Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.
Speaker 2: I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.
Speaker 2: 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 3: In your life.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the message.
Speaker 4: But if you've been redeemed and you know it. If
Speaker 4: he dacked you out of the pit, then you know it.
Speaker 5: If He brought you this farm, then you know it.
Speaker 5: Sank Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Speaker 6: Thank you.
Speaker 5: We can sing it all day, we will sing it
Speaker 5: all night, but we gotta stup cause it breathes it time.
Speaker 3: The Word of the Lord is coming your way, whether
Speaker 3: you're in this room or whether you're watching this later,
Speaker 3: whether you're listening in a car. I hope you're not
Speaker 3: watching in a car unless you're a passenger.
Speaker 1: Just listen and watch the road.
Speaker 3: The Lord has something he wants to show you today
Speaker 3: in his word. This is the final message in the
Speaker 3: greatest series in the history of our church.
Speaker 1: Y'all don't like it.
Speaker 3: My favorite series in the history of our church, because
Speaker 3: it's the one that I needed the most. Because it's
Speaker 3: called same lies, new loops, same lies, new loops. And
Speaker 3: the Lord is giving you some new ways of thinking,
Speaker 3: some new ways of being, some new ways of talking,
Speaker 3: some new ways of seeing, new loops. It's going to
Speaker 3: be a maze today because we're going to see a
Speaker 3: picture of somebody who had believed a lie for so
Speaker 3: long that to him.
Speaker 1: It was true.
Speaker 3: And when you have believed a lie long enough, is
Speaker 3: true to you even though everybody else can see that
Speaker 3: it's not. Today, God wants to show you something about
Speaker 3: the way that he sees you. Go ahead and put
Speaker 3: your name in the comments. And since you can't do
Speaker 3: that live, tell the person next to you your name.
Speaker 3: Tell them your full name, the one on your driver's license. Gohead,
Speaker 3: give me your name real quick. Give me your driver's
Speaker 3: license name. We're going to be spending a few moments today.
Speaker 3: Well that's a long name. I didn't say your eye
Speaker 3: color and your height. I didn't say tell them about
Speaker 3: your DUI either. Leave that part out. But we're going
Speaker 3: to be spending some time today together. In John chapter
Speaker 3: five remains standing, if you're able for the reading of
Speaker 3: God's word, And as I share this with you today,
Speaker 3: the Lord wants to give us a picture.
Speaker 1: Of what it means.
Speaker 3: To leave the lies behind. To leave the lies behind,
Speaker 3: that's what we come to church for. Right we want
Speaker 3: to come to church and hear truth and just take
Speaker 3: lies home with us like we didn't hear the truth.
Speaker 3: We want to come to church, receive the truth of
Speaker 3: God's word, and take it forward into the world that
Speaker 3: He's called us to change. John chapter five, verse one.
Speaker 3: I may just read all sixteen verses. I wasn't going
Speaker 3: to stop around verse six seven, but I thought I
Speaker 3: would go on down and read the whole thing. Now,
Speaker 3: y'all listen, what's wrong with y'all? John chapter five, verse one.
Speaker 3: Sometime later Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of
Speaker 3: the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem, near the
Speaker 3: sheep Gate a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda.
Speaker 3: That word means house of mercy. It's like Bethlehem means
Speaker 3: house of bread. Bethe is house. And then sata from
Speaker 3: has said the word that means covenant, love or favor,
Speaker 3: or grace or mercy. It means all of those things.
Speaker 3: It's the house of mercy. At least that's what is called.
Speaker 3: It's supposed to be a place where people can come
Speaker 3: and get grace. But it isn't, and you'll see that
Speaker 3: in the passage. It's called Bethesda, and it's surrounded by
Speaker 3: five covered colonnades. And incidentally, since we're in John five,
Speaker 3: five in the Bible is often symbolic of grace.
Speaker 1: It's the number of grace. So this is supposed to
Speaker 1: be a place.
Speaker 3: Of grace, you know, can I say that about our church?
Speaker 3: This is supposed to be a place of grace where
Speaker 3: anybody can come like they are and not leave that way.
Speaker 3: It was surrounded by five covered colonnades, and here are
Speaker 3: a great number of disabled people used to li the
Speaker 3: blind the lane. The paralyzed one who was there had
Speaker 3: been an invalid for thirty eight years. When Jesus saw
Speaker 3: him lying there and learned that he had been in
Speaker 3: this condition for a long time, he asked him.
Speaker 1: Do you want to get well? Sir?
Speaker 3: The invalid reply, I have no one to help me
Speaker 3: into the pool.
Speaker 1: When the water is stirred.
Speaker 3: While I am trying to get in, someone else goes
Speaker 3: down ahead of me.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus said to him, get up, pick.
Speaker 3: Up your mat and walk at Once the man was cure.
Speaker 1: He picked up his map and walked. But that's not
Speaker 1: the end of the verse.
