ENCOUNTERS // Jesus Encounters the Impossible

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly podcast.

Church of the Lookout is an older Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at the lookout.church.

Good morning.

How's everybody doing?

Great.

I am very excited to be with you guys today.

I've spoken up here a couple of times, and I'm just thankful to have opportunities to be able to share with not just other churches and other youth groups and other environments, but with our own family.

So I'm very blessed to be here with you guys today.

If we haven't met, my name is Shannon Clark.

I need to bring Tiana with me to do all my intros going forward because that was awesome.

I was like, wow, this is cool.

I'm wow, I felt really good about myself.

So I just wanted to uh introduce myself.

As you saw in the action figure, it's so funny because it's two dogs.

I'm like extra Shiloh.

I'm like, my dog is amazing.

I love my dog, but um yeah, so there's other things that mark me other than two very specific things with Shiloh.

But I do have a wonderful dog, and um she's been my like little companion for the last, I don't know, 15, 12 to 15 years, somewhere like that.

Um but I'm really grateful to be with you guys this morning, and I do believe that the Lord has something that he wants to deliver to us today.

Um, I do believe that there is significant breakthrough that the Lord actually wants to give to us, and I do believe that we're gonna walk out of here with a new sense of faith and a new sense of his spirit, and I do believe that the Lord is gonna restore in us some of that childlike wonder again.

And I believe that that's what he is doing.

I believe that that is the goal of today.

So, you guys ready for some of that?

How many of you guys need a little more faith right now?

How many of us need a little more hope right now?

Believe me, I am in this camp, you guys.

So when I'm preaching today, it is not at you, it's really for me.

So you guys just get to come for the ride, okay?

So, um, would you turn with me to John 5, 1 through 15?

We're gonna share about a passage in scripture.

Many of us might know this.

It's gonna be about the man at the pool of Bethesda.

How many of us know the story?

Okay, a few of us.

Some of some of us may have never heard the story, so it'll be great.

We're gonna read the whole passage.

So also buckle up because we are gonna read a lot of scripture.

Turns out we're a church and we believe the Bible.

So um, and I just want to also let you know, I am an interactive preacher, so if you're dead quiet, I'm going to ask for a response somewhere.

So just so you know, like I'm gonna look for something back and forth.

So just get ready.

I do want you to receive, so no pressure if you're all also an introvert and you're like, no, don't don't ask me to do anything.

So, John 5, we're gonna read 1 through 15.

After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is now there is in Jerusalem by the sheepgate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porches.

In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

For when an angel went down at a certain time to the pool and stirred the water, then whoever stepped in first, after stirring the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.

Sounds awesome, right?

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity for thirty-eight years, say thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and he and knew he had already been in that condition a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be made well?

The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.

But while I'm still coming, another steps down before me.

Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed and walk.

And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked.

And that day was the Sabbath.

The Jews therefore said to him who was cured, It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to carry your bed.

And he answered them, He who made me well said to me, Take up your bed and walk.

Then they asked him, Who is the man who is the man who said to you, Take up your bed and walk?

But the one who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn a multitude being in that place.

Afterward, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, See, you have been made well.

Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.

Verse 15 The man departed and told the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well.

This is the word of the Lord.

So I'm gonna just pray.

I know we prayed, but we need Jesus to show up.

So, Lord, we just invite your presence.

Lord, I thank you for what you are doing in this room.

I already feel your presence, Lord, in this space.

I feel an openness in the spirit.

Lord, I just ask that you would open hearts, open spirits, open our minds, open our ears, open our eyes, Jesus.

That you would lift any blinders, Lord, any earmuffs in the spirit that would just dismiss anything that you are speaking.

And Lord, I ask that, Holy Spirit, you would speak louder than any word I could say, that you would speak to hearts this morning, and anything that's just not of your spirit would just fall to the ground, and everything that is of your spirit would take root.

Lord, I just thank you that you are gonna set many free today, that you're going to release a gift of faith again, that you are going to release that childlike wonder, and you're gonna set us free from disappointment, discouragement, and things that have held us back from what you want to do.

We bless and honor your name, Jesus.

Amen.

So I'm just gonna go back to the scripture here.

Now, this is uh this is a really long passage in the context of this passage.

We see Jesus coming in the middle of a feast.

Um, theologians don't know exactly which feast this is, it's not specific, but they say it's one of the big three.

So it's either a Passover, it's Purim, or it's uh another one that I don't remember.

So it's one of the three big ones, which would gather the Jews to the temple to do sacrifice and worship the Lord as according to the law.

And Jesus finds himself just stumbling into this place uh called Bethesda, and it's this pool of Bethesda.

