Encounters with Jesus: Part 2 - Dear Weary Soul - Pastor Andrew Damazio

Hey, this is Andrew Damasio, lead pastor of Rose Church here in Portland, Oregon.

Welcome to our podcast.

Our mission here at Rose is building big people, becoming like Jesus in community while growing in our faith.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, I pray today's message challenges you and encourages you on your walk with Jesus.

Thank you so much for listening.

Enjoy today's podcast.

This is week number two.

We'll be doing it for the next um seven or eight Sundays called Encounters with Jesus.

Encounters with Jesus.

And what we're doing in this series is we're looking at the Gospel of John, mainly.

We might get into some other Gospels, but mainly the Gospel of John.

If you don't know, there are four Gospels.

There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke are all written very um similarly.

They're all written very similar.

Story, structure, um, aiming at different things, but still very similar.

The Gospel of John is significantly different.

The stories he tells, how he writes, um, even the Greek that he chooses to write in, it's a very different book.

One of the main reasons why it's a different book is because John, unlike the other three, zooms in on the individual stories that Jesus has.

Not the big crowd moments, not the huge miracles, though he does reference them.

Uh John has, I counted at least 30 individual moments and conversations that Jesus has with people away from the crowd, away from the city.

And we're looking at some of them.

So last week was John chapter 3.

John 3 · chapter mention

We looked at uh Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night having that conversation.

Today we're gonna look at another one-on-one conversation in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

If you if you have your Bible, turn with me.

John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

John 5.

There's one right in front of you.

If you want to grab that, there's an ESV right in front of you.

You can read it along with us.

If you're in Overflows, uh nursing moms room, family room, out in the lobby, upstairs, wherever you're at, uh in this building.

Encourage you to grab a Bible and read along with us in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

You don't have a Bible, no worries whatsoever.

Of course, we'll be on the screen for you, and you can follow along with us.

Here we go.

John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

So sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

Now there is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate a pool, which in Aramaic, which is the language that Jesus spoke, it's called Bethesda.

Bethesda in Greek or Aramaic means a house of mercy, place of mercy.

And which is it is surrounded by five covered colonnades.

Colonnades is simply just a uh a porch or a covering that you and I, but they call it a colonnade.

Here a great number of disabled people used to lie: the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

And one who was there had been an invalid or was paralyzed for 38 years.

38 years.

I'm 38 years old.

His entire life.

38 years.

When Jesus saw him lying there, and he learned that he'd been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, Do you want to be made well?

Sir, the envelope replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred.

While I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.

Then Jesus said to him, Get up, pick up your mat and walk.

At once the man was cured.

He picked up his mat and he walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.

So the Jewish leader said to the man who had been healed, It is the Sabbath, the law forbids you to carry your mat.

Because that was a sign of working on the Sabbath.

But he replied, The man who made me well said to me, Pick up your mat and walk.

And they asked him, Well, who is this fellow?

Who told you to pick it up and walk?

Who healed you?

The man who was healed had no idea who it was.

For Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, See, very interesting, you are well again.

Stop, look at this.

This is very seems very harsh.

We'll unpack this here in a moment.

Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.

What a profound response from Jesus.

Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who made him well.

We'll stop there.

As I told you, my goal for this series is kind of started with like dear so-and-so.

Last week was dear Nicodemus.

Um, the kingdom is about me, it's not about you.

This week, again, I'll fill in the blank, but first I want you to write this down.

Um, dear, weary soul.

Dear weary soul.

Leave a blank.

I'll fill it in at the end of the sermon.

But let's pray.

Father, I thank you for your word.

God, I thank you for this church.

I thank you for the people on the sound of my voice in this room, other rooms, wherever they're at, Lord.

God, I pray that you would speak to us.

God, this amazing, amazing story that we have just read.

God, these 15 verses.

This interaction that Jesus has with this one-on-one man.

God, I pray that you would illuminate it, open it to our eyes, open it to our heart, God, reveal it to us.

Father, your word says that when scripture is preached, it's like seed to the soil.

Father, I pray the seed would land in good soil today.

30, 16, 100fold, God.

