Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast and I wanted to
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you.
Speaker 1: Hope it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective
Speaker 1: to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the
Speaker 1: message now, John Chapter five, verse seven, Sir, the invalid reply,
Speaker 1: I have no one to help me into the pool.
Speaker 1: When the water is stirred. While I am trying to
Speaker 1: get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. You're
Speaker 1: gonna love this because you've been wanting to say this
Speaker 1: anyway on my title, and I'm gonna let you say
Speaker 1: it right now. And because I'm telling you to say it,
Speaker 1: you will have permission to say it. Look at the
Speaker 1: person next to you and tell them this, and tell
Speaker 1: them in a convincing way, say trust me, I'm trying.
Speaker 1: I'm trying. You may be seated. I promise I am.
Speaker 1: I really am trying. I know I don't always hit
Speaker 1: the mark, but I really am trying. Because for me,
Speaker 1: I have a rule, especially as a boss the people
Speaker 1: that work for me, is that I always try to
Speaker 1: make it a point never to punish somebody who's trying
Speaker 1: to be proactive. I feel like if somebody makes a
Speaker 1: mistake because they took it a little too far, that's
Speaker 1: a little Jesus. Jesus. Let Peter cut Malcus's ear off
Speaker 1: in the garden and put it back on like mister
Speaker 1: Potato had. But I think he liked Peter because Peter
Speaker 1: wouldn't just sit around. Peter was like, all right, I
Speaker 1: can do something about this. The spirit is willing, the
Speaker 1: flesh is weak, and I'm about to use my flesh
Speaker 1: to cut off. And that's a really interesting thing, isn't it. Now.
Speaker 1: The kids will call somebody a tryhard It is like
Speaker 1: a way of saying, you know, if it looks like
Speaker 1: you you try too hard on your outfit. And I
Speaker 1: get that, but I like people who will give it
Speaker 1: a level of effort, and even if they miss, they
Speaker 1: swing so big. I've always liked people like that. I
Speaker 1: thought I should tell you this. If I ever come
Speaker 1: up here to preach and I don't do good, which
Speaker 1: I'm sure happens, it won't be because I didn't try.
Speaker 1: So if you ever see me up here struggling in
Speaker 1: this pulpit and you're like, I don't really understand this one.
Speaker 1: I think I see what he was trying to do.
Speaker 1: Did you catch that? Number one is probably your fault
Speaker 1: because you didn't pray enough before you came to church.
Speaker 1: That's kiddy, But trust me, I'm trying, and I think
Speaker 1: sometimes it can be frustrating when you are giving your
Speaker 1: best effort, but what is required of you is beyond
Speaker 1: your ability. And I'm gonna try to ignore this fly
Speaker 1: buzzing around my head. But touch somebody and say, I'm trying,
Speaker 1: I'm really trying. I'm really You must have had to
Speaker 1: really trust Jesus to follow him when he walked the earth.
Speaker 1: People say, oh, I wish I could have followed Jesus
Speaker 1: and walked with him. You know. Now it's harder because
Speaker 1: God is not visible like that, and it would have
Speaker 1: been so cool. No, wouldn't It would have been so
Speaker 1: difficult to trust Jesus and he was always getting in
Speaker 1: so much trouble. He was always explaining his actions and
Speaker 1: his intentions after the fact, and what that required from
Speaker 1: his disciples was just this crazy amount of trust. I'm trying.
Speaker 1: I'm really trying. I mean, oh, colcha, whatever you do,
Speaker 1: just pray for me. Do them all do them all.
Speaker 1: Let's back up and see why he's feeling so feisty today.
Speaker 1: Sometime later, verse one John chapter five, Jesus went up
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem for a feast of the Jews. Now there's
Speaker 1: in Jerusalem, near the Sheepgate a pool which in Aramaic
Speaker 1: is called bethesda, means house of mercy, and it's surrounded
Speaker 1: by five covered colonnades or porches. Here a great number
Speaker 1: of disabled people used to lie, the blind, the lame,
Speaker 1: and the paralyzed. It's important to note before I go
Speaker 1: on that this is a specific dwelling place for people
Speaker 1: with physical infirmities. And the reason I point that out
Speaker 1: is because I'm going to make some spiritual parallels to
Speaker 1: the physical infirmities that are mentioned in this passage. But
Speaker 1: I don't want us to miss the historicity for the
Speaker 1: sake of application. I think that would be irresponsible Bible teaching.
Speaker 1: The people who were at this particular hospital, if we
Speaker 1: can even call it that, it was more like a
Speaker 1: public service. This pool was not a resort pool. Nobody
Speaker 1: is bringing you little umbrellas in your drink at this pool.
Speaker 1: This is a crowded pool and is pushing and shoving
Speaker 1: and word has it that if you can get in
Speaker 1: the pool when the angel stirs the water intermittently, you
Speaker 1: can get healed. And this puts certain people who have
Speaker 1: certain disabilities and an advantage over others. For instance, it
Speaker 1: said there were the blind, the lane, and the paralyzed,
Speaker 1: And so if you're a blind man by this pool,
Speaker 1: you can probably feel your way to the edge of
Speaker 1: the pool, so that when there's an opportunity to get
Speaker 1: in and be healed, you'll be the first one there.
