Living Faith

Good morning, church.

How are we?

Good.

And my name is Jordan.

I'm one of the pastors here.

And like Miss Brandy said so eloquently with that Southern Twang, uh, we are going to continue our uh sermon series in the Gospel of John.

It's my joy and privilege to be able to bring God's word to you.

I'll be straight with you.

I'm exhausted.

Uh we were at Camp Agape all week.

We took like, what, 30-some kids?

I don't know, 30-some kids from here to camp this week, and it was awesome.

God was uh very gracious and faithful, and it was so cool to see God uh just work in the lives of these these young ones and to grow relationally with them.

But this morning we're gonna be continuing in our uh sermon series, uh the Gospel of John, called Power of Spirit and Truth.

And um we're gonna be talking a lot about faith.

Faith.

What is faith?

And specifically faith in God.

So if I were to ask you to try to define what faith is, and I probably give you a little bit of time to do that, it would probably be hard to come up with a working definition of what faith is, specifically biblical faith or godly faith.

Because a lot of times in in life, we we we are easily able to say that we have faith.

We can come in this morning and and we can worship and say, God, I love you.

I place my faith in you, but when the pains of life kick us in the teeth, when our kids get sick, when we lose loved ones, man, our faith is so easily shaken, isn't it?

When the fruits of the fall of sin affect our lives, man, our faith is so easily shaken.

And we end up asking questions like, why God?

Why would you allow this?

Where is God?

If God is really loving, why would He you fill in the blank, right?

So this morning I want to ask a question.

What if everything in your life had a bigger meaning?

What if everything in your life had a deeper purpose?

See, in 2017 we almost lost our uh then five-year-old son, and uh that was tough.

It was it was super tough.

And um our our faith was rocked.

To say we we were unwavering would be just a lie to sit up here.

But moving forward, I'll I'll try not to talk about that too much more because uh it'll be rough for me.

But I would say that I was desperate.

I I had no one to lean on.

I had nothing that I could do for my son, and I was really just brought to an end of myself.

And so we're gonna see this morning that there's two miraculous stories of healing as we work through John.

One is this little boy who's sick, and the other is this old man who's been lame, an invalid, paralyzed for 38 years.

And so this morning, my prayer is that as we work to dive through these two stories and compare and contrast them, that this morning that the same spirit that breathed life into these men would breathe life into our souls, that it would encourage our faith, that it would quicken us to greater worship and adoration and joy and confidence in his goodness.

And so I'm just gonna take a moment to go before the Lord in prayer before we dig into his word.

So, God, we God, we thank you for uh the confidence that you hear us when we cry out to you.

God, we thank you for the reminder that your spirit meets us here in this place this morning.

So, God, I pray that you um would see fit to use me as a mouthpiece of your excellencies, of your goodness, of your grace.

God, I pray in areas of our life that we are doubting, that we are angry, that we are anxious, that we are hurting.

God, that you would meet us there.

God, that you would be gracious and merciful to us this morning, that we would grow in Christ likeness, and we trust that it is for your glory and our good.

Amen.

So, this morning, like I said, we're gonna be comparing two miracles.

It's really the text this morning is uh 446 through 517.

So that's like enough for four sermons.

So, what I'm gonna try to do is kind of compare and contrast these two different stories, draw some points out of them.

Um, and really I want us to work through three principles of what biblical faith would look like.

Three principles of biblical faith.

And so, number one, principle number one this morning is that faith flows from God's grace.

Faith flows from God's grace.

So in our first miracle, we're introduced to what I would describe as a desperate father.

A desperate father.

In verse 46 through 47, we learn that there's this official, he's a nobleman, he is a person of power in Herod's court.

And we learn that he has a son that is ill, and not just like, you know, kind of sick, but he's ill to the point nearing death.

And he is desperate.

He is desperate.

Isn't this the sanctifying song of being a parent for parents in this room?

Realizing you have no control, no control, how little control we have.

And so this father is desperate.

Undoubtedly, we learned that he was aware of the miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, where Jesus had taken this water and turned it into wine.