Would you open this word to us, illuminate to us, God?

We thank you for today.

We thank you for the gathering of the saints.

We thank you for the church, God.

And Lord, we also thank you for the Knicks championship last night, Lord.

We celebrated and everybody said.

Amen.

I'll tell you what, that city was burnt to the ground last night.

I will tell you that.

Um two really interesting things that I want to bring your attention to today before we actually get into our text, because the the Bible, uh specifically uh the gospels that we're reading with this gospel of John is uh has has created um some significant arguments.

Um two reasons.

Number one, how many of you actually hold an actual Bible in your hand?

Not in your phone on screen.

How many have a Bible with you in your hand?

Okay, like 14 of you.

Alright, church.

Let's invest into a Bible.

Okay, everyone that has a Bible, open it, look at John 5.

Do you notice in the Bible you're holding, there is no verse 4?

It goes from verse 3 to verse 5.

This is why your Bible is untrustworthy.

Do you see it?

Has anyone ever noticed that before?

There's no verse 4.

It was taken out.

Go into the bottom of your Bible, look at the asterisk at the very, very bottom.

There's an asterisk, and it says verse 4, did say, well, the people believed that an angel of the Lord would come and stir the waters up and they would try to get into the pool of healing.

You see that?

This is one of the most significant arguments that atheists or textual critics bring up about the Bible, that the Bible is not trustworthy because verses were taken out.

Now let me help you before you deconstruct.

There is something in textual criticism and those that have PhDs in scripture and languages, in the ancient world in the first and second century, when the Bible was being written and uh transposed into more letters for them to be transferred around.

Uh, what they did, do you notice in your Bible, mainly in the Old Testament, a lot, there's a lot of parentheses.

So say something like this Moses went to Shechem.

Parentheses, that's where Abraham met Lot.

You see these things?

Those parentheses or those little asterisks are what we call um uh textual notations that were written in the side part of the script.

It would be like a little line being drawn.

Oh, and by the way, what they're saying, this is what they mean.

And that verse 4 is actually in one of the margins of textual annotations that the writer is saying, hey, we don't believe the pool was stirred by an angel, but this is what people claimed about that.

And so all of these genius Greek and Hebrew scholars were like, that can't be in there because that wasn't God's word to the people, that was John's addition.

See?

So there's this huge argument about like, was should John have added it?

It was simply a notation saying, hey, by the way, people believe this about the pool.

We on the same page?

It's pretty cool.

At least to me it is.

Second reason why the book of John is under huge argument is because, uh, which is hilarious to me, atheist, um, agricultural, and uh archaeological atheists use the Bible to find things, which I think is hilarious.

That atheist um archaeological people use the biblical maps to find cities, towns, and things.

And the the Bible says in John 5 that there was a portico, there was a pool with five colonnades.

They could not find it.

They dug everywhere, they they dug all over where John said it was, and they can't find it.

That has been used to make the argument that the book of John was not written by John because that pool doesn't exist, and it hasn't been written by somebody else 150 years later, trying to add to the other gospels stories they forgot.

This is a huge textual argument.

Good news is in 1888 we found the pool.

So here's a photo of it.

Here is they excavated above this town, a hundred feet below the earth.

Do you see the pool up top?

It's an Olympic-sized pool with the five colonnades surrounding it.

So Jesus would have walked down those steps and found this lame man, paralyzed man, lame, blind, all these people laying around these porticos.

So this is a story that we're gonna unpack today because it's it's a very important and significant biblical story on what Jesus wants to do in my life and your life.

Again, the whole image of this series is a chair by itself.

And imagine this today that God could like pull you aside, away from the crowd, away from this service.

Hey, just come sit with me.

I want to talk about something.

I want to show you three things today about what Jesus and this lame man, this paralyzed individual, talk about.

I want you to see the question, the pool, and the result.

I want you to see these three things today.

The question, the pool, and the result.

Number one, let's unpack this.

The Bible says that Jesus walks up, and the Bible says that there is a multitude of lame people, paralyzed people, blind people, sick people.

That Greek word multitude is what they would use for thousands.

Like, this is not just like seven people.

