and
doesn’t just build off of what other rabbi’s have
said. But what I thought was interesting is that
NO MENTION is made about WHAT Jesus taught
that day. It is as if NO ONE REMEMBERED what
He preached. Now, I am not surprised if you
don’t remember what I preach—but JESUS???

12. Maybe it is something about what He did that
day? What did he do?
He simply took a woman who had been bound
for 18 years, buckled under the weight of Satan
somehow, and SET HER FREE! He gave her
total freedom that day, with JUST A TOUCH>
Don’t we all long for the touch of Jesus?

13. from her physical torture—after 18
LOOOONG years
Before God: Immediately she began
to praise Him
before Man: Jesus called her a
“daughter of Abraham” and when she stood
tall before them, it wasn’t just physically
that she was tall and straight. All her shame
and pain was whisked away.

14. from Satan: Somehow he was
behind it all and now he longer had a grip
on her.
Apart from Man’s pettiness and
hypocrisy: sometimes we sinfully would
rather keep people where they are at.
Fortunately Jesus is greater and will give
to us even if others would refuse us.
If we gain nothing else today, we need to grab
on to the fact that…

15. Jesus Offers—and Delivers Freedom From the
Oppressive Weight of Satan
All evil and sin in this world is the result of our
collaboration with Satan, the Father of Lies, who
is bent on our Destruction.
In one way or another we can trace all evil, all
hardship, all disease, all brokenness back to the
Garden of Eden, and “the Fall of man.”

16. Most of us are all too aware of him.
While some are enamored by him—glorying in
evil and darkness, his most effective work might
be the deception that he is not at work at all in
the world. That we don’t see him in anything,
especially physical brokenness.

17. The woman that Jesus healed on that Sabbath
Day experienced a physical healing—to be
sure—she had been bent over for 18 years!
But we shall not miss that her crippled state
was somehow tied to the work of Satan.

18. However Satan was involved in her
malformation, we must never forget that he is
alive and at work in many ways in this world,
and our battle is not just about the redemption
of our physical nature—though all creation and
those that are in Jesus Christ will be physically
redeemed and transformed on that day, the day
of the Lord—but our battle is a spiritual battle
that deals with our minds and hearts, with our
spirit, our soul!

19. NIV For our struggle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of
this dark world and against the spiritual forces
of evil in the heavenly realms.

20. We pray for healing from cancer, from
aneurysms, diabetes, alcoholism and more—
and may God give us healing from those!
Concerning the miracles we read about in the
Bible, NT scholar Darrell Bock had this to say:
As important as miracles are as events in the
life of Jesus, they also serve as visual
indications of deeper realities.

21. Perhaps the clearest example of this is ,
where a catch of fish becomes the basis for
Jesus’ call to "catch men."
Feeding of the 4,000 to point out the need of
men and women for bread that really sustains
them, and to do the will of God.

22. Since His work represents the powerful arrival
of the force of righteousness into God’s world,
is it any wonder that Jesus must go in hand to
hand combat with the forces of evil?
In a real sense, the miracles pull back a veil on
the cosmic forces at work within creation.
(Darrell Bock, Luke, p. 146)

23. In our passage today, a woman’s bent over
ailment is healed by Jesus and while this was a
very REAL physical healing, the deeper reality is
that Jesus is powerful to free us from whatever
causes US to live life bent over—so we can
stand tall and straight in front of everybody no
matter what our past because of Jesus!
He is not just powerful, but compassionate and
loving as well!

24. Do you want the healing touch of Jesus in your
life? He can touch you too, whether you have
never experienced Him in your life, or whether
you are a lifelong Christian who has been living
with burdens that have bent you over.
Neil Anderson is a respected and sought after
counselor and discipler. His main focus is to
help people see who they are in Christ and to
have spiritual victory over Satan’s many
schemes—ones that often affect even
Christians.

25. You know, everywhere I live, I encounter
Christians who struggle with the
lonsesomeness and weight of carrying a past,
heavy, burden that they have never been able to
let go, maybe even never felt they could share.
Some of us ponder on how hard it is for us—in
this body—to be real and transparent with each
other.
I know there may be exceptions here and there,
but the body of Christ;

26. • People who go by His name
• People bought by His blood
• People whose sins are carried on HIS
shoulders
• People who were set free for a future filled with
hope
• People who were shown compassion
The body of Christ—if no where else—needs to
be a place where people are known and free to
share their burdens so that they can be healed.