And in his desperation, he remembers, he has hope that that guy that turned that water into wine, maybe he can do something.

Maybe if I can just get him to come be with my son, he can heal him.

Maybe this guy named Jesus can do something for my son.

And so we learn that he's desperate.

And in his desperation, he leaves his son in his last potential hours, and he goes 18 miles to search out Jesus.

18 miles doesn't seem like that much, but this is a trek through mountainous uh uh what's the word?

Topography terrain.

That's the word, terrain.

Mountainous terrain.

You know, this is not just like we're hopping in the car and we're driving 15 minutes down the road.

This this man, whether it be through horseback or through walking, trekked 18 miles away, leaving his son on his deathbed.

He's desperate.

He's desperate.

Not only is he desperate to leave his son, he's desperate that he humbles himself, this man of power.

It says that he asked Jesus to come and heal his son.

This word for asked, without understanding the true word for it, we just take it that he asked Jesus.

Now, this word for asked means he begged and he begged and he begged and he implored and he continued to just sit at the feet of Jesus.

Will you please come and heal my son?

So in his desperation, he meets Jesus and he continues to beg.

I love the picture that we get of this love that this father has for his son.

See, he was a man of power, he was a man of authority, and he very easily could have sent a legion of men in Herod's court.

He could have sent uh by force to bring Jesus to his son, but no, he left that job to himself.

He went.

He was the one that pursued Jesus because he had hope that Jesus could do something about this.

He was desperate enough to take Jesus at his word.

See, he asked Jesus to come and to visit his son, but Jesus didn't give him that, right?

Jesus told him, just to go, your son will be well.

And this man had nothing else, nothing else left but to just trust God's word.

That God would be true, that Jesus would be true, that his son would be healed, and said this man was so desperate that he trusts Jesus.

And so I want to draw our attention to this faith that must have grown.

I would submit this morning that it probably started more as hope than it did faith.

Hope that, man, I've I have nothing else, but maybe this dude who turned water into wine can do something for my son.

And as he meets with Jesus, I would argue that something changed when he met with Jesus.

And this hope that was just a flicker of hope was quickened.

That God, through the power of the Spirit, breathed life into this man to give him faith.

Faith to beg, faith to go, and faith to trust.

That what Jesus said about his son would come true.

And so on his journey, he had come to Jesus and he and faith leaves Jesus because that's what Jesus asked him to do.

And on the way back, we learn that someone meets him on the way, right?

His servants meet him, they say, Hey, your son yesterday began to get better.

Man, what faith must have grown at that point?

They're like, Yeah, and we learn that this man says, Man, what what hour was it at?

And we learn that it's about 1 p.m.

That's the same hour that Jesus told me that my son would be well.

And so this faith continues to grow.

And then he gets home, and what does he do with this faith?

He doesn't just say, Man, I'm so glad you're well.

We learn later on in the text that his entire household is saved.

Man, this faith that just begins to well up.

It begins to make perfect through this trusting and these trials.

See, Jesus gifted faith.

Although it was incomplete and imperfect in the beginning, it grew.

And he gifts it to this man.

2 Corinthians says that we walk by faith and not by sight.

I think this is very realistically what happened to this father.

He walked home by faith, by not by sight.

He didn't see his son well.

He trusted Jesus.

The author of Hebrews in chapter 11, verse 1, says he gives us a working definition of what faith is.

It says, Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for.

The assurance of things hoped for.

See, this desperate father had some confidence, some assurance of what he had hoped for, which was his son's healing.

And so we read in verse 51 that as he was going down, his servants met him, told him that his son was recovering.

And so he asked them what hour it was, and they told him, Yesterday the fever left him, and the father knew, the father knew that this was the hour when Jesus said to him, Your son will be well.

And so this faith grows.

This faith has been made alive, not only for him, but for his entire household.

This is faith graced and gifted to the Father.

Let's go to the second miracle.

The second miracle, we are introduced to what I would describe as a hopeless paralytic.

This hopeless paralytic.

So we had a desperate father, and now we have a hopeless paralytic.

