Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God has moving in your life.
Speaker 2: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: We're continuing in a series called Savage Jesus. I planned
Speaker 1: the conclusion of this series to align with Easter. Then
Speaker 1: when I found out that we were learning so much
Speaker 1: and having our paradigm of Jesus challenged and really starting
Speaker 1: to see him in a fresh way, I thought we
Speaker 1: would continue for a little while longer. So we're in
Speaker 1: the bonus round today of this series from Mark's Gospel,
Speaker 1: and I'll pick up at Mark chapter three, verse one,
Speaker 1: and now that you've rested for four minutes, stand up
Speaker 1: for the reading of God's Word.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Another time, Jesus went into the synagogue and a man
Speaker 1: with the shriveled hand was there, and some of them
Speaker 1: were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they
Speaker 1: watched him closely to see if he would heal him.
Speaker 1: On the Sabbath, Jesus said to the man with the
Speaker 1: shriveled hand stand up in front of everyone, and then
Speaker 1: Jesus asked them which is lawful on the sabbath, to
Speaker 1: do good or to do evil, to save life, or
Speaker 1: to kill? But they remained silent, and he looked around
Speaker 1: at them in anger.
Speaker 2: In anger, Come on, be nice, Jesus, She say nice
Speaker 2: for what.
Speaker 1: He looked around in anger and deeply distressed at their
Speaker 1: stubborn hearts, said to the man, stretch out your hand,
Speaker 1: and he stretched it out and his hand was completely restored.
Speaker 1: Then the fear of He's went out and began to
Speaker 1: plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Now,
Speaker 1: this is going to be a fun title to tell
Speaker 1: the person next to you. So look at them like
Speaker 1: you're frustrated with them and disappointed in them. If you
Speaker 1: could do that for me, and just look at them
Speaker 1: and say, real slow, real deliberate, this.
Speaker 2: Isn't working. And now shake your head and sit out.
Speaker 1: Have you had anything in your life lately that doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to be working.
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe it worked at once.
Speaker 1: And I'm not talking about a washing machine or something
Speaker 1: like that. I'm talking about real stuff, like a relationship
Speaker 1: that sounded fresh. It really takes courage to admit that
Speaker 1: a relationship isn't working, especially if it feels comfortable to you.
Speaker 1: I preach one message called dysfunctional comfort and how that
Speaker 1: sometimes it's easier to stay in familiar bondage than it
Speaker 1: is to embrace uncomfortable freedom, and so to admit that
Speaker 1: it's not working requires a certain amount of courage to
Speaker 1: say it used to work, or it may appear to
Speaker 1: others to be working, but this isn't working. Just coming
Speaker 1: to that point alone can be difficult from time to time,
Speaker 1: because sometimes we don't really know if it's going to
Speaker 1: work if we keep doing it, if we just need
Speaker 1: to give it more time and it will work, which
Speaker 1: is typically what we preach, you know, just keep trying,
Speaker 1: just keep moving. But I've been to the gym, and
Speaker 1: the way that some of us work out, we can
Speaker 1: keep working out until the rapture and it will not work.
Speaker 1: Not the way we're working. Our form is off. We
Speaker 1: take more breaks than we do reps. Yeah, this, this
Speaker 1: isn't going to work. That's what my twelve year old,
Speaker 1: my man Elijah, the one that I raised and pay for,
Speaker 1: he was saying the other day, like he's starting to
Speaker 1: try to lift weights. So we put him on a
Speaker 1: little program, didn't we bucking. After two days he came
Speaker 1: to me and said, this isn't working. He wants he
Speaker 1: wants PEX real quick. And what he didn't understand is
Speaker 1: process touch. Somebody say no process, no pecks or if
Speaker 1: you don't want to tell him that, that's that's really weird.
Speaker 2: What a cringey touch your neighbor. Now listen to the Bible.
Speaker 1: Bible says another time Jesus went into the synagogue and
Speaker 1: a man with a shriveled hand was there, and there
Speaker 1: were some people there who were looking for a reason
Speaker 1: to accuse Jesus.
Speaker 2: Now I'll stop there, because.
Speaker 3: What we have in this passage is a a let
Speaker 3: me see. I want to say this a failed system
Speaker 3: and a frust savior. And really what bridges the gap
Speaker 3: between the failed system and the frustrated savior is a
Speaker 3: man who is there that day.
Speaker 1: The Bible calls him this, Mark calls him this. He
Speaker 1: says he was a man verse three with a shriveled hand.
Speaker 1: In verse one, they're announcing his presence in the synagogue.
Speaker 2: It says Jesus, who is the most.
Speaker 1: Important person in human history, was in the synagogue and
Speaker 1: a man, and I'm expecting for it to be and
Speaker 1: a man with one hundred million dollar net worth. I'm
Speaker 1: expecting if we're going to take time to call this
Speaker 1: guy out by name, it would be a man with
Speaker 1: a Grammy, or it would be a man, you know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, with a contract to play in the NBA.