Speaker 1: But if you're paralyzed, it puts you at a disadvantage
Speaker 1: because even if you get yourself to the edge of
Speaker 1: the pool, there's a chance that someone else can pull
Speaker 1: you back. You are powerless. And that's an interesting thing
Speaker 1: about life. I was out at the ballfield last baseball
Speaker 1: season and I saw this really good dad with a
Speaker 1: fanny pack. He didn't look happy, he didn't look like,
Speaker 1: you know, these are the days making memories. He didn't
Speaker 1: look sealfie ready. But you know, I liked about him.
Speaker 1: He was carting this wagon. He looked like he had
Speaker 1: some snacks first kids, and maybe he was on snack
Speaker 1: duty that day, and I just admired him because he
Speaker 1: was trying. I watched him pull that wagon up the hill.
Speaker 1: I thought about it, how he was trying. He was
Speaker 1: sweating all through his shirt. You could tell he came
Speaker 1: straight from work. It wasn't a baseball shirt. He must
Speaker 1: have had the wagon that he packed the night before
Speaker 1: because he didn't have time to change the shirt. But
Speaker 1: he just came out there. Shirt was untucked on one side,
Speaker 1: looked like he spilled a little something on the collar,
Speaker 1: and he was sweating through it. But he was trying.
Speaker 1: And I've always loved the scripture that says that Jesus
Speaker 1: looked at one man and he loved him. I thought
Speaker 1: about that a lot lately, how Jesus would show up
Speaker 1: to a place and look for somebody who was at
Speaker 1: a disadvantage. I kind of imagine him walking around the
Speaker 1: pull at Bethesda, and I'm sure his disciples were shocked
Speaker 1: that he would waste time with a bunch of people
Speaker 1: who they would call crippled. That's not a PC term,
Speaker 1: but that's how they would have put it. Sickness was
Speaker 1: connected to spiritual disorder in this time. Judaism in the
Speaker 1: first century made a strong connection between your spiritual condition
Speaker 1: and your physical condition. So like if you had money.
Speaker 1: That was a proof that you were living right. That's
Speaker 1: how they thought about it. We know that's not always
Speaker 1: the case. We know a lot of times some of
Speaker 1: the greatest people who are the most faithful to God,
Speaker 1: they might not live in a big house on earth,
Speaker 1: but we'll probably be cleaning their toilets in heaven for
Speaker 1: the treasure that they're storing up after this life. And
Speaker 1: yet there's this tendency to just judge things by the
Speaker 1: physical always for all of us. So I kind of
Speaker 1: picture him Jesus walking around and asking questions. One interesting
Speaker 1: thing that's in the text. Let me show you this
Speaker 1: real quick. It's too cool for me, just a reference.
Speaker 1: I want to make sure it's very vivid. Yeah, is
Speaker 1: that one who was there verse five had been an
Speaker 1: invalid for thirty eight years and when Jesus saw him
Speaker 1: lying there and learned. Now, what stood out to me
Speaker 1: about that text wasn't that Jesus saw him. What stood
Speaker 1: out to me about this text wasn't that the man
Speaker 1: had issues. We all have issues, and frankly, we all
Speaker 1: have areas of paralysis. And I'm going to talk about
Speaker 1: yours in seven minutes, So buckle in and get that judgmental,
Speaker 1: look off your face because I'm coming for you. On
Speaker 1: this particular occasion. What stood out to me is Jesus learned.
Speaker 1: I didn't think he could do that because he's the
Speaker 1: image of God, He's the wisdom of God. How can
Speaker 1: the wisdom of God learn information? I figured that he
Speaker 1: must have been walking around asking how about her? How
Speaker 1: long has she been here? Somebody said, well, she just
Speaker 1: got here last week. She said, nah, not her? How
Speaker 1: about him? How long has he been like that? The
Speaker 1: blind guy right there? Yeah, is recent, it's recent. It's
Speaker 1: been it's been two months, I think two months, two months,
Speaker 1: Jimmy two months, yeah, two months, two months in three days? Yeah,
Speaker 1: two months in three days? No, No, no, not him?
Speaker 1: How about that one? Three years? We'll see. Put him
Speaker 1: on standby because he's looking for somebody to heal. He's
Speaker 1: looking for somebody who can experience a miracle. He's looking
Speaker 1: for a platform to demonstrate his power. How about him?
Speaker 1: Five years? Eh? How about her? Seven? How about that guy?
Speaker 1: How long's he been like that? Nine years? Eh? Getting closer?
Speaker 1: How about him? And finally somebody figures out how it's like, Well,
Speaker 1: if you want somebody who's been here a while, I
Speaker 1: see what you're doing. Thirty eight years long enough that
Speaker 1: he has given up hope that anything can ever be different,
Speaker 1: And Jesus learned that there was one. I'm gonna try
Speaker 1: so hard not to cry when I say this to you.
