WEBVTT - The Power Of Dependency (Lisa Harper) 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:02.800 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.320 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.040 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.560 gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.119 Enjoy the message. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:24.639 My name is Lisa, and I can't even tell y'all 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.760 how excited I am to be here, how overwhelmed I 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.720 am to be here. You are family to me, whether 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:40.120 you claim me or not. I claim y'all. I deeply, deeply, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:45.479 deeply love and respect Pastor Holly and Pastor Stephen, and 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.600 I know full well you could have anybody from around 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.320 the world and it would be an undeserved privilege for 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.400 them to be in this house. And so I'm always 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:02.000 surprised flying from Nashville to Charlotte that, yeah, I kind 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:03.600 of feel like the girl and the math club and 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:08.240 the quarterback aster to prom it is. I mean, not 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.240 that there aren't amazing girls in math clubs. My apologies 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:12.280 if you're in the math club, but. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.320 I just I'm always. 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.080 Just kind of undone that I get to be with 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.480 y'all because I love this house so much. Chunks and 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.679 Amy Corbett. I would follow y'all off a cliff. I 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.839 just think you hung the moon. And I'm feeling especially 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.480 nostalgic this week, and so I'm glad I get to 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:39.520 be with surrogate family because my little girl, some of 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.440 you I've met, and some of you know I became 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.959 a mom through the miracle of adoption, and the year 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:45.720 I turned fifty. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:47.280 I don't have a baby daddy yet. 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.400 So if you know somebody, I'm sixty one, If you 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.279 know somebody between fifty five and death, I'll go younger 0:01:54.240 --> 0:02:00.240 who's employed and loves Jesus and doesn't live in his 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:01.000 mother's basement. 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.360 But anyway, it's just Missy and me. 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.840 And she's turned in sixteen a week from today, and 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:13.280 so just all those all those mama feelings have been 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.080 well enough over the last week, and I've been talking 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.400 to her about all these memories I have from when 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.400 I first brought her home from Haiti in twenty fourteen, 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.359 and she had all these just precious habits, like one 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.560 of them was she called me Pablo the entire time 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.079 that I was adopting her from Haiti for two years, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.000 she called me Mama Blah White mama in Creole. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:38.919 And then the day I. 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.080 Brought her to Haye, Haiti to Nashville from Haiti, she 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.080 started calling me Pablo, and I thought that's just odd. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:49.400 She would switch to. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.400 Pablo and I'd go, no, no, baby, morialy mama, blah, 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.280 my name is white mama, and she'd go, no, Pablo, 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.040 And I thought, this is going to be just awkward 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.240 when she gets married, because if y'all don't get on 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.400 the stick and I don't have a husband, I'm going 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.240 to be the one that the pastor says, who gives 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:14.440 this woman, I'm going to go meet Pablo. And so 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.960 I kept trying to dissuade her from calling me Pablo. 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.200 She was insistent for about a month until we found 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.680 out that the very last Sunday stool Sunday school curricula 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.760 she had done in her orphanage, they don't make enough 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.080 curricula to print them in Creole, and so they'll borrow 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.480 from Spanish curricula because that's close enough to Creole that 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.000 the kids can usually get it. And the very last 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.640 little lesson she had done was on the missionary journeys 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.920 of Paul Pablo, and when she asked one of the 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.800 nannies at the orphanage. What does my mama blanc do, 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.920 my white mama do? Does she sell mangos? 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:49.320 Does she? 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.760 So they said, well, she's kind of like a missionary. 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.280 She travels around and talks about Jesus. And so my 0:03:55.440 --> 0:04:00.000 punkin conflated those two stories and decided I was apostle Paul, 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.320 and so I could just imagine Paul and Glory going 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.880 really Jesus, like, really, could we get a better doppelganger. 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.240 So that was one of her habits. 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.920 Another thing that I thought was precious that she got 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.479 confused was her last name. Because I love teasing and 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.960 given nicknames, and the whole time I was adopting her, 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.200 I called her Scooter mctudor, And so the first couple 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.480 of times people asked her what her last name was 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.240 in Nashville, she'd go Missy Maketuda. I was like, no, no, no, 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.080 it's Harper, baby, It's Harper. Her last habit I told 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:38.120 her about this last week that was priceless. It was 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.240 a little alarming, but it was priceless was anytime we 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.160 came near a wall, like if we were walking next 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.360 to this or a fence, if I wasn't paying attention. 