Speaker 1: But yet, when Mark gets ready to call the role
Speaker 1: for who is in attendance that day, he does not
Speaker 1: mention a man with a BMW, a Mercedes, or a Maserati.
Speaker 1: He mentions a man with a situation that could have
Speaker 1: and should have prohibited him from being there in the
Speaker 1: first place. With this kind of deformity, it is likely
Speaker 1: that he would have been excluded from synagogue worship. The
Speaker 1: good thing is he only had a deformity in one hand,
Speaker 1: and when you have a deformity in one hand, that
Speaker 1: means you can shake hands with your good hands while
Speaker 1: you hide your bad one. Yet, much to this man's chagrin,
Speaker 1: it must have felt like a nightmare when Jesus called
Speaker 1: him out in front of anyone, stood him up, and
Speaker 1: used him as an object lesson Really to say that
Speaker 1: sounds cruel, but Jesus will always use your situation to
Speaker 1: fix the system.
Speaker 2: That created it.
Speaker 1: This is the premise of Mark III one through six.
Speaker 1: And we all have situations in the place today. Don't
Speaker 1: make me guess when you look at me smug when
Speaker 1: I say we all have situations, it makes me want
Speaker 1: to ask God to show me what you did last week,
Speaker 1: so I could start, say in your situation. If I
Speaker 1: set every situation in this room, if I started throwing
Speaker 1: your real your not your Sunday situation, that's much different.
Speaker 1: I really didn't come to preach to Sunday, and neither
Speaker 1: did Jesus. Jesus speaks to that place that is not working.
Speaker 1: He speaks to that place that is not functioning. He
Speaker 1: speaks to that place that you have learned to conceal
Speaker 1: and reveals His glory and his strength through your weakness.
Speaker 1: One thing I'm grateful for that I learned from Paul,
Speaker 1: who wrote a lot of the New Testament letters. He
Speaker 1: taught me that it is a theological impossibility for my
Speaker 1: situation to separate me from God. It's a wonderful list
Speaker 1: that he gives us in Romans Hate. If you're ever
Speaker 1: inclined to read it, If you're having one of those
Speaker 1: days where you find yourself in a situation that you
Speaker 1: don't feel God since God, or maybe even believe he's there.
Speaker 1: Go to Romans eight thirty five, where you will find
Speaker 1: a list of situations that cannot, will not, may not,
Speaker 1: do not have the permission or the power to separate
Speaker 1: you from God. So Paul makes a list, and in
Speaker 1: his list he starts with trouble.
Speaker 2: It's almost like he's picking a fight.
Speaker 1: He says, who shall separate us from the love of God?
Speaker 2: And then he starts naming situations.
Speaker 1: In personifying the situations, he wants us to understand the
Speaker 1: power of the person and the work of the Lord
Speaker 1: Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2: It's always greater.
Speaker 1: That's why we say his name is above all other names.
Speaker 1: What that means is, if you can name a situation,
Speaker 1: there is a name that is greater, and a work
Speaker 1: that is greater, and a behavior that is greater, and
Speaker 1: a grace that is greater than your situation. Paul says,
Speaker 1: who somebody say, who come on, get your owl on?
Speaker 1: Say who shall trouble? That's a situation, Shall hardship, that's
Speaker 1: a situation, shall persecution?
Speaker 2: Who doesn't like you?
Speaker 1: Who talks about you, who doesn't think well of you,
Speaker 1: who doesn't speak kindly about you, that's a situation. Shall
Speaker 1: famine what you don't have? Shall nakedness or exposure to
Speaker 1: the elements? Shall danger or trouble? Shall sword? Shall watch
Speaker 1: this We're going to raise the stakes death or life.
Speaker 1: That's a situation. Or angels or demons. That's a situation
Speaker 1: you can't even see, or the present what I'm dealing with,
Speaker 1: or the future, what I'm worried about that I don't
Speaker 1: even know yet, Shall hight nor depth and watch this
Speaker 1: clause or anything else in all creation. See there, Paul
Speaker 1: gets it. He wants to close it all in. He says,
Speaker 1: if you can name a situation, I can point you
Speaker 1: to a grace that is greater than your situation. So
Speaker 1: then I don't care what you did, what they said,
Speaker 1: what you lost, what you don't have, where you've been
Speaker 1: or where you're going. It is impossible for your situation
Speaker 1: to separate you from your source. Now shove somebody and say,
Speaker 1: it's just a situation. It's not my identity, it's just
Speaker 1: my situation. And this man has a situation, but his
Speaker 1: situation is not him. Somebody went through a divorce, but
Speaker 1: a divorce is not you. Somebody is dealing with an addiction,
Speaker 1: but the addiction is not your identity. We know this
Speaker 1: because Mark calls him a man with a shriveled hand,
Speaker 1: not the shrivel handed man. He's a man with an issue,
Speaker 1: but the issue is not the man. Y'all don't want
Speaker 1: to help me appreciate it all today I feel so alone.
