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 is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. Valentine.
Speaker 1: You guys, you look good, you smell good, you sound
Speaker 1: real good. And I'm thrilled to be here. My name
Speaker 1: is Dustin Stradlie. I'm the campus pastor of our Ronoke,
Speaker 1: Virginia location. I know we've got some people from Ronoke here.
Speaker 1: What's up, noake, God's doing some amazing things in Roanoke
Speaker 1: and at all of our campuses, and so if you're
Speaker 1: here at Valentine, I need you to take that enthusiasm
Speaker 1: that I feel right here and translate that through the
Speaker 1: camera to everyone tuning in online and give them a
Speaker 1: big welcome, show them some love. We are one church,
Speaker 1: many locations and people tuning in even in cities where
Speaker 1: we don't have a location. I'm excited to share the
Speaker 1: word of God with you today. But the reality is
Speaker 1: the effectiveness of me sharing the word of God really
Speaker 1: depends on your readiness to receive the word of God.
Speaker 1: So I need you to do me a favor and
Speaker 1: turn your neighbor right now, say hey, neighbor, are you
Speaker 1: ready to receive what God has for you? Now turn
Speaker 1: to your second option. I'm not gonna get into why
Speaker 1: you chose some second and say, hey, neighbor, I'm ready.
Speaker 1: Let's go. I'm gonna jump into John five. You can
Speaker 1: follow with me on the screen. You guys can stay
Speaker 1: standing in honor of reading God's word if you want to.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm just saying. But sometime later Jesus went
Speaker 1: up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now
Speaker 1: there is in Jerusalem, near the Sheepgate a pool which
Speaker 1: an era make is Calledesda, which is surrounded by five
Speaker 1: covered at colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people
Speaker 1: used to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One
Speaker 1: who was there had been an invalid for thirty eight years.
Speaker 1: When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he
Speaker 1: had been in this condition, everybody say condition for a
Speaker 1: long time, he asks him, do you want to get well? Sir?
Speaker 1: The invalid replied, I have no one to help me
Speaker 1: into the pool. When the water is stirred. While I'm
Speaker 1: trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.
Speaker 1: Do you ever feel like you've just tried everything and
Speaker 1: every time you try, someone always gets ahead of you.
Speaker 1: I'm trying, sir, but someone else goes down ahead of me.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat,
Speaker 1: and walk. And once the man was cured, he picked
Speaker 1: up his mat and walked. I need you to turn
Speaker 1: your neighbor and help me announce my titles. Say I
Speaker 1: I've tried everything. I've tried everything. Now you can go
Speaker 1: ahead and take a seat. And while you're at it,
Speaker 1: why don't you go ahead and grab your flippy floppies,
Speaker 1: your bathing suit, and your ray bands, because we're heading
Speaker 1: down to the pool of Bethesda, where this scene takes place.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't love a good pool party. I know that
Speaker 1: our Late Norman campus and our Melbourne campus love a
Speaker 1: good pool party. So let's pick up in verse three
Speaker 1: to see who was invited to the pool party and
Speaker 1: said to hear a great number of disabled people used
Speaker 1: to lie, the blind, the lame, the paralyzed, the cynical,
Speaker 1: the addict, the perfectionist, the workaholic, the prideful, the people pleaser.
Speaker 1: If I continue to list them out, I can hit
Speaker 1: yours too. People with various conditions. We all have conditions
Speaker 1: in our life. We all have things that we struggle with.
Speaker 1: And all of these people with various conditions are gathering
Speaker 1: around the pool for a certain reason. And we find
Speaker 1: that in verse four that we read through earlier. So
Speaker 1: if you've got your Bible turned to verse four, shout
Speaker 1: Amen when you got it, shout a men when you
Speaker 1: got it. Gentlemen right here looks confused. You don't have
Speaker 1: verse four. I was confused too. When I was reading
Speaker 1: the Bible the other day. I noticed that in my
Speaker 1: NIV version of the Bible that it went straight from
Speaker 1: verse three to verse five, And I thought, is my
Speaker 1: Bible broken? Do I need to get a new Bible?
Speaker 1: So then I begin to look at some other translations.