This is like a huge crowd of very sick people laying there waiting for something to happen in their life.

The Bible says that Jesus walks up and goes to this man after he hears he's been laying for 38 years.

38 years.

And the Bible says Jesus walks up and goes, Do you want to be healed?

What a dumb question.

Like Jesus needs to take some like emotional IQ classes or something.

Like, read the room, dude.

Of course I want to be healed.

And I referenced this a few weeks ago in a sermon, but I want to double down on it here.

I think biblically and uh what Jesus was doing in this story is that he knows for many of us, the reason why he has to ask us, do you want to be healed, is because we do not want to be.

It is a it's a it's a poor, far gone conclusion to believe every person wants Jesus in their life.

There are some people that do not want to be healed.

There are some people that are more comfortable in their dysfunction because they're used to it.

And would rather just stay where Jesus finds them instead of receiving healing from them.

And and Jesus comes by and says, Sir, do you want to be healed?

Why do you have to ask that question?

Because this man had been lame, paralyzed for 38 years.

This is why I think the question matters.

Because I think for many of us, sometimes we are in a condition for so long we can't see any other identity we could hold.

Friends, I'm 38 years old.

Imagine even myself dealing with one thing for my entire life.

And some rabbi walks by and says, It could be different.

I'm like, dude, I've been doing this.

It can't be different.

Do you notice, friends, the Bible never gives us this man's name?

All we know is his condition.

Be careful when your condition becomes more of your identity than your name.

Well, this is just who I am.

I'm the lame man.

This has been 38 years.

And Jesus comes by and says, Do you want to be healed?

And then he says this phrase to him, pick up your mat and walk.

I want to deal with this sentence today, just piece it into two thoughts for you, real quick.

Pick up your mat and walk.

First, he says, pick up your mat.

Meaning, if I heal you, we're not laying here anymore.

As I referenced a few weeks ago, if God heals us, accountability is coming next.

Expectations is coming next.

It is not logical, intellectual, or theological sense to get healed and go back to the place where you used to lay.

What Jesus is saying is if I heal you, son, I expect you to start walking.

If I heal you and I give you your legs back, we're not going back to the mat.

Notice what Jesus says.

Pick up your mat and walk out of here.

This is no longer where you are going to lay.

In other words, I'm going to change your identity from the one that used to lay to the one that now walks.

You're going to change how you identify with yourself.

I think this is why Romans 12 is so important.

For let us be transformed by the renewing of our mind.

And this is why I felt pretty deeply this week as I was praying and studying for this.

Is there some people in the room today?

Your legs have been healed, but your mind has not.

Your legs have been healed.

You are walking, you are moving, God has given you a new life, God has given you a new heart, God has given you a new world, God has healed you, and you're walking in the abundance of your new life.

But your mind is still where it used to be.

Your mind still thinks how you were when you were laying there.

Your mind still thinks how you used to think 10 years ago.

In other words, your mental state has not caught up with your physical state.

Friends, it is wrong of us, maybe even immature of us, to keep praying for a renewal of our life but refuse a renewal of the mind.

We cannot keep asking God to give us a new life when we would hold on to old ways of thinking.

They go hand in hand.

When God heals us and we change, we also need to change how we think about what used to happen.

How we identify, how we reframe what used to happen.

One reader I was I was studying this week, and a friend of mine were talking about it.

He says this, I think it's pretty profound.

He says, for the Christian, suffering turns into trauma when they refuse to talk to God about it.

I'll say it again.

Suffering turns into trauma when the person refuses to talk to God about it.

We need to not just be healed with our legs and how we walk, but how we think about.

How we process, how we reframe what we went through.

I think it's significant for you to consider.

Being healed means a journey of embracing the new awkwardness is about to happen.

I'll say it again.

Being healed means a journey of embracing the awkwardness of the new.

And the Bible gives us way that he's been doing he's been this way for 38 years, probably the majority of his life.

So, meaning, this man has never walked to the grocery store before.

This man has never walked to the temple before.

Let's get really nerdy in detail.

This man's never rode a horse before.

How would he go find a job?