Speaker 2: Situation, But the.
Speaker 1: Real situation in this text is not the man's hand.
Speaker 2: It is the people's hearts.
Speaker 1: Did you notice that it's one thing to have a
Speaker 1: bad hand, especially in Vegas, but when you have a
Speaker 1: bad heart. And so, what I saw when I was
Speaker 1: reading this very familiar text that is simple on the surface,
Speaker 1: was a depth of understanding of five things that Jesus
Speaker 1: came to fix. Now he's going to fix this man's situation.
Speaker 2: You saw it. Man left home with two good hands.
Speaker 1: But before he fixes the situation, he is going to challenge.
Speaker 2: The system, because that's what God does.
Speaker 1: The reason he does it that way rather than just
Speaker 1: fix the situation without addressing the system, is because if
Speaker 1: he fixes the situation without addressing the system that created
Speaker 1: the situation, you will stay stuck in the same system
Speaker 1: that created that situation, and then you will have seven
Speaker 1: more baby situations that are worse than the first.
Speaker 2: Now, many of us live our lives going.
Speaker 1: From situation to situation to situation to situation, and we
Speaker 1: can't even find time to pray because when we go
Speaker 1: to pray, we feel like we have to get through every.
Speaker 2: Situation that we're dealing with.
Speaker 1: We gotta pray for our mom and she's sick, and
Speaker 1: we got to pray for the missionaries and we never
Speaker 1: even met him. And by the time we get done
Speaker 1: praying with every situation in our lives, we're asleep.
Speaker 2: If you ever identify this is for leaders.
Speaker 1: Any of you own a business or leader department, I
Speaker 1: want to share something with you real quick. This is
Speaker 1: a free breakout leadership John Maxwell Seminar. When you run
Speaker 1: around fixing situations all day, you actually disempower the decision
Speaker 1: making ability in your organization. Because it's one thing to
Speaker 1: know when something isn't working. A lot of people are
Speaker 1: good at that. How many know that it doesn't take
Speaker 1: a genius to see when something isn't working. All it
Speaker 1: takes is a Facebook account and you can spend your
Speaker 1: whole day telling everybody who doesn't care what's wrong with
Speaker 1: everything that you don't know how to fix either. Good thing.
Speaker 1: I brought my own holy ghost today because you're are
Speaker 1: giving me no love. It's one thing to know when
Speaker 1: this isn't working. I'm pretty good at that. It's another
Speaker 1: thing to know why this isn't working. It's one thing
Speaker 1: to know that this tennis ball isn't going over the net.
Speaker 1: It's another thing to know why it's not going over
Speaker 1: the net. It's one thing to know I want to
Speaker 1: kill my kids. It's another thing to know why our
Speaker 1: communication is breaking down as they are getting older and
Speaker 1: the approach needs to change. It's one thing to know
Speaker 1: I feel lonely. It's another thing to know why do
Speaker 1: I feel lonely? And maybe it's not everybody else's fault.
Speaker 1: Maybe the system that is keeping me lonely is within
Speaker 1: my heart. See, we always want to point fingers at situations,
Speaker 1: but you might just find that the situation you're pointing
Speaker 1: at is trying to alert you to a system within
Speaker 1: yourself that God wants to deal with. Because God is
Speaker 1: not a situational god. God is a god of systems.
Speaker 1: God is a god who gets to root causes. So
Speaker 1: he went to the synagogue, which was their system of worship,
Speaker 1: and he went on the Sabbath, which was their day
Speaker 1: of rest, and he found a situation and he stood
Speaker 1: it up in front of everyone, and he used.
Speaker 2: The situation to fix their system.
Speaker 1: And the first thing that he has to fix is
Speaker 1: their pessimism. There are five of these. When we get
Speaker 1: to all five, who knows. But I'll be here next week,
Speaker 1: she said me too. Pessimism is the result of considering
Speaker 1: your situation before you consider your source. It's what makes
Speaker 1: you look at your life and feel so overwhelmed by
Speaker 1: all your situations. And I'm guilty of it, and be
Speaker 1: honest with you, I'm guilty of I'm guilty of evaluating
Speaker 1: my situation without considering my source, and when I do,
Speaker 1: I always feel overwhelmed. You will notice that there were
Speaker 1: some there that day who were actually Verse two looking
Speaker 1: for a reason to accuse Jesus. They were looking for
Speaker 1: something wrong. Principle of the universe. You don't have to
Speaker 1: be a Christian to believe this. You will always find
Speaker 1: what you're looking for. If you are looking for a
Speaker 1: reason to be offended, you will find it every time.
Speaker 1: If you are looking for a reason to be bitter.
Speaker 1: You will find one at any time when you come
Speaker 1: through you know, a church like this.
