Desperate Need | John 4:43-54

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I can't believe I'm here doing what I'm doing.

I was here in 21 and I just was going into the cancer battle and God has really brought me a long ways, which I'll tell you a little more about here in a couple minutes.

Let me take a moment and say to you I've watched your services.

I wanted to be in tune with this series and what's Pastor Jeff's been talking about which, by the way, make sure you call him Dr Jeff.

I'm here today and I also want to help him get that doctorate.

So I want us to all he loves to be called Dr Jeff.

You guys all know that He'll kill me later, but it's a little joke with the Amangas that we enjoy.

But Dr Jeff, great to be here with him.

But I've been watching he had some one liners and I thought, wow, some of those were lame.

You know, I think I can do better, but after the first service I'm not sure I did.

What kind of car does Jesus drive?

A Chrysler.

That's a pretty good one, isn't it?

My biggest fear in life is being trapped in a small room with Santa because I'm afraid I would have claustrophobia.

Some of you have to think about that for a moment.

Moses led the people of Israel wandering through the desert for 40 years.

Ladies, this has proved that even in biblical times men didn't listen to their wives.

Then there you go.

My wife will be here next service and she'll be the loudest they.

Man, don't let worries get the best of you.

Remember, moses started out as a basket case.

That's a pretty good one.

I've tried in life to do a couple of businesses somewhat successful and I like this one who, in the Bible, had the greatest business plans of all the prophets.

You groaned on that one.

I got you Okay.

Pastor Jeff called me and said we're going through this series and he said I'd like for you to talk about John, chapter four, because he understood what I've been through health wise, and the passage seemed to fit and he and I both agreed that I would enjoy being here with you to share.

I will say to you both times I've come I've had a major trauma events, so please invite me back again without that.

Will you do that?

This passage in John, chapter four, we're going to talk about misplaced faith.

Where should your faith be placed?

Chapter four, verse 43, says that and the two days after two days, jesus left for Galilee.

Jesus pointed out that there's no honor for a prophet in his own country.

And when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him.

Now, if you understand why the Galileans were welcoming Jesus, he had done his first miracle with them and so they heard he's coming and they're like, hey, this guy who did the miracle turning water into wine, this is the guy you've got to come out.

So the crowds were following him.

Once more.

He visited Canaan, galilee, where he turned the water into wine, and there's a certain royal official whose son lay sick and even the royal officials had heard.

This man thought I have to get to Jesus and beg him to come and touch my son.

And Jesus responds and it almost to the crowd would seem like he was being rude to this man.

But he wasn't just talking to the man, he was talking to the crowd in general and he said unless you people see signs of wonders, you'll never believe me.

You want to see before you believe.

I want the reverse of that.

I want you to believe so you can see.

Miss Place Faith, you'll see it.

The royal official gets hold of Jesus and says sir, come down here, my son is dying.

Now this is interesting.

Jesus says to him go, your son will live.

I've read a lot of commentaries and focused on this and from everything I can gather is the man actually spent another day or two in Jerusalem or in Galilean.

He wasn't in a hurry to get home because he took Jesus at his word.

Well, the man goes home and you guys know the story.

When he inquired what time his son got better, they said yesterday at one in the afternoon.

The fever left him and the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus said to him your son will live.

So he and his whole household believed the second sign.

This is the second sign that Jesus performed after coming to Judea.

From Judea to Galilee.

Some things never change.

It still happens in the church.

Today, in fact, just last week, I was at a church and I walked in and I heard one lady say to another lady man, we have a large crowd today.

Oh, I know why because we're having a church dinner.

Sad to say, she probably was right, because that church puts on some great church dinner and they brought in Shealy's barbecue.

Anybody ever had Shealy's barbecue?

Fantastic barbecue.

And they brought it and the church was full and everyone came and was rejoicing.

This was just like in Old Testament times, new Testament times, the church went to get together typically for feast, for Passover, for the Festival of Harvest, the Festival of In Gathering, the Festival of Unleavened Bread.

Three times a year they would go to Jerusalem and the Word had spread already about Jesus turning the water into wine.

In this passage, the enthusiasm of the Galileans was not based on Jesus coming as a master.

He was coming as a miracle worker in their minds.

He was not coming as Savior, he was coming for signs and wonders and everyone wanted to see him, everyone wanted to follow him.

Dr Morris says in his notes in his commentary the very acceptance of Jesus was, in this way, a rejection of Jesus.

They wanted to give him honor for the food he was serving, but they didn't want to honor him as Savior and Lord.

Sometimes I wonder if we in the church don't do the same today.

Do we recognize that Jesus is here for more than to show?

He's here to be our savior.

He's here to bring change in our lives.

He's here to make us different?

Secondly, I see the centurion's reach.

It's the centurion.

He cries for help Sir, my child is dying.

And Christ turned around and it's almost like he's looking at the man, but he isn't.

He's looking at the crowd and he says oh, you people, unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.

Now, if you understand this centurion, according to what I studied, he had probably walked or ridden a horseback, ridden on horseback for 20 miles to get to Jesus.

He was driven by one thing an image of a little boy that was dying his very own son.