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:50.800 Missy would run up on the wall or the fence, 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.839 and then without any warning, she would just hurl herself 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.360 off the water fence toward me because she just knew, 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.920 like she knew her name, that I would catch her. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.719 And it was so precious and a little scary to 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:10.239 just have this precious little little Haitian hurling herself off 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.960 high things into my arms. She, after about maybe a month, 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.400 dropped that habit. I was glad it might be hard 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.880 to catch her now. But are you okay if I 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:21.960 tell the hurling story? 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.800 Okay? Will you put in your earbuds for this next 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:25.200 little cart? 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:31.080 Hurling is still a habit in the Harper household. It's 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.120 not Missy though, it's me. I was driving her to 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.479 school for the last week of school just a few 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.760 weeks ago, the end of May, and we were going 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.000 over her history final, going over notes for her history final, 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.880 and we were driving to school and Missy had stayed 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.720 up most of the night studying for her finals, so 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:53.320 she wasn't in a good mood. Do you have them 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.279 in another one? And she was, I'll let you know 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.039 when you can pull them out. She did tell me 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.120 I could tell this story. But she's turned sixteen, and 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:05.160 I don't want to embarrass her unduly. When Missy, there's 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.560 how many of y'all have teenage daughters, you know, there's 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.080 just like three days a month that they swallow grimlins, 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.200 And so only like three days a month that she 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.360 Missy is normally the kindest. That's how you can tell 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.880 she doesn't have my DNA. She is kind, deeply kind, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.000 But three days a week, she's a bear. 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:28.120 So she had stayed. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:29.960 Up most of the night studying for her finals, and 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.400 then she had swallowed PMS grimlins, And so we're driving 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.760 to her Christian private school and she's just mad. And 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.960 I'm I think I'm Jesus junior. You know, I'm driving, 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.320 I've gotten her sausage biscuit from her favorite place. You know, 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.960 I'm just very patiently going over electromagnetic fields and characteristics 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.320 with her on the way to school so she'll pass 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.880 her test. And I said something, I remember what I said, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.760 and Missy said something very sarcastic under her breath. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:06:59.719 Now, I can handle j. 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.560 About anything as a mama, except for disrespect. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.640 Disrespect it's my achilles heel. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.480 And so I looked at this beautiful miracle child of 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.360 mine who was tired and had PMS. But I have 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:28.200 PMS two. It's called post menopausal demonic syndrome. And my 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:34.240 grimlins are big and tatted. My grimlins have little tears 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.880 on them, and they want to fight. And so when 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:44.120 I'm around disrespect my PMS, grimlins come out in hordes, 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.800 big angry hordes. And so I looked at Missy and 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:49.920 I said, what did you say? 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:52.200 And she said hmmmm. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.160 And I pulled the car over to the side of 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:03.600 the road and I said, in this home, we at 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:09.840 least have the integrity to speak disrespect out loud. 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:12.840 We don't say it under our breath. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.520 So would you like to try again and say that 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:16.240 out loud? 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:17.600 Any of y'all have a mama like this? 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.240 I mean, I should have been in time out myself. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:26.120 But Missy, because of that three day period, she gets 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:31.240 braver than usual. She said it out loud, and you know, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.680 I was backed into a corner at that point. I 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.360 had to do something, and so I didn't really know 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.199 what to do, and so I just snatched her biscuit and. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.760 Threw it out in the window. It's her older biscuit 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:45.960 out the window and. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.880 Missy just went and I was like, I know, I 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.200 can't believe I her old true biscuit. I was so 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:59.360 grateful that within like thirty seconds, humor and humility invaded 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.560 our car, and some of my fruit of the spirit 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:07.240 came back. Patients came lipping back, my pms. Grimlins had 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.200 beaten patients. But it finally crawled back in the car 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.720 and we laughed, and I gave her my breakfast biscuit 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:14.959 so she wouldn't have a headache, dear in your history exam, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.400 and we laughed by the time we got to school. 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.200 But I was like, man, it is different raising an 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.800 almost sixteen year old than it was raising a four 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:26.240 year old. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:27.360 When she was four. