Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our
Speaker 2: podcast and I wanted to thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.
Speaker 2: Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving.
Speaker 1: In your life. Enjoy the message. Let's work together today
Speaker 1: on this.
Speaker 2: In Mark chapter three, verse one, and the scripture I
Speaker 2: want to read kind of sets up a theme that
Speaker 2: I want to talk to you about for the next
Speaker 2: few weeks. So the Bible says another time Jesus went
Speaker 2: into the synagogue and a man with a shriveled hand
Speaker 2: was there. Some of them were looking for a reason
Speaker 2: to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see
Speaker 2: if he would heal on the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: And Jesus said.
Speaker 2: To the man with the shriveled hand, stand up in
Speaker 2: front of everyone, and then Jesus asked them which is
Speaker 2: lawful on the sabbath, to do good or to do evil,
Speaker 2: to save life.
Speaker 1: Or to kill? But they remained silent.
Speaker 2: So he looked around at them in and deeply distressed
Speaker 2: at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, stretch out
Speaker 2: your hand, and he stretched it out and his hand
Speaker 2: was completely restored. I want to speak to you today
Speaker 2: and possibly over the next few weeks on the subject
Speaker 2: of functional faith, functional faith, and so Lord, I pray
Speaker 2: that your word would do its work in our hearts
Speaker 2: and that we would respond in order in Jesus name.
Speaker 1: Amen, and I may be seated.
Speaker 2: On your way to your seat, Tell somebody we got some.
Speaker 1: Work to do. Mark's Gospel gives us five.
Speaker 2: Different accounts within two chapters of Jesus in confrontational situations.
Speaker 1: Typically we think of jesus.
Speaker 2: Ministry as being a ministry of comfort, but it was
Speaker 2: also a ministry of co confrontation. Comfort and confrontation are
Speaker 2: both functions of the spirit of God. The same spirit
Speaker 2: of God that will comfort you and your trials will
Speaker 2: also confront you in your dysfunction in order to change
Speaker 2: you and conform you to the image of Christ. And
Speaker 2: so the earthly ministry of Jesus was no different in
Speaker 2: that he was a reliable source of comfort for those
Speaker 2: who mourn and a source of confrontation for those who
Speaker 2: had become complacent. We see Jesus here in one of
Speaker 2: five situations with the religious ruling group of his day,
Speaker 2: and the central issue around these confrontations is jesus relationship
Speaker 2: with and approach to the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a
Speaker 2: gift that was given by God to people, but as
Speaker 2: people so often.
Speaker 1: Do, we pervert a good gift and use it for
Speaker 1: the wrong purpose.
Speaker 2: And the very thing that was meant to be creative
Speaker 2: and restorative in nature becomes destructive when it's abused, that is,
Speaker 2: to be used for a purpose different than what it
Speaker 2: was designed to accomplish. So, as we teach a little
Speaker 2: bit today on the subject of functional faith, and we
Speaker 2: look at this one particular story, we see here an
Speaker 2: image and an illustration of a system that is not working,
Speaker 2: a system that has become dysfunctional, a system that is
Speaker 2: no longer fulfilling its intended purpose. Jesus arrives and the
Speaker 2: temple system by which the people were approaching God has
Speaker 2: become dysfunctional or if you want to say, unfit, it
Speaker 2: was unfit for the purpose that it was designed to serve.
Speaker 2: How many of you, as summer approaches, are setting some
Speaker 2: goals to.
Speaker 1: Maybe get in shape for the summer.
Speaker 2: Maybe you're gonna get a little bit fit for the summer,
Speaker 2: gonna some crunches, No, some nasty crunches. How many of
Speaker 2: you bought a fit bit some Lululemon' you're gonna do
Speaker 2: it this summer, Well, go for it. I wish you
Speaker 2: all the best. I think fitness is something that is
Speaker 2: unique to each individual, because fitness is relative, right, you
Speaker 2: can go to certain places and feel very fit in
Speaker 2: comparison to other people, then go other places and feel
Speaker 2: like you've never exercised a.
Speaker 1: Day in your life.
Speaker 2: And me and Holly were on a cruise ship recently
Speaker 2: and I told her, I said, this place makes me
Speaker 2: feel better about my body image, you know, just like
Speaker 2: all the buffets.
Speaker 1: This is helpful.
Speaker 2: And me and Chunks come up here.
Speaker 1: Chunks, we went to Planet Fitness.
Speaker 2: A while back to we were on vacation and we
Speaker 2: joined this gym to get a workout for a week.
Speaker 1: And Chunks is, he's a fitness snob.
Speaker 2: He likes to make fun of people who don't know
Speaker 2: how to work out. He's very judgmental. It's a pharisee
Speaker 2: of sorts, a fitness pharisee he is. And he likes
Speaker 2: to walk around the gym and tell me how other
Speaker 2: people aren't doing the exercises right. So if you ever
Speaker 2: see him looking at you in a gym, he is
Speaker 2: not admiring your form, Okay, he's making fun of you.
Speaker 2: At Planet Fitness, that's a funny gym.
Speaker 1: I liked that place they had. Have you ever been
Speaker 1: to this place? They have the lunk Alarm on.
Speaker 2: The wall because they call it a judgment free zone.
Speaker 1: They say, we want you to be able.
Speaker 2: To come work out here without guys like this investigating
Speaker 2: your movements, and and so they have it's kind of funny.
Speaker 1: They have a lunk alarm on the on the wall.
Speaker 2: They call it a lunk somebody who walks in, you know,
Speaker 2: the guys that walk in with a gallon jug of
Speaker 2: water and the belt and the gloves. You know, guys
Speaker 2: like Chunks. They don't want those kind of guys in
Speaker 2: Planet Fitness. Also, by the way they offer. When we
Speaker 2: were joining, the girl told us she said, come back Monday.