And then he's hit with Jesus saying unless you see signs and wonders.

These words almost seem harsh to a grieving father, but Jesus is needing to get the attention of the crowd and it's very evident.

If you look at the original language, going to the Greek, you would quickly see that this, unless you is really in Southern, unless you all, he was syndicating to the crowd.

It's a plural form of the word usage there.

And he's saying to the crowd you just don't get me.

I'm not just here for miracles, I want to be your master.

I'm not just here for signs, I want to be your savior.

And so Jesus is trying to give them a gentle rebuke as far as signs and wonders.

So you see, today people are still seeking signs and wonders.

I've traveled the world I don't know how many of you have.

But there's some places I've been that if someone walks in and someone did a miracle, the crowd's going crazy.

The crowd would be following that person everywhere.

Nothing's changed because of the miracle that has happened.

And Jesus is trying to say to them I didn't come to do miracles with regard to your earthly health and your earthly situation.

I came to do miracles with regard to your spiritual, your soul.

The official says to him sir, come down, my child is dying.

And Jesus saw that this man had an urgent need.

But he puts him to the test and he looks at him and he says let me say something to you.

You are following me also because you just want to see another miracle, but I want you to understand that you can believe in God, you can believe in me as your Savior.

You're saying, dr Smith, you're acting like you don't believe in miracles.

No, you remember I was here last.

I had come through an accident.

This was the car I was in when I was 30 years old.

I have 13 screws in my hip still to this day.

I have in this arm a battery pack.

You can see it there the wires.

I have a three inch screw.

My kids all want to get the screw driver.

It has a fillet set on it.

I tell them that's not the wise thing to do, let's not do that right now.

That would be pretty painful.

But I have that, and then that battery sets there and that battery generates, or did generate, impulses.

I had to have the top of this hip cut off.

They packed it because I had no elbow, no bone here structure.

So they cut the top of this hip, they packed it in, all the pulp in here of the bone and that's what's kept me going.

So now I can use this arm not like this one but I can force it.

You know doesn't hurt too badly and I can do this.

But I hear I can do like that.

So I've come back and I had to learn to walk again.

It took me almost a year to learn to walk again and I know what it is for God to touch.

God has done some tremendous things and coming through that, I knew God is a miracle worker.

So I'd been through that.

But after I was with you last time, I went to the doctor where I had blood in my urine and literally one day was taken to my knees and I thought I'm having a, you know, having a kidney stone.

And so I went to the doctor and when I came out from the doctor he said I'm not sure it's a kidney stone, but I'll let you know.

So they took some x-rays, did some diagnostic tests and at 8.30 in the evening I received a call from my doctor, who is a very good friend of mine.

He said, mark, he said I need to talk to you.

You have a mass in your left kidney.

My wife and I were floored.

I mean, I've already been through a year not walking, all the accident.

I've had enough pain.

I've lived with pain for 20 years, hard pain, and I'm like, wow, what's this about?

You know, I'm a pastor, I'm a president of a college, I just gave my life to Jesus to serve.

What's going on?

And then he says to me you need to get in as soon as you can.

So I went to the doctor.

They started looking at it and they decided the best treatment was to take out my left kidney.

And so the doctor said don't worry, we can take out your left kidney.

And so, since I was here with you last time, they took out my left kidney and one year after that I went back to the doctor to get my all clear sign.

And the doctor said, mark, we got a problem.

Your right kidney has cancer.

And so he said I'll tell you what he said I think I can take half of it.

And he said I think maybe you can still live with that.

He said it'll put us on the edge, but we hope you can.

And so I went back into surgery after a year and I had my right kidney half of it removed, and so for the last three years I've lived with half a kidney.

You can live with half a kidney.

Due to the cancer, I wasn't able to have a transplant.

They won't do that when you've got cancer.

You need to be free so long.

So that was part of my life.

So after all of that they came to me and said now we want to make sure that that right kidney doesn't get any more cancer.

So there's a new miracle drug called Ketruda.

We want to put you on Ketruda and you will be our first one in Columbia, south Carolina, to take this through this position that I really loved and trusted.

And he said we need to start this.

So I started Ketruda, a miracle drug.

I'd taken it for six months approximately, and I woke up one morning and I drove to work at the university there and we had a huge event going on, and so I had to speak to a thousand plus people and it was our hundredth anniversary, and I was excited.

I got into my office and I thought I'm in trouble, something's wrong, really wrong with me.

So I called two of my vice presidents.

I said, guys, you've got to come and help me right now.

And they took me off campus because we had a huge crowd and I didn't want to go down in front of a crowd.

And they took me off campus and I collapsed, called the rescue squad, called my wife and I went into the hospital.

So for five days they did every kind of test that you could imagine.

And on Friday they came to my wife and said the key truta has backfired on your husband, what we were trying to do.

Well, it's totally backfired.

We don't know why it could be, because he only has a half kidney and that was where I was going at that time.

And so you know, your husbands and we're gonna have to do a reverse process on him, and we'll start that on Monday the next week.

On Friday night I was in so much pain and they had given me so many narcotics.