Speaker 3: Is it. The day on which this took place was
Speaker 3: a sabbath. And so the Jewish leader said to the
Speaker 3: man who had been healed, it is the.
Speaker 1: Sabbath the law forbids you to carry your mat. But
Speaker 1: he replied, well, I love this Bible verse right here.
Speaker 3: The man who made me well said to me, I
Speaker 3: hear what you're saying to me. But the one who
Speaker 3: walked by me and told me I could walk to
Speaker 3: told me to do this. The man who made me
Speaker 3: well said to me, pick up your mat and walk.
Speaker 3: I got good news for you today. Church. The title
Speaker 3: of my messages the word says otherwise. The word says otherwise.
Speaker 1: Tell your neighbor.
Speaker 3: I know you feel kind of depressed. I know it
Speaker 3: looks like it's over. But the word says otherwise. Put
Speaker 3: it in all caps in the chat, put it in
Speaker 3: your language, put it in your native tongue, put it
Speaker 3: in a mulojis.
Speaker 1: I don't care. The word says otherwise. And we're gonna
Speaker 1: give this message a subtitle. Also, we're gonna call it hmm.
Speaker 3: See if I can explain this, your label is lying.
Speaker 3: Your label is lying. You know how that thing said
Speaker 3: it was it was a healthy food.
Speaker 1: Your label is lying.
Speaker 3: You know how that guy said he was a Christian guy.
Speaker 3: You're labeled, and he wore a Christian shirt.
Speaker 1: You're label is lying.
Speaker 3: You know how people say when you come to Christ,
Speaker 3: everything will just be better all at once. Your label
Speaker 3: is lying. But God's word is true. Father, Thank you
Speaker 3: for your word. In Jesus name, Amen be seated. Your
Speaker 3: label is lying. I'll share by way of anecdote what
Speaker 3: I mean by this statement, but first write the statement down.
Speaker 3: Don't label it until later. Don't label it until later.
Speaker 3: Now you're gonna write that down. You don't even know
Speaker 3: what I mean by that, but you will later. I
Speaker 3: was in a songwriting session recently and we were just
Speaker 3: starting to work on a song. We had really not
Speaker 3: identified the tempo of the song, the time signature of
Speaker 3: the song, or even the theme of the song. I
Speaker 3: didn't know yet whether it wanted to be a ballad
Speaker 3: or a bop. Sometimes you don't know. Sometimes a song.
Speaker 1: Starts like really really worshipful.
Speaker 3: And the next thing you know, you're dancing on a
Speaker 3: table and you don't know what happened. So the key
Speaker 3: to this is to be patient. Be patient, let the
Speaker 3: song tell you what it wants to be. Let the
Speaker 3: spirit of God have his way. If you're writing a
Speaker 3: worship song and we were just starting to write a
Speaker 3: song and the producer who was recording the session and
Speaker 3: needed to save the song on his computer, stopped and
Speaker 3: asked a question.
Speaker 1: He said, what is this song called?
Speaker 3: Well? I look back at him, and I knew that
Speaker 3: he needed to save the file so he could access
Speaker 3: it and be organized. But I looked at him and said,
Speaker 3: I can't name it. We haven't even made it yet.
Speaker 3: We need to make it before we name it. If
Speaker 3: we name it before we make it, there may be
Speaker 3: something else that the song wants to be that we
Speaker 3: don't allow it to become because we already gave it
Speaker 3: a name. So what we need to do is just
Speaker 3: save the file as a work in progress, and then
Speaker 3: we can see what is going on to be by
Speaker 3: the end of the day, because we'll label it later.
Speaker 3: We'll make it now and label it later. I'll know
Speaker 3: who this is for. But maybe that's the word that
Speaker 3: you came to get today. Make it now and name
Speaker 3: it later. We're so specific in our time about trying
Speaker 3: to diagnose everything. Even every child is diagnosed with all
Speaker 3: of these conditions before they are seven years old, and
Speaker 3: sometimes that can be helpful, but other times it can
Speaker 3: be a hurdle because.
Speaker 1: If I give a child a label.
Speaker 3: Before that child has even had the chance to develop
Speaker 3: beyond those developmental limitations, I may limit what the child
Speaker 3: thinks that the child can be because I gave the
Speaker 3: child a label too soon that limited their potential mentally,
Speaker 3: even though their potential in God was unlimited.
Speaker 1: Label it later.
Speaker 3: And I'm not talking about not going to doctors and specialists,
Speaker 3: you understand.
Speaker 1: I'm using this.
Speaker 3: As a way to get you to see that sometimes
Speaker 3: you are trying to label your life as you are
Speaker 3: living your life, and it is causing you to misdiagnose
Speaker 3: some of the things about you that only God can
Speaker 3: reveal in time.
Speaker 1: It is causing you.
Speaker 3: To name things and save things to the hard drive
Speaker 3: of your mind, and you call yourself things, and you
Speaker 3: call situations things that they really aren't because you are
Speaker 3: trying to label.