Speaker 1: But verse five says one who was there had been
Speaker 1: an invalid for thirty eight years. What does it mean
Speaker 1: that Jesus, who only had three years to do ministry
Speaker 1: and was on his way to a feast, would come
Speaker 1: by for one? Does it mean? Could it mean that
Speaker 1: out of everybody that I'm preaching to today, out of
Speaker 1: everybody that made a decision to show up at a campus,
Speaker 1: that God might want the one in the back who
Speaker 1: got here twelve minutes late, pulling a wagon, just trying
Speaker 1: to get through the week. Could it be that God
Speaker 1: is looking for the one who had the worst week,
Speaker 1: the worst upbringing you, the one that other people said
Speaker 1: could never be anything, the one who has gotten so
Speaker 1: used to how it is, this is really what happens
Speaker 1: in life. You get so used to how it is
Speaker 1: that you cannot recognize that how it used to be
Speaker 1: is no longer what's in front of you. All right,
Speaker 1: So let's work on this a little bit bring in here,
Speaker 1: Jesus says, Now, when you get to heaven, you'll probably
Speaker 1: be shocked who's there and who's not. How many agreed,
Speaker 1: there's going to be some people in heaven that are
Speaker 1: going to shock us, like WHOA she made it? That
Speaker 1: must have been like a thief on the cross deathbed
Speaker 1: kind of she got in right under the wire. WHOA
Speaker 1: they made it. I thought they believed weird stuff. They
Speaker 1: were new age, and they made it. I think we're
Speaker 1: going to be surprised who's there and who's not, because
Speaker 1: I think we're always surprised who God picks and who
Speaker 1: he uses and who he doesn't. One was there who
Speaker 1: had been lying there for so long that you can
Speaker 1: even tell in his response and the questions Jesus asked
Speaker 1: him that he had he had gotten tired of trying.
Speaker 1: My message today is for anybody who's tired of trying
Speaker 1: in an area of your life. Tired of try trying
Speaker 1: to repair a significant relationship, tired of trying to be
Speaker 1: open so that you can experience relationships, Tired of trying
Speaker 1: to overcome the thing that you keep going back to,
Speaker 1: and it's been since you were even in your teens.
Speaker 1: And now you're a grown man. I edited it for YouTube,
Speaker 1: and now I'm tired of trying because there was a
Speaker 1: time where I tried to get people to help me
Speaker 1: to get into the pool, but now I found out
Speaker 1: that there's no one to help me. Now, what's mind
Speaker 1: blowing about the situation at the pool at Bethesda is
Speaker 1: how many different ways I have heard this preach that
Speaker 1: completely contradict the heart of God. For instance, when Jesus
Speaker 1: comes up to the man and learn that he had
Speaker 1: been lying there and he had been in this condition
Speaker 1: for a long time. Pause, how many of y'all have
Speaker 1: been in a certain condition for a long time. Jesus,
Speaker 1: I need help. There's three honest people in the church.
Speaker 1: And I forgot I was coming out to speak to
Speaker 1: the perfect saints, the ten out of ten a plus saints.
Speaker 1: I forgot I was talking to the all stars today.
Speaker 1: I thought I was coming to elevation where they're not
Speaker 1: afraid to be real in your name, Amen, how many
Speaker 1: of y'all have had certain patterns of thinking that have
Speaker 1: been negative for a long time. I mean a long time.
Speaker 1: I don't know how old the man was, but thirty
Speaker 1: eight years. Trust me, I'm thirty nine is a long time.
Speaker 1: This is the entire span of my natural life. And
Speaker 1: for so long he's been unable to move that now
Speaker 1: he cannot recognize the help that is standing right in
Speaker 1: front of him. And Jesus asks a question that I
Speaker 1: have often heard misinterpreted when he says, do you want
Speaker 1: to get well? Tone is everything. That's why you can't
Speaker 1: text every conversation because tone is everything. Sometimes you need
Speaker 1: to pick up the phone and call people because completely
Speaker 1: depending on the tone is how you see the heart
Speaker 1: of Jesus. I always read it for a long time.
Speaker 1: Like Jesus said, do you want to get well? I
Speaker 1: almost see him now like he's got something in his
Speaker 1: back pocket and he's sneaking around the pool looking for somebody.
Speaker 1: They say God helps those who help themselves, but I
Speaker 1: almost see Jesus looking for somebody who can't. And he's like,
Speaker 1: I see you caught in the situation. You want to
Speaker 1: get well? And the man has every reason to be suspicious.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine how many people have taken advantage of
Speaker 1: him in almost forty years of suffering. How many hustlers
Speaker 1: have come through the pool at Bethesta trying to sell
Speaker 1: a magic potion or some bubbling water. Hey, I got
Speaker 1: some cream men, put it on your legs. I promise
Speaker 1: it's blessed. Hey, man, I promise you. I'll bring you
Speaker 1: to the pool. I'll push you in when the water
Speaker 1: starts bubbling. Just give me half now and half after
Speaker 1: the move. I promise you I can carry you in.