Speaker 1: I noticed that verse four was missing from a few
Speaker 1: other translations. But I found it. I found it in
Speaker 1: the footnote. So let me read it to you and
Speaker 1: then talk about why it's not there. It's set in
Speaker 1: verse four, from time to time of the Lord would
Speaker 1: come down and stir up the waters, the first one
Speaker 1: in to the pool. After each such disturbance would be
Speaker 1: cured of whatever disease they had. Now, why this is
Speaker 1: missing from certain modern day translations of the Bible is
Speaker 1: that it was not in earlier manuscripts of the Bible,
Speaker 1: and it was really known as more of a superstition.
Speaker 1: There was no proof that an angel of the Lord
Speaker 1: was the one stirring up the waters, but instead there
Speaker 1: were streams of water that connected to the pool, and
Speaker 1: due to nature, the water would be stirred up. There
Speaker 1: was minerals in the water which could provide some medicinal value.
Speaker 1: It's like bathing yourself and all your favorite essential oils,
Speaker 1: like you like to do. So all of these people
Speaker 1: with conditions are lying out by the pool, trying to
Speaker 1: get from one place to another, and if they are
Speaker 1: the first one into the water, they would experience healing.
Speaker 1: They would experience comfort. The pool represents comfort, and the
Speaker 1: man in the passage, there's really a focus on one person,
Speaker 1: this man who was an invalid for thirty eight years
Speaker 1: of his life. Now, an invalid is someone who is sick,
Speaker 1: has some sort of affliction, maybe even paralyzed, and this
Speaker 1: man had been carrying his condition for thirty eight years
Speaker 1: of his life. And if we all look at our life,
Speaker 1: we all have conditions, maybe not a physical condition, but
Speaker 1: mentally spiritually, a condition of the heart. If we look
Speaker 1: deep down into our life, we all have conditions. I've
Speaker 1: got many conditions. If I can be real, I'm just
Speaker 1: going to share at least one of my conditions. I
Speaker 1: can stand here for the next three days and share
Speaker 1: all of my conditions, all of my issues, because I
Speaker 1: got plenty. But there's one that just seems to keep
Speaker 1: creeping back in my life. And that's the condition of pride,
Speaker 1: which is really me just overcompensating for this inward insecurity
Speaker 1: that I have. And I find comfort in achievement. If
Speaker 1: I can just achieve more, if I can just a
Speaker 1: more every time I work hard, if I can just
Speaker 1: try more and I can achieve more, I find comfort
Speaker 1: that really only to find out that it's never enough.
Speaker 1: And we all have conditions that are crippling us from
Speaker 1: moving forward. Maybe you're still carrying the shame of a
Speaker 1: decision that you made ten years ago. You have a
Speaker 1: condition where you can't release it. Maybe it's anxiety within
Speaker 1: you because you're comparing yourself to anyone and everyone around
Speaker 1: you constantly scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, looks like everyone else has
Speaker 1: their life together, and you think that maybe you're just
Speaker 1: not good enough, or maybe you're trying to please everyone
Speaker 1: around you, but you're not pleased with yourself. We have conditions.
Speaker 1: A few months back, I was driving my fifteen year
Speaker 1: old Accura down the highway and paint chipping off and all,
Speaker 1: and the steering wheel as I'm driving down the highway
Speaker 1: begins to rapidly shake, which I don't know a lot
Speaker 1: about cars, but I know that's probably not a good thing.
Speaker 1: And I immediately pulled into a gas station and got out,
Speaker 1: and I realized that the tire is about to pop
Speaker 1: on the car. Now. I went to the trunk of
Speaker 1: the car, opened the trunk of the car. I see
Speaker 1: the spare tire in the trunk of the car, So
Speaker 1: I'm going to change the tire. But as I'm looking
Speaker 1: at the tire in the trunk of the car, I
Speaker 1: had an epiphany. I don't know how to change the tire. Now.
Speaker 1: I'm getting married in twenty six days, y'all to Maddie
Speaker 1: on the front road right here, and thank you. And
Speaker 1: I've got to stand before this woman as a thirty
Speaker 1: two year old man and tell her that I don't
Speaker 1: know how to change the tire on a car, not
Speaker 1: on my watch. I'm gonna do whatever it takes to
Speaker 1: figure out how to change this tire. So first, thanks,
Speaker 1: first owner Manuel in the trunk, take it, toss it out,
Speaker 1: don't need it. I'm a man, right, Maybe pride kicked in,
Speaker 1: So I take the spare tire. I go, get on
Speaker 1: my hands and knees next to the car, put the tire.