Speaker 1: It before you have even lived it.
Speaker 3: So you say things like this is the worst season
Speaker 3: of my life. How do you know that? Yet the
Speaker 3: seed hasn't even given the harvest for it.
Speaker 1: You have no idea.
Speaker 3: As a matter of fact, I would imagine that anytime
Speaker 3: the dirt is being plowed, it is hard for the dirt.
Speaker 3: But we understand that this is the part of the
Speaker 3: process that is absolutely necessary for anything good to be cultivated.
Speaker 3: And so it is true in your heart that some
Speaker 3: of the hardest seasons you will go through, some of
Speaker 3: the heartbreak seasons that you will go through, some of
Speaker 3: the things that you would wish away if God came
Speaker 3: down and asked you would.
Speaker 1: You like to skip?
Speaker 3: Those stages will be the very stages that later you
Speaker 3: will look back and label it and you will say,
Speaker 3: that was the season where God taught me the most.
Speaker 3: That was the season, am I right, where God.
Speaker 1: Got me out of that.
Speaker 3: Relationship, and I'm so glad that he did. That was
Speaker 3: the season where God set me free from something I
Speaker 3: thought I needed. And if He would have kept giving
Speaker 3: me what I wanted, I would have never gotten what
Speaker 3: I needed. And when I label my situation while I'm
Speaker 3: still in it, I limit my situation to how I
Speaker 3: see it. And the problem with me is I can't
Speaker 3: see things like they are. I only see things as
Speaker 3: I am, and I am limited, and so if I
Speaker 3: look at my situation and label it with my mind,
Speaker 3: I will always find a way to zoom into the
Speaker 3: microscopically bad or maybe I'm just wanting this one thing
Speaker 3: to happen so bad, or maybe something happens in my
Speaker 3: life and I don't like the package that it came in,
Speaker 3: so I don't receive the purpose that it came for.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna stop and breathe for a minute. Clap your
Speaker 3: hands and give God praise. Now, clap your hands and
Speaker 3: give God praise for all of the gifts that he
Speaker 3: gave you that you didn't know it was a gift
Speaker 3: when he gave it. Praise God for all the gifts
Speaker 3: that he gave you that you grumbled about when he
Speaker 3: gave it to you. You got to remember, John wrote, John, Okay,
Speaker 3: you know that. Okay, John, the disciple who Jesus loved.
Speaker 3: That's what he called himself. That's how he labeled himself.
Speaker 3: That's wild to me.
Speaker 1: Who are you the one he loves? Not one of
Speaker 1: the one he loves? V One he loves. John did
Speaker 1: not write his.
Speaker 3: Gospel as the ministry of Jesus was happening, though he
Speaker 3: wrote it somewhere around fifty years after the events transpire.
Speaker 1: Now there's a reason I'm telling you this.
Speaker 3: Sometimes I think we read these stories in the Bible
Speaker 3: like they're coming from the journal of one of the disciples,
Speaker 3: and so we read a story like this and it's wonderful.
Speaker 1: There was a man who couldn't move, and he got
Speaker 1: up and he was healed, and it was amazed.
Speaker 3: And even the titles that are in the Bible, like
Speaker 3: over John chapter five, it says the healing at the pool,
Speaker 3: that's what this story is called in retrospect. But in
Speaker 3: real time, this was not a healing at the pool.
Speaker 3: In real time, this was a confrontation with the authorities.
Speaker 3: I'll explain that later, y'all see what I'm doing. I'm
Speaker 3: gonna say it now, I'm gonna explain it later. Jesus
Speaker 3: a lot of times, as he was doing things in
Speaker 3: his ministry, would not explain to his disciples.
Speaker 1: He would just do it, and as he would do it,
Speaker 1: they might think about it. Boy, that was a really
Speaker 1: bad move.
Speaker 3: I mean, Jesus should have waited until Tuesday to heal
Speaker 3: this guy. Did you see it in the Texas said
Speaker 3: he healed him on a bad day.
Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you a question.
Speaker 3: If you haven't walked for thirty eight years and you
Speaker 3: have the opportunity to walk, is it ever a bad
Speaker 3: time to do a good thing for somebody? And yet
Speaker 3: that's what the religious leader said. They said he should
Speaker 3: have done it on a different day.
Speaker 1: And Jesus knew that.
Speaker 3: But when John is writing the gospel, he's not writing
Speaker 3: it later that night.
Speaker 1: He's not taking what he saw happen.
Speaker 3: And John's gospel was a little different because Matthew, Mark, Luke,
Speaker 3: and John are all written somewhat differently. Matthew, Mark, and
Speaker 3: Luke are called synoptic gospel. It means, see with they
Speaker 3: kind of used the same source material, They refer to
Speaker 3: the same events, and they just take them from different angles.
Speaker 1: John's gospel is wild.
Speaker 3: He just shows you stuff from the bonus footage from
Speaker 3: the cutting room that none of the other disciples showed you.