And there's either this superstition that's wrapped around this area, or it's actual fact that whenever the waters are stirred up by an angel, that the person that gets into the water gets healed.

And so it's just crowded with all these people who are sick, blind, lame, you know, probably lepers, probably a lot of different things present in that space.

And it says in verse 5, it says, now a certain man was there who had an infirmity for 38 years.

38 years.

I'm 35.

So this guy has been with some type of infirmity for a real long time.

And that's three years longer than I've been alive or present here, which I'm like, that's a long time.

That's a long, long time.

And it's not clear if this man had an infirmity from birth, so we don't know if he's just 38 years old, or if he had some type of accident or some type of situation that caused him to have this infirmity, whether it was disease or whether it was something like a, you know, biblical car accident, right?

And so the Greek word for infirmity, you're gonna hear me try to test this word out, okay?

It's astheninia, which means feebleness, feebleness of mind or body, malady, morally, frailty, disease, infirmity, sickness, or weakness.

And it was clear that he had an impossible situation that he was present in all the time.

And I can't imagine personally what kind of disappointment that would lead to.

Can you imagine?

I'm sure you guys can.

I'm sure we can all tap in somewhere about the disappointment of this guy that's been sitting at the pool of Bethesda seeing people get healed day in, day out, month in, month out, year after year, and not being able to see it himself.

I know for many of us, including myself, we have had situations that have created so much disappointment in our lives, where we see somebody else get the breakthrough, where we see somebody else get the car, get the marriage, get the job, get the things that we've been asking the Lord for breakthrough and get the healing.

And it leaves us sometimes wanting, right?

I know for myself, with disappointment, it's like one of the biggest things that will hold you back in life.

Disappointment has a way of being able to cloud our perspective, and it has a way of causing everything that we see in our life through that lens, through the foggy lens of disappointment.

And I know for some of us there's things that we've been praying for, we've fought for, we've expected for, we put faith towards, and they just didn't turn out exactly the way we expected, or they just haven't come to pass.

And it's just been a long time.

Can anybody relate?

Can anybody relate to that?

Because I sure can.

Like sometimes we're waiting for the healing.

Sometimes the child wakes walks away from the Lord.

Sometimes you get fired from the job that you really fought for or believed in.

The marriage falls apart, the bad diagnosis happens, something in your body doesn't work anymore, the person you believed for healing actually dies.

The dream or the prophetic word hasn't come to pass for decades.

There's a lot of these things that we can relate to, and I'm can I feel the tension in the fact that I believe that the Lord actually wants to address these things, which is a real tender area.

For me, I have found myself going, I don't know if you want to, I want you to touch that, Lord.

I don't want to get disappointed there again.

I don't want to put myself into that place of risk again.

Can anybody relate?

Yeah.

But one of the things that I felt in the process of that is that we're in good company with all of these things that have weighed on our hearts and weighed on our souls and weighed on our on our spirits.

Because I'm pretty sure that David was pretty disappointed sitting in a desert with a bunch of ragtag guys that he didn't want to lead, being chased down to be murdered by the one guy who was a father in his life, but he had a prophetic word saying that he was gonna be king.

I'm pretty sure I'd be real disappointed.

To be honest, I'd probably just be like, well, okay, I'm just gonna forget that.

I'm gonna put that on the back burner.

How about Joseph sitting in the prison?

He has a prophetic word, he has a dream, he has a thing that the Lord has given to him, and now he has been falsely accused multiple times, and now is sitting in the backside of a prison cell with zero hope, zero perspective, zero things.

We're in good company.

We're in really good company with those who have been disappointed, and yet we have a good hope ahead of us because we got to see the story unfold in their lives.

Amen.

And one of the things that I had a picture of this morning as I was praying, I just saw a picture of different people who have who like have the word from the Lord and even have had hope in the past, or even have had just different circumstances that have hit our lives, whether it was any of one of those lists or any other things that we could all put our finger on of going, that was disappointing, that was hurtful, that was hard.

I just saw a picture of the Lord like inviting us to move forward, and it was as though this person was trying to like move forward, but their wrist had like shackles, and it was connected to a big cement block that said disappointment.

And it was one of those things that you couldn't move past a certain point because this thing was holding you back.

And I believe that God wants to actually break us free of disappointment today and break us free from the expectation or the lens of that thing.

And I want to be really tender with this because I've been in seasons where, like right now, I'll be really honest, I've been in a season where the Lord has had his finger on disappointment in my life.

And it is not fun.

But I'll tell you what, in the process of that, there's freedom on the other side.

And there's freedom that's available to each of us today.

And I'm just gonna invite you guys, like, if there, I just want to set the pressure, like take the pressure off, because this is a tender subject.