Speaker 1: Then I realized I probably need some tools to get
Speaker 1: the other tire off. Go back to the trunk, find
Speaker 1: some tools, take them back over. Then I put one
Speaker 1: underneath the car and started to crank the vehicle up.
Speaker 1: I don't know what it's called a jack. Maybe start
Speaker 1: to crank the car. Don't judge me. It started to
Speaker 1: crank the car up. Then I was able to successfully
Speaker 1: get the first tire off. I said, I'm doing this
Speaker 1: with ease, y'all, this is common sense. I got this right.
Speaker 1: Now get the first tire off, got ready to put
Speaker 1: the spare tire on, and then in slow motion, the
Speaker 1: whole car begins to shift and just falls over on
Speaker 1: the ground on top of the jack. First thanks first,
Speaker 1: I'm like anybody see that we're good. Now we're good.
Speaker 1: Nobody's watching them. So I take a tool. I knocked
Speaker 1: the jack out from underneath the car, and it pierced
Speaker 1: through the side little skirt of my car, put a
Speaker 1: hole in it. But I put it underneath a different
Speaker 1: part of the car. I was able to crank the
Speaker 1: car up again. I said, Okay, second time's the charm.
Speaker 1: We got this, get ready to put the spare tire on.
Speaker 1: Car begins to shift again, and car falls on the
Speaker 1: ground six times, six times. The car falls over four
Speaker 1: hours later. I finally just sit down in the parking lot,
Speaker 1: take my man card out, toss it in the wind,
Speaker 1: and just accept the fact that I'm never gonna be
Speaker 1: able to change a tire. And I might as well
Speaker 1: accept that that I'm just gonna be here all night
Speaker 1: until this big jack Diesel truck pulls in to the
Speaker 1: gas station and these country boys get out and walk
Speaker 1: over to me and say, well, I made ball. You know.
Speaker 1: To me, no, no, don't tire, don't have any idea
Speaker 1: what you just said. But they reached down and literally,
Speaker 1: in their own strength, pick up the side of my
Speaker 1: car and slide this little doughnut tire on. I said, yeah, bro,
Speaker 1: that was my next move. It's taking a break man.
Speaker 1: And what I couldn't do in my own strength, they
Speaker 1: did with ease. And like this man in the passage,
Speaker 1: he spent thirty eight years trying with everything that he
Speaker 1: had in his own strength to change his condition. And
Speaker 1: we learned two things in this passage about how we
Speaker 1: tend to cope with our conditions. And the first one
Speaker 1: is the comfort of trying. The comfort of trying. Write
Speaker 1: that down now, Trying isn't always a bad thing. I mean,
Speaker 1: you're trying to get out of debt, not a bad thing.
Speaker 1: Trying to get in shape, that's a good thing. You're
Speaker 1: coming to church, you're trying. You bought somebody's Starbucks, you're
Speaker 1: trying to be nice. That's a good thing. Try is
Speaker 1: not a bad thing. I'm all about hard work. I'm
Speaker 1: all about doing some things and achieving some things. That's great.
Speaker 1: But I'm talking about the kind of trying that we
Speaker 1: saw in verse four. The first one in wins mentality
Speaker 1: that we have in our culture. If I can get
Speaker 1: into the pool first, I will get the healing. And
Speaker 1: so as all of these different people with their conditions
Speaker 1: are lying out by the pool. You got blind people,
Speaker 1: you got lame people, you got paralyze people with all
Speaker 1: kinds of various conditions. My man is laying here, tanning
Speaker 1: his backside and chilling by the pool. Let's just say
Speaker 1: he's paralyzed from the waist down, and he's thinking to himself,
Speaker 1: if I can get from here to there, I'll have
Speaker 1: the comfort that I'm looking for. And they're fighting over
Speaker 1: each other. They're elbowing each other, crawling their way, knocking
Speaker 1: each other out. If you get close enough, hold somebody
Speaker 1: under the water. Whatever you gotta do to get what
Speaker 1: you need, work hard enough, try it with everything you got,
Speaker 1: and don't we do the same thing in our culture today.