27. Neil shares the stories of some of the people
who have been set Free by Christ in his book
“Released from Bondage.”
Jennifer was a girl who started suffering from
an eating disorder in 7th grade. She also was a
regular “cutter.”
She says: “Everything around me seemed like a
dream and everybody was just a character.
I thought, Someday, I will wake up, but I won’t
know the dreamer.

28. Nothing seemed real. . . During the day I
appeared normal and functioned fairly well at
school. Night times were weird with a lot of bad
dreams and terror. I wept often because of the
voices in my head and images and nonsense
thoughts that often filled my mind. But I never
said a word to anyone. I knew people would
think I was crazy . . . (pp. 74-75)

29. In and out of hospitals, medicated in a way that
seemed to muddle things, demonic visitations,
suicidal thoughts, it was a friend who called her
and kindly but boldly suggested that she had let
sins of manipulation, dishonesty, hate,
selfishness, and attention seeking go
unchecked.

30. She eventually made a visit to Neil, and started
working though the “Steps to Freedom” and
was instantly healed of her need to cut herself
and even found relief from her eating Disorders.
Nevertheless, she still battled in the coming
weeks as she learned to mature as a disciple of
Christ and child of God.

31. Says Neil in his book, “Victory over Darkness:”
Foundational issues of matureity in Christ
[include] walking by the Spirit and being
sensitive to His leading, and discovering the
nature of the battle for your mind, and learn why
your mind must be transformed in order to grow
spiritually.” (pp.12-13)

32. Dr. Anderson cautions: We have failed to make a
distinction between freedom and maturity in
Christian living. There is no instant maturity; it’s
a process. But people can be set free instantly.”
(p. 13)
Your maturity is the product of time, pressure,
trials, tribulations, the knowledge of God’s
Work, an understanding of who you are in Christ
and the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.”
(15)

33. TRUST Jesus for His Power to FREE you.
He can deliver you like no other.
People turn to all kinds of things for help—and
may get temporary relief, but unless Jesus is
involved it will not be complete, nor lasting.
Have you turned to Him?
He can give you physical healing.
And He does.

34. He can give you emotional and spiritual
freedom—and He will.
Sometimes we will have to work at it, but it will
always involve the power of Jesus—whether a
miraculous release from bondage or His truth to
combat lies and weakness that creep in.

35. Bitterness/Forgiveness, rebellion, pride, “living
with” a destructive habit rather than renouncing
it, etc.
(A lot of this is covered methodically in Neil Anderson’s
works)
PRAISE God for in Jesus
STAND TALL because the Lord is on Your side
REACH OUT with the healing touch of Jesus

36. Anne was a beautiful young girl who was
horribly abused as a child. She suffered
tremendously into adulthood, carrying the
shame and weight of abuse and the reality that
she developed wild bizarre thoughts that
plagued her often. When she tried to share this
with a Christian group once, she recounts:
“people sucked in their breath, there was a stiff
silence, then someone changed the subject.”
(Released, p. 41)

37. Neil Anderson: Oh how I long for the day when
our churches will help people firmly establish
their identity in Christ, and provide and
atmosphere where people like Anne could share
the real nature of their struggle.
Satan does everything in the dark.

38. When issues like this arise, LET’S NOT SUCK IN
OUR BREATH AND CHANGE THE SUBJECT.
Let’s walk in the light and have fellowship with
one another so that the blood of Jesus will
cleanse us from all sin.
Let’s Not be like the synagogue ruler . . .

39. SAMMY MORRIS—RB, Dolphins
"Change is hard for a lot of people, when what
you’ve been doing is so ingrained," Morris says.
He credits his turnaround to finding peace at
church.
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Morris has a "Grace" tattoo on one arm,
referencing "the things God gives you that you
don’t deserve." He has a "Mercy" tattoo on the
other, representing "the things God withholds
that you do deserve."