Speaker 3: Maybe it was the special way he felt about his
Speaker 3: relationship with Jesus that he includes things that the others don't.
Speaker 3: And this miracle is only included in John's gospel. That's
Speaker 3: the first thing I wanted to tell you. But the
Speaker 3: second thing I wanted to tell you is that it
Speaker 3: was included in John's Gospel after decades had passed, which
Speaker 3: means that sometimes it is better to evaluate your situation later.
Speaker 3: If you look at it in the moment, all you
Speaker 3: can see is, man, this is a.
Speaker 1: Lot of trouble.
Speaker 3: Jesus is about to get in. Man, Jesus really is
Speaker 3: wasting time. I mean, imagine this. They're setting out.
Speaker 1: To go to the festival. They're on their way.
Speaker 3: The Bible doesn't mention which of the three festivals, but
Speaker 3: it's one of the major ones. And they get to Jerusalem,
Speaker 3: and Jesus stops by this porch where look at verse three.
Speaker 3: These these kinds of people are lying, the blind, the lame,
Speaker 3: the paralyzed. Please circle those three words justin if you can.
Speaker 3: Verse three. The blind, the lame, the paralyze, the blind,
Speaker 3: the lame, the paralyzed. Jesus is stopping by to see somebody.
Speaker 3: He is the most important figure in human history. He
Speaker 3: is the centerpiece of civilization. He is the Rose of Sharon,
Speaker 3: the lily of the Valley, the lion of the tribe
Speaker 3: of Judah, the Alpha and the Omega, the Master and
Speaker 3: the maker of the universe, the King of Kings, the
Speaker 3: Lord of lords, the shepherd of the Loss, the one
Speaker 3: that the angels worship twenty four to seven around the throne,
Speaker 3: and he stops by to see about somebody that doesn't
Speaker 3: even have a name. Of course he has a name,
Speaker 3: but his name has been replaced by his label, so
Speaker 3: we don't know who he is yes or what he
Speaker 3: can do. The only thing we know about him is
Speaker 3: that for thirty eight years watch this, he has not.
Speaker 1: Been able to move.
Speaker 3: And there are some of you listening to me preached
Speaker 3: today who have been labeled so long by what you
Speaker 3: can't do, that you forgot your name. You have been
Speaker 3: labeled so long by what you don't have, that you
Speaker 3: have forgotten your true nature. You have been labeled so
Speaker 3: long by what life didn't give you that you have
Speaker 3: forgotten your blessings. But the devil is a liar, I said,
Speaker 3: the devil is a liar.
Speaker 1: I'll preach this another ten weeks if I need to.
Speaker 3: He's telling the same lies over and over and over
Speaker 3: and over again.
Speaker 1: And what he wants to get you to do.
Speaker 3: If he's effective at his job, and the devil is
Speaker 3: really sneaky at it, because he will try to.
Speaker 1: Convince you that your issue is you.
Speaker 4: But I found out.
Speaker 3: That God is masterful at using situations that we would
Speaker 3: not wish to accomplish purposes for which we don't even
Speaker 3: know to pray.
Speaker 1: I'll give you an example.
Speaker 3: I can tell I'm kind of overwhelming you with information today.
Speaker 3: About five is the number of grace, and Bethesda means
Speaker 3: house of Mercy and Synoptic Gospels.
Speaker 1: And all this.
Speaker 3: So let me just break it down like this. When
Speaker 3: Holly gives gifts at our house, I.
Speaker 1: Will say that she is the best gift giver that
Speaker 1: I have ever known in my life.
Speaker 3: I also say she is the greatest gift that I
Speaker 3: have ever known in my life other than.
Speaker 1: You, Lord, Amen. And I'll also say that I'm not
Speaker 1: even saying that just so you'll clap for it. I
Speaker 1: really feel that way.
Speaker 3: But she used to do something when she would give
Speaker 3: gifts that was so disappointing, and we finally got her
Speaker 3: to stop a few years ago. But let me tell
Speaker 3: what you're doing. I don't use this intentionally. I don't
Speaker 3: know if it was just something she did out of efficiency.
Speaker 1: I don't know what's you doing, Okay, al, I told
Speaker 1: you she gives great gifts.
Speaker 3: But let's say Christmas will roll around, right, and there's
Speaker 3: several gifts for each person.
Speaker 1: That Holly bought. Right, so she wraps some They're beautiful
Speaker 1: and all that.
Speaker 3: You take the wrapping paper off, and then there would
Speaker 3: be a box that she would put the gift in.
Speaker 1: But the box was absolutely no indication.
Speaker 3: Of the value of the gift. And here's what I
Speaker 3: mean by that. She would take the box from the
Speaker 3: nicest store. You can imagine, like picture your favorite store,
Speaker 3: your favorite brand, right, like the fanciest, nicest box. So
Speaker 3: you peel the paperback and you'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: this is.
Speaker 1: Gonna be good. This is about to be good.
