What Could Be Worse Than This?

How we doing today? I'm feeling really good. I'm going to be hot by the end of this with this sweater on. It is not sweater weather ever in Arizona, but for some reason people keep wearing them. I'm not — I'm just not a sweater dude.

I can't even wear my Apple Watch with a sweater because then it feels like overly constricting. That's completely irrelevant. I want to — I want to do something I hadn't planned on it, but I want to take a moment and just — I heard somebody say that you really need to have four things you need to have in the church that you start, or any organization: you need to have traditions, you need to have artifacts, you need to have axioms, and you need to celebrate things that you value. And so one thing that I just want to celebrate really quickly — I just want to, quick show of hands, if you came and helped us launch the church, like before launch, just a quick show of hands, if you were here before February 25th, 2024, raise them higher. Come on.

And yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm going to have talked to all these volunteers about sitting in the second service. All right, all right. Hey, I want you to know I'm super grateful. This doesn't happen just because somebody has a vision — it happens because that vision, like it — it is implemented through various people who also kind of catch the vision. And so I just want you to know I'm so grateful for that team.

But as you notice, there's a lot of people here that weren't here before, and so — so I am pumped about what God has done in the last year, and because I love you guys, I'm going to try to stay on task today. Does that sound good? I want y'all to party. I don't want you guys to sit here the entire time, though I do think it's going to be valuable. We're going to be in John chapter 5.

John 5 · chapter mention

I'm gonna read you some Scripture today, is that okay? It's going to be a second. I'm not going to make you stand because it's a whole 15 verses, but some of you heard it before. We're going to be in John chapter 5, starting in verse one. "Sometime later" — which indicates to us that this is a complete jump from the former story, so I'm not going to give you tons of context here — says: "Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.

John 5 · chapter mention

Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool which in Aramaic" — which is a language that they would speak at the time — "is called Bethesda, and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie — the blind, the lame, the paralyzed." Verse 5: "One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years."

Invalid — I got to love that term. I don't know, I feel inspired by the Lord right now to just tell you: some people might think of you as invalid, but what God has validated in you — and if you've trusted in Christ Jesus, man, you can move forward, you can walk in your calling, you can keep in step with God's Spirit. Whatever someone says about you is really irrelevant in the grand scheme, because God has called you. Amen, somebody?

Okay, I don't — I shouldn't have said that. I'm going to keep reading. Verse 5: "One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?' 'Sir, ' the invalid replied" — kind of talk to John about how he's describing these people, you know what I'm saying — "'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 walked."

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath. Now, if you don't know what the Sabbath is — the Sabbath is the Jewish holy day, and you weren't allowed to do any work on a holy day. It had gotten to the point where people were so — and I'll use this term — legalistic, meaning they cared more about what you were doing than your intent behind what you were doing. They had gotten so legalistic that they would say you can't carry your mat on the Sabbath, you can't perform a miracle on the Sabbath, you can't do anything on the Sabbath. Now this misses God's point in creating a Sabbath, but this is how it was at the time, and so Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath.

Sorry, my page turned, I got too excited I guess. And so, "The Jewish leaders said to the man" — verse 10 — "who had been healed, 'It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.' But he replied, 'The man who made me well said to me, "Pick up your mat and walk."'"

This — in part of my sermon — but sometimes you're hearing voices from other people, and they're not the Lord, and you need to listen to the voice of the Lord above what the voice of other people might say, because at best it's less accurate than what the Lord would say. At best, they might have good intentions, but they could still be wrong — we got to measure everything against what God tells us. It could be Satan trying to tempt you and derail you. "So they asked him, 'Who was this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?' The man who was healed" — not an invalid anymore — "the man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there."

Pause — do you ever read Scripture and you think, this is a strange occurrence?

Not just that the guy was healed, but it's like Jesus healed him and he's like, "All right, peace, see you later, " he bounced — didn't even know the guy's name. Verse 14: "Later, Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, 'See, you're well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you.' The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well."

And I want to give you a sermon title in the form of a question, because I was thinking about this — he says something worse could happen, and I remember thinking, like, what could be worse than that? I remember —, just two and a half weeks ago, I believe it was Jersey Sunday. So — so, yeah, exactly two weeks ago — it's a Jersey Sunday, and back in the kids area they were also having Jersey Sunday, and so they did things — no, the week before it was Doughnut Day, so it was three weeks ago, and they had a doughnut day in the back.