It's gonna hit tender places, I think, in our hearts and lives, and we just are sitting with the Lord in some areas.

So if you just find yourself crying, who cares?

This morning I found myself just crying, and I was like, I don't even know why I'm crying.

And I just had tears just falling.

So I'm actually prepared myself over here for some Kleenex.

So if you find yourself feeling some things and just don't even have language for it, please have freedom to be in that spot.

No one cares.

Everybody wants to get freedom today.

I do.

Do you guys?

Yeah.

So I just want to give you freedom.

If there is tears, go grab Kleenex.

If you need to get into a separate space, please have freedom to move.

You don't have to sit where you are.

You can have a moment with the Lord.

So just give yourself freedom and internal freedom to say yes to the tears.

Okay?

One of the beautiful things about this man, he's been sitting there for 38 years, and he's watching day in and day out.

These people are getting healed around him.

But that's not the end of the story for this guy.

The best part is yet to come, right?

Jesus shows up.

And one of the things that I really loved about Marie and our team with worshiping this morning, it just felt so connected for me.

Was that, well, you meet me here again?

Is this invitation for Jesus to show up in our lives again, right?

And I just remember, as we're looking in this, in verse 6, it says, When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been in this condition for a really long time, he said to him, Do you want to be made well?

What I want to point out here is that Jesus saw him lying there and knew.

Jesus shows up on the scene watching this man.

Now, this whole power, like this whole area, is full of people who need a breakthrough.

But Jesus sees the one who that one.

He goes, That's the one.

And Jesus looks, he perceives.

Before he does anything, he just watches.

He's just watching.

The Greek word for new is hera, which means literally to stare at.

I like that.

To discern clearly, to attend to, to behold, perceive, see, take heed, and this is my favorite, become acquainted with by experience.

Jesus knew.

Jesus saw.

And he observed, and he was sitting there and he watched this man while the man was watching what?

The waters.

He had no idea that Jesus had shown up on the scene in a normal day, in a normal hour, in a normal feast.

He had no idea that Jesus had just shown up in his world and that the answer was right in front of him.

But Jesus, being present, watches the man while the man is watching the waters.

How many of us know when we've been disappointed and we've been disappointed in God, or we've been disappointed in others, or we've been disappointed in the church, or we've been disappointed in politics or country or our kids or whatever it is, oftentimes we kind of push ourselves away from the Lord, and I'm gonna look to something else to be my breakthrough.

Whether that's a relationship, whether that's, you know, love, money, a job, some type of provision, we tend to often pull ourselves into a place of looking at something else for our breakthrough, especially if we've been disappointed in God Himself.

You go, okay, well, I'll just I'll look over here.

But the wonderful thing about Jesus is that he is watching and he is present.

So I just want to encourage us that actually Jesus, in your situation, in the situations that feels like 38 years, he is present.

He is present.

He sees.

He sees and he knows.

So I just want to give us grace to the fact that I oftentimes in disappointment literally need God to just see.

Do you see?

Do you see what's happening?

Do you see the timeline?

Do you see the years?

Do you see my contending?

Do you see my ups and downs and choosing to build into faith to faith?

Do you see?

How many of us have done that?

Do you guys know what I'm talking about?

And it's interesting because while this man is still looking towards something else, like in our society, this is very normal.

Like even if it was a superstition to get healed, that's what we do in our society.

We're looking for a new anti-aging diet.

We're looking for healing waters in Glenwood Springs or Pagosa.

We're looking for something to give us the breakthrough or things that we need, right?

And yet, none, while none of this is inherently bad, it will never address the underlying question inside of our hearts that are connected to that place, right?

It'll never actually satisfy the very thing that only God can speak to him to that spot.

It's the God spot.

And we might try to fill it with any kind of thing: money, success, relationships, love, all of the things.

We try to fill it, but we need that God spot to be addressed.

How many of us need a God spot to be addressed today?

I do.

So I just want to give us grace because I'm here in this spot too.

But one of the things that I love about Jesus in this is that he doesn't just come to observe.

However, it is the first part.

He doesn't just sit there to watch and go, bummer, that guy's faith wasn't quite enough.

He didn't look my way, so a bummer.

He missed his moment.

The thing is, is that Jesus doesn't just observe our situation, he moves towards the man, and he also poses a question.

Praise God that just God doesn't just observe our situation, but he actually moves towards us.

He moves towards us in those places of disappointment.

He moves towards us in the places that we need breakthrough.

And he poses this question: do you want to be made well?

And the thing is, is I'm asking, like, what was Jesus getting at?

What was Jesus trying to get at in our in this moment with this guy?