Speaker 2: They have on Monday we serve pizza of Monday at
Speaker 2: the fitness club, which is are remarkable. I told Chunks
Speaker 2: we got to start giving out cocaine at the Sunday
Speaker 2: night service at.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: But Chunks is great. He's really helped me understand fitness.
Speaker 2: He used to be a physical therapist, and that's part
Speaker 2: of why so arrogant about the human body. And him
Speaker 2: and Buck. You should come to Buck. How many want
Speaker 2: Chunks and Buck on stage at the same time. These
Speaker 2: guys are These guys are both strong men, and they're
Speaker 2: both very stubborn. So sometimes I like to watch them argue,
Speaker 2: and I'll often start an argument. I'll just I'll just
Speaker 2: throw the two of them together in the cage and
Speaker 2: watch them go. I'll sometimes instigate arguments between them. But
Speaker 2: they're both very fit, but there are different philosophies to fitness,
Speaker 2: you know. So sometimes I'll be doing a workout with
Speaker 2: Chunks and they say, what did Buck have you do yesterday?
Speaker 2: And I'll tell him and he kind of roll his eyes. Oh,
Speaker 2: that sounds like Buck. Buck's fitness routine. He's more of
Speaker 2: a punisher. He has more punishment, a binge and pun
Speaker 2: mentality toward fitness, and Chunk says more beach muscles.
Speaker 1: God, do you know what I mean by beach muscles.
Speaker 1: He's gonna bench press.
Speaker 2: And he's gonna do his triceps and all that, all
Speaker 2: the stuff that you can see. Like a lot of
Speaker 2: Christians we want to have knowledge to show off when
Speaker 2: we pose.
Speaker 1: He's a great god.
Speaker 2: And so Buck, bring out those kettlebells. Have you guys
Speaker 2: seen some these kettlebells? Do any of you this kettlebelt?
Speaker 2: There's a trend in fitness. The term is trendy right now,
Speaker 2: called functional fitness. Notice how he gave chunks the smaller
Speaker 2: one just by instinct.
Speaker 1: Guy was judging you. They said that.
Speaker 2: One's fifty three pounds GTA twenty four kilograms, and that
Speaker 2: one's thirty five pounds or sixteen for the rest of
Speaker 2: the world that uses the metric system.
Speaker 1: So Buck says that functional fitness when you say you
Speaker 1: subscribe mostly to.
Speaker 2: Functional fitness, and functional fitness is two things, adaptability and application.
Speaker 2: So it's like, is this something that would help you
Speaker 2: in real life? You know, like, is this movement that
Speaker 2: you're doing in exercising something that's going to translate into
Speaker 2: real life because a lot of stuff you do exercising
Speaker 2: doesn't really resemble real life. And functional fitness it's a
Speaker 2: trendy term, but the essential definition of it in the
Speaker 2: spirit that is intended is like, show them a kettlebell swing, Buck,
Speaker 2: just a simple kettle bell swing. You can do a
Speaker 2: lot of different moves with this one piece of equipment.
Speaker 1: You can do a kettlebell swing.
Speaker 2: What else can you do with the kettlebelly creases?
Speaker 1: That shown the Turkish get up?
Speaker 2: Now, by the way, any exercise that starts with the
Speaker 2: name of an Eastern European country you should rebel against.
Speaker 2: This is a Turkish get up. A Turkish get up.
Speaker 2: He's gonna show you how many different things you can
Speaker 2: do with this one piece of Equipment's amazing. Well, come on, folks,
Speaker 2: us fifty three pounds. That man just lifted a weight
Speaker 2: joy over his head and stood up with one arm.
Speaker 2: Can you do that the same thing?
Speaker 1: Give a shot, just one time? Turkish get up? No
Speaker 1: Turkish get up?
Speaker 2: How many believe in chunks the lump? Come on, give
Speaker 2: him some love.
Speaker 3: And ye.
Speaker 1: Well done. Come on, let's give it up for both
Speaker 1: of them. Thank you, guys.
Speaker 2: I remember, I remember, I remember when Buck said, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you're good for now. I remember when Buck first told
Speaker 2: me just leave those right there. I remember when Buck
Speaker 2: first told me he said, I can give you a
Speaker 2: whole work out. He said, people think you need a
Speaker 2: whole gym. All this stands the equipment he said, I
Speaker 2: can make you hate your life with this one piece
Speaker 2: of equipment. You just got to know what to do
Speaker 2: with it. And see, sometimes we think we need all
Speaker 2: this fancy special knowledge to grow in our faith, and
Speaker 2: we think we need all of this equipment and all
Speaker 2: of this training and all of this background. But I
Speaker 2: got good news for you one Bible verse.
Speaker 1: If you apply it to your life, I.
Speaker 2: Said, if you put it to work, touts or neighbors
Speaker 2: say it's time to work, It's time to work the word.
Speaker 1: So we want to talk over the next few weeks.
Speaker 2: And this is just an introductory seminar unfunctional faith. Functional faith,
Speaker 2: the kind of faith that doesn't just give you knowledge
Speaker 2: in your head, but gives you strength in your heart.
Speaker 2: The kind of faith that resembles real life. That is
Speaker 2: the greatest compliment you can ever pay me as a preacher.
Speaker 2: By the way, if you ever want to make me
Speaker 2: feel good and we run into each other, tell me
Speaker 2: that something I said helped you in your life, that
Speaker 2: it made a difference.
Speaker 1: In your home.