I want us to take a moment and to try to pause and picture this scene.

We're told that there are a multitude of blind and lame and paralyzed invalids.

And they laid underneath these five-roofed colonnades, picture like the Acropolis, right?

You have these Roman uh uh pillars and the roofs, and they're on these pads, and there's a pool that's nearby that's called the pool of Bethesda, which means place of mercy.

And in that day, some people had been healed when the water was stirred up.

They believed that it was an angel that came.

And if you were the first person to be placed into the water when it was stirred up, you would be healed.

And we find that there's this hopeless man there who's laid there for 38 years, who's never got to see or taste the healing waters that he so much longs for.

And so I want to draw our attention to the grace of our Lord.

We have this hopeless paralytic laying there, completely dependent on others for everything food, water.

He's been neglected, he's been overlooked, he's been forgotten in this great crowd, but he was observed by the all-seeing eye of Christ in this moment.

See, verse 6 tells us in chapter 5, when Jesus saw him lying there, when Jesus saw him, this personal sight that Jesus had, out of all the masses, Jesus sees this man.

And not only does he see him, it says, Jesus knew him.

Jesus knew him.

Like the woman at the well, not only did he know he had been laying there, he knew his past.

He knew his story.

Jesus, walking in the spirit without measure, like we learned a few weeks ago, knew this man's story.

We learned later on in the text that he commands this man to sin no more so that nothing worse might happen to him.

See, Jesus saw him, and not only that, he knew him, and he chooses to extend grace.

And he kind of asked this puzzling question to this man, right?

He says, Do you want to be healed?

And verse 6.

Do you want to be healed?

Man, that kind of seems cold, right?

I've been laying here for 38 years, and you're gonna ask me if I want to be healed.

Man.

But Jesus wasn't talking about his physical healing, Jesus was talking about his spiritual healing.

See, Jesus was after this man's heart.

And so this man was so hopeless, instead of answering Jesus' question, what does he do?

He goes on to describe his sad state.

And he says, I have no one to put me down into the water.

And every time I try to, someone goes before me.

See, in the midst of his despair and hopelessness, he doesn't even recognize that God the Son is standing right before him.

And so what does Jesus do?

Does he walk away?

No, he chooses to extend grace and mercy, and he commands this man to get up, to take up his mat and walk.

And so he does.

After 38 years of laying there, this man gets up and takes his mat.

And I want us to not miss this amazing truth about God's grace.

You see, we have one man in the first story, this father who is pursuing after Jesus.

He's actively looking.

He is moving towards.

He's traveled 18 miles looking for Jesus.

And we have another man who's lying there hopeless.

Not looking for Jesus, but looking for someone to put him down in water so he his physical and earthly needs can be met.

What grace it is that Jesus meets both of these men right where they're at.

Jesus meets both of these men right where they're at.

The Father who's looking for him, and this man who is lying hopeless on a mat.

One who's desperate and one who's hopeless.

What grace of our Lord, what truth to be reminded of this morning, that wherever you are at this morning, Jesus can meet you there.

Wherever you're at, whatever sin, whatever doubts, whatever anxiety, whatever fears, Jesus can meet you there.

He's bigger than your situation.

So Jesus meets both of these men right where they are at.

And he chooses to shower them with grace and mercy.

Not only physically, but spiritually.

You see Jesus questioning this paralytic and statements about the Father's faith at first glance seem cold and distant.

Do you want to be healed?

Or the statement, unless you see signs and wonders, you'll never believe, right?

They seem cold.

When in reality, they're the beginning of unfathomable grace in their lives.

The beginning of unfathomable grace.

See, Jesus says to the Father, unless you see signs and wonders in John 4, 48.

And this you is plural.

He's not just speaking to the Father, he's speaking to the crowds that are witnessing this.

Unless you see it, you'll never believe.

Man, it seems cold.

But no, Jesus, being full of grace and mercy, knew what that father needed so that he could have faith, so that he could have a relationship with him.

He knew exactly what it would take for this cold heart to be turned and softened, and for this man to desire a relationship with Jesus.