Speaker 1: I got you. How many times did somebody make him
Speaker 1: a promise? Because it seems cruel to Christ the expression
Speaker 1: of the love of God would stand over a man
Speaker 1: who couldn't move and ask him such a ridiculous question.
Speaker 1: Do you want to lose weight? But yeah? Do you
Speaker 1: want to be happy? Well yeah? Do you want to
Speaker 1: be able to live at peace without anxiety? Well? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what you're selling? I heard this spiel before I tried
Speaker 1: that diet. How many y'all tried that diet before I
Speaker 1: put a meditation app on my phone? Y'all, To be
Speaker 1: honest with you, I got four meditation apps on my phone.
Speaker 1: I tried all of them. I either fall asleep or
Speaker 1: my leg starts doing like that. I can't do it.
Speaker 1: Everybody tells me to meditate. The Bible says meditate, Russell
Speaker 1: Brand says meditate. Joe Rogan says, meditate. Everybody's telling me
Speaker 1: to meditate. I tried it. I really did try it.
Speaker 1: They also taught me about portion control. I tried portion control.
Speaker 1: How many all tried. Somebody told me one time, they said,
Speaker 1: here's how you stay at an ideal waight when you're
Speaker 1: full stop eating. My only problem I never found full.
Speaker 1: That gauge got broken somewhere in my childhood. I never
Speaker 1: felt full, so I kept eating. I tried that. Oh.
Speaker 1: They say, if you don't complain, you will feel more
Speaker 1: connected to God. I tried it, but I found out
Speaker 1: sometimes if you don't come, nothing changes. I tried so
Speaker 1: hard not to complain. At one time, I was gonna
Speaker 1: go seven days without complaining, and I thought, if I
Speaker 1: could do it, I could make a sermon out of it.
Speaker 1: I thought I could call it, you know, seven days
Speaker 1: a week of worship or something like that. I tried
Speaker 1: so hard not to complain for seven days. What happened
Speaker 1: was and this is so embarrassing to admit to you.
Speaker 1: The more I tried not to complain externally, because sometimes
Speaker 1: you can fix the symptom. Now I'm in the text,
Speaker 1: you can fix the symptom and stop trying to complain.
Speaker 1: But the root of it what happened to me was
Speaker 1: I went five good days without complaining, but on day
Speaker 1: six the walls of Jericho came tumbling down. A day early,
Speaker 1: everything in my path was, Oh, it was a tornado,
Speaker 1: it was a downpour. Because when you fix it's a symptom,
Speaker 1: but don't address the system that created the symptom, the
Speaker 1: end is worse than the beginning. You want to get well, well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm trying. When you get to heaven, you'd be surprised
Speaker 1: who's there and who's not. But one thing you write
Speaker 1: might really be shocked about this dude, whoever he is
Speaker 1: in John five, is going to have a long line
Speaker 1: of preachers waiting to apologize to him for how we
Speaker 1: misinterpreted his story in John chapter five. Oh, I've heard everything.
Speaker 1: I've heard. It said that in thirty eight years the
Speaker 1: man should have been able to crawl or roll his
Speaker 1: way to the edge of the pool. Yeah, like that
Speaker 1: will work, because now somebody stronger than you is just
Speaker 1: going to pull you back at the moment you're still
Speaker 1: powerless to fall in at the right time. And besides,
Speaker 1: when has Jesus ever taunted someone into transformation? You really
Speaker 1: think that's the spirit of the Savior. Some of us
Speaker 1: do we really picture God like standing over us in
Speaker 1: our minds, our concept of God like. You don't want
Speaker 1: it bad enough. If you would have done it different
Speaker 1: when they were eight, they wouldn't have been in so
Speaker 1: much trouble when they were eighteen. See, you screwed them up.
Speaker 1: That's what God sounds like to a lot of us.
Speaker 1: So it's no surprise that when we hear Jesus say
Speaker 1: do you want to get well? He says it with
Speaker 1: a snarl. You know, do you even want to get well?
Speaker 1: Do you even lift? Are you even serious? I mean,
Speaker 1: prove it if you do, if you want to get well,
Speaker 1: say I want to get well? So why did he
Speaker 1: Why did he ask the man do you want to
Speaker 1: get well? Before he helped him get up and walk?
Speaker 1: And as I prayed through that this week, I realize
Speaker 1: that before Jesus could help him walk, he had to
Speaker 1: help him want. I don't know who this is for,
Speaker 1: but God is dealing with your desires in this season
Speaker 1: of your life. You have been disappointed over and over
Speaker 1: and over again, and every time you try, nobody notices,
Speaker 1: and every time you try, you come up short, sickness
Speaker 1: is cyclical. It comes around, it goes around, you're well
Speaker 1: for a little while, and then it's the same thing
Speaker 1: all over again. But this time it's only worse because
Speaker 1: now not only are you back where you started, but
Speaker 1: you have less hope that it is ever going to
Speaker 1: be different, because you've cycled through it one more time
Speaker 1: just to realize. Well, I guess I'm just a cynical person. Well,
Speaker 1: I guess I'm just a negative person. I guess nobody
Speaker 1: in my family was meant to go to college. I guess. See,
Speaker 1: when you hang around the colonnades with people who are sick,
Speaker 1: sickness becomes normal to you, and it starts to be
Speaker 1: easier for you to just accept the condition than to
Speaker 1: challenge it, because to challenge the condition means to risk disappointment.