In other words, when you get healed, your future is awkward because it's new.

How do I get on a horse and how do I put my legs in?

How do I how do I walk downstairs?

How do I sit and sit like how do I live my new life?

And for some people, the newness, sorry, the awkwardness of the newness is too much.

So they go back to what they're comfortable with.

I don't know how to walk, so let me go lay.

I don't know how to do this.

I've never done this before.

Let me go back.

And this is why I felt this week.

There's a lot of healed people still laying.

There's a lot of people that God is deeply healed in your life, but we're we're comfortable going back.

Because I just I know how to do this.

Jesus comes by this man and says, Do you want to be healed?

And I think this question should be deeply considered.

Erwin McManus says this.

He's a pastor and author and writer, and he is a lot of his work is in like the deep inner world and vision and mind of Christians.

And he says this.

However, as real as obstacles may be, it's also true that some of the steepest obstacles in your life will come from within.

We all tell ourselves a story.

I'm too damaged to ever be healed.

I made too many mistakes to make something of my life.

I just can't catch a break.

I would have accomplished so much if others hadn't held me down.

The self-limiting stories we tell ourselves are endless.

If you describe your life using all the obstacles that you keep that keep you from living up to your potential, you will convince yourself that the reason you have such a low ceiling is that you are born with such a great disadvantage.

But if you see those obstacles as opportunities, you will write a very different story of your life.

In the end, what becomes clear is that you are your own ceiling.

I do know this.

I'm not a scientist, I'm not smart enough.

I got a D in science in high school.

And uh I told my son that on accident.

And so he is a D in science.

He had a D in science two months ago.

I was like, bro, we don't have D's in this family.

He's like, you did.

I was like, oh, that's different.

I went to a Christian school.

So um that's funny.

I don't care who you are.

Uh um, and this is the thing I do know about science.

Science and God, or science and the Bible both agree upon this.

Your life is heading in the in the direction of your strongest thoughts.

Science and the Bible both agree upon this.

Your life is heading in the direction of what you think about the most consistently, obsessively, your life is heading that way.

I think Jesus is coming by to ask you the same question he asked that man.

Do you want to be healed?

No, of course.

No, no, seriously.

Do you want me to do the deep inner working healing of your life?

And if I do this, I'm gonna tell you to pick up your mat.

We will not lay here anymore.

Comma, look what he says.

Pick up your mat.

He does not say, get up and walk and leave your mat behind.

Do you see how smart Jesus is, even psychologically?

He says, we don't identify as this anymore.

Get up.

Comma, but don't leave it there.

Bring it with you because this is now your new testimony.

So, so so some Christians are sometimes like just forget everything that happened.

No, you will never forget what your dad did to you.

You will never forget that high school moment.

You will never forget when you were seven.

And I'm submitting to you today, don't ever forget it.

Just don't live in it, carry it with you.

Because now it's not just saying, I'm not that person anymore.

Now you carry it with you as a trophy of God's grace.

Oh, I know what I went through, but I don't lay there anymore.

I know what happened to me, but I don't lay in that.

Oh no, I carry.

Oh, I'm not forget and forget it.

I'm not this whole like forget and forget.

No, I'm forgiving and healing.

I'm not forgetting about that.

I can't forget about that.

You'll never forget those things that were done to you unjustly.

And honestly, you should not.

You should reframe it.

How it identifies you, how it speaks to you, what it means to your world.

But you have to get up.

You have to heal yourself, you have to accept your healing, and you can't lay there.

Jesus says, Do you want to get healed?

Get up and walk.

That's the question.

Let's get to the pool.

What in the world's going on with this pool?

Is this some Harry Potter bubbling water pool thing?

Just get in the water and it's going to heal you.

Like, what in the world is going on with this pool?

But do you see what happens?

Jesus says, Do you want to get healed?

The man says back, yes, I do.

Can you just help me into the pool?

Do you see his response?

Yes, I want to get healed.

But everyone's better than me.

Everyone gets there faster than me.

No one, you see the victimhood?

No one helps me.

Everyone's faster than me.

Nobody will help me into the water.