He knew it.

And he gave him that wonder in healing his son so that he might have a relationship.

See, the father healing this, or Jesus healing this boy wasn't really about healing the boy at all.

No, it was about healing the father's spiritual illness, which is sin.

And God saw fit to use this sick boy to not only draw the father, but this entire household to him into a loving relationship.

And so Jesus, being grieved by this imperfect faith, not only by the father, but the people that were around, choose chooses to shower grace so that they could be saved.

And he seems to know this paralytic.

Jesus meets them right where he's at, too.

He says in 5.6, do you want to be healed?

Do you want to be healed?

See, Jesus wasn't talking about his physical state, but rather his spiritual state.

And he chooses to shower with unmerited favor and grace.

Paul in his uh book to the uh church in Ephesus says in chapter 2, verses 8, it says, For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith.

And this is not of yourself, it is a gift of God, so that no one may boast.

Faith is flowing from God's grace.

Faith flows from God's grace.

Principle 2 faith trusts in God's ways.

Faith trusts in God's ways.

It says, by faith through grace, the Father took Jesus at his word and returned home.

He trusted Jesus.

And by faith through grace, the paralytic picked up his mat and walked away.

See, the world tells us that seeing is believing.

But faith tells us that believing is seeing.

Believing is seeing.

See, both men had a bold step of faith that was ahead of them that required action.

The road ahead was not easy.

The Father, what he wanted was Jesus to come with him to the Son that he might be healed.

And Jesus didn't give him that.

He said, I have another plan.

You need to go back, and your son will be well.

His son.

And the paralytic, he wanted to be put into the waters to be healed.

And that didn't happen.

Rather, he had to step up, stand up, take his mat, and walk away.

All he had known for the past 38 years, he would have to walk into uncertainty and unknown territory.

Not only that, culturally we know that these invalids and lame that were in this area had everything provided for them.

They had a stipend, they had food, and once they had been healed, once they were able to leave this place, there were expectations culturally for them.

And so he had to get to work, he had to have a job, he had uncertainty.

What he had known for the past 38 years would be completely flipped upside down.

See, the father could have used his position and authority to pull Jesus back to be with his son.

And the paralytic could have called for Jesus to be the one to place him down in the water for healing.

But they both trusted in God's ways.

And so this morning I ask you, what area of your life are you struggling to trust God with right now?

Where have you been swimming against the current, trying to do things in your own ways, and you need to surrender to Jesus this morning?

To say, I trust you, that your ways are better than mine, your thoughts are higher than mine.

Give me faith to trust where you're leading that I might go there.

Three weeks ago, we got to bring home our fourth child, little baby girl.

Coming off a week of Camp Agape, but I'll try to keep it together.

We've been wanting to adopt for eight years.

And to say that, we didn't question God's plan, God's timing, his goodness would be a an utter lie.

Really would.

But God has sustained us through this.

He is, He had bigger things in mind.

He had uh some growing pains for us to go through that drew us closer to Him in the pain, that allowed us to trust Him more in His goodness coming full circle.

And so the reason I bring this up is to encourage us this morning that when God calls us to something, He doesn't mean it's gonna be easy.

But oftentimes, He's after our heart.

And hard work is hard work.

And sometimes we have to be brought low before we can truly surrender.

And so living faith this morning, it trusts in God's ways.

It says, God, I don't know what you're doing, I don't know what your plans are.

I can't make sense of this plan that you have.

But living faith says, I trust you.

I trust where you're leading.

And I'm gonna follow you.

See, our faith through grace has learned to trust in God's ways, even though we can't see the details, even though we can't see the end.

At the end of our adoption journey was more of Jesus in our life.

We can be thankful for that.

So principle two, I'll leave it because I'll just cry.

Principle two, trust in God's ways.

And principle three is that faith works till heaven's gates.

Faith works till heaven's gates.

One of the contrasts I'd like to point to briefly this morning, see, is in the first healing, the father returns home.

And we have this great confidence of what happened, right?

Not only was he saved, but his entire household is saved.