Speaker 3: And then when you would take the lid off the
Speaker 3: box she had put the worst gifts. The box would
Speaker 3: say Nordstrom and the gift would say Dollar Tree, and
Speaker 3: you'd be looking at the You'd be looking at the
Speaker 3: gift about what is this? Because she would put the
Speaker 3: worst gift in the best box. God does just the opposite.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, Holly, but this is one time where you
Speaker 3: are nothing like God. Because God will take the worst box,
Speaker 3: the worst situation, the worst hell you've ever been through,
Speaker 3: the worst insult.
Speaker 1: The worst persecution.
Speaker 3: God will hand you a box, and the box will
Speaker 3: be so beat up, and the box will look so small,
Speaker 3: and the box will look like it's been rained on,
Speaker 3: and the box will look like the dog shoot it up,
Speaker 3: and the box will look like betrayal, and the box
Speaker 3: will look like God, I don't know what to do,
Speaker 3: and the box will look like there's no way out
Speaker 3: of this. But if you open that box and trust
Speaker 3: in God, not the box, I said, trust God, not
Speaker 3: the box, because my God is out the box and
Speaker 3: God will put the best stuff cannot reach. Like I'm
Speaker 3: in Saint Paul, Minnesota on a Tuesday night. God will
Speaker 3: take the worst box and put the best gift. And
Speaker 3: I'm saying this in case life dropped off a box
Speaker 3: on your doorstep and it doesn't look like what you
Speaker 3: prayed for, and it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: With what you feel.
Speaker 4: Called to, and it doesn't line.
Speaker 1: Up with your expectations.
Speaker 3: But over that box, because God has a way of
Speaker 3: putting the best blessings in the ugliest boxes, so the
Speaker 3: box doesn't have to be beautiful for the gift to
Speaker 3: feed from him. I find somebody say open the box,
Speaker 3: open the box, open the box. God can do what
Speaker 3: he wants to open the box. Let God out the box.
Speaker 3: You got your little puny way of labeling what God
Speaker 3: can do and who God can do it through. But
Speaker 3: open the box. You're not even in church today, but
Speaker 3: God can meet you in the kitchen. Open the box,
Speaker 3: put down the fork in the night, lift your hands
Speaker 3: and give God praise. God is out the box. Jesus
Speaker 3: said to the man, I know the situation isn't what
Speaker 3: you would have chosen, and I know this is not
Speaker 3: the place you want to be.
Speaker 1: But your label is lying.
Speaker 3: I wish I could draw this, but I didn't bring
Speaker 3: my screen out this week, and I'm not gonna slow
Speaker 3: down the momentum of this message for technology. Just imagine
Speaker 3: boom boop blop. Right, you've seen it, and imagine one
Speaker 3: of the loops says.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. That's the lie. Right.
Speaker 3: But when everything that's around you looks like sickness long enough,
Speaker 3: you begin to believe the box. When everything that your
Speaker 3: eyes can see, when everything that your emotions feel tell you, well,
Speaker 3: I guess alcoholism is just a genetic thing. And there's
Speaker 3: no amount of therapy or recovery that can break those
Speaker 3: chains off of you.
Speaker 1: And there's not even enough prayers for it, because didn't
Speaker 1: you pray about this last year? Thirty eight years?
Speaker 3: Man, that's a long that's a long time to circle
Speaker 3: the situation. It brings me all the way back to
Speaker 3: the first story I shared in this series, when the
Speaker 3: Israelites wandered in the same loop for forty years. You know,
Speaker 3: technically it was thirty eight. Yeah, it was thirty eight
Speaker 3: because one year they spent getting out of Egypt, one
Speaker 3: year they spent getting into the Promised Land. Those years
Speaker 3: aren't counted in the forty it was thirty eight years.
Speaker 3: And people will always tell the story of your first
Speaker 3: year and your last year, but they don't see the
Speaker 3: thirty eight year loop.
Speaker 1: So please do this.
Speaker 3: When you're sharing your testimony with somebody, be honest with them.
Speaker 3: Don't make your label a lie. Don't tell them. And
Speaker 3: the Lord just set me free from anxiety. I had
Speaker 3: somebody tell me that one time, and the Lord set
Speaker 3: me free from anxiety. Now, I said, I believe that
Speaker 3: he does that, and I believe that he did that
Speaker 3: for you, and I praise him for it. But what
Speaker 3: exactly do you mean he set you free from anxiety?
Speaker 3: Because when they said it, they said the Lord set
Speaker 3: me free from an anxiety in nineteen eighty four. So
Speaker 3: what I wanted to ask was, and since then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what did you do? Swallow the key? The Lord
Speaker 1: sets you free? You swallowed the key or the Lord
Speaker 1: swallowed the key? Like what happened?