Speaker 2: I am well aware that in a crowd this size,
Speaker 2: there are.
Speaker 1: Many people here today who are looking for something not
Speaker 1: to like about our church. It's okay, I understand it.
Speaker 1: I understand it because we have almost almost been trained
Speaker 1: for it. We have been trained not to trust our politicians.
Speaker 1: We have been trained, and maybe for good reason. In
Speaker 1: many cases, we have been trained, sometimes by our disappointments,
Speaker 1: not to expect much out of life. We have been
Speaker 1: trained by by our insecurities not to expect people to
Speaker 1: like us. And so guess what happens when we go
Speaker 1: around all day believing secretly that nobody likes us, when
Speaker 1: we're telling ourselves before we even go out into our day,
Speaker 1: nobody really cares about me. Nobody ever checks on me,
Speaker 1: nobody appreciates me, nobody talks to me, nobody notices me,
Speaker 1: nobody texts me, and nobody friends me, and nobody likes me.
Speaker 1: Nobody friends me, nobody likes me. Guess what's gonna happen?
Speaker 1: Your situation is going to reflect your psychology.
Speaker 2: As a man thinketh in his heart, So is he.
Speaker 1: So it's just a matter of time before your situation
Speaker 1: looks like yourself talk and now you said it enough
Speaker 1: to yourself. You are looking for a reason to prove
Speaker 1: to yourself a verdict that you arrived at before you
Speaker 1: even collected evidence. So it causes you to look at
Speaker 1: people and situations and think it can't get any better
Speaker 1: because it's always been this way. But Jesus said, stretch
Speaker 1: out your hand. I can't just speak a better word
Speaker 1: and fix what you say within yourself. Nobody likes me,
Speaker 1: nobody touched me, I mean, mpaned me no money. Then
Speaker 1: why are you surprised when they fulfill your prophecy? Well,
Speaker 1: they always and they never. There's the second thing that
Speaker 1: Jesus came to fix is our prejudice. Yet there's nothing
Speaker 1: in the passage about the man's skin color. There's nothing
Speaker 1: in the passage about gender equality. There's nothing in the
Speaker 1: passage about his sexual orientation, none of that. Yet I
Speaker 1: still see prejudice in the synagogue on the Sabbath in
Speaker 1: Mark III. And this prejudice is not directed at the man.
Speaker 1: They are prejudice towards Jesus. I see you, you look
Speaker 1: like you want to believe me, but you confusing. Let's
Speaker 1: take the word apart prejudice. The definition is in the word.
Speaker 2: Pre judge. That's what prejudice is.
Speaker 1: And it doesn't just happen racially or socioeconomically. Prejudice is
Speaker 1: when you put yourself in the judge's seat or the
Speaker 1: jury box. These men had the opportunity to witness a miracle,
Speaker 1: but rather than be a witness, they wanted to be
Speaker 1: a judge. And every day that you and I wake up,
Speaker 1: we have an opportunity to witness direction power all around us.
Speaker 1: We get to witness it in the lives of others,
Speaker 1: and we get to witness it on our own behalf.
Speaker 2: We get to be a witness.
Speaker 1: But you can't be a witness if you insist on
Speaker 1: being a judge. What I'm trying to say is this,
Speaker 1: have you already made up your mind how God can bless?
Speaker 1: And who God can bless? And when God can bless?
Speaker 1: Have you already made up your mind about how God
Speaker 1: can do it to the extent that you miss that
Speaker 1: the very author of life is right in front of you,
Speaker 1: and they are trying to kill the very thing that
Speaker 1: God sent to save them. Why Because they've already made
Speaker 1: up their minds. We pray for wisdom, and God trist
Speaker 1: to send it through our wives. But we are prejudice.
Speaker 1: We prejudge the people that God sends to help us.
Speaker 1: So rather than accept the wisdom, since we don't like
Speaker 1: the truck that it came in, we'll send back the
Speaker 1: wisdom because well, she's always like that. Well she's the
Speaker 1: one that God might use to show you your system.
Speaker 1: He might. This whole chapter is worth preaching. I wish
Speaker 1: we had all week.
Speaker 2: All right, touch your neighbors, say fix the system. Fix
Speaker 2: the system. They were looking.
Speaker 1: I see it sometimes I see people who look like
Speaker 1: they came to church as a favor or like a
Speaker 1: last resort, or something like will you stop asking me
Speaker 1: if I come once? And man, they are looking for something,
Speaker 1: not to like. I just sometimes you can feel the
Speaker 1: energy of somebody where it's just like mmm. And they
Speaker 1: will miss a revelation because one of the worship leaders
Speaker 1: had to rip in his jeans.
Speaker 2: I just don't know if.
Speaker 1: And God was trying to show you how holy he is,
Speaker 1: and God, you missed it.
Speaker 2: Looking for a reason, looking for reason.