We have this great picture of a father that pursued his son, right?

And his entire household is saved.

Man, we we want the men of this church to be shepherds of their home, to raise up their children in the Lord's ways.

Not that we can save them, but we are invited into that mission to seek and save the lost as husbands and as wives.

And I love the picture that we get in this story of this father who got home and didn't just rejoice that his son was healed.

He didn't just go back to his old ways serving King Herod in his court, right?

No.

No, this man got to work and his entire household was saved.

We have that assurance through Scripture.

So we have that on the one side.

On the flip side, we hear of this paralytic who is healed, and we don't have that confidence.

We don't know what life looked like for this man afterwards.

We get the caution from Jesus to be careful to not sin anymore, so that nothing else might happen, nothing worse might happen to you.

But we don't know what his story is beyond this interaction with Jesus.

It's an interesting choice of language that Jesus knew this man and pursued this man.

But when this man was questioned by the Pharisees and religious leaders of the day, they said, Who was it that healed you?

And the man doesn't know.

He's not able to provide that it was Jesus that healed him.

So whether that be fear of who Jesus was, or whether that he did not have that personal relationship with him, there's a distinct difference in the way that the father with the sick son responds in this paralytic man.

All throughout scriptures we learn that a faith without works is dead, right?

James 2 says, What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have work?

Can that faith save him?

Is a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food?

And one of them says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body.

What good is that?

So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, You have faith and I have works.

Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

See, a true faith, a living faith, is most evidenced by works.

We see this most clearly with Jesus himself, who fully trusted the Father to the point of obedience that led him to the cross.

You see, this moment of Jesus healing this paralytic on the Sabbath was really a turning point in the gospel.

From this point on, the religious leaders become maddened and they double down in their pursuit to put an end to Jesus, to murder him.

It drove them mad.

See, we see Jesus' perfect obedience even in the garden when he is crying out, Father, not my will, but yours be done.

See, true faith works till heaven's gates.

And so this morning, if I would try to define faith, I would say, faith is a gifted confidence in the goodness of God that leads to a life of worship and work.

Faith is a gifted confidence in the goodness of God that leads to a life of worship and work.

Faith could be described as this spiritual swagger, this confidence, right?

This charisma of sorts that God has got me.

That if God is for me, who can be against me?

It was this faith that carried Daniel through the lion's den, right?

It was this faith that emboldened this young shepherd boy named David to fight Goliath.

It was faith that sustained Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego as they stood before this king.

And they said, My God can save me, my God will save me, and even if he doesn't, I won't bow my knee.

Faith is a gifted confidence, gifted confidence in the goodness of God.

And this ultimately brings us to our main idea this morning.

Our main idea is that faith is rooted in relationship.

Faith is rooted in relationship.

You see, at the center of living faith is the unconditional, gracious, pursuing love of God the Father.

See, we need to go back to the garden.

God was not lacking anything.

God didn't think, man, I need to create man so that you know I can be fulfilled.

No.

God desired a relationship with us.

God being a relation, a relational being, had perfect harmony and peace between the Father, Son, and the Spirit.

And he desired to create man in his image so that he might have relationship with him, that they might sing his excellencies.

And he desired to walk in unity and harmony with them.

And then sin crept in and destroyed that.

See, sin distanced us from that relationship that we had, God's good design.

And we see that evidence as man is kicked out of the garden, kicked out from God's presence.

And the rest of Scripture is a rescue story of how God is going to send his son to reverse the curse of sin, to restore what was broken and lost in Eden.

And we see God's great pursuit of a relationship with us.

See, the relationship is the foundation upon which faith is built.

And more than that, it's the safety, the security upon which we can weather life's storms.

It begins by grace, it grows through the highs and lows of life.

And then if it's authentic, it'll move us to a place of greater worship and works until he calls us home.

And we, living in the light of his grace and glory, shed of all the confidence in the world that if our God is for us, who can be against us?

Yet our story oftentimes is that we have a fickle faith.

We have a fickle faith.

Fickle means likely to change without good reason.

Likely to change without good reason.