Speaker 2: Business owners occasionally tell me, in an apologetic way, I
Speaker 2: rip your stuff off. I take what you preach, and
Speaker 2: I preach it to my employees. You don't ever have
Speaker 2: to apologize to me for that. That's what I preach
Speaker 2: it for, so you can use it. You don't even
Speaker 2: have to cite me. Well, the first time you rip
Speaker 2: me off, quote me, say my pastor says, and then
Speaker 2: the second time you do it, just say it's been said.
Speaker 2: And then the third time you do it, say I've
Speaker 2: always said. That's how you do it. Touch somebody say
Speaker 2: plagiar eyes. I love it if I can find out
Speaker 2: that the sermon I preached on Sunday made it into
Speaker 2: your Monday, I love that, or that it visited you
Speaker 2: on Tuesday, that it came back to you when you
Speaker 2: needed it on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: And that's what I preached for.
Speaker 2: And I was thinking, if we had a new mission
Speaker 2: statement for our church, I'd probably make it bringing faith
Speaker 2: to life, because I hear people tell me so often
Speaker 2: that faith was always a part of my life, but
Speaker 2: it wasn't central to my life. And now I'm learning
Speaker 2: how God's word actually applies to me. Adaptability and application.
Speaker 1: Functional faith.
Speaker 2: Jesus is instigating a functional faith in a dysfunctional religious system.
Speaker 2: Mark Chapter three is about much more than a man's
Speaker 2: hand being healed. It is about the heart of a
Speaker 2: sissystem that has become dysfunctional. It's about a it's about
Speaker 2: a people who have misappropriated faith. I've heard so many
Speaker 2: different definitions of faith. It's come to mean so much
Speaker 2: that maybe it's now almost meaningless because when we say faith,
Speaker 2: we use.
Speaker 1: It to mean everything. You know, blind faith.
Speaker 2: That's almost a way of saying, you're an idiot, just
Speaker 2: did it.
Speaker 1: With blind faith.
Speaker 2: We say that an organization is a faith based organization.
Speaker 1: We might say that someone came to faith. We might
Speaker 1: say someone.
Speaker 2: Lost their faith, or we encourage somebody to keep the faith.
Speaker 2: We might tell somebody to have faith, or we say
Speaker 2: that somebody had.
Speaker 1: Great faith or or little faith.
Speaker 2: We we even call someone a person of faith, as
Speaker 2: if it's an ethnicity.
Speaker 1: Are you are you black? White? Faith? Like? What are
Speaker 1: your Republican Democrat? Faith?
Speaker 2: But faith is meant to be more than a formality.
Speaker 2: Can I preach this faith? This meant to be more
Speaker 2: than a feeling faith, This meant to be more than
Speaker 2: a formula. In fact, if you can reduce it to
Speaker 2: a formula and make sense out of it, it ain't faith.
Speaker 2: If you can explain it, it ain't faith. You don't
Speaker 2: need faith for what you can explain. You need faith
Speaker 2: for what your eyes can't perceive. You need faith for
Speaker 2: what you don't understand. Richard Rore has a definition of faith.
Speaker 2: He says that faith is patience with mystery. Faith is
Speaker 2: the willingness to abide in a place that you don't
Speaker 2: fully understand. The ramifications of faith is patience with mystery.
Speaker 1: What is faith?
Speaker 2: Hebrews eleven one says that faith is the substance of
Speaker 2: things hoped for the evidence of things not seen. Faith
Speaker 2: the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things
Speaker 2: not seeing.
Speaker 1: Let's play a game. What's the opposite of good?
Speaker 2: What's the opposite of light? What's the opposite of faith?
Speaker 2: I heard doubt? I heard fear. I want to suggest
Speaker 2: a third option. What if faith is not.
Speaker 3: What?
Speaker 1: What if faith? You know?
Speaker 2: You tend to think sometimes that if you have doubts,
Speaker 2: you don't have faith, that the presence of doubt indicates
Speaker 2: the absence of faith. But one priest said, the opposite
Speaker 2: of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty.
Speaker 2: Let that sink can that the opposite of faith is
Speaker 2: when you've figured every thing out, when you put your
Speaker 2: life in such a position that you don't attempt anything
Speaker 2: that requires God. You don't stretch yourself into a territory
Speaker 2: that enables the faith that you need for the challenges
Speaker 2: that you face. So that means you can have a
Speaker 2: lot of doubts but still operate in faith. Because faith
Speaker 2: is not certainty, and faith is not a feeling. I
Speaker 2: don't have to feel faith to have faith. I don't
Speaker 2: have to feel a goosebump to believe God. I don't
Speaker 2: even have to feel happy to be grateful for what
Speaker 2: God is doing in my life. Somebody shout, I got faith.
Speaker 2: I got faith in the middle of a storm. My
Speaker 2: faith doesn't mean it's not gonna rain. My faith means
Speaker 2: I'm gonna make it to the other side through whatever
Speaker 2: waves I have to crossover. I got a faith that works.
Speaker 2: It works in the face of the wind and the waves.
Speaker 2: It works in the face of doubt and disappointment.
Speaker 1: My faith is a faith that were So what is faith?
Speaker 1: And maybe a better question is what is faith? For?
Speaker 2: Faith is the substance of things hoped for? What is
Speaker 2: faith for? In other words, what is the objective of faith?
Speaker 2: I'll put these in four subheadings so that you can
Speaker 2: take notes and remember this and review this. Faith has
Speaker 2: an objective. Faith always has an objective. If you're gonna
Speaker 2: get fit, the first thing a good trainer will ask
Speaker 2: you is what are your goals or what do you
Speaker 2: want to get fit for? Are you just getting fit
Speaker 2: for your honeymoon so you can look good for a week,
Speaker 2: or are you getting fit so that you can Is
Speaker 2: this a lifestyle thing?