Speaker 1: He was a threat to them, so they already made
Speaker 1: up their mind, they already had their verdict and now
Speaker 1: they just needed to collect the evidence.
Speaker 2: It's called confirmation bias.
Speaker 1: When you wake up believing God is for me, you
Speaker 1: look for evidence to support that verdict. When you wake
Speaker 1: up believing that all things work together for my good
Speaker 1: and that nothing can separate me from the love of God.
Speaker 2: Here's how good it is.
Speaker 1: When you believe that. When you are looking for a
Speaker 1: reason to rejoice rather than a reason to accuse, it
Speaker 1: causes you to weigh things differently. So you say, like
Speaker 1: Paul said in Corinthians, he said, on one hand, we're pressed,
Speaker 1: but on the other hand, we're not crushed. On one hand,
Speaker 1: we're persecuted, but on the other hand, we're not abandoned.
Speaker 1: On one hand, we're struck down, but on the other hand,
Speaker 1: we're not destroyed. In other words, what I'm trying to
Speaker 1: say is that if you would get out of the
Speaker 1: judges seat and get a get a witness mentality God.
Speaker 1: I want to see the good in people. I want
Speaker 1: to see the best in people. I want to believe
Speaker 1: the best about people.
Speaker 2: I want to.
Speaker 1: See the opportunity and opposition.
Speaker 2: Somebody shot I'm looking for it.
Speaker 1: I'm not looking for a reason to be offended.
Speaker 2: I'm looking for.
Speaker 1: A way to forgive. How many are glad that God
Speaker 1: look beyond your faults and saw your knees. He could
Speaker 1: have accused you, He could have condemned you, He could
Speaker 1: have cast you to but he didn't. How many are
Speaker 1: grateful for what he didn't do, for what he overlooked.
Speaker 2: But they got it twisted. We get it twisted.
Speaker 1: Instead of looking for an opportunity to meet a need,
Speaker 1: they were looking for a reason to accuse. Sometimes God
Speaker 1: puts you in difficult situations and you get it twisted.
Speaker 1: He puts you there to change it, not to complain
Speaker 1: about it, and you're out of order. You're out of order.
Speaker 1: I wish I had a gabble. This isn't working. The
Speaker 1: man can't work because his right hand. Luke tells us
Speaker 1: it's his right hand. It must mean it's his dominant hand.
Speaker 1: It must mean it's the hand of blessing. And Jewish
Speaker 1: culture use the right hand to bless so he needs
Speaker 1: a blessing to be a blessing. Sometimes we try to
Speaker 1: be something that we have not received from God, and
Speaker 1: it never works. Jesus stands the man up and he
Speaker 1: picks a fight.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to disrupt your you're mister Rogers. Jesus' relationship
Speaker 2: with the Lord, you know, the one where Jesus wondering.
Speaker 1: Come on, guys, stop that.
Speaker 2: We're not finding that Jesus so far in Mark. Maybe
Speaker 2: he'll come later, you know, the exasperated mom. Guys, be nice.
Speaker 1: He hasn't made an appearance so far, and we're in
Speaker 1: Mark chapter three, and he's he's still he's challenging their
Speaker 1: whole system because number one two things I noticed.
Speaker 2: He could have taken the man to the side. He didn't.
Speaker 1: He could have easily been like Peter. Peter was always
Speaker 1: ready to do something. Grab that guy with the bad hand.
Speaker 1: You gonna throw him out?
Speaker 2: No, No, Peter, see distracted, you know, Peter. I want
Speaker 2: to talk to him after.
Speaker 1: I'm gon fix his hand, But it's the Sabbath and
Speaker 1: we're not supposed to work on the Sabbath, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to offend anybody to side. I talked to
Speaker 1: him later. I'll when I wrap it up, just make
Speaker 1: sure he doesn't leave. I want to see him because
Speaker 1: on the Sabbath, remember it's the day of rest. Six
Speaker 1: days God created, one day, God rested it was the
Speaker 1: order of creation. The sabbath is the only one of
Speaker 1: the ten commandments that reflects the order of creation. It's
Speaker 1: like a chance for us to be like God. How
Speaker 1: he rested. Okay, But but not this work work work, work,
Speaker 1: work work.
Speaker 4: Why am I sounded like Rihanna on this stage.
Speaker 2: I didn't mean to rest.
Speaker 1: Work work, work, work, work work rest work work, work, work, work,
Speaker 1: work rest.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: So for everybody who wants to just pray, not rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest.
Speaker 2: Work, that's out of order.
Speaker 1: But after you have worked, rest, like God rested from
Speaker 1: his labor. It's a shadow, though it's not the substance,
Speaker 1: because the real sabbath.
Speaker 2: Is Jesus himself. It's his work that enables us to
Speaker 2: rest from ours love the Gospel.
Speaker 1: So they are so consumed with their sabbath that they
Speaker 1: are missing God's sabbath.
