Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Fernick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: Be sure to subscribe so we can get you these
Speaker 2: new sermons every week. I hope you're blessed today.
Speaker 1: It's good to be in church on a Sunday. Are
Speaker 1: you glad to be in the house of God Elevation
Speaker 1: Amen across every location, even at home. I know you
Speaker 1: just tore up your bathroom, your living room, praise and
Speaker 1: you can sit down. I am elated and excited to
Speaker 1: be back at Elevation Church. My name is Robert Madou
Speaker 1: and I am not a guest here. I am for
Speaker 1: real a part of the fam. I hope you know
Speaker 1: that I have the privilege with my wife, a pastor
Speaker 1: and a church in the great country of Texas called
Speaker 1: Social Dallas. And I love my I love my church.
Speaker 1: But if they ever start tripping, they have a get
Speaker 1: sick of me. I know why I'm moving. I'm coming
Speaker 1: straight to Charlotte and I'm just gonna get on staff
Speaker 1: here at Elevation So Social Tallas fam, Y'll better treat
Speaker 1: me right, treat my wife Taylor right. But it is
Speaker 1: such an honor to be here. I love this house.
Speaker 1: And I love your pastors. I love Pastor Stephen, I
Speaker 1: love Pastor Holly. They are dear friends to my wife.
Speaker 1: And I a you know, I said that about my
Speaker 1: church treating me right. I hope y'all treat your pastors right.
Speaker 1: So I mean, they're filling up arenas, and there's a
Speaker 1: lot of cities, a lot of countries that would love
Speaker 1: to have them. And I'm just in this season, especially now,
Speaker 1: where I don't want familiarity to rob me of appreciation.
Speaker 1: Sometimes often the greater the gift God has given you,
Speaker 1: it's easy to take it for granted. And I pray
Speaker 1: that is not the story of this church. I pray
Speaker 1: you always honor, salute, and celebrate and church the gift
Speaker 1: God has given you in the life of Pastor Stephen.
Speaker 1: And how so can we just give them just some honor?
Speaker 1: Come on, let them know we're covering you, We're playing
Speaker 1: for you. Elevation nights, come on on, packing out of
Speaker 1: readers all over the nation, and we got your coming
Speaker 1: here at home. And it's good to have an elevation morning.
Speaker 1: I'm excited to preach the word of God. I hope
Speaker 1: you're ready to hear it. Are you ready to hear it.
Speaker 1: I want to jump straight into it today. I want
Speaker 1: you to go with me to the Gospel of John today,
Speaker 1: the Gospel of John. If you don't mind, can we
Speaker 1: stand to honor the reading of God's word? Is this cool?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: You just sat down and got comfortable, But come on,
Speaker 1: you war those shoes trying to be cute should put
Speaker 1: some comfortable shoes on the elevation church. I want you
Speaker 1: to go with me to the Gospel of John chapter
Speaker 1: number five, and I want to look at verses one
Speaker 1: through fifteen. John chapter five start at verse number one,
Speaker 1: and we'll land at verse number fifteen. When you're ready
Speaker 1: to read it, say yeah. If you need some time
Speaker 1: to find John, say hold up. I heard one hold
Speaker 1: up right here in this section, and I'm gonna wait
Speaker 1: for you. I'mna wait for you across every location. E
Speaker 1: family love you. John Chapter five will start at verse
Speaker 1: number one and it declares afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem
Speaker 1: for one of the Jewish holy Days, and inside the city,
Speaker 1: near the sheep Gate was the pull of Bethesda with
Speaker 1: five covered porches, crowds of sick people, blind, lame, or paralyzed,
Speaker 1: lay on the porches and one of the men lying
Speaker 1: there had been sick for thirty eight years. When Jesus
Speaker 1: saw him and knew he had been ill for a
Speaker 1: long time, he asked him who the answer is? Asking
Speaker 1: a question. I want to fall before I even ask
Speaker 1: where Jesus asked. And this is what I wish the
Speaker 1: Bible could give us, facial expression and vocal intonation. Don't
Speaker 1: you just we're just like just on the Bible app
Speaker 1: If you could just pop up, we could actually see Jesus'
Speaker 1: face and maybe hear his vocal intonation how he asked this,
Speaker 1: Because there's really two different ways to ask this question.
Speaker 1: You know, you could he could have said, do you
Speaker 1: want to get well? That's an option. That's an option.
Speaker 1: And I don't know if you ever felt like that,
Speaker 1: he ever felt like God, he just just annoyed with you,
Speaker 1: just a little bit, like how long is it going
Speaker 1: to take you to get yourself together? So do you
Speaker 1: want to get well? That's an option. Then again, I
Speaker 1: can't imagine the creator of the universe being annoyed with
Speaker 1: what he created. So maybe he had a different facial expression,
Speaker 1: a different vocal intonation. Maybe the facial expression of a
Speaker 1: chick fil a worker, just like, do you want to
Speaker 1: get well? Because you know I can do that, right
Speaker 1: my pleasure, I can do it. I can do it.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the way he asked it. But look at
Speaker 1: this man's reply. I can't, sir, I can, for I
Speaker 1: have no one to put me in the pool. When
Speaker 1: the water bubbles up, someone else always gets there ahead
Speaker 1: of me. Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your man,
Speaker 1: and walk. Instantly, the man was healed, rolled up his
Speaker 1: sleeping mat and began walking. This miracle happened on the Sabbath.
Speaker 1: So the Jewish leaders objected. Of course they did, and
Speaker 1: they said to the man who was cured, you can't
Speaker 1: work on the sabbath. The law doesn't allow you to
Speaker 1: carry that sleeping mat. But he replied, the man who
Speaker 1: healed me told me pick up your man.
Speaker 3: And all.