Speaker 1: Faith is a lifestyle thing. The objective of faith.
Speaker 2: Now, in the passage that we read, there are three
Speaker 2: different groups or characters represented. You've got the Pharisees, the lunks.
Speaker 2: Bible says that they came to planet fitness that day
Speaker 2: to look at everybody else's form and to see what
Speaker 2: Jesus would do. I can't understand people who come to
Speaker 2: church just to find fault with the place that they
Speaker 2: invested their time in. Going to stay home for God's sake,
Speaker 2: wash your car, run a mile, I'm serious. The Pharisees
Speaker 2: that says that Jesus went into the synagogue, he went
Speaker 2: to heal, the man went with a withered hand, possibly
Speaker 2: to be heal, and the Pharisees went to watch says
Speaker 2: that some of.
Speaker 1: Them like how Mark doesn't actually call him out.
Speaker 2: He says, some of y'all, some of y'all were looking
Speaker 2: for a reason to accuse Jesus. Jesus was looking for
Speaker 2: an opportunity to heal. They were looking for an offense.
Speaker 2: What are you looking for when you come to church?
Speaker 2: I will never understand people who come on my Instagram
Speaker 2: feed just to tell me how much they hate me.
Speaker 1: Why are you on my feed?
Speaker 2: I'm serious, you know you're a false teacher. They'll come
Speaker 2: on there and say, I don't understand anything you say.
Speaker 1: It's algibbraius.
Speaker 2: I got a simple solution that's going to make all
Speaker 2: of our lives a little better from here on. Now
Speaker 2: get off my feed and you won't have to deal
Speaker 2: with my teaching.
Speaker 1: Nobody made you come on my Facebook tout.
Speaker 2: Your neighbors say, get off my feed. Pharisees are all
Speaker 2: up in Jesus' feed.
Speaker 1: I don't understand it.
Speaker 2: Why would you come if the only thing if the
Speaker 2: only thing you wanted to find was fault? But see,
Speaker 2: some people have a false objective for their faith.
Speaker 1: It is the objective of faith.
Speaker 2: That is exclusive rather than inclusional. It is when the
Speaker 2: church becomes or about judging how God should do it
Speaker 2: than being a part of what he's doing. It is
Speaker 2: a misappropriation of faith in the highest form. When a
Speaker 2: church isn't working. You can tell when a church isn't
Speaker 2: working because instead of reaching out, there's a man with
Speaker 2: a shriveled hand. He can't reach out. But he's in
Speaker 2: a synagogue full of people.
Speaker 1: Who won't reach out.
Speaker 2: And I don't know which one's worse, the ones who
Speaker 2: won't reach out or the one who can't.
Speaker 1: And Jesus walks in and says, this isn't working.
Speaker 2: He confronts the system by identifying the objective. What's your objective?
Speaker 2: What is your reason for wanting to have faith? Some
Speaker 2: of us only have faith for the things that directly
Speaker 2: benefit us.
Speaker 1: We only pray for our.
Speaker 2: Job, We only pray for our healing, We only pray
Speaker 2: for our kids, We only pray for our promotion.
Speaker 1: When's the last.
Speaker 2: Time that you came before God and asked him for
Speaker 2: something that would actually make your life less convenient if
Speaker 2: he did it, I'll never forget at cheesecake factory one
Speaker 2: night when God struck me with conviction, God will confront
Speaker 2: your dysfunction.
Speaker 1: I was complaining to Holly.
Speaker 2: That we were on a date and people kept coming.
Speaker 1: Up to the table. And this was years.
Speaker 2: Ago, because I have really improved my attitude since then,
Speaker 2: But at the time, I was immature in my faith,
Speaker 2: and the Lord spoke to my heart. If you've ever
Speaker 2: had God speak to you, it's not a voice out loud.
Speaker 2: It's louder than that. It's louder than that. And it
Speaker 2: was as if the Lord said to me, I can
Speaker 2: fix this. You don't like people coming up to you
Speaker 2: and telling you that they enjoy your church. I can
Speaker 2: empty your church so fast. You can eat a cheesecake
Speaker 2: factory naked if you want to, and nobody will come.
Speaker 1: Up to you.
Speaker 2: I'll make you so unknown and so irrelevant, so fast
Speaker 2: you can go in where you want.
Speaker 1: Nobody will bother you. I said, no, thank you, Lord.
Speaker 2: I think I'll eat my cheesecake and shake some hands.
Speaker 1: And you don't really change my perspective.
Speaker 2: And now I enjoy meaning people unless they're crazy. I mean,
Speaker 2: good God, how long you understand her?
Speaker 1: But it's you know, you know, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: It Just let me see.
Speaker 2: Are you praying that your church would grow for your
Speaker 2: ego or do you really want to help people verdict.
Speaker 2: What is your objective? What is your faith for? What
Speaker 2: did you come to church for? Where are you at
Speaker 2: the synagogue? So you can judge the way that Jesus
Speaker 2: healed the hand and wasn't his best sermon.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. I was kind of
Speaker 1: hoping the other guy would be leading worship. Tall guy,
Speaker 1: what you come for? What is your objective of faith?
Speaker 2: Your objective matters a lot. Your objective and all of
Speaker 2: this controversy was around the occasion, if you write that
Speaker 2: down a case of the Sabbath, which was Saturday for
Speaker 2: the Jewish people, which was to be set aside as
Speaker 2: a day of rest, a day where you were to
Speaker 2: do no work.
Speaker 1: The intention of the Sabbath was to be a blessing.