Speaker 1: If I can just get a few more followers, if
Speaker 1: I can just get a few more likes, if I
Speaker 1: can just make a little bit more money, if I
Speaker 1: can just work a little bit harder for that house,
Speaker 1: if I can just try a little bit harder for
Speaker 1: that car, if I can just collect a few more trophies,
Speaker 1: if I can just please a few more people. I
Speaker 1: know my dad didn't accept me, but if I sleep
Speaker 1: around with so many men, maybe somebody will accept me.
Speaker 1: If I just work a little bit hard. I'm exhausted.
Speaker 1: Maybe I'll fall short, but then I can work harder,
Speaker 1: because if i can get from here to there, then
Speaker 1: I'll have the comfort that I'm looking for. And some
Speaker 1: of you, not only are you trying to get from
Speaker 1: here to there, but some of you you made it
Speaker 1: to the pool. You got in the pool, but you
Speaker 1: found out it wasn't what you thought it would be.
Speaker 1: You've got more money than you could ever imagine, but
Speaker 1: you're still completely empty on the inside. You've got more influence,
Speaker 1: your social media following is through the roof, but you're
Speaker 1: still crying yourself to sleep at night. And a couple
Speaker 1: of years ago, I got a call from Wade joy
Speaker 1: Or worship pastor. Don't you guys love Wade. He's amazing.
Speaker 1: He preached a couple of weeks back, and Wade said, Dustin,
Speaker 1: Pastor Stephen and I have been talking and Pastor would
Speaker 1: love to give you the opportunity to preach the Word
Speaker 1: of God to the entire church. I said, stop it.
Speaker 1: He says, stop what I said? No, Like, I'm just saying,
Speaker 1: are you for real? Said? He said, yeah, like we
Speaker 1: see something in you. And Pastor Sema would love to
Speaker 1: give you the opportunity to preach. And that's a big
Speaker 1: deal for me, y'all, because ten years ago I had
Speaker 1: just gotten out of jail for a dui. Four days later,
Speaker 1: somebody brings me to Elevation uptown campus. I got saved
Speaker 1: in this church. I got baptized in this church. I
Speaker 1: started volunteering at our blatanety campus. I was a greader.
Speaker 1: I would hold the door open, smile, hung on people,
Speaker 1: love on people. Ten years later, I'm a pastor in
Speaker 1: this church, and now you're gonna give me the opportunity
Speaker 1: to preach the word of God to the entire church.
Speaker 1: And the same love and the same grace that he
Speaker 1: brought to my life. I could share about it with
Speaker 1: the church. What won't he do it? He's so good.
Speaker 1: I say yes, I'll preach. Thank you. Hung up the phone.
Speaker 1: I said bye. Then I hung up the phone. So
Speaker 1: I go into a room, shut the door, looking at
Speaker 1: a whiteboard. Four hours go by, whiteboard's still empty. I
Speaker 1: had another epiphany. It takes me a minute. I don't
Speaker 1: know how to write a sermon. I mean I had
Speaker 1: done a few teachings, I had watched other people. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's one thing to watch Pastor Stephen preach, it's another
Speaker 1: thing to preach. It's one thing to read a book,
Speaker 1: it's another thing to write it. It's one thing to
Speaker 1: watch a movie, it's another thing to direct it. But
Speaker 1: then my condition kicked in and I thought, Okay, I
Speaker 1: got a couple of options. Either I can tell Wade
Speaker 1: that I don't know how to preach or write a sermon.
Speaker 1: But obviously he sees something in me. They see something
Speaker 1: they believe in me. Maybe it's in there. I just
Speaker 1: need to figure it out on my own, because if
Speaker 1: I tell him, I might lose the opportunity. So for
Speaker 1: the next four weeks, I locked myself in that room.
Speaker 1: I was gonna do anything and everything I could to
Speaker 1: figure out how to write a sermon. I was going
Speaker 1: through every translation of the Bible, memorizing scripture right and left.
Speaker 1: I was putting annoying to go all over my head.
Speaker 1: I was speaking in tongues. I was just anything I
Speaker 1: could do. I was studying other communicators. I was watching sermons.