And, so my kid comes home after doughnut day, which should be a good, enjoyable day for my son who has a decent appreciation of donuts. He comes home, and, my daughter's sleeping, my wife's doing something else, and he just looks — he looks like I look when I'm in a bad mood, which is like super resting-mad face. It wasn't — it's really, I remember looking at him, thinking, "Oh my gosh, I need to put on my empathy hat and talk to him, " which — it's really hard for me to put on my empathy hat at 2 p.m. On a Sunday. And so I look at him and I said, "Hey son, what's going on?" Now he's eight years old, right, just for context.

I said, "What's going on?" He says, "Nothing." I said, "It looks like something's going on." He said — after me, you know, prompting him quite a bit — he said, "You won't care." And I'm like, "Oh gosh, son, " and I'm thinking as a parent, how terrible am I that he thinks I wouldn't care about this thing? And, I said, "I do care. Hey, why don't you tell me about it? I'm — I'm on your — I'm in your corner, I'm with you, I love you, and I care about you, and I would hate for you to feel this way." That's how I did it — I don't always do it that way. That's like the one time in his entire life that I've been that empathic with my 8-year-old.

And, and he looks at me and he says, "Well, nobody likes me." And, kids — and I'm like, "That's not true, you were running around with your friends today, weren't you?" He says, "Well yeah, that was fun, but nobody ever picks me for the games." And I'm like, "Oh no.", Jordan must be back there picking on the pastor's kid — I'm kidding, I'm kidding, Jordan. I said, "Oh no, this is bad.", hopefully he gets picked for games. I said, "Well, could it be that you're there all the time, and so we want to give guests or new people an opportunity?" And he said, "No." I said, "Well, it could be because" — that's, you know, that's the logical thought for me, because he's there all the time — and he said, "Well, today they didn't pick me for the game." I said, "Oh, so they picked you other weeks for the game?" He said, "Well, yeah." He said, "But they never picked me for doughnut day." And I'm like, "Well, what's special about doughnut day?" He said, "Well, we play a game — I don't even know what the game's called — where they, like, hold a donut on a stick, and you have to eat it with your hands behind your back." And I said, "Well, how many people did they pick?" And they said, "Well, one." And I said, "Oh, I'm so sorry, man, but there's a lot of people there." And he said — I said, "Well, what about last time, how many people did they pick?" "One." "How many times they played the game?" He said, "Two."

And I remember — I remember thinking, like, this is stupid, like — but I calmed down, right, and I said, "Oh man, I'm so sorry, Lucas, how does that make you feel? That must be terrible." And what clicked to me in that moment, and I think this will apply to you, is: we tend to downgrade the level of our pain and frustration about different things because we recognize that someone always has it worse. And I looked at my 8-year-old, who is completely distraught about a thing that I care less about — I don't care anything about this thing, it's just a doughnut, it's probably not even healthy for him —, we need to work on his calorie intake anyway, like — I don't care, I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I don't care about this doughnut.

But I looked at him and I said, "Well, you know, even though this is a very unimportant thing in the long run, it's painful to him." And I tell you that because we look at this man and we say, "What could be worse?" And then we look at our lives and we say, "Something could be worse, " or we'll look at our lives and forget that it could be worse, and we're just frustrated with something that somebody down the street, or somebody in my own household, is like, "Why are you so stressed about that?" But pain is subjective. And so, yeah, there might be someone who is like in complete chaos, and you look at them and think, "Well, I shouldn't complain about this." But then I would look at you, because God looks at you this way, and I would say, "Yeah, but your pain is still painful for you, because pain is subjective."

And when I look at this man, I see this reality that he is in a very painful situation — he's paralyzed, he can't get into the water when he wants to. Maybe he wants to get into the water periodically just to get clean, which is a very problematic situation. Or, based on what the Scriptures tell us — in one of the translations you might have been reading, actually tells us in verse 4 — that an angel would come down and stir up the waters, and when it stirred up the waters there would be healing that could occur. But because he is paralyzed and there's no one there to help him, he can't get into it.

And I look at that and I think, man, that's got to be a painful situation. Yet Jesus then says something worse will happen to you if you don't — I guess — get on the right page. And I was like, what could be more painful than this? And I think the truth about the Book of John that I'll give you right here, and I'll finish my sermon with it, is that Jesus in the Book of John is not primarily concerned about physical pain, or even emotional pain — he's concerned about a spiritual disconnection with God. And so, without hiding this final point, I want to tell you that your connection with God is more valuable than anything physical.

In other words, if you don't have a connection with God, none of the physical pain, or emotional pain, or relational pain that you've had in your life will compare to the pain of an eternal disconnect from your Creator. And so, what I believe — and I think Alan would agree with me — is that when Jesus makes this comment, "Stop sinning, " and I don't love the phraseology of that in the NIV, I think when you look at the Greek you see that J The Sabbath—I want to encourage you, look at the reality that anything that disconnects you from God is sin. Anything. It's like me choosing something valuable over God—that's sin. But I got to love my kids?