Speaker 2: But since they had objectified the Sabbath and depersonalized the
Speaker 2: nature of God, Jesus had to remind them that any
Speaker 2: occasion is a fitting occasion to be a blessing and
Speaker 2: to bring healing. Jesus asked them verse four, which is
Speaker 2: lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil,
Speaker 2: to save life or to kill?
Speaker 1: But they remain silent. You know that.
Speaker 2: Jesus is picking a fight because he could have waited
Speaker 2: until the next day to perform this miracle.
Speaker 1: This was not a critical situation.
Speaker 2: A missing hand isn't a life threatening event, and the
Speaker 2: man had been in this condition for a long time.
Speaker 2: Jesus did it on this day, the day where they
Speaker 2: were supposed to do no work, because he wanted to
Speaker 2: show them that what they.
Speaker 1: Were doing wasn't working.
Speaker 2: Jesus is using this situation to confront a system. Jesus
Speaker 2: is using the isolated incident to show them a deeper
Speaker 2: issue of the heart. Since we have such a situational
Speaker 2: view of God, most of our life is spent trying
Speaker 2: to fix situations.
Speaker 1: And that's how I used to lead our church.
Speaker 2: When something would go wrong, I would address the situation
Speaker 2: because you can do that when the church is small.
Speaker 1: If the sound guy makes.
Speaker 2: An error and forgets to turn a microphone on at
Speaker 2: one location and you only have one location, you can
Speaker 2: walk up to the sound guy and say, hey, why
Speaker 2: didn't you change the battery. From now on, you need
Speaker 2: to change the batteries. So you could just fix it
Speaker 2: at the level of the situation when it was one location,
Speaker 2: but then when it became two and three and four,
Speaker 2: I had to stop addressing situations and start addressing systems.
Speaker 2: God is bringing you into the place in your life
Speaker 2: right now where he doesn't want you to just play
Speaker 2: whack the mole with situations anymore, where by the time
Speaker 2: you can get this situation under control, here comes another one,
Speaker 2: and here comes another one.
Speaker 1: No, he wants to fix the dysfunction.
Speaker 2: That is breaking the system that is creating the situation.
Speaker 2: So Jesus, Jesus shows up on the Sabbath and he said,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna work on the day where you're not supposed
Speaker 2: to work, so the people can see that what they're
Speaker 2: doing isn't working. And I'm gonna fix this man's hand
Speaker 2: that isn't working on the day that you're not supposed
Speaker 2: to do any work, so we can fix the system.
Speaker 2: Special occasion, this is this is not the day for healing.
Speaker 2: This is not that they had it figured out. They
Speaker 2: had their faith compartmentalized. Do you know what I mean
Speaker 2: a compartmentalized faith.
Speaker 1: Well, my faith is a private matter. My faith is private.
Speaker 1: I'm not so sure it is.
Speaker 2: I think your faith affects everything about how you treat people, even.
Speaker 1: If you don't speak of it. Your life is a
Speaker 1: reflection of it my faith. I have faith. I have faith.
Speaker 1: I have faith. I grew up in church.
Speaker 2: I'm not so sure that faith is supposed to be
Speaker 2: an heirloom, functional, functional faith.
Speaker 1: What has your faith done for you lately?
Speaker 2: Because like in our house, we have all kinds of
Speaker 2: silverware and all kinds of plates, and we had these
Speaker 2: special plates that go up in the hot in the
Speaker 2: cabinet and they're expensive china that we got.
Speaker 1: When we got married.
Speaker 2: And we've been married, We've been married almost fourteen years,
Speaker 2: and I think I've seen that those china that those
Speaker 2: china plates four times in fourteen years. They're pretty. They're
Speaker 2: in storage and we break them out for special occasions.
Speaker 2: Is your faith like that? Faith is not meant to
Speaker 2: function like find china where you break it out on
Speaker 2: Eastern Christmas. And faith is not meant only to be
Speaker 2: accessed in a crisis. Faith is in only for the
Speaker 2: time when you get a report from the doctor that
Speaker 2: we need to do more tests. I don't want that
Speaker 2: kind of faith, you know, kind of faith I want.
Speaker 2: I want a paper plate faith, do you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. I want a faith that has everyday use.
Speaker 2: I want a faith that makes it to Monday. I
Speaker 2: want a faith that can stand the test of Tuesday.
Speaker 2: I want to faith that goes to work with me
Speaker 2: on Wednesday. I want to faith that can get me
Speaker 2: through Thursday. I want a faith that can fight on Friday.
Speaker 2: I want a faith that can stand on Saturday. I
Speaker 2: want I want a durable faith. I want a faith
Speaker 2: I can eat off of it when when nothing's going right.
Speaker 1: A faith I can use in traffic, A faith I
Speaker 1: can use in the every day ups and downs of life.
Speaker 2: I want a faith that functions. I don't want faith
Speaker 2: to be my special occasion. I want faith to be
Speaker 2: my full time job. It's my job to believe God.
Speaker 2: It's my job to trust them.
Speaker 1: Faith that functions, a functional faith, a.
Speaker 2: Faith, a faith that you can access in the in
Speaker 2: the small things of life, and a faith that has
Speaker 2: not held hostage.
Speaker 1: To the outcome.
Speaker 2: Can we talk about the outcome, because in this story
Speaker 2: there are two outcomes. One outcome is that the man's
Speaker 2: hand got healed. The other outcome is in verse six
Speaker 2: of the passage. It says that after Jesus healed the
Speaker 2: man on the Sabbath, the pharisees went out and began
Speaker 2: to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Now,
Speaker 2: there was one event, a healing, and there were two outcomes,
Speaker 2: one for the man, one for the Pharisees. And you know,
Speaker 2: if your faith is dependent upon an outcome, it's just
Speaker 2: a matter of time before you lose it, right.