Speaker 2: It's a perversion.
Speaker 1: I know we usually use the word prejudice for racial reasons,
Speaker 1: and we use the word perversion for sexual reasons. But
Speaker 1: this is a perversion. A perversion is anytime that a
Speaker 1: gift is used against its intention.
Speaker 2: That's the perversion.
Speaker 1: And Jesus heels him, not only does he stand him out,
Speaker 1: publicly and call him out publicly. But he does it
Speaker 1: on the Sabbath, which is understandable if the guy has
Speaker 1: a gunshot wound because the Sabbath had Okay, here's what
Speaker 1: the teachers of the law did. God gave them this
Speaker 1: gift called the Sabbath. He said, I want you to
Speaker 1: rest one day. When you rest like that, it is
Speaker 1: a picture of how I rested.
Speaker 2: It is a gift to you, and it is a.
Speaker 1: Shadow of a rest that is to come for the
Speaker 1: people of God, where you can cease from your works
Speaker 1: and receive by grace what you could not attain by labor.
Speaker 1: So I want you to rest, to get into the
Speaker 1: rhythm of resting from your works. But they did what
Speaker 1: we tend to do with the gifts that God gives us.
Speaker 1: When we don't understand the intention of the gift, we
Speaker 1: get it twisted. We get it twisted. So Jesus shows
Speaker 1: up on the day where they're not supposed to work.
Speaker 2: Little rules like this they made.
Speaker 1: They had over six hundred of them. There was one
Speaker 1: command and they made six hundred rules around it. They
Speaker 1: had like a system for every possible situation that could
Speaker 1: come up. Okay, so if you need to take a journey.
Speaker 1: You can go ninety nine paces, but if you take
Speaker 1: a two thousandth step, then that's technically work.
Speaker 2: So you had to counter steps.
Speaker 1: Okay, if somebody has a dislocated foot or a dislocated hand,
Speaker 1: you can't set it back into place on the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: That's from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. Observant juice cill
Speaker 1: celebrate the Sabbath in the same way today Sabbat, and
Speaker 1: you can't set the bones back in place on the Sabbath.
Speaker 2: But there's an exception.
Speaker 1: If the person's about to die, you.
Speaker 2: Can do it.
Speaker 1: Well, that's awfully nice of the pastors to make that exception.
Speaker 2: If you see someone about to die and you can
Speaker 2: save their life, you can do it on Sabbath. It
Speaker 2: sounds crazy to us.
Speaker 1: That they would that they would take a gift that
Speaker 1: God gave like a day off, like a day to
Speaker 1: rest from their labor, and twisted to the point where
Speaker 1: they forgot what Jesus said in Mark two twenty seven.
Speaker 1: When his disciples were working one day on the Sabbath,
Speaker 1: they were actually walking and they did something that was
Speaker 1: considered work. They took some heads of grain and they
Speaker 1: were hungry, so they rubbed the what do you call
Speaker 1: it on the grain that membran.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna call it. It's not called that, but i'm
Speaker 2: gonna call it that.
Speaker 1: They rubbed that hard part off and ate the stuff
Speaker 1: they could eat. And the Pharisee said, ah, they're working
Speaker 1: on the Sabbath. Jesus said, you missed the entire point
Speaker 1: of the Sabbath, which was a gift, because you were
Speaker 1: so caught up in your system that you perverted and
Speaker 1: twisted the gift.
Speaker 2: Watch what he says. This is very, very strategic.
Speaker 1: That the son of God would say to the people
Speaker 1: that he came to save.
Speaker 2: The Sabbath.
Speaker 1: Is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. I
Speaker 1: know it's a little difficult for us to get much
Speaker 1: meaning out of that because we don't celebrate the Sabbath
Speaker 1: in the same way. So let me try this. Stuff
Speaker 1: was made for man, not man for stuff. The essence
Speaker 1: of the lesson is this, when you take a good
Speaker 1: gift and turn it into a god, it becomes destructive.
Speaker 1: Let me try another one. Sex was made for man,
Speaker 1: not man for sex. And what the enemy loves to
Speaker 1: do is to take a good gift that God gave
Speaker 1: you and twisted and disfigure it like this man's hand
Speaker 1: was disfigured. That's what had happened to the people's hearts,
Speaker 1: so that they had taken a gift and turned it
Speaker 1: into a prison. They were serving something that was supposed
Speaker 1: to be serving them. When God sees you chasing material possessions,
Speaker 1: he says, that stuff is meant to serve you. Why
Speaker 1: are you serving what I gave to serve you is
Speaker 1: out of order. We've got one man who can't work
Speaker 1: because he has a condition a situation. We've got a
Speaker 1: system of religion that will work. Why it's the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: We can't do it on the sapath. Jesus said, the
Speaker 1: sap of this for you, not you for the Sappath.