I was just out of it and I had to have it to even function at all.

Friday night I'd get up.

I don't know how I did it.

I tried to get out of the bed.

I'm tied in bed because I was so out of it and I get and break loose and I fall over the edge of the bed and I knock a seven inch hole in my brain.

You saw that.

You saw what happened.

You saw the video earlier and that started an ordeal.

My wife came, 20 family members came and they prepared to say goodbye, or they said goodbye to dad and we went on.

They knew I had a couple of hours and the brain surgeon said to him.

He said you know, there's nothing we can do.

Your husband's bleed will not stop, had a blood clot on the brain, I had a lot of issues going on and the bleeding went top.

So he said you know he's done and everyone was there and my wife put out a call.

Some of you even told me you heard and in the next 24 hours 57,000 people on Facebook responded that they were praying 57 out of.

Facebook has a lot of negative, but I like it.

57,000 people started praying and the doctor came in the next morning and said I'm a brain surgeon and his assistant had come in before him and said he's not a believer.

But he just walked into the staff and said guys, there's something going on down in that room.

And he came into Debbie and to me and said sir, I have no explanation except you're a miracle out of his mouth a non believing doctor.

And from then on, for the next 60 days while I recovered in the hospital, I was known by the staff and the doctors as the miracle guy.

That's what they called me.

There was no reason.

It just couldn't happen Humanly speaking, and God decided to do something in my life.

I want to just stop and say something to you this morning.

God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above anything we ask or think.

Does anybody know where that passage is?

He finishes 320.

Now, unto him, that's able to exceedingly abundantly above.

And so today I'm able to come back.

It's been a year battle of learning.

I had to learn to walk again, second time in my life been in the hospital over a hundred days all told.

I had to learn to talk again.

I couldn't get out but a few words.

I remember on that 26th when I looked at my wife and said, honey, I love you.

Everyone was shocked and everyone was crying.

And I tell my wife now, for you couples, I want you to hear this We've been married 38 years faithfully.

We've been faithful to each other for 38 years and I say to her I'm going to tell you I love you 10 times a day, whether you want to hear it or not, because I didn't get to tell you for several days and so I've been doing that every day.

I love you.

The other day I said, honey, this is the fifth time today.

She looked at me and she said if you're counting, don't tell me anymore.

But my wife and I have had an experience of our love going so deep because of what God has done in a new way in our lives.

You see, god is a miracle worker, god does great things and I love this passage and I don't want you to miss this as I come to a close here.

If you read this passage John, chapter four, verse 50, jesus says go, your son lives what was happening?

Jesus had just performed another miracle, but we have a reversed process here.

Before, the crowd had been always oh, let's go see the miracle and then we will believe.

And Jesus reverses the whole process and he says to the centurion go and believe and you will see.

Can I say to you this morning there's some of you here.

You've been on a ride and you're trying to figure out your faith with Jesus and for a man who has died three times, for a man who was, I've seen, started entering heaven one time I was dead for two minutes and 50 seconds there is nothing on this earth that's going to keep me from going to heaven.

I have caught a glimpse of it.

It is absolutely something that I want to.

I just want to say to you you want to go, you want to go.

Don't let anything stop you from going to heaven and don't let anything stop you from understanding this faith process.

Don't have a mistaken faith in miracles, in earthly things.

I'm thankful I can walk and talk, but I'm going to tell you where really God, what he's done in my life, is.

My faith, because of what I've been through, is so deep in Jesus that there is no way I'm going to miss heaven and going to see my Lord and Savior.

True Praise God.

Where's your faithrest?

I've been following your series and I noticed Pastor Jeff tries to give you two or three or Dr Jeff, I should say, tries to give you two or three things to live on for this week.

I thought I'm going to a crowd, I can't tell you.

The last time I was here, my wife and I were going through so much the love that I got from this church.

It's like, wow, I loved it.

You're an awesome church.

Don't forget to continue that.

But there's three things I wanna leave you with.

Number one there are people crying all around us.

They're crying out Lord, touch me, lord, save me, lord, give me a miracle.

And let me say something to you.

Jesus hears those cries, but many times you're the person who has to direct them to the help source of Jesus Christ.

Don't forget that You're here for a reason.

I know I am here for a reason and every day I look for someone who's crying out Lord, help me.

Number two I'd say when you go through the crisis and storms, don't have your faith misapplied in the miracle.

I'm thankful God touched me.

I can't tell you how much I praise God for giving me a few more days on this earth with my family.

That's the thing I've loved the most.

I have two adopted sons, one 19 and the other 27.

I love those boys so much.

Their wives or one has a wife, one's gonna have a wife I think We'll see Getting close, but there's nothing like having that.

But here's what I've told my boys Boys, life's hard.

You've seen daddy go through it but, man, my faith has just gotten stronger and stronger.

Go deep with God so that when you go through the storms you will have a firm foundation.

Number three I love this.

I want you to do as Jesus did and share with the centurions that are out there the message that Christ saves, christ forgives, christ heals Christ is the answer.

As you go this week, look for that one person that you can love to the kingdom.

God bless you.

"' only usey as God, tutorialie lily".