Yep. But you need to choose God first. Say, "Yeah, but I got to work on my wife and she don't want to come to church right now.", there's a whole lot to that topic, but you got to love God first, because your influence on your spouse will be directly correlated to your connection with God. Yes. A lot of people, they come up to church and they're like, "My spouse won't come." I'm like, "Well, what's your connection with God look like?" It's like, "Well, you know, they never want to come, so I don't go either." And I'm like, "Oh, okay.

Go figure." And I'm not trying to be rude—it's like, if you don't prioritize God, why would you ever expect someone around you who looks up to you and respects you to shift their connection to God? I'm digressing a little bit. I've got a few points to discuss with you, rooted right in the text. Point number one: I want to talk to you about your current condition. Your current condition.

Now, there may be people in this room who have trusted in Jesus, and I know there are going to be people in this room who have never connected with Jesus. Regardless, our starting point before a connection with Jesus is—our condition is a sinful one. It is one where sin, and the result of sin, have, over the entirety of history, created conditions around us that separate us from God. The best example I've ever heard, the most consistent example I've ever heard, is that of kids. You see very early on in your kid's life that their disposition is toward sin, not toward God.

I'm not talking mess about your kids, I want to be clear. You find out very early, the moment that they look at you and they say, "No." You find out very quickly, the moment they look at you and they say, "Yeah." And I'm like, "Huh, " and I had to teach him to say, "Yes sir, " in a respectful way. Our disposition, our current condition, is hostility toward God, not connection to God, and greater levels of holiness in our life. I hope this shuts down a perspective that says, "Well, I'm a good person.", you might be nice, you might do good things, but what the Bible clarifies to us in the Book of Romans is that there is not one good, but God—why? Because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

That is our current condition. And even if you have trusted in Jesus, and he is redeeming you to a connection with him, he is making you more holy day by day by day, even though he has sealed you by the power of his Holy Spirit into eternity, if you have trusted in him, your current disposition or condition is still, in a lot of ways, a result of the sin that you've committed or the sin that has been performed around you. And throughout history, the Bible tells us that because Adam sinned, all follow that suit. So that's our current condition. And when I look at this man, we're not talking about sin with this man, we're talking about his current paralyzed position.

But in the Book of John, you'll realize this if you haven't yet: everything that John tells us in his Gospel is meant to be taken at a spiritual level. I always say there's at least two layers to every passage in the Book of John. The first layer is what you see, and what we see is a man was paralyzed. The second layer is what you don't see, but what God actually cares about, and that is the spiritual connection. Why do you think Jesus spends very little time talking to the man?

He says, "Do you want to be healed?" And the man—I don't—what does he even say? The man who has been paralyzed for a huge portion of his life, of course he wants to be healed. Jesus asks him, "Want to be healed?" And then he tells him to pick up his mat and walk, and then he bounces. Jesus bounces. But then, when Jesus finds him later, he doesn't say, "Hey, all right, now, here's a prescription, you can go take some antibiotics for the next two weeks, or 14 days, 10 days, I don't know what the count is, I'm not a doctor, don't judge me for this.", he doesn't say, "All right, what I need you to do is I need you to walk on it, and then go see this physical therapist, here's a connection for you, he's a cheaper price, he doesn't require insurance, he actually gives you a good discount." That's not what Jesus said to him.

Jesus didn't say all the things that this man probably needs to start, you know, working on. He said, "All right, now, I need you to go get a job. Okay, you've been sitting around here with the five colonnades in this pool that's getting stirred up, I need you to be stirring this pool and helping other people get into the pool. I need you to go get a job and earn an income, because you've been living here, but now you're not going to be able to receive government benefits because of—" he didn't bring up any of that stuff. He says one thing, he said, "Hey, hey bro, like, don't continue in a lifestyle of sin, otherwise something worse might happen to you."

Now, I don't know how to interpret that fully—this is what we have in the Scripture.

I know what the rest of the Scriptures talk about, that it's not like sin that put you into a bad physical—it's not somebody else's sin that puts you into a bad physical position. It wasn't his parents' sin that put him into this bad physical condition. This bad physical condition is a result of the reality that all have sinned and fallen short, and so now the world is living in this place of imperfection, and God is restoring it with Jesus and the resurrection and the Holy Spirit. That's what's happening. But his—his spiritual is what Jesus is primarily concerned about.