Speaker 1: Who said such a thing as that they demanded the
Speaker 1: man didn't know. In the funny, you can be shouting
Speaker 1: about stuff you don't even know. But Jesus disappeared into
Speaker 1: the crowd. But afterward Jesus found him at the temple
Speaker 1: and told him, now you are well, so stop sinning,
Speaker 1: or something even worse may happen to you. Then the
Speaker 1: man went and told the Jewish leaders that it was
Speaker 1: Jesus who had healed him. Can you say, amen, oh
Speaker 1: that's good stuff. Elevation fam. I want to appreciate to
Speaker 1: you today as always, not long, probably about four and
Speaker 1: a half hours just using this as a title today.
Speaker 1: Lame excuses, lame excuses. Look at your neighbor for the
Speaker 1: last time, right in their face, and say, neighbor, it's
Speaker 1: time for you to stop with the lame excuses. Come
Speaker 1: on across every location. If you believe God's gonna speak,
Speaker 1: would you give him some praise and advance. Come on,
Speaker 1: I meet him for real. Get up and take your
Speaker 1: mat and walk. Praise Father, have your way, speak to
Speaker 1: our hearts today in Jesus' name. Amen, you may be
Speaker 1: seated in the presence of the Lord. Lame excuses, elevation Fam.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how much I can personally relate to this
Speaker 1: man who is in our techs today. Not because I've
Speaker 1: been lame for thirty eight years, but I have been
Speaker 1: alive for thirty eight years. Matter of fact, this June
Speaker 1: I turned thirty nine. Turn thirty nine. Oh yes, forty
Speaker 1: is coming, y'all. Forty, it is coming on you board.
Speaker 1: You know they say that in your twenties you are
Speaker 1: obsessed with what other people think about you. In your forties,
Speaker 1: you stop caring what other people think about you, and
Speaker 1: then in your sixties you realize wasn't nobody thinking about
Speaker 1: you anyway. So so I'm about to enter the stage
Speaker 1: of my forties world. I just I don't care what
Speaker 1: you think about me. That's what I'm entered in. And
Speaker 1: don't don't get me wrong. I want to grow. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be rude. I want to get better.
Speaker 1: But I'm just in the season of life where I
Speaker 1: know my strengths, I know my weaknesses, I know what
Speaker 1: I'm good at, I know my deficiencies, I know my idiosyncrasies.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know what I can do and I
Speaker 1: know what I can't do. Like I can't do math,
Speaker 1: I don't do numbers. My eight year old daughar, beautiful
Speaker 1: baby girl, Evy, she asked me to help me with
Speaker 1: her basic math homework the other day. I said no.
Speaker 1: I said no, said, sweetheart, Daddy is a communicator, not
Speaker 1: a calculator. You're gonna have to do this through this
Speaker 1: on your own. I don't do math. I don't do numbers.
Speaker 3: Yo.
Speaker 1: I don't cook. I don't cook. I cannot cook anything.
Speaker 1: You know how some men think that, like masculinity is
Speaker 1: synonymous with grilling. I am not that dude. Okay, I
Speaker 1: don't cook. I don't grill. Okay, I make reservations. That's
Speaker 1: what I do, and I'm cool with that. It is
Speaker 1: what it is. I know my strains, and he says, yo,
Speaker 1: I also know that I'm not good at texting people back.
Speaker 1: I know, I know. I know that's the cardinal unforgivable
Speaker 1: sin in this day and age in which we live.
Speaker 1: I am so sorry. I have a phone full of
Speaker 1: text messages that I have responded to in my head,
Speaker 1: but it just hadn't got to my fingertips yet. Okay,
Speaker 1: give me some grace. Okay, don't even ask me, I
Speaker 1: did you get the text? Of course I got it,
Speaker 1: you know I got it. Just give me some time
Speaker 1: to respond. Okay. I got a wife, I got three kids,
Speaker 1: I got a church. We got a pet dog in
Speaker 1: these delivering a squirrel, and give me pis. I got
Speaker 1: stuff going on. I get to it when I get
Speaker 1: to it. It's just hard. And I'm telling I've learned
Speaker 1: that people don't like it when you don't respond to
Speaker 1: they tecks. They don't care what excuse you have. Matter
Speaker 1: of fact, you ever tax somebody, If you ever tax somebody,
Speaker 1: and all of a sudden you saw them start to reply,
Speaker 1: and you see the little bubbles and then it just disappears. Oh,
Speaker 1: your mind just starts jumping to all these stories about
Speaker 1: what they could have done, what they could have said. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm telling you, I have all kinds of excuses for
Speaker 1: why I didn't get back to your text message. But
Speaker 1: no matter what I give, it always feels like a
Speaker 1: lame excuse. You ever given a lame excuse? Lame excuse?
Speaker 1: Why you were late for work? Really is traffic every day?
Speaker 1: You ever given just a lame excuse? Lame excuses are
Speaker 1: interesting because lame excuses, we think, exonerate us from our responsibility.
Speaker 1: If we didn't, we wouldn't give the lame excuse. We
Speaker 1: in our minds think that that lame excuse actually exonerates
Speaker 1: us from the responsibility or the thing that we were
Speaker 1: supposed to do. And I came to tell you that
Speaker 1: it doesn't. You still have a responsibility. As a matter
Speaker 1: of fact, I think the greatest gift God has ever
Speaker 1: given humanity is responsibility. Response, response ability, the ability to
Speaker 1: respond that God is looking for your ability to respond
Speaker 1: to the call to the purpose, to the mandate he
Speaker 1: is put on your life, and He is not interested
Speaker 1: in your lame excuse. But isn't it crazy the lame
Speaker 1: excuses that we give God. As a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: your Bible is full. It is a repleat of examples
Speaker 1: of people giving lame excuses, especially when God tells them
Speaker 1: their purpose. Moses, go tell Pharoh, let my people go.
Speaker 3: God.
Speaker 1: You know what, I can't talk. Lame excuse, Kitty, You
Speaker 1: are a mighty voy you no, you understand God. I'm
Speaker 1: the least in my family. I can't really those things
Speaker 1: like that. Lame excuse. Mary, the Holy Spirit's gonna overshadow you.