Because it's clear that he needs a breakthrough.

It's clear that he's been there a long time.

It's clear that Jesus is perceiving his journey up to this point.

But what was Jesus trying to get at?

He was trying to get at the vulnerable place in this guy's life.

Ugh.

For me, I'm like, ugh, a vulnerable place.

Jesus was trying to get to the unanswered breakthrough place.

Jesus was trying to get to the disappointed place.

He was trying to get to the desire place.

Was trying to get past the comfort of the good, bad, and ugly circumstances, stances that this guy had already gotten connected to and maybe gotten comfortable in.

Past a victim mentality, Jesus is going to this man and saying, I want to touch that spot.

I want to touch that vulnerable spot.

Jesus goes straight to the root issue, which puts this man into a position with a simple question, as Jesus does, with one question.

He can put us into a corner where you're like, oh.

He puts this guy into a position where he must, this guy must decide if he wants to put vulnerability back on the table.

If he puts it back on the table, like all of us, if we put that vulnerable spot, that disappointed spot back on the table, it gives an opportunity and a risk for it to become unanswered yet again.

Does anybody know what I'm talking about?

I do.

I just, I'm like, I know that spot, and it's actually really fresh in my life, too.

But Jesus still poses the question nonetheless, do you want to be made well?

Today there is an invitation for us where Jesus is asking a question deep on the inside of us is do you want to be made well?

Because there is a journey in this, and there is real things that have real evidence and real weight to the disappointment and the real things happened.

Real things happened, real life happened, and yet Jesus is saying to us, will you let it go?

Do you want to be made well?

Will you come to me and will you will do you want to be made well?

I know for myself, like when in the seasons of disappointment, it feels like when Jesus puts his finger on something, I'm like, nope.

I want to lock the key, I want to throw away the key from my heart, I want to shove that down, and then in those seasons, something else will happen that just builds evidence about the disappointment that was in my life, and that the Lord wants to address those things, and I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna put that behind that door again, and I'm gonna shut that door and lock it.

How many of us know what that means?

Or that's like I do.

But Jesus wants to actually address these things in our lives, he actually wants to meet us in those spaces because he has a greater hope for us.

He actually has a greater thing for us to put our perspective on.

He has a future and a hope for us.

Amen.

He has breakthrough.

He actually is breakthrough.

Turns out, like we don't serve a God who doesn't have breakthrough.

We serve a God who is breakthrough.

He is the one that cut through sin and death.

He is the one who broke through things.

So we don't actually have, we have a real hope.

We don't actually have to stay there.

Because if we stay there, we're actually just as in bondage as the world.

Now, I'm not demeaning the fact that we have, there's real things.

Can we just agree about that?

Can we go to the other side and kind of swing to the other side of this of saying, that's real, that's important, grief's important, all of those things are important.

This is not a pick yourself up strive message.

This isn't a we're gonna believe God and tunker down type of message, but I do want to speak to the fact that Jesus himself wants to address these things.

He wants to address it in your life because he wants you free.

He wants you free because free people set people free.

And it's unto the world getting to know a good God and a good Father and a good Jesus that it's in us.

And it and what Tiana spoke about, what Gary spoke about, what Jesse spoke about over the last few weeks is that we have to receive something first so we can give it away.

Because we want that one person that we're praying for to come to the Lord.

But we don't want them to just come in and then have disappointment in their lives and then they're looking just like us when we're a mess in those places, right?

We want them to be free too.

We want to be free as a free people because it says that Jesus came for freedom's sake to set us free.

It's for freedom's sake that he came to set us free.

Verse 7, it says, the sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I am coming, another steps down before me.

This to me really speaks of a lot of pain.

I can read through the lines on this one where I go, I can hear ears of experience.

I can hear stories that run through this guy's mind, hearing that statement, where it says he's putting that vulnerability back on the table.

And he responds to Jesus by saying, Here it is.

But don't you notice that there is a hope creeping behind that question?

Like I feel like I can read through the lines where I can hear this guy say, There's no one to help me, but will you?

Will you help me get to the waters?

Will you help me get my breakthrough?

Will you help me in those places?

But Jesus has a different answer.

It's a little different than what this guy expected.

It came in a different package than he asked for.

Because this guy was his perspective was I get in those waters, I get healed.

Very specific.

Very, very specific.

But Jesus comes on the scene scene and he says to him Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed and walk.

No pool needed.

And in verse 9 it says, and immediately, say immediately.

The man was made well, took up his bed, and walked, and that day was the Sabbath.

Amen.

Right?

Thank God that we don't actually only have to sit there while Jesus observes our situation and we're going, Are you gonna show up?