Speaker 1: And some of us have tried, got blocked, tried, got blocked, tried,
Speaker 1: got blocked. And now people see you and they assume
Speaker 1: that you don't care. No I care. I cared, and
Speaker 1: I cared so much, but they didn't care back. And
Speaker 1: I tried so hard and I still got looked over.
Speaker 1: And don't you know, it's hard when your expectation has
Speaker 1: been damaged by disappointment. It's a slow damage. It's a
Speaker 1: slow tearing of the muscle fibers. It is a slow
Speaker 1: deterioration of your hope by disappointment. It is not one
Speaker 1: event that creates it. It's over and over. I tried,
Speaker 1: and I tried, and I smiled, and I stayed, and
Speaker 1: I cooked, and I parented and I disciplined and I
Speaker 1: showed up and I didn't care. And the man has
Speaker 1: finally gotten to a place, I believe where he is
Speaker 1: tired of trying. Are you? It's supposed to be the Sabbath,
Speaker 1: It's supposed to be a day of rest. Why did
Speaker 1: Jesus stop by the pool on the day of rest
Speaker 1: to perform a miracle? You're not supposed to work on
Speaker 1: the Sabbath. This may offend you, but it won't be
Speaker 1: the first time this offends you. Your metal detector has
Speaker 1: turned up to level ten anyway, and you need to
Speaker 1: just turn it down. Y'all. Notice, we live in a
Speaker 1: gotcha culture, outrage culture. Just nobody can say anything. You
Speaker 1: can't say anything anymore, And the more the people try
Speaker 1: to help us, the more we crucify him if they
Speaker 1: say the wrong thing. Have you noticed that. This is
Speaker 1: how they treat Jesus. He heals the man on the Sabbath,
Speaker 1: and all that anyone can talk about is that he
Speaker 1: did it on the wrong day. So this is what
Speaker 1: I don't want to say. It was gonna offend you.
Speaker 1: You thought that was what was gonna offend you. No, no,
Speaker 1: no, no no, no no. Jesus walks up on the Sabbath
Speaker 1: and when he tells the man in verse eight, get up,
Speaker 1: pick up your mat, and walk, he is trying to
Speaker 1: get the man to break sabbath. So Jesus walks up
Speaker 1: to the pool, looks around and asks the man, what's
Speaker 1: going on in your heart right now? Because before I
Speaker 1: can help you walk, I have to heal your will.
Speaker 1: So here's what Jesus does that we don't like. He
Speaker 1: calls BS, he calls watch this, He calls BS, and
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're thinking about right now, but
Speaker 1: I'm talking about broken system. See. Now, there's one thing
Speaker 1: in the verse. There's one thing in the verse that
Speaker 1: doesn't make sense unless you understand the historical context. When
Speaker 1: the man says, I keep trying, I keep trying to
Speaker 1: get down there, but I can never be first. I'm
Speaker 1: not fast enough. In fact, I can't move at all.
Speaker 1: I keep trying, but every time I try, something blocks me.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says, that's because the system is broken. If
Speaker 1: you'll notice, give me a verse four of the scripture.
Speaker 1: I forgot to read it. John five four Jared. It's
Speaker 1: been a long week, you know, staff events. Jared. Where's Jared?
Speaker 1: Can you get him? Yeah? I need him. Verse four
Speaker 1: unlocks the whole thing. We can wait. This man waited
Speaker 1: thirty eight years. We can wait three minutes. Uh, the manuscript,
Speaker 1: you don't have it. It's not in the manuscript. It's
Speaker 1: not available. Oh. They they added that verse later. H
Speaker 1: it's not even in the original manuscript. They added a
Speaker 1: scripture later, they added a verse to explain the situation.
Speaker 1: It didn't make sense, so they had to add you
Speaker 1: can go back to your job now. They had but
Speaker 1: come here real quick, real quick, real quick, real quick.
Speaker 1: So a lot of times when a situation in my
Speaker 1: life doesn't make sense to me, I add averse. I
Speaker 1: add averse. You know how we do? It's like, okay,
Speaker 1: Rather than deal with it, I would rather explain it
Speaker 1: in a way that excuses me from having to deal
Speaker 1: with it. There's a reason. Verse four isn't in there
Speaker 1: because it's not in there. There's some stuff that you're
Speaker 1: putting in your story that doesn't belong there because God
Speaker 1: didn't speak it, and it's not true anymore. You go back,
Speaker 1: see what the man said reflects a broken system, and
Speaker 1: it reflects a bad story. That's another bs. The devil
Speaker 1: has got some of us telling ourselves some really bad
Speaker 1: story worries, and this man has been telling himself a
Speaker 1: story thirty eight years. No one wants to help me.