Speaker 1: You're gonna give birth to the son of the Living
Speaker 1: God where I don't even know, Joseph like that, how
Speaker 1: is that going? Lame? Lame excuse? You laughing? But I'm wondering,
Speaker 1: what lame excuse are you giving God, God right now
Speaker 1: for why you haven't stepped into the fullness of your purpose?
Speaker 1: What lame excuse are you telling him? Thinking that that
Speaker 1: excuse exonerates you from the responsibility. In my text today,
Speaker 1: we don't just run into a lame man. We run
Speaker 1: into a man who has a lame excuse. And for
Speaker 1: thirty eight years, y'all, thirty eight years, as long as
Speaker 1: your boy has been living, this man has been lame.
Speaker 1: Before you start judging people's lame excuse, maybe check the
Speaker 1: environment from which the excuse came, because I think lame
Speaker 1: excuses are birth from lame environments. Think about this man
Speaker 1: for thirty eight years. We don't even know when this
Speaker 1: lameness occurred, whether he's just been by the pool for
Speaker 1: thirty eight years, but either way you put it, for
Speaker 1: a long time, this man has been stuck in one position,
Speaker 1: not being able to move. You understand, during this time period,
Speaker 1: there are no home rounds, there are no wheelchairs. You
Speaker 1: would stay in one position. Anytime you wanted to move somewhere,
Speaker 1: you had to do it yourself. And if you didn't
Speaker 1: do it yourself, you were dependent on other people around
Speaker 1: you to say, hey, could you help me? Hey, I
Speaker 1: actually want to move over there, could you help me
Speaker 1: get up? No wonder When he responds to Jesus, the
Speaker 1: first words out of his mouth were I can't. I
Speaker 1: don't have anybody to help me. There's nobody that can
Speaker 1: put me in. It's easy to judge people's excuses if
Speaker 1: you don't know their environment. What else does he have
Speaker 1: to rely on? There's nobody else to pick him up
Speaker 1: because his entire life he's learned to be dependent upon
Speaker 1: other people. And how sometimes even your physicality will affect
Speaker 1: your psychology. When you're lame, all you have to talk
Speaker 1: to is other lame people. What you're gonna do today?
Speaker 1: Man probably lay here. I'll stake of the same thought.
Speaker 1: It affects your conversations, or you have his lame conversations.
Speaker 1: You don't talk to people who are up, you talk
Speaker 1: to people who are down. This is the challenge of
Speaker 1: being lame. It affects your ability to work. This man
Speaker 1: couldn't find a job. What do you do? What a
Speaker 1: job do you apply for? He's even having to beg
Speaker 1: probably just to get something, and he's laying there. And
Speaker 1: I think so often we judge people's lameness, and we
Speaker 1: judge their excuses without even taking the time to at
Speaker 1: least see the environment from which the lame excuse came.
Speaker 1: At least check the environment. This man was lame for
Speaker 1: thirty eight years. Not only is he in his environment,
Speaker 1: but let's look at the environment and which he is surrounding.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that there was a pool. There was
Speaker 1: a pool that the bethesda means house of mercy, but
Speaker 1: it may as well be a house of misery, because
Speaker 1: if you see this scene, there are broken people everywhere.
Speaker 1: In fact, the Bible says a crowd. Another version of
Speaker 1: says a multitude. The only place we see multitude and
Speaker 1: others in the Gospels is really the feeding of the
Speaker 1: fish in the Five blows. This is not a few people.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of people. This is a multitude of
Speaker 1: sick people. And some are blind, and some are lame,
Speaker 1: and some are missing arms, and some are missing eyes.
Speaker 1: Here's one thing about this whole environment of the people
Speaker 1: a by the pool. They're all broken. It's not a
Speaker 1: single person by the pool that has it going on.
Speaker 1: It's not a single person by the pool that has
Speaker 1: it all put together. Everybody at the pool is broken
Speaker 1: in some area. There's some people that had some legs,
Speaker 1: and some people that didn't have arms, and some people
Speaker 1: that had eyes, people that could hear. But no matter
Speaker 1: where they were, everybody had some area of brokenness by
Speaker 1: the pool. I'm going the paus right here since we
Speaker 1: had the pool, and let you know that every single
Speaker 1: person has some area of brokenness. I know you can't
Speaker 1: see it because it's Sunday and they got their good
Speaker 1: shirt on and all that Mary Kay and Mac makeup.
Speaker 1: But I'm telling you they are not showing it well.
Speaker 1: They are hiding their brokenness. All of us have some
Speaker 1: area of brokenness. And I wish, just for once, if
Speaker 1: we could have some people that would put away the
Speaker 1: pretense and be honest and say, I don't have it
Speaker 1: all together. I'm not really living how I'm posting. There
Speaker 1: are still some areas of brokenness in my life. As
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, you ought to thank God for
Speaker 1: some of those areas of brokenness, because some of us
Speaker 1: wouldn't pray if we didn't have brokenness. Some of us
Speaker 1: wouldn't cry out to God if we didn't have brokenness.
Speaker 1: But there's something about being broken. There's something that knowing
Speaker 1: that you're afrail that actually makes you cry out to God.
Speaker 1: I need you in this area. Everybody at the pool,
Speaker 1: who ever, the whole spot full of broken people. I
Speaker 1: wish I could see their Instagram and they TikTok because
Speaker 1: you know, they didn't post what was broken, they posted
Speaker 1: what was whole. The lame person just posting his arms
Speaker 1: like yeah, I do up a body, no lower body, man,
Speaker 1: just up a body. Person that's blind, got sunglasses on
Speaker 1: so you don't see it. They just yeah, man, I'm cold.
Speaker 1: Can't see the comments of the likes, but they just posted.