What are you gonna do?

And Jesus actually shows up and says, I'm gonna make you well.

I'm actually gonna do it.

I can actually do it in a moment.

It said immediately.

Talk about a sudden that happened in this guy's life.

He sat there for 38 years.

38 years.

And in a moment, God sets him free.

That is our hope.

We actually have a God who can set you free in a moment.

Sometimes it takes therapy, sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it takes those things for our freedom to unfold.

So I'm not demeaning that.

I I love therapy.

I think it's really, really helpful when you're walking with somebody spirit-filled and walking with somebody into deep places.

However, we also deep we also have a God that will set us free in a moment.

And I actually believe that he wants to uproot today disappointment in your life.

I believe that he actually wants to pull up, even very gently, but pull up the very long route of disappointment that has been in each of our lives.

I want that freedom, do you?

I have eight pages of notes, you guys.

All right.

Can I tell you a rather fresh story about my life and somehow how this is unfolding in my life?

Um I usually don't like to share fresh stories.

I usually like to have them like nice and packaged up.

Have had a little history attached to them.

Um, but this is a freshie, okay?

So if you guys can just be with me, this is a fresh story of my life.

Um so part of my story, you guys, I'm 35 years old.

Um, I'm not married, been single for a long time, but I'm dating a guy over here.

Whoop, whoop.

Ow, ow!

So uh that's John Mark, by the way.

Introduce yourself.

It's great.

Um and but I've been single, and I have ever since moving out of my house, from when I was 18 years old, I have had roommates.

I have had many roommates.

Guess how many roommates I've had.

43.

I'm a professional roommate, you guys.

I've got a long history of being a roommate.

I realized, I think yesterday, I realized that I've been like out of my house and being a roommate for as almost as long as I was a child from like one to eighteen.

So this year I'll have had 18 years of experience.

I mean, if you get that on a resume, that's awesome.

And um, I I as many of you guys would think, when you live with other people, sometimes it's wonderful, sometimes it's awful, right?

We've we've all experienced that.

Don't look at the person next to you.

We've all experienced that kind of thing where it's tough.

It can be really tough, it can be beautiful.

I have some of my very best of best friends that I've lived with.

Tiana's one of them, Estie's one of them.

There's so many people who I've actually built like long-term lifelong relationships with, but I've also had a lot of stories.

If you need a story for living how to like work through conflict through a living situation, boy, do I have it.

I've got it.

So if you need a little wisdom there, I'm here, I'm your girl.

And um in 2019, I was the last girl of a community house that I was living up in Boulder.

And so Tiana was part of that house, Gwen um Woodall was part of that house, um, Estee was part of that house, but I was the last one of our core group of girls.

And the girls that had moved into that house after they had left were non-believers, had a very different value system, very different value system than I as a Christian have.

So it was very interesting.

Very, very interesting.

And at that point, I found myself going, you know what, I just really want to live alone.

Like I just want a season.

I was 29.

I just want a season where I get to be able to put the forks that I want in my forks in the right drawer that I choose.

Not just because that we all made a consensus decision on.

And I've been in that for a long, long time.

And so I've had all these roommates, I just didn't want to have all those compromising things.

And do you guys know what I'm talking about?

You just want something for yourself.

Um and so I decided at that point in 2019, I decided, you know what, the best thing for me to do is get out of debt.

I'm gonna just take some humble pie and get out of debt.

I ended up moving in with my dad and stepmom living in their basement, which felt really humbling as a 29-year-old to get out of debt.

For all of us, it probably sounds really like wisdom, but like for me as a 29-year-old, it felt really like humbling, really humbling for me.

But um, and I knew I was only gonna be there for two or three months.

That was the plan.

It was just so that I could just like really attack my debt, really go after it, go out after um um credit card debt and some other things.

And about a month into this, the basement flood where I'm staying.

Basement completely floods.

And um all of a sudden I am upheavaled into my friend Jess's house.

And I tell her, I go, it's only gonna be six to eight weeks, they got some repairs that are gonna come.

I'm just gonna stay here for six to eight weeks, don't worry.

Well, repairs took a little longer, and so six to eight weeks went to maybe a couple of months, which then turned into a little bit closer to a year, and then COVID hit.

No one's moving during that time.

Uh, and then I also got laid off during COVID, and that turned into another year, and then I started the standard, I didn't have a job, which turned into another year, and then another year, and that six weeks turned into six years.

Not what I was thinking.

And while that's been like a really strong blessing in my life to live with my friend Jess and her family, there's been this longing in my heart to have this space with the Lord and have this one-on-one space and and this place where I was able to live alone for a season.

And so in the last three to four years, I've been looking, actively looking.