Speaker 1: I was gonna either walk out of that room with
Speaker 1: a sermon in hand, Skyler, or I was gonna be
Speaker 1: carried out on a stretcher. Nothing was gonna stop me
Speaker 1: from figuring out how to write this sermon. Then I
Speaker 1: went on a four night binge, staying up till four
Speaker 1: o'clock in the morning, drinking all kinds of caffeine. By
Speaker 1: the end of it, I'm on my knees just like
Speaker 1: I am, so exhausted. How does he do this every
Speaker 1: single week? But isn't that what we do? We try
Speaker 1: with everything that we have in our own strength and
Speaker 1: our own power to figure it out, to the point
Speaker 1: where we fall on our knees in exhaustion, realizing that
Speaker 1: maybe maybe there's a better way. And in this passage,
Speaker 1: the man he was trying for thirty eight years he
Speaker 1: had this condition, But finally Jesus shows up on the scene,
Speaker 1: and Jesus, when he finds the man, ask an interesting question. Now,
Speaker 1: when Jesus asked a question, we should pay attention because
Speaker 1: Jesus knows all things. I don't think he's asking a
Speaker 1: question because he needs information. But maybe he's asking a
Speaker 1: question because he wants to produce something in the man.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's asking a question to help the man discover
Speaker 1: a thing beneath the thing. And so let me go
Speaker 1: to verse six, when Jesus sees the man lying on
Speaker 1: the mat, and he asked this question. He said, he
Speaker 1: saw him lying there, he learned that he had been
Speaker 1: in this condition for a long time, so he asked him,
Speaker 1: do you want to get well? Do you want change?
Speaker 1: Do you really want to get well? And he's asking
Speaker 1: some of you the same question today. Do you want
Speaker 1: to get well? Keep trying in your own effort to
Speaker 1: do this thing? Do you really want change? See, Jesus
Speaker 1: knew that the man had just at this point accepted
Speaker 1: that maybe maybe this is all there will ever be
Speaker 1: to life. Maybe I should just stop here because nothing
Speaker 1: will ever change. Let's talk about the comfort of acceptance.
Speaker 1: The comfort of acceptance. Not only was Jesus's question to
Speaker 1: the man interesting, but the man's response back to Jesus
Speaker 1: was interesting. The man could have easily replied, and I
Speaker 1: would hope that maybe and think that we would all
Speaker 1: reply in this way. Uh yeah, bro, I want change.
Speaker 1: What do you think I'm doing hanging out by the pool.
Speaker 1: Of course, I want change. If I can get from
Speaker 1: from here to there, I'm gonna get the comfort that
Speaker 1: I need. I've been living with this thing for thirty
Speaker 1: eight years. Why do you think I'm hanging out by
Speaker 1: the ball. He's like educating Jesus on what's going down,
Speaker 1: because in verse seven his response, he said, sir, I mean,
Speaker 1: at least he was respectful, he had manners. The invalid replied,
Speaker 1: I have no one to help me, and everyone always
Speaker 1: gets ahead. I've tried everything. Maybe this is all that
Speaker 1: life will ever be. Maybe I should just accept that
Speaker 1: my marriage will always be this way. Maybe I should
Speaker 1: just accept that I'll always live paycheck to paycheck. Here's
Speaker 1: when you've heard before, Well, when you when you get
Speaker 1: my age, then you'll under stand, or you just you
Speaker 1: don't know what I've been through. You don't understand. If
Speaker 1: you knew what happened to me, then you would understand it.
Speaker 1: That maybe this is just the way it's always going
Speaker 1: to be. Maybe I'll never change. Maybe I should just
Speaker 1: stop right now and accept the fact that nothing is
Speaker 1: going to change. Because it's easier to live in the
Speaker 1: comfort of dysfunction than to embrace the uncertainty of change.
Speaker 1: The dude is still hanging out by the pool with
Speaker 1: all of these people in their various conditions. Sometimes we
Speaker 1: get to the point where we just accept that, you know,
Speaker 1: maybe this is the way it is. So I'm just
Speaker 1: going to surround myself with other dysfunctional people and I
Speaker 1: don't feel a bad about it. I mean, they're all
Speaker 1: going to do the same thing. And so maybe I
Speaker 1: don't even have to embrace this process of change now.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't have to tell anyone that deep down
Speaker 1: inside that I need something that I need to get well.