Speaker 1: Everybody's out to get me every time I try. No
Speaker 1: one wants to help me. Everybody's out to get me
Speaker 1: every time I try. So here comes Jesus. He doesn't
Speaker 1: know Jesus. He's never met Jesus. Jesus is new to
Speaker 1: the scene. Jesus hasn't even done the Captain D's miracle yet,
Speaker 1: that's in John chapter six. He hasn't even gotten familiar
Speaker 1: with this guy yet. He hasn't even had an opportunity
Speaker 1: to unpack the whole historicity of his situation. So he's
Speaker 1: standing in front of Jesus and he's rightfully skeptical because
Speaker 1: he's in a broken system where the religious leaders are
Speaker 1: trying to let the first ones in and keep the
Speaker 1: rest back. And unless you keep the law this good,
Speaker 1: you can't be healed. Of course, he's stuck. He's stuck
Speaker 1: in a broken system. So are some of us. He's
Speaker 1: stuck in a bad story, and so are some of us.
Speaker 1: We've inserted versus that aren't even there to explain why
Speaker 1: we are the way we are. We think is our
Speaker 1: job to suffer. You know, suffering for Christ and for
Speaker 1: the good of others is one thing, and sacrifice this.
Speaker 1: But to suffer the shame that He already took away
Speaker 1: from you is to snatch back what he nailed to
Speaker 1: the cross. It is not your job to suffer like that.
Speaker 1: That's a broken system. I'm telling you, men and women
Speaker 1: of the Most High God. Religion is a broken system.
Speaker 1: That's why Jesus went for one to show you this
Speaker 1: is a relationship. I want to deal with you one
Speaker 1: on one. I want to speak to you like a person,
Speaker 1: not like you're some kind of project, not like you're
Speaker 1: some kind of defect. I don't have anybody to help me.
Speaker 1: Trust me, I'm trying. I really try it. If you
Speaker 1: knew how hard I was trying, you wouldn't make fun
Speaker 1: of me like that and ask me do I want
Speaker 1: to get well? I don't have any help? And see
Speaker 1: that was true five minutes ago, but the situation has changed.
Speaker 1: What he said used to be true. It was true
Speaker 1: for a long time. And then Grace shows up at
Speaker 1: the pool at Bethesda. Five porches. Five is the number
Speaker 1: of Grace always symbolism. There's levels to this text. We
Speaker 1: could preach a series on this text. Now Grace is
Speaker 1: here in what used to be true isn't true anymore?
Speaker 1: Are you still stuck in something that used to be
Speaker 1: true but it isn't true anymore? I bet he would
Speaker 1: be tired thirty eight years of fighting off the vultures,
Speaker 1: in thirty eight years of looking out for yourself. And
Speaker 1: you kind of have to live that way until Grace
Speaker 1: becomes the dominant reality in your life. And then Jesus
Speaker 1: comes into your life and everything changes. But sometimes we
Speaker 1: keep living off of the old story, the bad story.
Speaker 1: No one will help me and Jesus like I'm someone. Now,
Speaker 1: the question is this, how did Jesus command the man
Speaker 1: to get up if the man couldn't walk in the
Speaker 1: first place. A careful reading of the text will reward
Speaker 1: us in this moment. One interpretation is that his healing
Speaker 1: was his reward for obedience. That's religion. It's a bad
Speaker 1: story because the fact of the matter is, if trying
Speaker 1: harder could have made me better, I'd be better by now.
Speaker 1: I tried that, diet, I tried that. I wasn't going
Speaker 1: to do this, and I wasn't going to do that,
Speaker 1: and I wasn't going to do the other. You've tried
Speaker 1: that already, and if it could work, it would have
Speaker 1: worked by now. So the man said, I'm trying, and
Speaker 1: Jesus said, trust me. Get up, take up your mat
Speaker 1: and walk. I'm trying, Jesus said, and trust me. I'm trying.
Speaker 1: Trust me. That's the real task is to trust. That's
Speaker 1: always been the real work. John Chapter five is in
Speaker 1: a text about being lazy. Come on, get up, make
Speaker 1: up your bed, get on the treadmill, go get them tiger,
Speaker 1: this is your day. This is not a pep talk.
Speaker 1: This is a complete reversal of the systems of this world.
Speaker 1: It is a contrast of works and grace. That's why
Speaker 1: it had to happen on the Sabbath. The moment that
Speaker 1: he picked up his mat, he was doing work, and
Speaker 1: the moment that he was doing work. It made everybody
Speaker 1: who was in power mad because he wasn't supposed to
Speaker 1: do work. The whole reason that Jesus showed up for
Speaker 1: one person was that he wanted to overturn an entire system.