I've been, I've had it where I was trying to find a roommate and try to find a space to live in, an apartment, or try to find a townhouse.

Um, I have literally work worked with Josh Robertson to like look at houses to try to buy.

I have gone under contract for an apartment that ultimately fell through.

And I will tell you, it was disappointment after disappointment after disappointment.

And many of us know in this economy it sucks.

It sucks.

Where it's really tough, especially when you're a single woman who does have only one income to process every single expense.

And I'm not demeaning that marriages have that same too, but it's it is tough as a single woman and and to try to figure this thing out in our economy and not live in the ghetto.

Amen.

And so um I was pretty frustrated.

I've been mad at the Lord.

Do you guys know what I mean when you're mad at the Lord?

You could be totally good with God in all these other areas, but you're mad at him over here.

Do you guys know what I mean?

Like they get to sit at both side like sides of the table.

I'm like, I'm pissed about that.

So um, and it led to a lot of disappointment because I just found myself feeling like I constantly was trying to do the right thing and seek the Lord, and then it felt like he wasn't saying anything either.

So it just felt like this like, I am knocking on the door, Lord, and you just have nothing to say about this.

And it's been six years.

It was at that time, it was like four years, five years, six years.

Like it just kept going.

And I just kept feeling this like, am I ever gonna leave my friend's house?

Like, is this actually gonna happen?

And and truthfully, I was really frustrated and really, really, really mad at the Lord over this.

And then it was at the youth camp.

Whoop, whoop, this last time, June 20th.

This is new, like I said, this is a fresh story.

So at the youth camp, I was super frustrated and honestly felt really vulnerable with the Lord on this because I'm like, you haven't been talking about this for six years, so why would you talk now?

And I sat in my hammock while we were on a break, all of the students were jumping into like this river pond thing, and I'm sitting in my hammock, and I just felt this prompting of like, honestly, frustration.

How many of us have prayed out of frustration?

Frustration could be a very good incentive to prayer.

Um, but I was like, Lord, I just need to know if this is the right time to move, because I felt like it's been the right time to move for a long time, and you've said nothing about this, and either I need you to say that it's not the right time, so I have grace to stay, or I need you to speak to the fact that I need to move and things would shift.

And so I was just like, here it is, God.

But at the same time, I felt so vulnerable because I was like, you haven't said anything about this, and I'm not sure if I'm gonna hear right, because I have a lot of desire attached to this.

And I don't want to just hear what I want to hear, I want to hear what you have to say, but I'm kind of scared of what you have to say, because if you say the other thing, that's tough.

That's tough.

And I don't know how to process that.

So um, as I'm sitting there though, I heard the Lord, when I write in my journal, that's how the Lord speaks to me, gets my brain to slow down enough for me to actually hear God oftentimes, is to write it out.

And I heard the Lord say, now's the time.

And I'm like, I hope this is you.

I hope this is you.

And I kind of just left it there.

I went, okay, well, we'll see.

Because there's been other seasons of my life where I thought I heard the Lord, and it just didn't turn out the way I thought it would.

So I'm like, all right, we'll see.

A few hours later, I received a text from a friend of mine.

A few hours later, just mind you, I've been waiting for six years, five years, or a few hours later.

Would you consider looking for an apartment in downtown with me, or are you or are you looking to live alone?

What you guys don't know is that I've actually ever I've always wanted to live in downtown Denver.

Like I have like a real special place in my heart for Denver.

And I know most of us would be like, my god, why would you go there?

But but I actually have a real sweet space for that, and there's like some really cool places down there.

I've got some really good recommendations for restaurants for date nights, just so you know.

And it's I actually just really love downtown Denver and have always wanted to live in downtown Denver, but didn't know if I'd feel safe enough to live alone or just a lot of things.

It's really expensive to live there, especially alone.

Like, yeah, so I get this text message and I'm going, well, that's interesting.

And honestly, I didn't have enough faith in my spirit to go, this is God! Like, that wasn't there.

That was like interesting.

I'm just taking note and like taking evidence with this because I've been waiting for so long, and I'm like, okay, that's interesting.

This is not what I expected because I've been praying to live alone for six years.

And my friend says, Do you want to live together?

On June 21st, she and I talked about it.

We started praying.

We said, I don't know if this is the Lord, but maybe we should just start exploring some options.

And then we went and saw a few different places, and then we started to see some things start to move and start to shift.

And within that weekend, we had looked at a few places.

Within 10 days, we decided on a place that we would move in in three weeks.

That's tomorrow for me, you guys.

Thanks! I'm very excited, you guys.

It's been a journey because I've also been like, oh my gosh, I've been waiting for this for six years.