Speaker 1: I gave it as a gift. Why would you twist
Speaker 1: the gift? And it causes me to wonder how many
Speaker 1: gifts has God given me in my life that I
Speaker 1: have twisted. God gives you people in your life so
Speaker 1: you can encourage them, and then you become so needy
Speaker 1: you twist the gift and ruin the friend chef. Now
Speaker 1: y'all are quiet, How many gifts has God given us?
Speaker 1: How many how many people will you sleep with before
Speaker 1: you realize that sex is a gift. It's a wonderful gift,
Speaker 1: but it's a terrible master. Within a certain context, it's
Speaker 1: a wonderful gift, but if you get it twisted, it
Speaker 1: begins to take over your life. You're out of order.
Speaker 1: You put the Sabbath before people. God puts people before
Speaker 1: the Sabbath. Religion always gets it twisted, though, and we
Speaker 1: always tell you ten things you got to do to
Speaker 1: be a good Christian. But God taught me that I
Speaker 1: don't change, so he will love me. I change because
Speaker 1: He has loved me. This is the revelation of the Cross.
Speaker 1: We love him because he first loved us. And when
Speaker 1: you get that out of order, you will twist great
Speaker 1: gifts that God gives you in your life. And Jesus
Speaker 1: looked around and said this isn't working. So he calls
Speaker 1: the man as an object lesson. Are you ready for this?
Speaker 1: He doesn't give us speech. He gives a lesson. He
Speaker 1: gives a demonstration. Faith is a demonstration, not an explanation.
Speaker 1: So stand up. He could have called him back tomorrow.
Speaker 1: By the way, I mean, the guy's not dying. He
Speaker 1: lived this long with a bad hand, he could live
Speaker 1: with another one.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 1: By the way, when life deals you a bad hand, let.
Speaker 2: Me tell you what to do. Don't fold.
Speaker 1: I know some of you are holding a bad hand
Speaker 1: today and it's a terrible situation you're in. And I
Speaker 1: understand all of that, and Christ has.
Speaker 2: Compassion for you.
Speaker 1: But whatever you do, touch somebody say, don't fold. Because
Speaker 1: God is about to change the entire system through the
Speaker 1: most desperate situations. This is how hope works, he says,
Speaker 1: stand up and stretch out. Stand up and stretch out,
Speaker 1: because if you keep procrastinating, this is the fourth Procrastination
Speaker 1: will always keep you from experiencing the power of God,
Speaker 1: always when you wait, until when you put it off.
Speaker 1: I did it the other day. I'm almost forty now,
Speaker 1: I got some gray coming in. I'm not worried about that.
Speaker 1: That makes me feel like I've been a good pastor.
Speaker 1: If I could pastor this church twelve years, it's not
Speaker 1: a little gray on the beard. Jerry, I'm sleeping. But
Speaker 1: I said the other day, there are about three things
Speaker 1: in my life I really want to change.
Speaker 2: You got it.
Speaker 1: You got at least three things you want to change.
Speaker 1: Let me see if you've arrived and I'm just up
Speaker 1: here by myself trying to improve.
Speaker 2: I was like, yeah, So by the time I'm forty,
Speaker 2: it was the first thing. I thought, it's a nice
Speaker 2: round number.
Speaker 1: By the time I'm.
Speaker 4: Forty, God said, why not now, because it would require action,
Speaker 4: not theory, you know.
Speaker 1: So they do it all the time the way I
Speaker 1: want the verse to work. The moment that the miracle happens,
Speaker 1: I wanted to work like this. It looked around at
Speaker 1: them in anger, deeply distress, their stubborn hearts. Remember what
Speaker 1: this man's heart looks like externally, or his hand looks
Speaker 1: like externally, their hearts look like inwardly.
Speaker 2: He's using the visible the situation. That's what he does.
Speaker 1: Trouble, hardship, persecution, sword, the things that come against you.
Speaker 1: He uses those situations to show you a system to
Speaker 1: fix the system. And he looked around in frustration at
Speaker 1: the field system. And he had asked them a question
Speaker 1: because he's so savage. He answered a question that they
Speaker 1: didn't ask, with a question they couldn't answer.
Speaker 2: He's such a savage, such a savage.
Speaker 1: And deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man,
Speaker 1: stretch out your hand. The way I want the verse
Speaker 1: to work is it up on the screens. I wanted
Speaker 1: to say his hand was completely restored, and he stretched
Speaker 1: it out. In my mind, that's the way it should work.
Speaker 1: When God changes my situation, is that he fixed the
Speaker 1: man's hand. It was restored and there, because the man's hand.
Speaker 2: Was restored, he stretched it out.