Speaker 1: There is one situation in your life right now that
Speaker 1: God is trying to use and by a dress this situation,
Speaker 1: I promise you it's gonna change the whole system because
Speaker 1: up until this point, you've been trying trying. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to love God. I'm trying to bring war. I'm trying
Speaker 1: to read my Bible, I'm trying to eat my Broucoli.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to be a nice person. I'm trying to
Speaker 1: be kinder, I'm trying to do better. And God said,
Speaker 1: I see you trying. Will you trust me? Will you
Speaker 1: trust me enough to get up when you feel like
Speaker 1: you can't get up, to praise me when you don't
Speaker 1: feel like you want to praise me? Do you trust
Speaker 1: me enough? I know you've been trying, but do you
Speaker 1: trust me? This is a trust moment, This is a
Speaker 1: trust decision. Sometimes my trying gets in the way of
Speaker 1: my trusting. And this man got up because he had
Speaker 1: been healed, and you keep thinking that you will be
Speaker 1: healed if you can get up, but you can't, and
Speaker 1: you're trying, and you're trying. And here's what's so funny
Speaker 1: about the text to me. The man said, I'm trying,
Speaker 1: and Jesus said, so am, I I'm trying to help you.
Speaker 1: I knew you couldn't reach that water. I knew you
Speaker 1: grew up in a really, really hard environment and there
Speaker 1: was some abuse. And I know you're trying to be
Speaker 1: a better man than your dad was, or I know
Speaker 1: that you're trying to be a better mom than your
Speaker 1: mom was, or I know you're trying to figure things
Speaker 1: out when the complexities are greater than anything you've ever seen.
Speaker 1: I see you trying, and I'm trying. Since you can't
Speaker 1: get to the water. I brought water to you. And
Speaker 1: what it does when you get up and you do
Speaker 1: what you didn't think you could do, It shocks the system.
Speaker 1: God said, some of you who have been lying in
Speaker 1: your condition for thirty eight years. I brought you to
Speaker 1: church today, not so you could just sing a few
Speaker 1: songs or hear a few words, but I want to
Speaker 1: shock the system. I want to stir up the waters.
Speaker 1: I want to heal. Watch this your will. You've lost
Speaker 1: your will. You've lost your will to be sweet, You've
Speaker 1: lost your will to be forgiving, You've lost your will
Speaker 1: to be whole. You don't even want that anymore because
Speaker 1: you tried to want it. And it hurts to have hope,
Speaker 1: especially when you're disappointed, especially when something gets in your way,
Speaker 1: especially when you keep pumping up against your own brokenness,
Speaker 1: especially when it's rigged against you. And I want to
Speaker 1: help you walk first. I need to help you want
Speaker 1: to want the right things again, for the right reasons,
Speaker 1: to heal your desires by the pool of Bodesda, here
Speaker 1: comes walking living water. That's what he told the Samaritan
Speaker 1: in John four. He said, within you will be rivers
Speaker 1: of living water. So I know you can't get to
Speaker 1: the water. Let the water come to you. You will
Speaker 1: not receive certain things in your life from trying, but
Speaker 1: only by trusting. Then we were at a pool seven
Speaker 1: or eight years ago, and Elijah wanted to swim, and
Speaker 1: we went down there as a hotel pool, and it
Speaker 1: had that pool smell, but we went in anyway. We
Speaker 1: just he was, I guess at that point seven years old,
Speaker 1: so I had to get some energy out, so we
Speaker 1: got into the pool. As soon as we got in,
Speaker 1: the doors busted open. The hotel manager said, hey, sir,
Speaker 1: I advise you to get out of that pool. I said, why,
Speaker 1: it's like the middle of the day. I'm like, stupid
Speaker 1: hotel rules. You know, I'm not one to really like
Speaker 1: stupid rules. I'm like, it's the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: there's nobody here. I am a registered guest, and about
Speaker 1: the time I'm in the middle of my imaginary speech.
Speaker 1: I'm usually nice externally. It's just what happens on the
Speaker 1: inside that makes me go to hell. But I said,
Speaker 1: I said, about the time I was about to say
Speaker 1: what I was about to say, he said, we just
Speaker 1: shocked it. I said, well, next time, we'll give you
Speaker 1: notice before you come. I don't want to shock your pool.
Speaker 1: He said, no, he said, sometimes the water, you know,
Speaker 1: once a week or something, has to have a treatment.
Speaker 1: We call it shocking the pool because when the chlorine
Speaker 1: combines with the I really don't want to tell you
Speaker 1: all this that's in this pool. This is an hotel
Speaker 1: pools or bacteria, sweat other fluids, pool fluids, hotel pool fluids.
Speaker 1: So once a week we got to shock it. Once
Speaker 1: a week. I come to church because sometimes my heart
Speaker 1: gets mixed up with some substances, some contaminants, some disappointments.