And so when I look at this, I see our current condition on display. We are in the current position we're in because of the fall. You—you and your spouse argue constantly because of the fall. Your kids are super disrespectful sometimes because of the fall, and you might think, "Well, it's because I didn't parent them right, " and you didn't parent them right because of the fall. Your parents weren't there, or they were there in the wrong way, because of the fall.

Your physical condition, your pain, your sickness, illness in general—it's because of the fall. Wars and famines and droughts, the fall—like, the current result of the world is because of the fall. I read a book a long time ago, it was called, "Not the Way It's Supposed to Be, " I—it was by a guy named Cornelius Plantinga, and, he has a quote that I thought was really helpful. He said, "Sin is a corrupting agent that drags a person or a community down from a level of appropriate function or well-being. Sin, like a parasite, an uninvited guest, sickens its host." Sin disconnects from God.

It is a condition that makes it impossible to live up to your hopes, dreams, and ambitions, to live up to the things that someone else expects of you. It makes it impossible for you to ultimately accomplish what God has for you. And you might be fairly successful in life, but ultimately your spiritual condition is disconnected from God. When I look at this passage, I see the reality that this man was paralyzed, and then he wasn't. But then Jesus reminds us that the greater issue isn't that he was physically paralyzed, but that we're all spiritually paralyzed and incapable of coming to him.

That is why Jesus was there, and he did some physical healings, but later he brought the spiritual healing. So, in light of that complete difficulty, our current condition, we have an opportunity. This man had an opportunity. Verse seven, it says this, says, "Sir, " the invalid 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 walked. So I want to present to you right now the opportunity that we have. Not only can Jesus heal physical issues, but he can connect you with God. The Bible says that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. This is an opportunity I present you with every single week.

Why? Because I can preach all day, but if I don't present you the opportunity to connect with God, then you're still stuck in your sin. I want to give you some good Ted Talk material, I want to give you some great points that you leave, I want to do a great illustration—sometimes a physical object illustration—that you'll leave and say, "Ah, that dude's a good teacher." I'd love to give you that. But I can teach, teach, teach, teach, teach, I can preach all year around, but if I don't present you with this very clear and obvious opportunity, you're going to miss out on the number one thing you need—the only thing that gets you into an eternity with God. Jesus is presenting you an opportunity to connect with him right now.

And when I look at this man, the way that Jesus presents this opportunity to him is he asks him a question. He says, "Do you want to get healed?" Or, "Do you want to be healed?" I think this is the position many of you are in right now. I presented you with an opportunity that comes directly from Jesus, but just like Jesus, I want to ask this question: do you—do you want to be healed? I think about our physical needs. Any of y'all been to the hospital before?

Just quick show of hands. Yeah, yeah, just a couple of you. The rest of you, perfect health? I love that, that's great. Let me ask some of you who might be honest in this place: , does it take a while for you to choose to go to the hospital or the emergency room?

Anyone? It takes a while. Someone just, if they're willing, say why. Huh? Finances.

Yeah, yeah, 8 hour wait. Even the urgent cares, like, they're not open on Sunday—that ain't urgent care, you know. Like, every time I'm sick, or I need antibiotics, which is like every time I'm sick, come on guys. I have a desire to be healed and to do what I need to get healed, but because of—and I'll just say it this way—the cost, I choose not to. Let's take that, just like John would, from the physical to the spiritual.

There's an opportunity presented before you every single week, let's be real, every single day, whether you're scrolling through Instagram or TikTok, or whether you're watching the news every day, just about—you're hearing something. Those of you who are gracious enough to sign up for our email and texting list, you're getting information at least once or twice a week. It is presented before you, but there is a cost that comes with your healing. Now let me be clear, Jesus is willing to do it. He paid the price on the cross for your freedom, he paid it.

You don't have to pay a price for your eternity with God and for your salvation, but when you step into salvation, when you step into a life with God, there is a—there's a cost. Just like when you go to the emergency room, you go in there, they going to fix you real quick. Now Jesus is not like the insurance companies and the billing department at the hospital, but at the same time, when he heals you, he anticipates that you're going to continue walking with him, and by nature of walking with him, the cost is that you stop walking the way you were. There's a cost. I think the number one reason people don't follow Jesus is not because the message and opportunity is not presented well—not here in America, at least.

I think one of the number one reasons that we do not follow God, when we have the opportunity, is because we recognize that it will cost something of us—not to obtain salvation, but to step into that relationship. It's like when I—I started my wife, I recognized that there would be a cost to my healing. She makes me better, y'all know this, but I recognize there will be a cost. And it's not just the obvious cost—the obvious cost of, "Well, I can't go to another girl at this point." You know, she's—she's mine. I'm a monogamy—I'm into monogamy, you know what I'm saying, it's just one wife for whole life, that's what I'm—that's what I'm doing.