And Jesus doesn't deal with victimhood very well.

He says, I'm not going to take you to the pool.

Get up and walk.

That's not counseling one-on-one, friends.

What's happening here?

Let me help you piece this out.

Notice what the man is saying.

Jesus, I want to get healed.

Can you help me get to the place of healing?

What is the pool?

It's water.

That is very intelligent.

What did Jesus tell the woman at the well a chapter earlier?

Why do you keep digging for this water in Jacob's well?

I will give you living water.

So John 5 is a man telling the living water, I just need water.

Do you see what's happening?

He's using Jesus as his partner, not his savior.

There are so many Christians in this world that have convinced themselves this is what I want, and I think Jesus is my best option to get there.

I want these type of friends, I want this type of marriage, I want to feel this type of way, I want this type of joy.

And if this is my goal, this is what I'm longing for, I've told myself, well, Buddha can't get me there because I tried that and self-help can't get me there, I'm gonna try that, and atheism's not gonna get there.

So I'm guess Jesus is my best option to get me to my pool.

So how many of us in this room need our water trust to be reordered?

I'm not against pools, literally or spiritually.

I would like some more in my life, especially with the seat coming.

I want some so I'm actually not against the pools.

Because Jesus will, because of his goodness, bring some pools in your life.

But when you start thinking it's the pool that heals you, it's the pool that gave you joy, it's the pool that redeems your marriage, it's the pool that gave you your mind back, it's the pool that gave you.

Oh no, friends, Jesus is not your partner toward healing.

He is your healing.

He's not the one that leads you to the best pool.

Do you see what's happening in this story?

Jesus, I really want healing.

Can you just help me get there?

This is what we do to God often, don't we?

We thinking, uh we keep thinking a destination is gonna fix it.

Well, Jesus, I've been single forever.

You can just bring me a better wife or a better husband, or if you can just bring me a better job.

If you can really like, we just keep telling God, once I get there, my healing's there.

My joy's in a new job, my security is in more money, my happiness is in more sex, my my future is in with more children, my my future's with a better spouse.

My we tell Jesus there's a there that we want.

And we just convince Jesus, you're gonna take me there.

And Jesus goes, My God, I'm not taking you to no pool.

I am the living water.

Why do you why do you keep telling me, take me to the pool?

I'm the living pool.

I'm the living water.

My daughter on Thursday, uh Thursday morning, I'm taking her to school, and uh, you know, Friday's last day of school, Thursday, and we're on the way to school.

My daughter's 10, if you don't know.

Uh she thinks she's 35 and runs the world.

But um, she she she's 10, and and we're going to school Thursday morning.

And she's like, Dad, can I flex at school today?

And I'm old enough where I'm like, what do you mean by flex?

Like, can we eat over this morning?

She's like, I want to flex at school today.

I was like, How do you want to flex at school today?

She's like, Well, a big flex at school is when your mom or dad brings you outside lunch.

Yeah.

She was like, school's almost out.

I'm not eating no cafeteria food anymore.

She's like, today I want outside lunch.

It's a big flex at school.

And I was like, all right, princess, I'll do it every one.

And she got up, she was like, I want Jersey Mikes.

That's a flex at school.

And I was like, sure, whatever.

So, so I get up, I go to Jersey Mike's, I get her sandwich, I take it to school, and you've just seen her strutting to the office coming to get her jersey and mics, and she takes it home.

And and and I get I pick her up after you know Thursday afternoon.

She's like, Dad, it that was lit.

Like that was a flex.

And I was like, You are 10.

She's like, Dad, I was flexing at school today.

Oh yeah, your sandwich was flexing, was a really big deal for you.

And so Friday was a half day, and so and and so I'm I'm getting it from school and she's stoked at summer and whatever.

And so she grabs my cell phone and she's watching some YouTube shorts or whatever.

And you know, these like super manipulative, like spiritual influencer things pop up.

And uh this like girl pops up and she's like walking through a forest, and it's like all slow motion, and she's like doing a voiceover and she's reading Psalms 23, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death with fear and a weeval.

And and Quinn's watching.

I'm like, what in the world are you watching?