Speaker 1: What we find instead in the syntax is this, in
Speaker 1: the order it happens, there is a revelation of the
Speaker 1: way God works. The man stretched his hand and then
Speaker 1: it was restored. He did what he couldn't do. And
Speaker 1: in doing what he could not do, and in loving
Speaker 1: who you cannot love and who in forgiving who you
Speaker 1: can't forgive, and in trusting and believing what your eyes
Speaker 1: cannot see, he did not st wretch out his hand
Speaker 1: because it was healed. His hand was healed because he
Speaker 1: stretched it out. And we keep waiting for feelings, but
Speaker 1: feelings follow faith. You don't have to feel it to
Speaker 1: believe it. If you believe it, you will see it
Speaker 1: the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Speaker 1: So God says to everybody with a bad hand, because
Speaker 1: I know you come to church sometimes with your good
Speaker 1: hand out and I know you go through life sometimes
Speaker 1: with your good hand out. And we have all these
Speaker 1: profiles and all these images and all these fursonas and
Speaker 1: all these one sentence bios on our social media accounts.
Speaker 1: But God doesn't bless your bio. He blesses your brokenness
Speaker 1: and in his own when you lay down, here's the
Speaker 1: fifth one.
Speaker 2: Your pride.
Speaker 1: To stand up in the middle of controversy, to stand
Speaker 1: up in the middle of a hopeless, desperate, naked situation,
Speaker 1: to stand up in the middle of famine, to stand
Speaker 1: up in the middle of lack, to stand up in
Speaker 1: the middle of weakness, to stand up in the middle
Speaker 1: of discouragement, to stand up in the middle of failure,
Speaker 1: and stretch out your hand, and stretch out your faith
Speaker 1: and open your heart and believe that He is here
Speaker 1: and all things are possible. You're not gonna get this
Speaker 1: blessing with your arms crossed, waiting to see if God
Speaker 1: will do it, and pretending like you don't need it.
Speaker 2: He stretched his hand.
Speaker 1: Jesus healed him in an unusual way, at an unusual time,
Speaker 1: on an unusual day, on the day they weren't supposed
Speaker 1: to do any work.
Speaker 2: The men's hands started working again. You know when God's
Speaker 2: gonna do it when you least expect it.
Speaker 1: You know who God's gonna do it through the ones
Speaker 1: who least deserve it. You know who's not gonna get it,
Speaker 1: the one who's just sit there waiting.
Speaker 2: Man, I don't know.
Speaker 1: But if you don't mind praising him right now, I
Speaker 1: would love to see you stretch your hands, clap your hands.
Speaker 1: Come on, Blakeney, come on rock Hill, and lift your voice.
Speaker 1: Don't praise him because you've got the blessing, praise him
Speaker 1: because he is the blessing. Jesus did what he shouldn't do,
Speaker 1: so the man could do what he couldn't do right there,
Speaker 1: with all the critics watching, and all the people who
Speaker 1: didn't like it didn't matter.
Speaker 2: Because they were out of order. You keep going to
Speaker 2: people you're out of order. But if you do what
Speaker 2: he told you to do, I promise you this. Look,
Speaker 2: it's simple.
Speaker 1: Stretch your hand, don't you know he was tempted to
Speaker 1: show him the good one. So then it's on the
Speaker 1: other hand, right hand, the hand that you need to
Speaker 1: be a good husband, the hand that you need to
Speaker 1: be a good father, the hand that you need to
Speaker 1: get the disciplines working in your life because you got
Speaker 1: some things that aren't working.
Speaker 2: But you didn't know why. You keep running from.
Speaker 5: Situation and you're so stressed out from situation a situation,
Speaker 5: situation to relationship to relationship to relationship, to think to
Speaker 5: thing to job, to drop the job, from.
Speaker 2: High to high to high. It's the system. So he said,
Speaker 2: he said, I'm gonna do this. Jesus found a loophole
Speaker 2: because he's a savage.
Speaker 1: He said, I can't set the man's hand back in
Speaker 1: place today because it's the Sabbath, and I didn't come
Speaker 1: to break the law, but to fulfill it.
Speaker 2: So watch what he does. Jesus tells the man stretch.
Speaker 1: Everybody says stretch, and he doesn't touch him.
Speaker 2: The Pharisees are watching. You can do that. It's the sabbath.
Speaker 2: No working on the sabbath.
Speaker 1: Jesus said, oh this, this isn't working.
Speaker 2: A word.
Speaker 1: I didn't stretch my hand. He stretched his. So that's why.
Speaker 1: Now I know why he went to the cross, so
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be from my words. Now I know why
Speaker 1: he stretched his arms. Now I know why he did
Speaker 1: it cause I couldn't. Now I know it's my grace,
Speaker 1: thorough fame, not of works.
Speaker 2: So I did both.
Speaker 1: They all they think I can do is live by
Speaker 1: see Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
Speaker 1: of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
Speaker 1: of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
Speaker 1: the link in the description to give now, or visit
Speaker 1: Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more information and
Speaker 1: if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can
Speaker 1: share it with your friends. You can click the share button,
Speaker 1: take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
Speaker 1: and tag us at Elevation Church.
Speaker 2: Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1: God bless you.