Speaker 1: Sometimes this world pollutes me. So when I come to church,
Speaker 1: please understand, I'm coming to treat my disappointments because I
Speaker 1: need living water and I don't want to die by
Speaker 1: the pool. So I came to church. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if you came to church for this reason. I
Speaker 1: don't really know why you came. But tell somebody, shock
Speaker 1: the waters. Jesus said, I came down to the pool
Speaker 1: in Pithesta, not just to look around and go home
Speaker 1: and pray a nice prayer. But I came to this pool,
Speaker 1: this house of mercy, to shock the waters. And it
Speaker 1: just might be that God brought you here this week
Speaker 1: because you've been in a state of disappointment. But God said,
Speaker 1: I'm about to shock the waters. I'm about to stir
Speaker 1: it up. You don't have to wait for an angel,
Speaker 1: you don't have to wait for somebody to get out
Speaker 1: of your way. You don't have to wait for a
Speaker 1: situational improvement. And we beheld his glory, the fullness of
Speaker 1: the Father, full of grace and truth. Living water is
Speaker 1: in the house. Trust me, I'm trying to bless you.
Speaker 1: I hear the voice of the Lord. Trust me. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to help you raise those kids. Trust me, I'm trying.
Speaker 1: You say, well, well, God doesn't try to do anything.
Speaker 1: He either does or he doesn't. Then why did Jesus
Speaker 1: go to Nazareth? And it says he couldn't do many
Speaker 1: miracles there? He tried to, but they tripped. I believe
Speaker 1: there are many for whom this message is just another
Speaker 1: Bible message. I believe there are some and maybe even few,
Speaker 1: that this is a definitive word for your life. You
Speaker 1: have been like that man. You have been paralyzed in
Speaker 1: an area of your life for a long time, and
Speaker 1: you've been trying. But you've been bitter for eight years
Speaker 1: over what the business partner did, and you keep trying.
Speaker 1: This is not about trying. This is about trust. You've
Speaker 1: been going back and forth and back and forth and
Speaker 1: back and forth for so long, and today God is saying,
Speaker 1: let the water come to you. Father. We declare this
Speaker 1: our sabbath, where we rest from our labor and enter
Speaker 1: into your grace, with everyone standing and no one moving
Speaker 1: at every location. If this has been a season for
Speaker 1: you of frustration, a season of you going to the
Speaker 1: pool over and over, and you've been blocked so many
Speaker 1: times now that quite honestly, you don't need just God
Speaker 1: to heal your legs, or to heal your bank account,
Speaker 1: or to just heal that one compulsive area in your life.
Speaker 1: But you need Jesus to do what he did for
Speaker 1: that unnamed man in John chapter five and heal your
Speaker 1: will and help you to want him again. The place
Speaker 1: to start is not pretending the man was healed partially
Speaker 1: because he was honest. I keep trying every time I
Speaker 1: try something someone, but there's a greater someone. There is
Speaker 1: a greater power than anything that you are struggling with
Speaker 1: that's pulling against you. This takes faith to trust him,
Speaker 1: to really believe that he made you like he wants
Speaker 1: to make you as short as he wanted to make you.
Speaker 1: You grew up in as small or as big of
Speaker 1: a town as he wanted you to grow up in.
Speaker 1: It takes trust, and all your life God has been
Speaker 1: trying to position you. All your life. God has been
Speaker 1: bringing things into alignment so that you can serve His purpose.
Speaker 1: And now he saying, trust me if this has been
Speaker 1: your word today, and there is an area of paralysis
Speaker 1: in your life. I want you with your head bowed,
Speaker 1: your eyes closed, and not looking around. You know, this
Speaker 1: man could have spent the rest of his life thirty
Speaker 1: eight more years talking about somebody else, somebody else, everybody else,
Speaker 1: somebody else. And sometimes that's what keeps us from getting
Speaker 1: what we need from God. Is somebody else? What will
Speaker 1: somebody else think? But when you come to the point
Speaker 1: where you've been trying long enough and you really just
Speaker 1: want to surrender to the mystery and give God everything
Speaker 1: that you are and everything that you're not, you don't
Speaker 1: mind lifting up your hands. So if this is your word,
Speaker 1: just lift up your hands for living water in this
Speaker 1: moment and shock the waters. Shock the waters. Worship shocks
Speaker 1: the waters. Worship stirs up the complacent heart. Worship realigns
Speaker 1: your affections and reconfigures your desires so that what you
Speaker 1: want is what God wants for you. Shock the waters today.
Speaker 1: You've gotten stagnant, you've gotten complacent, You started blaming everybody
Speaker 1: and everything. And this is not a time to try harder.
Speaker 1: It's a time to trust more to you and to
Speaker 1: say yes, I'll get up if you help me. I'm trying.
Speaker 1: Trust me. I'm trying. I'm trying to trust God, but
Speaker 1: I can't see him. I'm trying to trust God, but
Speaker 1: sometimes he feels far away. Why won't he speak to me?
Speaker 1: Why won't he helped me? He says, I'm trying. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to show you my presence. I'm trying to put
Speaker 1: people around you. I'm trying to help you. I'm here.
Speaker 1: You just are used to it. You're used to doing
Speaker 1: it alone, so you keep doing it alone. You keep
Speaker 1: telling yourself this story. You keep living in this system.
Speaker 1: But trust me. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 1: can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 1: or visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information
Speaker 1: and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You
Speaker 1: can share it with your friends. You can click the
Speaker 1: share button, take a screenshot and share it on your
Speaker 1: social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again
Speaker 1: for listening. God bless you