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:32.480 I put just I'm so sorry I scared your child, baby, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.240 your mama, Your mama will not throw your biscuit. I 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.240 can cross. I'm the only hurler in the house this morning. 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.400 When she was four, I put most of my attention, 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:50.000 my affection into her, establishing roots so she would have deep, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.840 deep roots, that she would know that she was loved, 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.320 that she was affirmed, that I wasn't going anywhere that 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.920 unlike her first mama, who passed when she was a baby, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.040 I was going to do everything I could to stay here. 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.400 So those formative years were all about roots. Now that 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.520 Missy's growing up, it's all about wings. It's all about 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:16.400 me learning how to get behind her and affirm her. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:21.040 I've given her the parameters. She knows the boundaries. 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.640 Now it's about giving her the grace to fly and 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.720 to become the woman God has created her to be. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.240 When she was little, our intimacy was all about her 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:38.760 total dependency on me. Now that she's growing up, our 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.920 intimacy it's no longer based on her being totally dependent 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.439 on me. As a matter of fact, the more she matures, 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:51.360 the less dependent she'll be on me if she's healthy. 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.360 Now hang on and listen to me, Epham, do not 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.480 mess with your an espresso machine right now. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:57.880 Hang on to this next truth. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:03.520 For human children, it's important as they grow up that 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:12.040 they become more independent. For children of God, it's exactly 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:17.760 the opposite. If you want to mature as a Christ follower, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:25.480 we should be increasingly dependent on our creator, Redeemer. It's 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.960 counterintuitive in this world where plopped in you want to 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:35.200 grow as a Christ follower, it means you become increasingly 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.440 dependent on God. You don't cut the apron strings, they 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.240 become steel cables. 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:42.040 If you brought your. 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.000 Bibles turned to John's Gospel, We're going to look at 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.880 John chapter five today, very very very familiar story. 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:51.520 You have heard this story before. 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.680 If you grew up in a conservative church, you've seen 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.920 at flannel graft. You may have taught it before. John 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.880 Chapter five, verses one through nine. We're gonna look at 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.480 my favorite healing in John's gospel account. John is different 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.000 than the other three Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke. Those are 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.320 called the Synoptic Gospels. That's just a fancy seminary word. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:16.079 That means those three are written in a similar literary format. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.000 They all have some type of a birth narrative. They 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.520 all have parables. Those are the stories Jesus taught. That's 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.960 half of his sermonic material. And they have a lot 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.800 of healings forty healings. In the Synoptic Gospels. John's Gospel 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.439 there are no parables. John is very different in the 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.360 way he describes the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:39.600 He wrote it much later in his life. 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.520 Theologians think he was probably in his sixties when he 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:43.200 wrote the gospel. 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.320 According to John, and he only has four healings, And. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.080 This is my favorite of the four John Chapter five, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.199 beginning with verse one, I'm reading from the ESV. After this, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.960 there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.439 up to Jerusalem. 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.400 Now there is in jerus Us Islam by the sheep Gate, a. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:06.600 Pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.640 In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lamb and paralyzed. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.160 One man was there who had been an invalid for 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:17.719 thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:19.760 knew that he had already been there a long time, 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.960 he said to him, do you want to be healed? 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.320 How many of y'all have heard this story before? Do 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.480 you want to be healed? One of my closest friends 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.320 grew up really close to here in Concord, North Carolina. 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.400 Her name is Eva Whittington's self one. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.880 Of the godliest, most amazing friends I have, And when 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.559 she was seventeen years old, she was in a hint 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.000 and run accident on an icy road. Her car flipped 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.520 into a ravine and her spine was severed, so she 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.319 was paralyzed. When she was seventeen years old, has two 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.920 steel rods to stabilize her spine. She's been pair lized 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.800 from this level since she was seventeen. She's a little 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.480 bit older than me in her early sixties, so she 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:09.520 has not been ambulatory for over forty years. She walks 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.880 in faith much more stable than I do. Has the 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:19.240 most amazing life, most amazing story, has two kids, miraculously 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:24.040 got pregnant and delivered her children, married to an amazing man, 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.840 a judge in Kentucky by the name of Andrew's self. 