And there were other costs that came with it. There was an expectation that she had that was completely reasonable—that not only do I put away some old lifestyle choices that are not fitting for our new relationship, but she wanted me to come close and engage with her in a way that not only could she benefit, but I could benefit from my interaction with her. And so, in the same way, in our relationship with God, there is a cost that comes with it. I know you don't like the term "cost, " because we're not paying for our salvation, again, free of charge, but it is—it is expensive to offer your body as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Be the easiest and most beneficial thing for your spirit.

It's like he says, "Come on to me, who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." He's not saying you're never going to work. He's saying your soul's going to have peace. And when we come to Jesus, your soul has peace. But we hustle in, there's a cost to it. And this man clearly wanted to get well.

He got up, picked up his mat, and he walked. But there is an alternative timeline where he could have answered that question with a no. I mean, I think so — it's not in Scripture — but he had an option, didn't he? He had an option in response to Jesus. And I want to encourage you, you have an opportunity, but that opportunity is optional.

And if you don't take that opportunity, you remain in sin, you remain disconnected from God, and you remain filled with anxieties that are eternal. But if you choose to trust in Jesus, God will begin repairing that in your life and around your life that sin ruined, and he starts to make you holy. Why? Because God has a posture of love toward you. He cares about you.

He wants what's best for you. He's not going to force it on you, but he will provide you with that option. He will. You all have it. And whatever your pain point is in life, be it physical or spiritual, God wants you to get well.

But do you want to get well? And you'll say it — come on, guys, do you want to get well? If I asked you, if I brought you up here in front of everybody and I said, "Hey, do you want to get well?" I'm not that kind of preacher, by the way, that's going to come up here and say, "I'm going to heal your ailments, touch in the name of Jesus." That's not — that's not me. God hadn't given me that gift. But if I were to bring you up here and said, "Do you want to get well?" every one of you would say yes.

But then you'd walk out of here, many of you, and you'd forget about what you genuinely want. And I struggle as a pastor because I desperately want you to come into a deepening relationship with Jesus, but many times you don't genuinely want to do that. And I have a choice — I can do like, I have a guy who helps me with my fitness on occasion, and I asked him to help me. And sometimes I don't do what he invited me to do, and I remember he'd look at me and he's like, "Well, do you want me to help you?" And every time I'm like, "Yeah." But then I get home and I'm like, "Oh, but those Doritos look so good, " or "the gym sounds so costly, I don't want to go." Choose the right option. Choose the right option.

And the right option is ultimately choosing to follow Jesus with your life. You know, my wife, about a year ago — it was about the same time I brought this Peloton out on stage, you remember that? It's about a year ago exactly — brought a Peloton on stage. And she had started in January utilizing that Peloton every day. And I — I didn't like it.

I wanted it, but I didn't like it. You know why I didn't like it? Because there's an obstacle that comes with this stuff, right? Like, the Peloton's in my room, and the only time she had to do it was at 5:30 in the morning. And I had chosen to go in with her to get the Peloton.

I had chosen that we wanted to live more of a fit lifestyle. Yet she started operating in that capacity at 5:30 in the morning, and I said — I thought I wanted it. I give you all those illustrations and examples to say this — this is all part of that human condition. Like, the reason you're not taking some of the steps you want to take, the reason you do what you don't want to do and don't do what you think you should do — that's also a result of sin. But Jesus cares so much about you that he'll keep presenting you the opportunity even when you don't say yes the first 50 million times.

And the opportunity is here again — he presents to this man, something worse could happen if you continue in the trajectory that you were in. But the alternative is for you to stop in your tracks, turn toward God, and address the spiritual pain you're feeling right now. Everyone you're going to see get baptized in a moment — they are publicly professing that they stopped in their tracks and turned toward God. And so there's some people in this room today, I want to encourage you to do the same thing. So if everybody will bow their heads, close their eyes.

If you are one of those getting baptized, I'd encourage you to go right out here into the lobby, get changed —, you can do that even if you didn't let us know. So if you feel led to make your faith public through baptism, go right out there. And I'm going to pray for those of you who have not made that decision yet to connect with God. Everybody, bow your heads, close your eyes. You're going to repeat after me.

This is what we do here: "Father God, I trust in you today. I trust in you today. Forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of my sin. Make me new in Jesus.

Make me new in Jesus. And I will follow you. I commit to that. Help make me who you've called me to be. It's in Jesus's name that I pray."

God's people said, "Hey!" I'm excited — for those of you who just trusted in Jesus, we celebrate that too.