Speaker 3: And as they began to share in more detail, it
Speaker 3: was actually more powerful to hear about their process than
Speaker 3: it was to hear about their product, because what they
Speaker 3: meant by it when they labeled it the Lord set
Speaker 3: me free was they meant he began to show me
Speaker 3: ways to deal with it that were not harmful and
Speaker 3: destructive and sinful. And so instead of just going to
Speaker 3: porn every time I felt anxious, instead of just going
Speaker 3: to drugs every time I feel anxious, instead of just
Speaker 3: going to self mutilation every time I felt anxious, instead
Speaker 3: of just waiting up all night, I learned some They
Speaker 3: didn't say this, but they basically said, I learned some loops.
Speaker 3: I learned some new loops, and I quit just going
Speaker 3: around and around spiraling, and I found out how to
Speaker 3: interrupt my worry with the Word of God.
Speaker 1: Isn't that more powerful?
Speaker 3: Come on, isn't that more powerful to hear that than
Speaker 3: to hear somebody say, well, the Lord just set me free,
Speaker 3: And then you're like, well, I guess he doesn't love me.
Speaker 3: He must not love me like that, or I must
Speaker 3: be doing something wrong. Maybe they're just not describing freedom
Speaker 3: fully to know that freedom involves a journey of thirty
Speaker 3: eight years.
Speaker 1: This is powerful.
Speaker 3: Man.
Speaker 1: I even feel it as I'm preaching right now.
Speaker 3: I feel the Lord telling me to slow down and
Speaker 3: tell you what it really means that this man got
Speaker 3: up and walked.
Speaker 1: It doesn't say that he knew where to go. It
Speaker 1: doesn't say that his life was problem free.
Speaker 3: In fact, Jesus finds him a few verses later and
Speaker 3: tells him stop sinning or something worse is going to happen.
Speaker 3: He's not even finished with his issue yet. But the
Speaker 3: powerful thing about Jesus when I get to the part
Speaker 3: of my sermon where I know this is the word
Speaker 3: of the Lord, because there is a moment in a
Speaker 3: sera where the word of the Lord comes. It's all
Speaker 3: the word of the Lord. This whole passage is the
Speaker 3: word of the Lord. But there is a moment where
Speaker 3: the word of the Lord comes to you. And what
Speaker 3: happens in that moment is your condition is interrupted. By
Speaker 3: a command. So it's like this. The man's condition is sick, paralyzed,
Speaker 3: and stuck on the porch. The command of Jesus makes
Speaker 3: no sense in the face of that condition.
Speaker 1: Get up, take your mat, and walk.
Speaker 3: Sometimes God will give you a command that makes no
Speaker 3: sense in the face of your condition. Sometimes God will
Speaker 3: tell you as a teenager, I don't care what all
Speaker 3: your friends do.
Speaker 1: I don't care what they say you're weird about. I
Speaker 1: don't care what they call you for it. You be pure.
Speaker 1: I don't care what.
Speaker 3: A thousand people do over here, a thousand people, just
Speaker 3: like your parents used to say. I don't care if
Speaker 3: everybody else is doing it, if everybody else was jumping
Speaker 3: off a bridge, and you'd be like shut out. But see,
Speaker 3: I say, with everybody else was jumping off a bridge,
Speaker 3: I just want to tell you what Jesus did. Everybody
Speaker 3: else didn't die on the cross for you. Everybody else
Speaker 3: can't rise from the grave. Everybody else didn't going to
Speaker 3: be there for you in the midnight hour. Everybody else
Speaker 3: didn't make you knit. You call you, choose, you gift.
Speaker 3: You don't let them label you. Don't even let them
Speaker 3: tell you what kind of kid you need to be
Speaker 3: to be cool. I'm not concerned with you being cool.
Speaker 3: I'm concerned with you being called. I'm concerned with a
Speaker 3: God who can raise you up and make your name great.
Speaker 1: And I'm concerned.
Speaker 3: With a God whose name is greater than any other name.
Speaker 3: And That's what I'm concerned about in this season of
Speaker 3: my life, not what they label me. I don't care
Speaker 3: what they say about me. I don't care what they
Speaker 3: say about my preaching. I care when I close this
Speaker 3: Bible today? Did I say the word of the Lord?
Speaker 3: Did I speak the word of the Lord? Did I
Speaker 3: say what God gave me to say the best I
Speaker 3: could say it with a stammering tongue and a limited
Speaker 3: vocabulary and a monkst corner South Carolina accent.
Speaker 4: Did I say the word of the Lord?
Speaker 3: Not how somebody else said it, not how I should
Speaker 3: say it, not how I would say it if.
Speaker 1: I was smarter.
Speaker 3: Did I say it to the limit of my IQ?
Speaker 3: Did I speak the words of God? And when the
Speaker 3: word of the Lord came to this man, it was
Speaker 3: so personal. The Bible says something that I think you
Speaker 3: need to see before you hear what Jesus said to him.