Speaker 1: And I wonder how many of you were still crippled
Speaker 1: by the condition in your life and you've just accepted
Speaker 1: you're coming to church. I've tried. I've tried the whole
Speaker 1: God thing. I've tried the whole church thing. I worked
Speaker 1: for him, but I don't know if it can work
Speaker 1: for me. If you know what I did. You remember
Speaker 1: the sermon I told you about from a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago. So I was getting ready to preach it
Speaker 1: in front of some of our pastors and leaders and
Speaker 1: some of our staff five days before I was going
Speaker 1: to preach it to the entire church. So I think
Speaker 1: we were at our Blakeney campus at that time, and
Speaker 1: I was freaking out on the inside, which maybe nobody knew.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Philip, I don't know if you saw
Speaker 1: it in me, but I was freaking out, but I
Speaker 1: pretty pretty good game face on. And so right before
Speaker 1: I go up, I'm standing down on the ground and
Speaker 1: we've got worship going, and I'm about to go up
Speaker 1: right out of worship, and I'm about to preach, and
Speaker 1: people like Phillip's like, man, you gotta kill this thing. Man,
Speaker 1: you got I'm like yeah, thanks, Philing, and it's like, hey,
Speaker 1: I got this. I'm like, yeah, dude, come man, God's
Speaker 1: gonna do something awesome. So I get ready to go preach.
Speaker 1: I run up and I just start talking. Man. I
Speaker 1: just I start going after and I just start saying things.
Speaker 1: And I had a thirty minute clock, which means I
Speaker 1: can't go over thirty minutes, and I can't go under
Speaker 1: thirty minutes. I need to fill the entire thirty minute clock.
Speaker 1: Twelve minutes in, I ran out of things to say.
Speaker 1: I blacked out. I choked, and even the twelve minutes
Speaker 1: that I did speak, I don't even know what came
Speaker 1: out of my mouth. It was bad, y'all. It's embarrassing
Speaker 1: even to think about. It's embarrassing to look back at.
Speaker 1: It didn't make any sense whatsoever. I bombed it. I
Speaker 1: destroyed it. I knew without a shadow of a dow
Speaker 1: that that was just messy. So as quickly as possible,
Speaker 1: I'll say thanks for coming, I'm gonna head out. And
Speaker 1: I left and I went home, and I'm thrown up
Speaker 1: a little bit and relas like, oh God, like what
Speaker 1: just happened? And I got another call from Wade, and
Speaker 1: I knew before I even picked up the phone, I
Speaker 1: ruined this opportunity. It was done before I even picked
Speaker 1: it up. So I pick up the phone. I don't
Speaker 1: have a flip phone, but this is my version of
Speaker 1: a phone. Say hey, Wade, sure enough, I lost the opportunity.
Speaker 1: Now maybe you're thinking like, oh, lo's the opportunity to preach,
Speaker 1: big deal. You don't know what I'm going through. Imagine
Speaker 1: you work your entire life for a promotion and your
Speaker 1: family is throwing you a surprise party because this is
Speaker 1: the day that you're gonna get the promotion. You come home,
Speaker 1: open the door surprise, I didn't get the promotion. Kind
Speaker 1: of embarrassing. Or you got the job off. You call
Speaker 1: all your family members, all your friends, you tell everyone,
Speaker 1: and the next day you get a call they did
Speaker 1: a background check. The job offer was revoked. For me,
Speaker 1: this was embarrassing that condition. It hurt, so first thing
Speaker 1: I do take the phone, slam it into my passenger seat,
Speaker 1: trying to break it because that's gonna help. And I
Speaker 1: only cry. I only cry like once a decade, but
Speaker 1: this day I ugly cried. I'm talking like the kind
Speaker 1: that has like the snot and and I'm talking like hyperventilating,
Speaker 1: just and it was bad, y'all. And then just long
Speaker 1: enough for me to and I don't eat fast food,
Speaker 1: but just long enough for me to wipe the blurry
Speaker 1: like tears through my blurry vision. Across the street, I
Speaker 1: see an RB's. I with that accurate over to Rby's.
Speaker 1: So quick I got an extra large roast beef sandwich,
Speaker 1: curly fries, and sweet sea as I'm yamming that down
Speaker 1: while I'm driving to Starbucks to get four cake pops
Speaker 1: and a Vincy iced coffee. Then I went home and
Speaker 1: ordered a Papa John's pizza and sat down on the
Speaker 1: couch and watch full House, not fuller House, Full House,
Speaker 1: and I gammed every slice of that pizza as tears
Speaker 1: are trickling down my face onto each pepperoni, and I
Speaker 1: had this overwhelming sense of maybe I'll never be good enough.