Speaker 1: Isn't it funny how we like to show the good
Speaker 1: parts we hide our brokenness. But everybody at the pool
Speaker 1: was broken, and everybody at the pool had a belief system,
Speaker 1: and the belief system was that whenever the water would bubble,
Speaker 1: they believed that an angel would stir the waters, that
Speaker 1: every time the water would bubble, the first person to
Speaker 1: get in would get the healing. This is the belief
Speaker 1: system of the broken people that you gotta be first,
Speaker 1: that the first person is the one that's going to
Speaker 1: get the blessing. And so I gotta fight and I
Speaker 1: gotta do whatever I can to be first. This is
Speaker 1: our generation. No wonder. All of us are fighting for attention,
Speaker 1: No wonder. All of us are fighting for people to
Speaker 1: validate us and look at us. Because we all think
Speaker 1: if I could just be the first one to get in.
Speaker 1: Now'll be the one that gets the breakthrough. I'll be
Speaker 1: the one that gets the blessing. It's a generation of lame.
Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, to me, that's what lame
Speaker 1: stands for. Lame la m e who look at me? Everybody.
Speaker 1: You want to see a lame life. Look at a
Speaker 1: person who has put themselves in the center of their world,
Speaker 1: and they're saying, look at me, everybody, as long as
Speaker 1: I can be first to get in. And I can
Speaker 1: see this man. I don't know who dropped him off
Speaker 1: at the pool that day, but I wholeheartedly and earnestly
Speaker 1: believe that the day he was first dropped at the pool,
Speaker 1: he actually had excitement that he was gonna get healed.
Speaker 1: Oh I can see him. I can see the first
Speaker 1: day he was dropped by the pool. He's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get my breakthrough today. I'll see you over there.
Speaker 1: Don't think you're gonna beat me. As soon as that
Speaker 1: water bubbles up, I'm gonna be the first one in there.
Speaker 1: And he was going with all the night and the
Speaker 1: tenacity he could find. Come on. You know how it
Speaker 1: is when you first start coming to church and you
Speaker 1: start praising you how it used to be when you
Speaker 1: first came to elevation. So you'd be like, oh, when
Speaker 1: they're gonna start, man, I tell you what, go out,
Speaker 1: Thank God, let's go. You don't see them people, It's like,
Speaker 1: oh heaven, you can tell you just started coming, didn't you?
Speaker 1: You knew you knew to this set? Howe right? You
Speaker 1: need to get it together and don't take all that Oh.
Speaker 1: I think when he first got to the pool, he
Speaker 1: was excited. He couldn't wait. He's like, I'm gonna be
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be the first one in that water. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get my heel and I'm gonna get my breakthrough
Speaker 1: im and get everything I need. But year after year
Speaker 1: of disappointment, year after year of not getting to the water,
Speaker 1: year after year of people stepping over you and getting
Speaker 1: in front of you. How mean you know, after a while,
Speaker 1: thirty eight years, you start saying, maybe I'll never get
Speaker 1: the healing. Maybe maybe I'll stop trying to even go
Speaker 1: to the water. I think after thirty eight years, you
Speaker 1: stop chasing to the pool and you just start relaxing
Speaker 1: on the porch. You ever been on the porch? The
Speaker 1: porch is when you have gotten to the place where
Speaker 1: you say it hurts to hope again, it hurts to
Speaker 1: believe it. It is what it is. I guess I'll
Speaker 1: never have a good marriage. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: I guess I'll never get out of dead. It is
Speaker 1: what it is. I guess my kids will never never
Speaker 1: be set free. It is what it is. After a while,
Speaker 1: when you've been hoping and believing for so long and
Speaker 1: you've had so many disappointments, it is easy to relax
Speaker 1: on the porch and not even fight to get in
Speaker 1: the stirring of the water again. It is easy to
Speaker 1: chill on the porch because at least the porch has
Speaker 1: shade and I'm covered. You haven't seen people just sitting
Speaker 1: on the porch and some houses they giving up on
Speaker 1: life and they just sitting on the porch. Just watch
Speaker 1: knock her down, Miss Johnson. Get some new grass. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they s some new ground. Okay, just watching everybody else.
Speaker 1: Guess how some people come to church. They're in the room,
Speaker 1: they're just on the porch. We look at him, Yeah
Speaker 1: he'll learn.
Speaker 4: Yeah he's shouting the past the thieves message.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I used to shout like that too, But now my
Speaker 4: right toe hurts. Now I just sit down. Now they
Speaker 4: know my heart, they know my heart. I just say
Speaker 4: a man on my heart. I just that this is
Speaker 4: what it is. This says what it is.
Speaker 1: And he resolves to the porch, and he's given up,
Speaker 1: and he probably stopped looking at the pool, and he
Speaker 1: probably just kept looking up in the air, not even
Speaker 1: looking for a miracle anymore. But here's what I love
Speaker 1: about the story of this man. This man has proved
Speaker 1: positive that even in life, when you've gotten to the
Speaker 1: porch and you don't even want to fight for the pool,
Speaker 1: and you feel like giving up and thrown in the towel,
Speaker 1: and you can't even believe again, and you can't even
Speaker 1: hope again, even when you're not even looking for a miracle,
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that a miracle will look for you.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that even when we have laid on
Speaker 1: the porch of life and we don't have any more
Speaker 1: fight in us and we don't want to hope again,
Speaker 1: I'm so thankful for a savior that will come after us,
Speaker 1: that will seek after us. Look at Jesus coming after
Speaker 1: this man. He didn't even know he was on the radar.