But I will tell you, um, it came in a totally different package.

You guys, it came not looking at the waters for the breakthrough, for this expectation of living alone.

You know what the ex the the breakthrough was?

Another roommate.

My 44th roommate.

And yet I also feel the the Lord on it, and I go, I think this is the Lord's breakthrough here for me.

So it's a fresh story, and that's tomorrow, you guys.

So I'm moving tomorrow.

It's been crazy.

Yay, Jesus.

I'm so very, I'm very happy.

It's it's been interesting to hold on to at different points, too, in this journey, being like, is it a is it actually happening?

It's been six years, you know.

But what I believe for us today is that God wants to remove disappointment and restore faith back to our hearts and actually believe who he says he is, to get our eyes off of the circumstances and back on Jesus.

I'm telling you, like all of the people of faith looked for something very specific, had disappointment, it didn't come in the package, and yet God was still faithful in the end of the story.

He writes good stories, you guys.

He's writing a good story in your life.

He's writing, and it's if he's writing the story, and you know what?

He likes good tension.

You know, if you watch a movie, there's not like a real problem in the story.

It's kind of a it's not a great story, right?

Like if Frodo doesn't have to travel across miles to get to Mount Doom, and he's like, oh, it's next to the Shire, and you're just like, bop.

Not a good story.

But he writes good stories in our life.

And I'll tell you, I know for myself, there's a question that's still in my heart where I go, why six years, God?

Why did it take six years to get here?

Why did it take 38 years for this guy to get his breakthrough?

I don't know.

And truthfully, I don't know.

But when I was praying about it, I was reminded of that story in John 9, where it says that when Jesus is talking to the disciples and they're they're addressing this blind man that's there, and it says, he says, um, or the disciples say to him, Was it his parents' sin, or was it his sin that led him to be blind?

And Jesus said, and this is what it says in New King James, it says, But I'm uh it says, Jesus answered, Neither this man nor his parents have sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.

In the NLT it says this it was not because of his sins or his parents' said sins, said Jesus, but this happened so that the power of God could be seen in him.

So what I can tell you is I don't know what you're facing.

I don't know what you've faced.

I am certain that it's the Lord is writing a good story.

I don't know all of the pieces.

I don't know why.

I mean, we have good answers of some of those things that we've got a real enemy that hates us.

We live in a fallen world, but sometimes that's not quite enough for the why question inside of us.

But I will tell you this: that it will end in the power of God.

Your story, with whatever impossibility you're looking at, whatever situation you are confronting, it will end in the power of God.

Amen?

It will end in the power of God.

Say that.

It will end with the power of God.

It's going to shift.

Something's gonna break.

Something's gonna move.

Romans 8.28 says he turns all things.

Say all things.

Not just the cool things, not the studly things, not the the uh, you know, our our high moments.

He turns all things.

Every trauma you've ever experienced, he turns all things, every single thing, to the good of those who believe him, to the good of those who believe him.

And we may not have a guarantee about the outcome, but we have a guarantee in his nature about who he is.

We have a guarantee that we have a God who is faithful to us.

We have a we have a guarantee that he is healer, that he is breakthrough, that he is provider, we have a guarantee in his nature.

I don't know what the outcome might be in your life, and to be honest, we may not see it in our lifetime.

In Hebrews, we see that with the hall of faith.

But we have a good and faithful God who is intervening on your life, and it will end in the power of God.

Amen?

Amen.

I want to invite the uh the worship team to come on up, and we're gonna just spend some time to to worship, and I'm just gonna read some scripture and declare this over you because we need a little truth in this spot.

Amen.

We need truth to sink in where there has been something else occupying that space.

So I just want to invite you guys.

Let's go ahead and stand.

I'm gonna just read this over you.

Maybe stretch a little bit.

Maybe give yourself a little room.

If you guys wouldn't mind just playing a little bit, that'd be great.

Um how many of us appreciate Byron's mad skills?

Because I do.

Romans 8 28.

And we know that all things, say all things, work together for the good of those who love God, and those who are called, say called, according to his purpose.

Jeremiah 29, 11 says, For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Say a future and a hope.

Jeremiah Jeremiah 29, 13 says, And you will seek me and find me when you search me, search for me with all of your heart.

We will find him.

Philippians 1, 6 says, He who began a good work in you is faithful.

He is faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

He is faithful.

Say he is faithful.

Romans 8.31.

What then shall I say about these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8.38 through not 39.

For I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor uh anything created shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord.

Isaiah 55, 8 through 11.

This is one of my very favorite passages, and it's one of the most under misunderstood passages in Scripture.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and nor my ways your ways, says the Lord.