Speaker 1: Lance, If you need a certain.
Speaker 2: Outcome to validate your faith, it's just a matter of time.
Speaker 2: When you have to go back to the hospital after
Speaker 2: you've only been home for a week, it's only a
Speaker 2: matter of time before you.
Speaker 1: Give up on your faith. Let me ask you a question, Lance.
Speaker 2: As much as you've been hurting, and as much uncertainty
Speaker 2: as you've got in your life right now, and as
Speaker 2: much as you don't know whether you're gonna get on
Speaker 2: the liver transplant list or not, and you're waiting to
Speaker 2: find out what's next for your.
Speaker 1: Life, I want to ask you a question. Why are
Speaker 1: you in church?
Speaker 2: Why would you come here when the outcome is still uncertain?
Speaker 2: Why would you have the audacity to praise God in
Speaker 2: a wheelchair and your faith hasn't given you the ability
Speaker 2: to walk. You must have a different kind of faith.
Speaker 2: You must have a functional faith, a faith that works
Speaker 2: even when your body doesn't work. A faith that works
Speaker 2: even when your situation is a cooperator. A faith that
Speaker 2: works even when you don't know what's next. That's the
Speaker 2: kind of faith Jesus is looking for.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of faith that stretched his arms on
Speaker 1: the cross.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of faith that turns the darkness of
Speaker 2: Friday into the resurrection of Sunday. That kind of faith,
Speaker 2: that kind of faith, A faith that works, a faith
Speaker 2: that wages war, a faith that won't, a faith that
Speaker 2: just won't quit, a faith that presses on. A faith
Speaker 2: in prison that will not be confined. Does anybody have faith?
Speaker 2: Real faith, silent faith, stable faith, unshakable faith.
Speaker 1: The outcome is in faith.
Speaker 2: My faith doesn't wait on an outcome. My faith is
Speaker 2: not based in outcome. My faith is an outlook. Watch
Speaker 2: me preach. My faith can look at a situation a
Speaker 2: different way than I would look at it without my faith. Now,
Speaker 2: my faith doesn't guarantee the outcome. Sometimes I have faith
Speaker 2: and I still stay sick. Sometimes I have faith and
Speaker 2: the job.
Speaker 1: Still doesn't go. My way doesn't come to me.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I have faith and my daughter still doesn't.
Speaker 1: Act more respectful.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I have faith and my marriage still looks the
Speaker 2: same as it did before I exercise my faith. But
Speaker 2: my faith is not hostage to the outcome. My faith
Speaker 2: enables me to see any outcome, whatever it is, come
Speaker 2: hell or high water.
Speaker 1: I'm convinced that neither tent nor life, nor angels, nor demons,
Speaker 1: nor principalities, nor any other thing because.
Speaker 2: I got faith. Because I got faith, my faith is
Speaker 2: an outlook. My faith enables me to see an opportunity
Speaker 2: for forgiveness where others only see offense. Because my faith
Speaker 2: is a way of seeing the world, so I can
Speaker 2: look at what I was looking at, but look at
Speaker 2: it differently.
Speaker 1: Because I don't walk by sight. I walk by faith.
Speaker 2: And no matter how this turns out, I just want
Speaker 2: to make an announcement in advance.
Speaker 1: God, I praise you, no matter what the outcome is.
Speaker 2: God, I give you glory. No matter how it turns out.
Speaker 2: I lift my eyes to the hills.
Speaker 1: My health comes from the Lord.
Speaker 2: When you touch seven people and tell them look out,
Speaker 2: look out, look out, look out, Get out your tent, Abraham,
Speaker 2: and count the stars. If indeeds are able to number them.
Speaker 2: You've been so busy looking at this tent, you've.
Speaker 1: Missed the stars. You've missed the potential.
Speaker 2: You've been so busy looking at your pain. You've been
Speaker 2: so busy looking at your problem. But faith is going
Speaker 2: to enable you to see.
Speaker 1: There's a cloud the size of a man's hand.
Speaker 2: And it's rising and it's heavy with rain. Come on,
Speaker 2: get God a south, getther the phrase by faith faith,
Speaker 2: I got faith. Some of your neighbors say, where's your faith?
Speaker 2: Where's your faith? Because faith is the substance. Faith isn't
Speaker 2: a frame of mind.
Speaker 1: Frame is faith? Faith.
Speaker 2: There's a course of action that changes your frame of mind.
Speaker 2: Finished preaching, I want to talk about the order. Because
Speaker 2: Jesus gives the man a command. It seems strange, It
Speaker 2: seems bizarre in some senses, it even sounds cruel. Touch
Speaker 2: somebody say faith, faith, faith functional faith, Faith that works,
Speaker 2: Faith that works, Faith that affects my life. Not just
Speaker 2: fate that I think about and gives me a cozy feeling.
Speaker 1: Not faith.
Speaker 2: Its like a warm glass of milk, not faith. This
Speaker 2: like a chocolate chip cookie.
Speaker 1: Not faith.
Speaker 2: It's like too tail and all I can take to
Speaker 2: make the pain go away. Know the kind of faith
Speaker 2: that will enable me to do the impossible and to
Speaker 2: believe God in ways that are irrational. The Bible says
Speaker 2: that the man got up in front of the people.
Speaker 2: That was his first step. His first step was to
Speaker 2: take a stand in front of the people who were
Speaker 2: judging him. He had to be willing to stand out
Speaker 2: in the midst of a synagogue of people who didn't
Speaker 2: get it. He had to be willing to stand up
Speaker 2: in front of people that misunderstood him.
Speaker 1: Do you have enough faith to take a stand?