Speaker 3: I want to show you something. In John chapter five,
Speaker 3: verse five, This is the part that made me cry
Speaker 3: when it says when Jesus saw him, excuse me, that's
Speaker 3: verse six. That's verse six, when Jesus saw him. Go
Speaker 3: back to verse five. Though one was lying there now
Speaker 3: lying is not his name, is his label. That's the
Speaker 3: condition he was in. And he was lying on a
Speaker 3: mat that was not his name, could have been. It
Speaker 3: is a name, but it's not his name. It's where
Speaker 3: he is, not who he is. I'm gonna preach this, Lord.
Speaker 3: I am going to preach this just like you showed me,
Speaker 3: because it was so beautiful how the Lord showed me
Speaker 3: in verse six. The key to all of this is
Speaker 3: when Jesus saw him justin circle.
Speaker 1: The word him.
Speaker 3: Now contrasts that when Jesus walked by. There's a blind person.
Speaker 3: There's a person who can't move. There's another person I'm
Speaker 3: not sure of their condition. There's somebody who's only been
Speaker 3: at the pool two weeks. Here's somebody who's been here
Speaker 3: two years. Here's someone who has been here thirty eight years.
Speaker 3: I'm speaking to somebody today, and this is not your
Speaker 3: first day in this situation.
Speaker 1: This is not your first frustration.
Speaker 3: That's all right, because the Bible says that Jesus saw him.
Speaker 1: I still got to show you what I mean.
Speaker 3: It says that Jesus saw him lying there. Now, if
Speaker 3: you fast forward, when the man gets up, the religious
Speaker 3: leaders see the man, but they see him a little differently.
Speaker 1: They label him differently.
Speaker 3: They label him according to his condition, and they label
Speaker 3: him according to their expectation. The Sabbath was supposed to
Speaker 3: be a day of no work, but they see him
Speaker 3: carrying a mat. The Sabbath was not a day where
Speaker 3: you can't make up your bed. The Sabbath was a
Speaker 3: day where you couldn't do commerce in the city. But
Speaker 3: they've twisted it, they have labeled it. Their label has
Speaker 3: become a lie. Did you know that religion will always
Speaker 3: try to label something that the Lord gave you, and
Speaker 3: instead of using it to lift a burden, it will
Speaker 3: create one. So you begin to see God as the
Speaker 3: person who's perpetually disappointed in you.
Speaker 1: God is not disappointed in you.
Speaker 3: How can he be disappointed in what he appointed? If
Speaker 3: he called you, that means he knew you would be
Speaker 3: in this situation before you were in this situation. You
Speaker 3: think you can surprise God. You think God's like I
Speaker 3: wish I would have done a scouting report on them.
Speaker 3: You think God is somehow mesmerized by your weakness? Now
Speaker 3: people are People are very different the religious leaders in
Speaker 3: verse ten, they have their focus somewhere completely different.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that the.
Speaker 3: Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed,
Speaker 3: it is the Sabbath, the law forbids.
Speaker 1: You to carry your mat. Now, ho on, I'm confused.
Speaker 3: They are looking at a man and they are talking
Speaker 3: about a mat. How can they only see the mat
Speaker 3: and not the man? No, no, no, I'm honestly asking
Speaker 3: how can they see a man who has never walked before?
Speaker 1: If he's thirty eight years old. Maybe he did walk a.
Speaker 3: Little while before those thirty eight years, we don't know.
Speaker 3: But for almost forty years he hasn't been able to walk.
Speaker 1: And he's walking and they.
Speaker 3: Walk up to him and say, hey, you can't do that, and.
Speaker 4: He's like, I know. I didn't think I could either.
Speaker 3: But I met a man had he walked by me
Speaker 3: that he stopped for me.
Speaker 1: Keeddy talked to me.
Speaker 4: Eddy told me that get up God, take it up
Speaker 4: and walk. He I'm walking in the power of his words.
Speaker 7: And I'm walking in the potential of a brighter tomorrow
Speaker 7: and I'm living in the life.
Speaker 4: Of a new day.
Speaker 1: I'm just speculating.
Speaker 3: I think this man started singing at this point. I
Speaker 3: think he started singing, look at what the Lord has done.
Speaker 4: I'm never going back to the way.
Speaker 3: That's why I got my mat, because I'm not going
Speaker 3: back saying, not going back, saying, not going back.
Speaker 4: Give on my spot cause.
Speaker 3: I'm cause I'm take my man because I'm all right.
Speaker 1: We need to work on y'all's rhythm and call it
Speaker 1: the spot.
Speaker 8: My man is walking, and you're talking about a math.
Speaker 8: I'm a practice. You're talking about a mac. I'm a man.
Speaker 3: You can't see the man for the math. And it
Speaker 3: makes me wonder, what's your mat that I can't see?
Speaker 3: That's got you magnifying mind? This man has to be singing.
Speaker 1: Carrying a mat.
Speaker 3: He's not going back to the place he's been for
Speaker 3: thirty eight years.
Speaker 1: That isn't working anymore. Man, he's happy too.