Now listen to this.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bud forth in bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return void, but it will sh it will accomplish all that I please, and it shall prosper in the thing that I sent it.

So shall my word that goes forth from my mouth, it shall not return to me void.

That word that you're carrying, that you've been carrying for years, the prophetic word that's on your life, the prophetic word that somebody spoke to you, the promise that he said, it will not return void.

There is a promise of God on that word, and it has the effect to release the thing that needs to happen in your life.

It will not return void, it actually has to cash in.

The word of the Lord has to cash in somewhere, but it will accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

We need to remember who our God is.

So I'm just gonna invite us to have a moment to be ministered to that place.

I believe that the Lord has his finger on some areas of your life.

And if it's not you, if you don't have disappointment in your life, great.

Praise God.

We'll have you pray for the people around us because we all need this breakthrough at a certain point in our lives.

We all do.

And so um, if you need a gift of faith and you want breakthrough in a place of disappointment in your life, and you are ready to let it go, because this is the thing.

Uh we need to be ready to let go of the disappointment.

We need to be ready to let go of the argument and the evidence against God or against people or against the church or against whoever of a certain area that hasn't been fulfilled.

We have to let go of the argument.

And if you want breakthrough in that area, I just want you to be brave and raise your hand.

So good.

If you're around these folks and you you don't need that, Lord, I just ask that you would just go around them and we're gonna be the ministry team around them together, and then we're gonna go into some time of worship.

So if you're around them and and if you would just lay a hand on them, and if you see somebody that doesn't have somebody praying for them, please go and reach out to them.

I'm just gonna pray for us.

Holy Spirit, we invite your presence to come and we wait for you.

We wait for you.

Holy Spirit, I thank you that you are the comforter.

You are comforter, you are comforter, and you care and you see.

God, I ask right now that you would come with your presence and you would wrap around hearts and you would wrap around minds and you would wrap around souls, you would wrap around those situations, those memories, those stored-up memories and bodies.

Lord, that you would come and surround us, Lord.

Come and surround us, Jesus.

And Father, I ask that any earmuffs to the Spirit or any blinders to the Spirit would be lifted right now off of eyes and off of hearts.

Jesus, we believe that you are gonna do a good work in our hearts today.

We believe you're gonna do a good work in my heart.

And I'm just gonna invite you, if if the Lord prompts you to some repentance, go there.

Go there and say sorry.

Say for sorry for believing the lie.

Say sorry for something that's been in that because the Lord needs to make room for for his breakthrough.

And in humility, Lord, I just say for even my own heart, Jesus.

I'm sorry for believing lies about your nature.

I'm sorry for believing lies.

And letting different circumstances write the story in my heart and in my in my mind.

That's not the story you're writing, Jesus.

Give me eyes to see, Jesus.

Give us eyes to see Jesus.

Give us eyes to see God.

Give us vision for what you're doing, Jesus.

And Lord, I ask that your spirit would speak now.

That people would hear your voice, even if it's been a long time.

Lord, I ask that you would let the tears flow.

Lord, I ask that you would cause for things to open up, things to open up in your in people's hearts.

And Father, in the name of Jesus, for any kind of area that the enemy has had jurisdiction in, in our hearts, in our minds, in our souls, any spiritual attack or things that have come against us.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I break the power of those things having jurisdiction in this in this house and in each of our lives.

Father, I break the power of the accuser over the ears.

Father, I silence the enemy right now.

I say no more.

You don't get to say any word about that issue, over that situation any longer.

We say yes and amen to the works and power of God.

We say yes and amen to his nature.

We say yes and amen to who you are and the truth that even if we have an unanswered question about our life and circumstance, that God, you are an answer and you are faithful to do the good work inside of us.

And Father, I ask even right now that you would show people, that you would show people that you are uprooting, uprooting that disappointment, uprooting that place.

And Father, for those who are asking for freedom, that they would walk out of this room free.

God, I ask that it wouldn't just be a 12-step program, but that they would walk out free.

God, I ask for a deliverance from disappointment.

A deliverance from discouragement.

Chronic disappointment, I command you to go right now in Jesus' name.

Chronic discouragement, I command you to go in Jesus' name.

And we shut the door to discouragement and disappointment right now in Jesus' name.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord.

And if you're just praying for them, if you get a picture or if there's things that the Lord is showing you, be tender as you share.

Remember, these are tender places in hearts, but don't be afraid to share what the Lord is speaking to you.

I believe that the Lord is going to release words to each of you for specific areas.

Lord, we thank you for the prophetic spirit in this house.

We thank you for the prophetic.

We thank you that you want to speak to your people in really specific ways to show us that you see us.