Speaker 1: He didn't even know he was on the schedule of
Speaker 1: the Kingdom, Kings and the Lord, the Lord. I don't
Speaker 1: know who this message is for. Maybe you're at home,
Speaker 1: but I came to tell you. Even when you've given
Speaker 1: up and you've lost a hope, God has not given
Speaker 1: up on you. God will find a way to get
Speaker 1: to you. God will do whatever it takes to make
Speaker 1: sure you don't just relinquish to the porch when you've
Speaker 1: got so much purpose on your life. Look at Jesus
Speaker 1: coming straight for this man who's been laying by the
Speaker 1: pool for thirty eight years. Oh, y'all, this message of
Speaker 1: my theology or my christology. Because understand, there's probably thousands
Speaker 1: of people at this porch. This is a festival. There's
Speaker 1: a whole lot of sick people. And Jesus who steps
Speaker 1: over all these people and come straight to him. Are
Speaker 1: you sure you want to clap at that? Can you
Speaker 1: imagine being one of the ones who was laying on
Speaker 1: the and to watch the King of Kings and the
Speaker 1: Lord of Lord he steps over him. Still, excuse me,
Speaker 1: don't watchy'a. Excuse me, no, no, no, no, I came straight
Speaker 1: for you. He came straight for this man so away
Speaker 1: with this notion. I only give my healing if I
Speaker 1: got faith. I'll only get the break through if I
Speaker 1: got enough faith to believe for it. You know when
Speaker 1: we feel sometimes like I gotta be like the woman
Speaker 1: with the issue of blood and press my weight through
Speaker 1: the prow See you, that's why he didn't get a breakthrough.
Speaker 1: You didn't have enough faith. Explain homeboy, right here, what
Speaker 1: faith does this man? He not even expecting it, as
Speaker 1: he just laying there. All of a sudden he sees
Speaker 1: the King of Glory going what somebody looking straight at him.
Speaker 3: This is the beauty of grace, This is the beauty.
Speaker 1: Of coming to Jesus. You don't even know to know
Speaker 1: that you need him. It's not for the work of grace,
Speaker 1: every healing, every miracle. It is not your merit. It
Speaker 1: is not your rupture, it is not your good behavior.
Speaker 1: It is nothing but the grace and the goodness of God.
Speaker 1: He is the great initiator. Look at Jesus, you tell
Speaker 1: my God his appointment. Excuse me, not today, not you,
Speaker 1: not to you, excuse me, excuse me? Coming straight for
Speaker 1: this man. And he looks at him, and he asked
Speaker 1: him a question. The answer ask a question. Excuse me,
Speaker 1: do you want to get well? Before I deal with
Speaker 1: that question, let me just talk about the questions of Jesus.
Speaker 1: I know I said he's the answer, asked him the question,
Speaker 1: and that's what we think. Jesus is the answer. But
Speaker 1: almost I'm starting to think that Jesus is the question,
Speaker 1: because Jesus will ask you the question that you don't
Speaker 1: even know to ask, so he can show you he's
Speaker 1: the answer. When I studied the Gospels, I'm blown away
Speaker 1: by how many questions Jesus asked. Your gospels, Jesus asked
Speaker 1: approximately three hundred and seven questions, three hundred and seven questions.
Speaker 1: Who he is asked in the Gospels one hundred and
Speaker 1: eighty three questions. Of those hundred and eighty three, he
Speaker 1: really only directly answers about eight of them. That's how
Speaker 1: your God rolls. You come to him with a question,
Speaker 1: who He'll hit you with a question and two stories
Speaker 1: you'd been like, wait a minute, what did I ask
Speaker 1: he told about? Mustard said, I'm confused. What. Oh, I'll
Speaker 1: tell you. We think he's the answered, but I'm telling
Speaker 1: you he is the question. Your God was always asking
Speaker 1: questions and matter of fact, the first words that emanate
Speaker 1: from the mouth of Jesus as a teenager and the
Speaker 1: temple was a question. Remember, Mary and Joseph lost them.
Speaker 1: They lost Jesus. Remember they couldn't find him and they
Speaker 1: lost them, and they said, hey, were you? We were
Speaker 1: looking alone for you? Boy? What's wrong with you? It's like,
Speaker 1: why were you looking for me? Didn't you know? I
Speaker 1: must be about my father's business. Jesus was always asking questions.
Speaker 1: He died on the cross with a question, My God,
Speaker 1: my God, why have you forsaken me? He got up
Speaker 1: from the grave with a question. Remember how he messed
Speaker 1: up Mary? She was at the tomb and here's Jesus resurrected,
Speaker 1: new body, new wardrobe. He's like, excuse me, who are
Speaker 1: you looking for? He's always asking question, where is your faith?
Speaker 1: Who do men say that I am? Who told you?
Speaker 3: That?
Speaker 1: God is asking questions all the time? Why does he
Speaker 1: ask questions? Because he wants to send you on a quest.
Speaker 1: Answers have a finality to it, and we live in
Speaker 1: a culture that just wants an answer. But you have
Speaker 1: a God that will give you a question to take
Speaker 1: you on a journey. Because he's trying to draw you
Speaker 1: into himself. He's trying to show you who he is,
Speaker 1: and you can't find that out in a moment. I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, questions are powerful. Questions will not allow you
Speaker 1: the luxury of staying on the surface. Questions always force
Speaker 1: you to go deeper into the deep things. I don't
Speaker 1: know who this is for, but this is your last
Speaker 1: year to lift shallow. God said he wants to take
Speaker 1: you deeper, and sometimes he's going to ask you the
Speaker 1: tough questions, the questions that you don't want to ask yourself.
Speaker 1: That's why if you got a good counselor after you
Speaker 1: sat on the couch and got a good deal at
Speaker 1: the right moment, they want to hit you with And
Speaker 1: how does that make you?
Speaker 3: See?
Speaker 1: Because there's something about the question that proves deeper beyond
Speaker 1: the surface. So he's asking this man, do you want
Speaker 1: to get well? Do you really want to get well?
Speaker 1: What is Jesus probing at this question? He wants to
Speaker 1: know what do you really want? What do you really desire?
Speaker 1: Because it's obvious to me that you have been at
Speaker 1: this pool for so long that you started to lose
Speaker 1: your desire to walk again, You started to lose your
Speaker 1: hope to walk again. And I'm wondering if there's somebody
Speaker 1: in here today that you've lost your desire. You stop dreaming,
Speaker 1: you stop believing, and you've made the final words of
Speaker 1: somebody who's truly giving up. It is what it is.