And and so it gets to the end of the video, and then this woman goes, If you like Jesus in the Old Testament, give me a give me a like.

If you like Jesus in the New Testament, give me a share.

If you like goes on this whole, like, if you like this video, share it with 27 people so the good news gets out.

And this whole like manipulative, and Quinn goes, Man, people be using God for likes.

She's man, people be using God for likes.

And I laugh because she's she she's the funniest human I know by far.

And so I laugh and I think about it.

I'm like, no, for real.

Like, no, for real.

Like, people, whether it's social media or work or life or marriage, have told themselves, this is what I want.

And if I can use God to get my pool.

I'm chill with it.

I I'm good.

If if Jesus is my best option, and then hear me, Jesus becomes our Trojan horse to what we want.

Like He just becomes the carrier to the pool that we've told ourselves that we want.

Do you want to be made well?

Yes, I do.

If I can just get in that pool.

Jesus goes, I'm not taking you to no pool.

I ain't taking no pool.

I'm right here.

I'm the living water.

Do you want healing?

Pick up your mat and walk out of here.

And now I want to talk about the result just for a moment.

This is profound.

Um, in the Gospels, there's a lot of public healings that like like big healings that Jesus does, the feeding of the 5,000, the feeding of the 4,000, like these huge uh significant miracles.

A lot of them are individual ones, hence the book of John.

I I can't find it.

Maybe you can, and you're a better theologian than me.

I just can't find it.

This is the only individual healing.

Not feeding the 5,000, not the big ones.

This is the only individual healing where the healing does not end in salvation.

The story does not end with, and your faith has made you well.

The story does not end with the man going, I know who you are.

As all of the other healings end, they all end with Jesus saying, Your faith has made you well, go.

They all end with the person saying, You're the Messiah.

This man, look at it, what's at the end of the story?

This is pick up this really offensive phrase that Jesus says.

Look at the very last slide, uh, verse 14.

Later Jesus fed him at the temple and said to him, Look at this, see you are well again, stop sinning, or something even worse is gonna happen to you.

Are you good, Jesus?

You didn't sleep well, like hungry, need some bread and hummus?

Like, what's going on here?

Like, like what?

That's uh that's mean.

Seriously, like, stop sinning, something bad's gonna happen to you.

Whoa.

What is what is Jesus doing here?

He's telling the man, I've healed your legs.

But if you are refusing to follow me, something significantly worse than broken legs is gonna happen.

Which is what?

You will spend eternity away from me.

Jesus is saying in the most subtle but profound way, I care more about your eternal destination than your humanly body right now.

And I healed you, I gave you your life back, follow me.

And the man does not.

He walks away and goes, Oh, yeah, by the way, that's the dude that heals me, and he goes on off with his life.

This is profound.

Because for some people, they will only follow Jesus until they get what they want from him and then go their way.

Finally, I got married, I had kids, I got the job, I got my healing, I got my, you know, went through counseling, I got this and this, I got some friends.

I finally, thank you, Jesus, and they just act like they don't need him anymore because they got what they wanted.

Friends, let me just ask you today, what is the result of God's healing in your life?

Not just what you're praying for, what is the result of God moving in your life?

Is it you lean more into him because he's so good, or you lean away from him because he got what you wanted?

We we have three children, and our youngest, he's he's four, he's almost five, and um I told the two olders, Cruz and Quinn, uh, they they they uh are so mean to this little boy.

They throw him in the air, they throw him against the couch, like they they assault this child.

And I keep telling them he's going to be bigger than you one day.

And this man has a memory, he will harm you in the future.

Like, you better stop, man.

And so their day, like Cruz and Cannon were over and they're throwing him and they're like being mean to him.

He's like, stop, and they're laughing.

I was like, boys, you better stop.

He's going to be huge, like he's gonna hurt you.

And then they leave, they go to the park, and Rhodes comes to he's like, I don't, I don't believe in Jesus anymore.

And I go, what?

He goes, I don't believe in Jesus anymore.

And I was like, why?

He goes, because he's not answering my prayers.

And he's so sad.

And I'm trying not to laugh.