Speaker 3: He's happy carrying that man because he's holding something that's
Speaker 3: been holding him his whole life.
Speaker 1: Boy, he's happy. He turns around. Goodbye.
Speaker 3: Yes today five covered colonades. Goodbye colonades, y'all missed it.
Speaker 4: I'm living in the line of a new day.
Speaker 6: I won't waste another then in on my oldways.
Speaker 1: Praise the Lord.
Speaker 3: He's not even saved yet, not even born again. He
Speaker 3: don't even know it is Jesus yet. He doesn't find
Speaker 3: that out until later.
Speaker 1: See.
Speaker 3: Sometimes God does it now, but you pray.
Speaker 4: Later because you didn't even know he was doing it.
Speaker 3: That's the tide I feel God saying, praise.
Speaker 5: Me now and I'll explain it later.
Speaker 3: My man is walking talking about I'm dancing on the
Speaker 3: I'm carry and the mat that I want Slade on
Speaker 3: Carrie and the mat that I want Slade carry and
Speaker 3: the mat that I want.
Speaker 6: Slade or carrying the mat.
Speaker 4: I mean this man ain't heavy.
Speaker 3: Carrie in the batter carry.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you can't do that. You can't do that, Yes
Speaker 4: I can.
Speaker 1: We're not doing the stairs. Get up, and here's the pharisee.
Speaker 3: He's like, carrying the mat, you can't do that. No,
Speaker 3: you're doing it wrong, carrying that I want.
Speaker 1: You can't do that.
Speaker 6: No, you're doing it wrong, carrying the men where I.
Speaker 3: Used to like, you can't do that because this is
Speaker 3: the wrong day.
Speaker 1: No, we got confrontation.
Speaker 4: Y'all don't know how to act in church?
Speaker 3: What kind of churches? What kind of churches?
Speaker 7: This this is the house my mercy.
Speaker 4: This is a place stark gray. This is a place
Speaker 4: where I am not what I did.
Speaker 3: I am not what I was.
Speaker 5: I am who fled.
Speaker 6: Said by, can't do that, can't do that, just no way,
Speaker 6: can't do that new loop.
Speaker 1: I listen to that.
Speaker 9: Man said, I'm making this up on the car, off
Speaker 9: the cough. I don't know if it's any good. But
Speaker 9: they said, the law says you can't. The man said,
Speaker 9: the word says.
Speaker 1: Otherwise. Somebody shout otherwise otherwise.
Speaker 3: And the hand of the Lord was upon me, and
Speaker 3: he took me down to the valley, and the valley
Speaker 3: was full of bones, and they were very dried. And
Speaker 3: the bones said death, and the bones said over. But
Speaker 3: the word said otherwise, And God said, proph aside to
Speaker 3: the poems, prophosy to the marriage, prophesie to the bankruptcy,
Speaker 3: prophosy to the depression, proph aside to the blindness, proph
Speaker 3: aside to the lameness, A prophesie to your legs. I
Speaker 3: propheside to your righteousness in Christ. I prophesy, there is
Speaker 3: a better word than condemnation.
Speaker 5: Shame said died, But God said.
Speaker 7: Bo, I'm dancing on the grind. I'm dancing on the
Speaker 7: grasd I'm dancing on the grass.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. You can't dance in church. You
Speaker 1: can't be happy you're going through hell.
Speaker 4: I might be in it, but it is not in me.
Speaker 4: I'm not my mad. I'm not my mad. I'm not
Speaker 4: my bad decision. I'm not my shame. I'm not see abuse.
Speaker 1: I'm not my past.
Speaker 4: I'm not myself.
Speaker 9: I am.
Speaker 3: No what he loves.
Speaker 4: I'm for what he stopped five for. And I'm dass
Speaker 4: then on the grad.
Speaker 7: I'm dascing on the grave.
Speaker 4: I'm bassing.
Speaker 2: You can't death, you got moves.
Speaker 4: Show me your church dass yet, I'm on your feet
Speaker 4: and pray for shut up in hot.
Speaker 1: You can't do that. You can't dance on a grave.
Speaker 1: You can't get beauty for ashes.
Speaker 3: You can't be grateful when you still got a kid
Speaker 3: who's far away from God.
Speaker 1: You can't keep worshiping through tears.
Speaker 3: You can't keep trusting that God is good through cancer.
Speaker 4: You can't do that.
Speaker 3: But the word.
Speaker 4: Says otherwise.
Speaker 5: I said, no words set otherwise, the stone set dead,
Speaker 5: but no word says right.
Speaker 10: Get up, get up, get up, get out of gray,
Speaker 10: get up, get up, get get up, get up, get up, get.
Speaker 4: Up, see awesome.
Speaker 2: Get Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
Speaker 2: of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
Speaker 2: of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
Speaker 2: the link in the description to give now or visit
Speaker 2: Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more information and
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Speaker 2: Elevation Church.
Speaker 1: Thanks again for listening. God bless you.