Speaker 1: And God sent me on assignment to tell you to
Speaker 1: dream again, to believe again, to hope again, to let
Speaker 1: you know that where you are is not again, that
Speaker 1: he can still do exceedingly abundantly above all you could ask, think,
Speaker 1: are imagine you want to get? Well, he's going after
Speaker 1: his desire. It's interesting the word desire has the word
Speaker 1: desire in it, and you've studied the etymology, it literally
Speaker 1: means of the vo of the Father, that desire is
Speaker 1: of the Father, subliminally suggesting to us that our desires
Speaker 1: should actually come from our father. This is why the
Speaker 1: Bible says, delight in the Lord and all your waste,
Speaker 1: and he will give you the desires of your heart.
Speaker 1: That's not a verse to just say, oh, he gonna
Speaker 1: give me whatever I want. Oh yeah, you'll give me
Speaker 1: the desires of my heart. Come on, y'all have the tesla.
Speaker 1: Let's come and let's go. No, it's as I delight
Speaker 1: myself in him. All of a sudden, his heart becomes
Speaker 1: my heart, and I start to see things the way
Speaker 1: he sees things, and I'll start wanting what he wants
Speaker 1: from me. And guess what. He doesn't just want you
Speaker 1: to walk. He wants you to walk home. He doesn't
Speaker 1: just want you up on your feet. He wants you
Speaker 1: up on your feet walking in the fullness of what
Speaker 1: he has for you. He wants your legs to be
Speaker 1: an outward sign of the inner wholeness that's on the
Speaker 1: inside of you. Because what good is it to have
Speaker 1: your legs restored if your heart is still far from him?
Speaker 1: What good is it for him to bless the business
Speaker 1: if you're not going to live a life of generosity
Speaker 1: and allow your life to be a conduit of generosity
Speaker 1: to help somebody else. What good is it for him
Speaker 1: to give you the house if you ain't gonna have
Speaker 1: nobody over the house and actually shed a gowns with him.
Speaker 1: You don't invite nobody to your apartment and you want
Speaker 1: a bigger house. Now, I'm just good by myself. I
Speaker 1: don't really do people. Okay, he wants he wants you whole.
Speaker 1: So he says, do you want to get well. He's
Speaker 1: also trying to get him to understand that when I
Speaker 1: heal you, you are now going to have to do the
Speaker 1: work of walking and wholeness. I think we come to
Speaker 1: church and we shout about the idea of being whole,
Speaker 1: but the actual work it takes we don't want. Do
Speaker 1: you want to get well? Because I'm about to hear
Speaker 1: you and guess what, You're gonna have to walk right
Speaker 1: into a job because you will have no more excuses
Speaker 1: once your legs have been here. Who later he will
Speaker 1: find this man in the temple and he had no
Speaker 1: clue who it was who healed him, and he actually
Speaker 1: tells him to stop sinning, and I'm curious what was
Speaker 1: he doing. I got the strange suspicion that homeboy might
Speaker 1: have went back to the same environment. Again. That's the
Speaker 1: challenge of actually getting up and getting whole, because once
Speaker 1: I get up, I have no more excuses. I have
Speaker 1: no more trushes. Actually I have no more friends. Who
Speaker 1: do you hang out with when you've been laying around
Speaker 1: with the same people for thirty eight years? See? Sometimes
Speaker 1: God on heal you you to a place where he
Speaker 1: wants to know are you okay with being whole, but
Speaker 1: still being by yourself. And as long as you know
Speaker 1: that I'm your child, as long as you know that
Speaker 1: I am the one that cares about you. Are you
Speaker 1: cool with that? Or do you need the camaraderie of
Speaker 1: other people to validate you? Sometimes you gotta walk by yourself.
Speaker 1: Say I would rather be by myself at home than
Speaker 1: to have some people that are benefiting from my brokenness.
Speaker 1: Who does he hang out with? Who does he talk to?
Speaker 1: Can you see him going back to the dudes by
Speaker 1: the port saying, oh, well, look at you.
Speaker 4: I don't know why he walked past me and then
Speaker 4: it healed you.
Speaker 1: I don't know what you did that was so special.
Speaker 1: Do you ever see those people that try to get
Speaker 1: mad just because of the favor and the grace of
Speaker 1: God that's on your life. And you're trying to tell
Speaker 1: him I can't explain it. I don't know why. Don't
Speaker 1: ask me ask him?
Speaker 4: Look at you got your little legs, got your little legs,
Speaker 4: thank you all that?
Speaker 1: Huh huh? Yeah, No, it's fine, it's fine. I don't
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. Man, I had changed all
Speaker 1: you have changed. Look at you got your little legs,
Speaker 1: y'all stuck up. I'm not stuck up. I'm just up.
Speaker 1: You the one that stuck. Don't be mad just because
Speaker 1: he healed me. Don't be mad just because he delivered me.
Speaker 1: Don't be mad just because I'm not in that same
Speaker 1: cycling system of this funk. Do you want to get well?
Speaker 1: It's hard to do the work of being whole. It's
Speaker 1: hard to do the work of not just shouting about
Speaker 1: the idea of freedom, but saying God, I'm now going
Speaker 1: to trust you for every single step and keep walking
Speaker 1: and put away the excuses so I can be who
Speaker 1: you called and created me to be. Look at the
Speaker 1: person next to you and just just push him a
Speaker 1: little bit and say no more excuses, lame excuses. It's
Speaker 1: time to get up. Do you want to get well? Sir?
Speaker 1: I can't. I don't have anybody to help me. I
Speaker 1: don't have anybody to pick me up and put me
Speaker 1: into the water, and somebody always gets ahead of me.