Speaker 2: Do you have enough faith to come out in the
Speaker 2: open and say, I'm a person of faith. I'm not
Speaker 2: ashamed to be identified with God. I'm not ashamed to
Speaker 2: be optimistic. I'm not ashamed to have an outlook. It's
Speaker 2: not ruled and regulated by the affairs of this life.
Speaker 2: Were the systems of this world. I got the faith
Speaker 2: to stand up. I think it's time for the people
Speaker 2: of God in America to take the stand and say
Speaker 2: our faith is really don't relegate.
Speaker 1: Us, draw a voting book. We are the people of faith.
Speaker 2: Faith. So he stood up in front of him and
Speaker 2: then watched Jesus. Jesus was looking around, tell somebody, say
Speaker 2: look around, look around, look around, And Jesus found this
Speaker 2: one man, and he stood this one man up, and
Speaker 2: the Bible says that there were two conditions in the synagogue.
Speaker 2: There was one condition. It said that the man had
Speaker 2: a shriveled hand.
Speaker 1: But watch this.
Speaker 2: It says that when he stood up the man, he
Speaker 2: was deeply distressed verse five at their stubborn hearts. Which
Speaker 2: one is worse, a shriveled hand or a stubborn heart.
Speaker 2: The condition of the man's hand was an image of
Speaker 2: the people's heart. The symptom was reflective of the system.
Speaker 2: And Jesus came to confront both. So he tells the man.
Speaker 2: He tells the man stand up, and then he tells
Speaker 2: him to stretch out his hand. Imaginatively speaking, perhaps the
Speaker 2: man kept his bad hand in his pocket. See, because
Speaker 2: the Bible says he had a shriveled hand. That means
Speaker 2: the other one was working just fine. And Jesus didn't
Speaker 2: specify which hand. So you know how we like to do.
Speaker 2: We always like to stick out our good hand.
Speaker 1: First. Hi, nice to meet you. I made cookies.
Speaker 2: The good hand, And Jesus said, no, not that one,
Speaker 2: not the one that's working, the one that wasn't working.
Speaker 2: God didn't bring you here today so you could show
Speaker 2: off the parts of your life that are working.
Speaker 1: He brought you here today to heal the parts of
Speaker 1: your life that aren't.
Speaker 2: So Look at five, Look at five, he says. He says,
Speaker 2: he was deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, their shriveled
Speaker 2: hearts that had lost the ability to feel compassion, so
Speaker 2: that their only thought was not of this man. Their
Speaker 2: only thought was of their man made laws. Their only
Speaker 2: thought was of the religious requirements. Their only thought was
Speaker 2: of what was wrong. Their only thought of was what
Speaker 2: they would could correct. And he looked around at all
Speaker 2: of that, and the Bible says he was deeply distressed,
Speaker 2: And so he restored the man's hand, and then the
Speaker 2: man stretched it out. Would be the logical reading of
Speaker 2: the text. That's not how faith works. Faith has a
Speaker 2: different order. Notice how Jesus, first of all, commands him
Speaker 2: to do what he cannot do. Faith will command you
Speaker 2: to do what you've never been.
Speaker 1: Able to do.
Speaker 2: Faith will command you to do what you've convinced yourself
Speaker 2: that you're unable to do.
Speaker 1: Faith will Faith will fly counter to the narrative that
Speaker 1: has guided your entire life up to this point.
Speaker 2: Faith will call you a conqueror when all you've ever
Speaker 2: known is to feed and then see what you're going
Speaker 2: to do about it.
Speaker 1: Faith will tell you to stretch out a hand.
Speaker 2: That you had hidden in your pocket, hoping nobody would notice.
Speaker 1: See.
Speaker 2: It's significant that he healed a man with a shriveled hand,
Speaker 2: because if the man's feet had been lame, everybody would
Speaker 2: have been able to see that from the moment that
Speaker 2: they carried him in the door on a mat.
Speaker 1: If the man had been blind, he.
Speaker 2: Would have had to feel his way into the room.
Speaker 2: But the thing about some dysfunctions is that they're easy
Speaker 2: to hide, and you can get by with one hand.
Speaker 2: And nobody even knows that. Nobody even knows. Nobody even
Speaker 2: knows about your temper except your wife. Nobody even knows
Speaker 2: about your spending habits except your husband, and is tearing
Speaker 2: your marriage apart. Nobody even knows about your eating disorder.
Speaker 2: Nobody even knows. It's fine, it's fine. And Jesus says,
Speaker 2: that hand, that hand, that hand. No, No, not your
Speaker 2: good hand, not your good hand.
Speaker 1: I saw your good hand, your other hand. I want
Speaker 1: to heal you.
Speaker 2: On the other hand, So he he had his hand hidden,
Speaker 2: and then he took a stand before the people, and
Speaker 2: when he.
Speaker 1: When he stretched, see.
Speaker 2: I always want God to restore before I respond. But
Speaker 2: the Order of Faith says that it's only when you
Speaker 2: respond that.
Speaker 1: You can be restored.
Speaker 2: It said, when the man stretched his hand, his hand
Speaker 2: got stronger. As he's stretched. God is stretching somebody today.
Speaker 2: He's stretching your faith. He's trying to get you to
Speaker 2: see that it's only when you reach out.
Speaker 1: It's only when you make the effort. It's only when.
Speaker 2: You'll do what you thought you couldn't do. It's only
Speaker 2: when you're willing to stand and even look like a fool.
Speaker 2: Come on, is there anybody who wants God in your
Speaker 2: life bad enough to stretch forward today?
Speaker 1: If that's you'll do it, The man said, stand on your.
Speaker 2: Feet and stretch your hand. Come on, stretch your hand.
Speaker 2: Stretch that hand that you weren't able to stretch before.