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:32.880 That I love Eva Whittington's self, and I love being 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.440 with my friend at women's conferences because every time, if 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.040 there's a ramp and I'm wheeling, even she's strong as 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.040 can be, super independent, drives herself, does everything, is much 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:45.480 more accomplished than I am. 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:47.880 But if there's a ramp, I have to help. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.640 Wheel or wheelchair and I'll watch women and it's like, oh, 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.280 college cheapers. I might as well have walked into a 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.360 Kido convention with hot bread. I mean, it's just like 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.160 I know somebody's going to come up and ask Eva 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:03.360 if they can pray for her healing. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:04.400 It happens every time. 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:10.040 Now, God absolutely could heal her spine if he wanted to, 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:15.560 but her spine was severed when she was seventeen, severed. 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:21.360 Medically speaking, it is impossible for her spine to come 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.080 back together again if she had had that accent. Today, 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.880 things have changed in the way they treat those type 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.200 of victims. There's a chance in a couple of years, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.960 with what they're doing now, maybe maybe some stuff could 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.760 be regenerated, but not when Eva was injured. And of course, 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.040 thousands of people, including a lot of well known saints, 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.640 have laid hands on Eva, on an auditor with oil, 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:48.800 and in God's merciful sovereignty, He's chosen not to heal 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.280 that facet of her life. 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:52.840 But if you talk to. 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.520 Eva, she'll say, I don't hate this cheer. God has 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.400 used this chair to introduce me to my husband. God 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.360 has used the chair is a canvas on which to 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:07.320 paint what a good God he is. Her testimony includes 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.600 this part of her story. Well, we were at a 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.040 conference recently and I saw a woman and I thought 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.280 she's going to come up and be insistent about praying 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:14.760 for Eva. 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:16.960 So sure enough she comes up and she said, I 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.160 would like to pray for you, and Eva said that 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:21.200 would be lovely. 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.720 Now I'm holding her chair and I'm like, she said 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.440 that would be lovely. I'd really appreciate if you would 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.600 pray for my patience because I've been really short lately 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.560 with my daughters and my husband, and I know when 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:36.960 we get the through of the spirit, we have all 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.280 the fruit. But my patience is it's just a little 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.040 bitty green orb on my tree. And so would you 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.480 pray for God to give me more patience? Y'all? 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.040 This woman got so ticked because she had an agenda. 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.600 She wanted to be the hero who prayed and Eva 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.200 would stand up and walk. So when Eva said that, 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.960 I watched this woman's face and it just kind of 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:03.120 went you like she'd been sucking on lemons or her 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:09.400 spanks were just too tight, and she went, don't you. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.719 Want to get out of that chair and walk? And 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:15.920 I was like, do you want to call nine one 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.359 one before I punch you in the threat? 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:24.879 I'm so sure you have the arrogant audacity to ask 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.320 my friend if she wants to get out of this 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.720 chair and walk. You don't know what it was like, 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.160 was she wanted to stand up and kiss Andrew when 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:35.840 they got married. You don't know what it was like 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.800 when her baby started crying and she had to transfer 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.679 into your chair and roll down to the nursery. You 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:43.919 don't know what that was like for young mamma, And 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:48.359 yet you dare to question her. Oh I got so 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.879 ungodly mad. I mean sorry, I'm in leather pants, have 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:56.080 probably squeaked really terribly. But it made me so mad 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.479 because it was so condescending. And yet, and yet, if 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.760 we're on it, doesn't it almost sound like that's what 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:07.960 Jesus is asking the sky. Thirty eight years, he's been 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.639 going to the Pool of Bethesda. If you've studied the 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.080 background of the story, you know that people have gone 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:19.960 to this particular body of water for centuries because even 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:25.600 the Pagans believe there's something supernatural there. Something happens when 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.719 the water ripples and it has healing properties in it. 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.600 The Pagans weren't sure what it was, and then the 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.679 Jews came along. They believed it was the finger of Yahweh. 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:40.240 It's actually underground springs, but they believe there's something in 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.639 that pool that could bring about physical healing. This guy's 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:48.760 been going there for thirty eight years, and the first 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:52.480 question Jesus asked, is do you want to get well? 