Speaker 1: Isn't that crazy? He's looking in the face of Jesus
Speaker 1: and he's talking about the pool. He responds to a
Speaker 1: savior who asked a simple question, do you want to
Speaker 1: get well? That's like a yes or no question, but
Speaker 1: he goes into all these excuses, and in his excuses,
Speaker 1: he's talking about the pool. When Jesus is from in
Speaker 1: front of him. Jesus says, do you want to get well?
Speaker 1: And he's talking about the pool. It's John another one,
Speaker 1: the Living Water is in front of him, asking him
Speaker 1: do you want to get well? And he's talking about
Speaker 1: the pool. I'm wondering, are you talking about something that
Speaker 1: is peripheral to what is really important? When Jesus is
Speaker 1: right there in front of you, saying, now that I
Speaker 1: am here, the pool is no longer necessary. You need
Speaker 1: to look at me. I am the living Water. I
Speaker 1: am every single thing that you need. What I show
Speaker 1: up in your situation. Stop talking about the pool and
Speaker 1: all your excuses and start running after me. You don't
Speaker 1: need the pool anymore because I'm here. Oh I want
Speaker 1: to talk to somebody that's got all kinds of excuses
Speaker 1: about why you can't do something. Oh I'm too black,
Speaker 1: Oh I'm too white. Oh I'm too old. Oh I'm
Speaker 1: to this, Oh I'm to that. No no, no, no.
Speaker 1: As long as Jesus is with young, as he's standing
Speaker 1: right there in front of you, you got everything that
Speaker 1: you need. Why are you talking about the pool when
Speaker 1: the living water is right in front of you. So
Speaker 1: many times we put our hopes and dreams in past
Speaker 1: experiences and the way we thought it should go, that
Speaker 1: we're still looking at the pool when the Savior is
Speaker 1: right in front of us. We still coming to church
Speaker 1: thinking it's just another service, not knowing this could be
Speaker 1: the day where that stronghold of depression and anxiety is
Speaker 1: broken off of your life and nobody even has to
Speaker 1: lay a hand on you. But even as you stand
Speaker 1: there and lift up your hands in a worship, it
Speaker 1: can fall off of your life today. Why are you
Speaker 1: waiting for the future when he's right in front of you.
Speaker 3: Oh, I don't want to spend my life talking about
Speaker 3: what maybe then, or maybe later, or maybe the pool when.
Speaker 1: He is right there in front of me, Go on,
Speaker 1: what do you need? I love it because Jesus literally
Speaker 1: interrupts him. The Greek is crazy, it's abrupt. He says,
Speaker 1: get up, take up your mat, and wall I like that.
Speaker 1: He literally interrupts him and actually suggested in real language
Speaker 1: that if Jesus had not interrupted him, he would have
Speaker 1: kept on talking about all the excuses. Well, I have
Speaker 1: nobody to put me in the pulley. You don't understand
Speaker 1: what happened to me.
Speaker 4: When I was in Chiwn, I had this happened, and
Speaker 4: nobody have revalidated.
Speaker 1: Man, take your mad and walk. I feel like that's
Speaker 1: what God sent me to interrupt somebody that has all
Speaker 1: kinds of excuses and say, this is your day, diet,
Speaker 1: take your mad and walk. I know you got all
Speaker 1: kinds of reasons why it can't happen to you and
Speaker 1: why you feel like you can't do this or can't
Speaker 1: do that. But God sent this chocolate brother from Dallas,
Speaker 1: Texas to look you right in your face and say,
Speaker 1: get up, take up your mat and walk. This is
Speaker 1: your day to get up from living this level and
Speaker 1: rise up into all that God has called you to be.
Speaker 1: Get up, take your mat and walk out up that.
Speaker 1: He didn't say, I'm gonna do a six week series
Speaker 1: on how you can get up. He didn't say I'm
Speaker 1: on lay hands on you. He said, no, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: give you a word. And when I speak this word,
Speaker 1: you need to respond to the word that you heard.
Speaker 1: Oh who is this for? Somebody needs to respond to
Speaker 1: this word that I'm creature today and say enough for
Speaker 1: the excuses. I am who God says I am. I
Speaker 1: can have what he says I can have. I can
Speaker 1: step into whatever he wants me to step into. No
Speaker 1: more lame excuses. Get up, Get up, Get up from
Speaker 1: the pain of your past, Get up from that worry,
Speaker 1: Get up from the guilt, get up from the shame.
Speaker 1: I know it's been a long time. I know it's
Speaker 1: been so long, and it hurts to hope again. But
Speaker 1: when the Savior of the universe comes straight to you
Speaker 1: and ask you a question, throw away all your excuses
Speaker 1: and tell him what you want. Tell them what you need.
Speaker 1: Get up. Look at how powerful a command of God is.
Speaker 1: This man gets up and immediately his legs are strengthen y'all,
Speaker 1: his muscles have tightened. He didn't have to do any
Speaker 1: physical therapy. One word was enough for him to get
Speaker 1: up and start walking. Yo, when I sit on a
Speaker 1: plane too long, I need to like get a moment
Speaker 1: to get my But the word of God is so
Speaker 1: powerful that within the command is every single thing that
Speaker 1: you need. He didn't tell him take a step here,
Speaker 1: He did, just say thet's stretch. He said no, no, no,
Speaker 1: get up. He gets up. He says, oh and take
Speaker 1: your mad Ooh, can you see him carrying the thing
Speaker 1: he used to be relying on. I don't know who
Speaker 1: this is for, but there's things you've been relying on
Speaker 1: that you're gonna be holding now. He always would tell
Speaker 1: lame people to take their mat You know why, because
Speaker 1: anytime somebody sees you holding what you used to be
Speaker 1: laying on, it is a walking, living, breathing testimony. Matter
Speaker 1: of fact, there was a set up. He did it
Speaker 1: on the Sabbath on purpose because he wanted some people
Speaker 1: to see that man walk here. He wanted people to
Speaker 1: see him holding the thing that he used to be
Speaker 1: laying off. I don't know who this is for, but
Speaker 1: maybe there's something you're ashamed about. But this is the
Speaker 1: beauty of the grace of God. It's the same thing
Speaker 1: you've been ashamed about. That God can flip that thing.