Speaker 1: I'll never be a good communicator, I'll never be a
Speaker 1: good leader, definitely won't get the opportunity to preach again.
Speaker 1: I tried, I tried, Maybe I should just accept this
Speaker 1: is the way it is. So I crawled up in
Speaker 1: fetal position with my body pillow and cried myself to
Speaker 1: sleep the night. The next day, I get a call
Speaker 1: from Pastor Steven. He said, Hey, you doing, How are
Speaker 1: you processing things? I said, I'm embarrassed. I feel like
Speaker 1: I'll let God down. I feel like I'll let you down.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'll let a lot of people down.
Speaker 1: And I was paralyzed. And what he did and what
Speaker 1: he said next spoke to me and will be something
Speaker 1: that I remember for the rest of my life. First,
Speaker 1: he spent the next thirty minutes at a son's baseball
Speaker 1: game there was a break in the game, walking me
Speaker 1: through step by step how to clearly articulate what God
Speaker 1: was speaking into my life. And even over the past year,
Speaker 1: he's been spending time with our campus pastors and some
Speaker 1: leaders on how to structure everything together and clearly hear
Speaker 1: from God and speak what God's put in our life.
Speaker 1: And he invested so much into me and that meant
Speaker 1: the world to me. But then he said, Dustin, you've
Speaker 1: got the gift, you've got the anointing. I believe in you.
Speaker 1: I love you, and at some point you're going to
Speaker 1: get another chance. In my greatest moment of embarrassment for
Speaker 1: my leader to step in and say, I believe in you.
Speaker 1: You're going to get another chance. This man was lying
Speaker 1: on the map with this condition for thirty eight years,
Speaker 1: to the point of giving up, and somebody today is
Speaker 1: on the brink of giving up. But Jesus shows up
Speaker 1: on the scene. Jesus realizes that the man would never
Speaker 1: make it to the pool, and the man is lying
Speaker 1: at the pool of Bethesda. Bethesda means house of Grace.
Speaker 1: The pool is surrounded by five beautiful columns. The number
Speaker 1: five in the Bible represents grace. The man was lying
Speaker 1: in the present of grace all along, but he had
Speaker 1: never received grace, and with Jesus understanding that he would
Speaker 1: never make it to the pool, Jesus instead came to him.
Speaker 1: Grace was never in the pool. Grace was in the person.
Speaker 1: He couldn't work hard enough in his own power to
Speaker 1: make it to grace. That's why grace came to him.
Speaker 1: And some of you think you're so far from the
Speaker 1: grace of God, that God couldn't love someone like you,
Speaker 1: that thing that you did, that thing that you don't
Speaker 1: even want to talk to anyone about, that thing that
Speaker 1: you've buried deep into you think that you're so far
Speaker 1: from the grace of God. But I'm here to tell
Speaker 1: you today that the grace of God has come to you.
Speaker 1: The grace of God is greater than your struggle. The
Speaker 1: grace of God will meet you exactly where you are
Speaker 1: because your heavenly Father loves you more than you could
Speaker 1: ever imagine, and nothing will ever change that. How long
Speaker 1: will you try to change your condition before you let
Speaker 1: the grace of God change the condition of your heart?
Speaker 1: How long will you continue to try in your own effort,
Speaker 1: with everything that you have to earn the love of God,
Speaker 1: But you can't earn the love of God. God loves
Speaker 1: you and has sent his grace into your life. Because
Speaker 1: He is standing with you every step of the way.
Speaker 1: You cannot out run his grace. In verse eight, Jesus
Speaker 1: looked at the man and he said, I don't care
Speaker 1: what you've done. I don't care what she'll do. But
Speaker 1: sir I need you right now to get up and walk.
Speaker 1: And in verse nine, the man immediately jumped to his
Speaker 1: feet after thirty eight years of carrying this condition, and
Speaker 1: he walked. It was God's grace that got him up.
Speaker 1: And the grace of God today is here to get you.