Speaker 2: Stretch that part of you that wasn't able to believe before.
Speaker 2: And I see respond he was restored. God wants to
Speaker 2: restore some things in your life.
Speaker 1: One gospel writer said, when he stretched.
Speaker 2: His hand, it was just as good as the other one.
Speaker 2: In other words, God took the part of his life
Speaker 2: that was dysfunctional. That was affecting all the other parts
Speaker 2: of his life that were functional. And there are certain
Speaker 2: ways in which you can have one part of.
Speaker 1: Your life a hand can.
Speaker 2: Affect everything, your ability to produce, your ability to get
Speaker 2: a good job, your ability to.
Speaker 1: Get along with people.
Speaker 2: But God said, I didn't bring you here to partially
Speaker 2: heal you.
Speaker 1: I want you to stretch out to me today by faith.
Speaker 2: The presence of the Lord is in this place. Restorative
Speaker 2: presence of the Lord is in this place. This is
Speaker 2: a restorative atmosphere. This is a restorative environment. There's no
Speaker 2: Pharisees around here looking to see what you came in with.
Speaker 2: We're not that kind of church. We got a lunk
Speaker 2: alarm in this church. Those people don't make it very law.
Speaker 1: This is a place where you can stretch it out.
Speaker 1: Come on, you can stretch it out here. You can
Speaker 1: stretch it out.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 2: I preach this word with all of my heart. But
Speaker 2: this word cannot change you without your response. This word
Speaker 2: cannot heal your hand if you don't stretch your hand out.
Speaker 2: So the application to what I'm preaching today, and I
Speaker 2: hope that next week you'll come back because I want
Speaker 2: to pick up right here and move forward with this thought.
Speaker 2: And I hope you'll join me for it. And I'm
Speaker 2: waiting for you to applaud as a sign that you're
Speaker 2: excited about that I want you to do while we're
Speaker 2: while we're waiting to get back together, Lusch, you don't
Speaker 2: need a special occasion for faiths. You don't have to
Speaker 2: wait till next week to build your faith more. What
Speaker 2: I want you to do this week is do something
Speaker 2: that you couldn't do without faith. Do something that you've
Speaker 2: been putting on. And it could be very small. Jesus
Speaker 2: didn't tell the man to do a cart will. Jesus
Speaker 2: didn't tell the man to do an ice sculpture with
Speaker 2: his bad hand. He told him to do something simple.
Speaker 2: I wonder what simple thing you could do this week
Speaker 2: that would have great significance in your life. Some of
Speaker 2: you need to take your bad hand and call your
Speaker 2: father and seek his forgiveness and reconciliation in a relationship.
Speaker 2: One simple act like that. Some of you just need
Speaker 2: to get to work on.
Speaker 1: Time this week. Just a simple thing.
Speaker 2: Stretch your hand, touch somebody, say stretch it, stretch it,
Speaker 2: stretch it. Just get to if you would get to
Speaker 2: work on time every day this week.
Speaker 1: It would send a signal.
Speaker 2: To yourself that I'm not limited by what I always
Speaker 2: thought I could do.
Speaker 1: Some of you just need to take every.
Speaker 2: Day this week and say, you know, every day this week,
Speaker 2: I'm going to start my day in God's word because
Speaker 2: that's something that I wasn't doing before. And if you
Speaker 2: do something you've never done before, you'll experience something you've
Speaker 2: never experienced before.
Speaker 1: Stretch your hand. Stretch your hand.
Speaker 2: Simple things, just the simplest thing can make a huge difference.
Speaker 2: Stretch your hand this week, stretch it out and see
Speaker 2: what God will do.
Speaker 1: A faith that functions. It's time to make my faith
Speaker 1: go to work.
Speaker 2: God didn't give me this faith just so I could
Speaker 2: be complacent and comfortable with my dysfunction.
Speaker 1: If you've got a shriveled hand.
Speaker 2: Today, but you feel faith rising up in your heart
Speaker 2: and you would like for me to pray with you
Speaker 2: about something that's in your life, to shrivel something that
Speaker 2: you've been previously unable to do. But you're willing to
Speaker 2: stretch a little bit and say this week, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: make the move that I couldn't make. I'm gonna stretch
Speaker 2: my faith in a specific way.
Speaker 1: And if you want me to pray for you, would you.
Speaker 2: Just stretch your hand up right now as a sign
Speaker 2: of your faith, just as a sign of your.
Speaker 1: Faith, and keep it up.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna pray with everybody who's got their hands stretched. Father,
Speaker 2: We're not waiting for Restoration to give a response. We
Speaker 2: declare right now in Jesus' name that this week our
Speaker 2: faith is gonna work. We're going to have an active
Speaker 2: faith this week. We're not waiting on outcomes to judge
Speaker 2: the validity of our faith this week. We got a
Speaker 2: new outlook this week. And so we're going into Monday,
Speaker 2: and we're moving into Tuesday, and we're going into Wednesday
Speaker 2: with a faith that works, gonna work because we're gonna
Speaker 2: work it. We declare this day wonder working God in
Speaker 2: your presence. There's nothing you can't do, there's nothing you
Speaker 2: can't heal, there's nothing.
Speaker 1: You can for a storm.
Speaker 2: So touch our hands, touch our hearts, touch our minds,
Speaker 2: change our habits.
Speaker 1: We wanna be the people of faith. And we give
Speaker 1: you praise in advance.
Speaker 2: Somebody clap your hands and give God pray.
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to those of you who give generously to
Speaker 2: this ministry is because of you that this ministry is possible.
Speaker 2: You can click the link in the description to give
Speaker 2: now or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for
Speaker 2: more information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
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Speaker 2: You can click the share button, take a screenshot and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.