And he's like, I don't believe in Jesus anymore.

He won't answer my prayers.

And I was like, what do you mean?

And he goes, I can't make this up.

He goes, he won't give me my supernatural powers to beat up cruise and canon.

He won't give me my powers to beat up cruise and canon.

So I don't believe in him anymore.

It's a four-year-old being silly.

But there are 40-year-olds that have told themselves, I don't believe in Jesus anymore.

Why?

He won't do what I asked.

He won't give me what I prayed for.

And it sounds like this.

If he would have just healed so-and-so, gave me that, answered that prayer, I would have believed in him.

This is the lie of the human heart.

If he answers my prayers, I'll believe.

That is why Paul, sorry, uh, it could be Paul, we don't know yet, but the author of Hebrews wrote in chapter 3 Dear believers, don't grow a hard heart like the children of Israel who saw God do miracles for 40 years, but hardened their heart against him.

You do not need to see anything else to believe.

Well, if he would have just done it, I would have believed.

No, you wouldn't have.

Because once he did that, you need something greater next month.

And then something greater 10 years later.

It is the lie of the human condition.

You need to see more to follow Jesus.

This man just had his life change in a moment.

And he goes, bro, thank you.

Gotcha.

And walks off.

He gives Jesus the weak in the gun and goes, super cool, dude.

Thank you so much.

And walks off.

Doesn't follow Jesus.

Doesn't profess, doesn't confess, doesn't become a disciple, goes, thank you.

I'm gonna go now.

There are many, many, many healed people in this room.

And my question to today is, what has been the result of it?

What's been the result of Jesus deeply changing your life?

It's almost like that's why Jesus said in Matthew, what profits a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul.

Let me finish before I started and the band can come up.

Dear weary soul.

I am the living water.

There's some weary souls in the room.

Cracked, dry, desolate.

Like if your if your soul could take on an agricultural look right now, it would be the wilderness.

It's dry.

It's weary.

It's broken.

No water, no vegetation, like there's nothing growing.

Because your soul is weary.

And you keep telling God, if I can just get to the pool, oh, this would fix my soul.

If I could just finally get in a relationship and stop being single, I would finally feel.

If I could just have better sexual encounters, I would finally feel.

If I could finally get that raise and get out of debt, I would finally feel.

If I could pay off this thing, if the business would have never gone under, if those friends would have walked out, if the marriage would have stayed, if my kids wouldn't have wandered, if my parents would have.

We have all of these things we keep telling God.

Man, I'm just waiting for that pool.

And God's like, weary soul, that pool is not going to fix a thing.

That water will make you more dry than you were before you started.

Hey, weary soul, you want refreshment?

Come to the living water.

Where can I find that?

I'm standing in front of you.

Just because of the side of this room and people in here and overflows, and there's some mom's room, family room out in the lobby, wherever you're out in this room.

I know it to be true.

There is some significant trauma in this room.

Significant seasons of suffering and loss.

But that is not where we stay.

We do not lay on our mat forever.

There are seasons of it.

There are moments of it, but it takes a fright and they go, hey, it's time to get up.

We're gonna walk.

What do you mean, forget about what happened?

Oh no, bring it with you.

Pick it up and carry it.

Woo wee.

Could you imagine all the memories of him holding his past while walking?

Talk about triggering.

The man's holding! Loss, pain, tears, smell, deserting, shame.

He's holding it! While walking.

Without being emotionally triggered about everything.

Like he walks.

He's healed.

He moves.

But it's because the living water gave him what he was looking for.

Friends, I've come to tell you that the living water is standing in front of you.

And I don't mean me.

I hope you know that.

Don't go soundbite that and post it.

Pastor thinks he's the living water.

Some of you need to stop telling God, my healing's over there.

My healing's right there.

Can you get me there?

God's like, I will not take you to a pool.

The living water is right here.

Do you want to be healed?

Of course I do.

No, for real.

If I heal you, we are changing.

We are getting up.

We are walking.

Do you want to be healed?

Yes or no, son?

Yes or no, daughter?

Yes, I do.

Then get up.

And let's walk ourselves out of here.

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