Speaker 1: You can't outrun it, you can't hide from it. His
Speaker 1: grace is sufficient for all your needs. His grace is
Speaker 1: greater than your pain. His grace is bigger than your depression.
Speaker 1: His grace is sufficient for your addiction. His brace is
Speaker 1: greater than your frustration. His grace is greater than your bitterness.
Speaker 1: His grace is bigger than your struggle. His grace is
Speaker 1: bigger than anything than your face in your life. If
Speaker 1: you'll just open your heart, open your mind to receive
Speaker 1: the grace of God. What the man couldn't do in
Speaker 1: his own effort, Jesus did. Jesus knew that you couldn't
Speaker 1: figure it out. He knew that you couldn't do it
Speaker 1: on your own. That's why he came to this earth
Speaker 1: to give you his grace, because He loves you so much.
Speaker 1: And some of you are hiding, thinking to yourself that
Speaker 1: the grace of God can it really help me. I've
Speaker 1: tried everything. Have you tried Jesus, have you tried grace?
Speaker 1: Have you tried this undeserving, wonderful, beautiful grace that you've
Speaker 1: heard about so many different times from so many Yeah
Speaker 1: it works for that person, but I don't know if
Speaker 1: it works for me. And the man finally came to
Speaker 1: the end of himself and the end of yourself is
Speaker 1: the beginning of grace. And maybe today you're exhausted. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to be the best parent I could be. I've
Speaker 1: tried so hard, but you've come to the end of yourself.
Speaker 1: And maybe that's exactly where God wants you, because his
Speaker 1: grace will meet you in that place, and that's where
Speaker 1: his grace begins. And for many of you, you've never
Speaker 1: accepted the grace of God into your life at all.
Speaker 1: But I'm here to tell you it's available. It's a gift.
Speaker 1: But just like any gift, you have to receive it.
Speaker 1: If you come in with your arms crossed and your
Speaker 1: fists clenched, why, yeah, I'm trying. I come to church.
Speaker 1: But you can come to church for comfort and never
Speaker 1: leave changed. But if you will just open your heart
Speaker 1: and receive the grace of God, it can change everything.
Speaker 1: And so standing at all of our locations right now,
Speaker 1: we're going to say a prayer together for all of
Speaker 1: those who maybe need to accept the grace of God
Speaker 1: into your life for the first time, or maybe you
Speaker 1: need to come back to Christ today and accept His
Speaker 1: grace into your life. It is by grace that you
Speaker 1: have been saved through faith, not by your own works,
Speaker 1: not by anything that you can do. But it is
Speaker 1: by grace, through faith that you have been saved. And
Speaker 1: so bow your head and close your eyes right now,
Speaker 1: and I want you to repeat this after me. We're
Speaker 1: all going to say it out loud together. Say, Heavenly Father,
Speaker 1: I come to you a sinner in need of a savior.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus for dying for my sin. I believe
Speaker 1: God raised you from the dead. I accept your mercy,
Speaker 1: I embrace your grace, and I'm choosing today to follow
Speaker 1: you for the rest of my life. With headsta about
Speaker 1: and eyes still close. If you just said that prayer
Speaker 1: for the first time, or maybe you're coming back to
Speaker 1: Christ on the counter three at all of our locations,
Speaker 1: I want you to shoot your hand into the air
Speaker 1: so I can acknowledge and celebrate that decision with you.
Speaker 1: Do not be ashamed, do not hesitate one, two three,
Speaker 1: Shoot them up. Up pays God for you, ma'am, shoot
Speaker 1: him up. Hallelujah, past good for you. I'll see you
Speaker 1: in the back pace. God for you. The grace of
Speaker 1: God is in this place. The grace of God is
Speaker 1: here for you. The grace of God is with you
Speaker 1: wherever you go. Let's give him pray, Let's give him honored.
Speaker 1: Let's thank God for a beautiful break. Oh well, I
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed the podcast today. If you did, there
Speaker 1: are just a couple things I'd love for you to do.
Speaker 1: Number One, subscribe to our show. That way, the most
Speaker 1: recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for you,
Speaker 1: ready when you are. And secondly, if this ministry has
Speaker 1: impacted you and you'd like to help us continue to
Speaker 1: reach others, you can click the link in the description
Speaker 1: and you can give now and I'll see you next
Speaker 1: time on the Elevation Podcast