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:58.560 I mean, humanly speaking, that's almost an eye roller. Well, 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:06.760 of course, I've been dragging myself here for thirty eight years. 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.760 And we don't actually get the poignancy of this question 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:15.120 unless we get the sociohistorical context, because we think as 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:23.840 first world modern believers, this is a first century culture based. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.280 On shame and honor. 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:32.160 If you're a note taker, write down t z e 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.560 d a k a h. 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:42.600 Tz ed ak ah. 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.600 It's a pronounced saduka, almost like the game math game 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.280 you play in the airport, but not quite. It's a 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:54.040 Hebrew word. Some say sideka saduka. You can just say 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:55.760 it with authority in your small group and they'll think 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:02.080 you're smart. It's a Hebrew word that describes alms giving, charity, 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.200 or it's even translated righteousness in some of our English Bibles. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:13.359 Their culture hinges on sideka when it comes to invalids, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.359 when it comes to the blind, when it comes to 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.840 the lame, because in this shame and honor culture, they 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:25.880 were taught it is honorable to beg if you are 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:32.200 legitimately sick. So if you're blind, if you're paralyzed, as 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:37.240 this man was it is actually honorable for. 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.560 You to beg and provide for your family. 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:44.520 Several rabbis who are contemporaries of Jesus Christ actually taught 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:48.720 that begging was positive for the community because it gave 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:53.879 the community an opportunity to be generous. It was basically 0:20:53.960 --> 0:21:00.439 the cultural ancestor of humble brags on social media. What 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.879 better way to prove you were a good person than 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.480 to drop some coins in somebody's outstretched hand in the 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:11.679 middle of a public place. So for this man to 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.040 be able to provide for his family and it to 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:21.640 be considered honorable for thirty eight years, I'm not suggesting 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.240 that he enjoyed being a paralytic. I am saying he 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:29.119 had grown comfortable in that he's able to do that 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.280 and provide for his family. He's able to do that 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:36.400 and actually be honored by culture, and Jesus says, do 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:38.360 you want. 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:42.240 To get well, because this is going to change everything 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.159 for you. Son. For you to get. 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:52.240 Deeply healed is going to cause some serious discomfort in 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.480 your story. Here's an old movie called The Shawshank Redemption, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:58.600 and I don't want to encourage y'all to watch it. 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:00.439 I see a lot of you have when you were 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.600 struggling in your quiet times, but those you haven't watched 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:05.560 some real questionable language in it. 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:06.960 But there's this one scene. 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:09.359 It's a movie that kind of centers around a prison 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.479 and around this wise old convict played by Morgan Freeman. 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:16.679 There's this one scene where Morgan is sitting next to 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:21.080 a guy who's only recently been incarcerated for I think 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:25.280 he embezzled. Tim Robbins is the actor who plays them 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:27.879 so young convict and the Morgan Freeman's sitting there and 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.240 Tim Robbins is just completely discompopulated because one of their 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:35.399 friends had gotten out after years of being in prison. 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.840 He had gotten out and he reoffended really quickly and 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:42.879 was brought back on conditions of parole after only being 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:44.439 out for like a week or two, and Tim is 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:46.080 just undone. 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:47.560 He's like, what a yay? 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:49.280 Who I mean? 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:54.399 He got out, He made it out of here, and 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.600 then it seems like he almost purposely got arrested and 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:00.720 go what info world? 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:05.280 And Morgan Freeman is listening to him complain about why 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.119 in the world would this guy give up his hard 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:12.879 won liberty? And he waits for a minute and he says, 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.679 you know, at first these walls, and he gestures to 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:19.880 those prison walls with a barber wire on top. 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.240 He said, at first these walls, you hate. 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:29.560 Them, and then after a while you get used to him, 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.400 and then if you're in here long enough, you realize 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.359 you need them. 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:44.840 I wonder how many of us have gotten so comfortable 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:53.040 being sick that we've started decorating our prison cell so 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:59.520 it'll feel more like a living room. How comfortable are 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:03.600 you being sick? Do you want to get completely well? 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:11.560 Because to be completely well it'll change everything. Do you 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:14.959 want to be well? 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:20.760 Stick a finger in Luke and head backwards to Mark's gospel, 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:26.919