Speaker 1: It'll actually become a testimony of his goodness, my testimony
Speaker 1: come his grace. So people will look at your life
Speaker 1: and saying, God can use and heal and set free
Speaker 1: somebody as broken as you. I know he can't do
Speaker 1: it for me too. He says, take your man, and
Speaker 1: he starts walking, walking right into opposition because here comes
Speaker 1: the religious system saying you can't do that. You gotta
Speaker 1: be ready for the opposition if you're going to get
Speaker 1: up from the excuses. And here's the danger. He didn't
Speaker 1: even know who it was that healed him. This is
Speaker 1: how I know this is just a soften work of raise.
Speaker 1: He wasn't even seeking for the healing God sought after him.
Speaker 1: He didn't even know it was Jesus who did it.
Speaker 1: Ooh the power of just obedience, of doing what He
Speaker 1: told you to do. But look at this savior who
Speaker 1: found him again and said, hey, hey, hey, I'm the
Speaker 1: one who did it. Stop sinning. You have no more excuses.
Speaker 1: Your legs a hole. Let those legs be an outward
Speaker 1: sign of the inner healing that has taking place in
Speaker 1: your life. I'm gonna ask headsby bowed and osby closed
Speaker 1: across every location today. I don't know who I came
Speaker 1: for today, but today's the day to put away the excuses.
Speaker 1: Enough is enough. Maybe you had your hopes and dreams
Speaker 1: in the pool. Maybe it was a maybe it was
Speaker 1: a career, maybe it was life playing out a certain way.
Speaker 1: But today, in the presence of Jesus, he is here,
Speaker 1: and he's saying what do you need? What do you
Speaker 1: want me to do? I'm asking you the question because
Speaker 1: I'm no longer giving you the opportunity to live your
Speaker 1: life shallow and on the surface. I want to go
Speaker 1: deeper so that you can be healed, not just externally,
Speaker 1: not just with blessing, but from the inside out. Heads
Speaker 1: are about hours of closed across every location. But if
Speaker 1: you're here today, and you'd be so honest to say,
Speaker 1: Pastor Robert, I know there's some excuses I've been making,
Speaker 1: and I think those excuses exonerate me from the purpose
Speaker 1: and the call. But today you sense God reminding you
Speaker 1: that I use earthen vessels, that it was never about you.
Speaker 1: But I'm a God that seeks after you, and I
Speaker 1: can use you quit disqualifying yourself. His strength is made
Speaker 1: perfect in your weakness. But just as a sign across
Speaker 1: every campus to say, hey, if I know what that
Speaker 1: excuse is that today I'm putting the lame excuse to
Speaker 1: the side, God, I'm gonna step into what you have
Speaker 1: for me. Would you just lift up your hand as
Speaker 1: a sign to say this for me, this for me? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you God, you know what that thing is. Thank
Speaker 1: you Jesus, I see those hands. Thank you God, you
Speaker 1: can put it right back down. I want to be
Speaker 1: real specific. If you're here watching online and you've never
Speaker 1: taken that first step, which to say, Jesus, my life
Speaker 1: is yours, maybe you made all the excuses. All church
Speaker 1: people are this and that. Can I tell you there
Speaker 1: are no perfect churches. And if you found the perfect church,
Speaker 1: as soon as you got there, you would ruin it
Speaker 1: because we're all broken. I'm telling you we all have areas,
Speaker 1: some area of brokenness. This is not a community of
Speaker 1: perfected people. It is a community of the redeemed. The redeemed.
Speaker 1: So what heads about in ours closed? If you've never
Speaker 1: surrendered your life to Jesus, I wouldn't love to give
Speaker 1: you that opportunity. Across every campus, even at home. God's
Speaker 1: presence knows no limits. If that's you today, say Pastor Robert,
Speaker 1: would you include me in this closing prayer? I need
Speaker 1: to give Jesus My life is so simple. Confess with
Speaker 1: your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ
Speaker 1: is Lord, that God raised him from the dead. If
Speaker 1: that's you, would you lift up your hand high enough
Speaker 1: and long enough to where I could see it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you God, Thank you Lord. Anybody else thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. You don't have to clean yourself up to
Speaker 1: come to him. You come to him just as you
Speaker 1: are anybody else. Thank you. Jesus. Come on, can we
Speaker 1: pray this prayer as one big family? Come on across
Speaker 1: every location? Can we pray this? Say Dear Jesus, I
Speaker 1: need you. I cannot do life without you. Jesus, Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for living the life that I was
Speaker 1: supposed to live, for dying the death that I was
Speaker 1: supposed to die. You took my place. So my response
Speaker 1: is to give you everything. Forgive me of my sin,
Speaker 1: make me brand new. From this moment forward, I'm walking
Speaker 1: with you in Jesus' name, A man a man, A man,
Speaker 1: a man a man. Come on, if you meant what
Speaker 1: you prayed, Come on, can we all collectively just give
Speaker 1: King Jesus that be'st praise, that you're God. Oh, come on,
Speaker 1: give them some praise. I can see yourself getting up
Speaker 1: tard you're mad. No more excuses. I'm walking into what
Speaker 1: he has told me. God, bless you. Elevation.
Speaker 2: Hey, I hope you enjoyed the podcast, and if you did,
Speaker 2: make sure to share it and subscribe so we can
Speaker 2: get you all of these new messages as soon as
Speaker 2: they're available. I also want to take a moment and
Speaker 2: thank all of you who are a part of Elevation.
Speaker 2: Whether you support us financially, or serve with us, or
Speaker 2: just share these messages, it's because of you that we're
Speaker 2: able to reach people all around the world. And if
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Speaker 2: of Elevation, click the link in the description. Thanks again
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Speaker 2: and subscribe. God bless you.