If we were to sit down and recount all the ways that God has sustained us, He's saved us, He's moved on our behalf, we can reflect through the entirety of Scripture of the power and might and sovereignty of God.

Man, we should have so much confidence, so much assurance in His goodness.

Yet often our faith is fickle, likely to change without good reason.

I think we do this, we see this in two extremes.

One, we are, some of us are only moved by the gifts of God and not the person of God.

We're only moved by the gifts of God and not the person of God.

See, faith is rooted in relationship, not rewards.

And so, like the crowd in Cana that was looking for these signs and wonders, these sideshows, and missing the point that Jesus was right there in their midst, they chase after that side attraction.

See, they didn't want Jesus.

No, they wanted to see what excitement he could bring.

They wanted to taste of that wine because it tasted great, but they didn't want to taste of his goodness in their lives.

And so, what's the problem with only seeking the gifts?

I think there's a number, but one that I think that our faith is not authentic, it's not salvific, it doesn't save us in nature, but more so it's about comfort and pleasure and feel good.

And in the end of that type of faith, it ends in destruction.

Because our faith isn't reluted in, if it's not rooted in relationship with the king, we have that caution that in the end he'll say, Depart from me, because I never knew you.

If we're after the pleasures and rewards of God and not the person.

Another problem with that is that we'll never learn to obey his word or hear his voice.

You see, faith is about transformation, it's about obedience, it's about righteousness.

And if we don't learn to believe his word or hear his voice, our faith falters and doesn't grow and is fickle.

And his glory and our good are at stake in this situation.

I think others of us we neglect the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.

We neglect the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in our lives.

Oftentimes we strive to lean on our own understanding, our own strength, our own ways, like the desperate Father who views the power of Christ as inseparable from his physical presence to heal his son.

Or the hopeless man who is waiting for an angel to place to stir up the waters and for someone to place him in the waters to be healed.

We too neglect the power and presence of God in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells inside of us as believers.

What tough lessons have been learned in my life because of this very thing.

What sleepless nights, anxious mind, pounding heart, neglecting the helper, neglecting the spirit.

See, many of us think we have a relationship with Jesus.

But if we look at our earthly relationships and compare them to what it looks like with our spiritual relationship with man, it's a sad relationship.

I don't know any friendships in my life that I don't talk to them daily that are healthy, that I don't pray for them, that I don't ask them what's going on, that I don't seek for their good, right?

Man, what does our prayer life say about our relationship with God?

Do we only go to him when we need something?

Right?

Do we not spend time in his word to get to know him better?

His revealed word who tells us who he is and how he is to be worshipped and praised and gloried in.

Man, living faith is rooted in relationship.

And our Father, because of the great love in which he loves us, not only sent his son to die on a cross, but he keeps giving and he sends his spirit, his very spirit that raised Christ from the grave to live inside of us so that we might know him more and trust in his goodness more?

Oh, that we would learn to live and to walk in a deep, abiding relationship with him.

What would change in your life?

How would your faith grow?

How would your mission, how would your work change?

How would our homes be marked with peace, joy over anger, if we lived life reliant on the Spirit to guide us and lead us?

See, living faith is rooted in relationship.

This brings us to our gospel conviction this morning.

Living faith is tethered to the empty tomb.

It's tethered to the empty tomb.

See, faith is birthed at the tomb, it is perfected in the light of the tomb, and we never graduate from the good news of the gospel.

Jesus meets us at Calvary like He did that paralytic.

He sees us at Calvary.

He knows us at Calvary.

He's not surprised by anything that you can say or do.

No, he is all-knowing.

And he chose through perfect obedience to die on the cross to welcome you into a relationship with the Father.

See, Jesus calls to us at Calvary.

What does he say on the cross?

Jesus says, Father, forgive them.

Father, forgive them.

See, living faith is tethered to this relationship with the risen Lord.

Tethered to it.

What hope and confidence and peace this morning that Jesus sees us and he's able to meet us right where we're at.

So our gospel vision, some practical steps of what we should do with this as we go from here.

Might take some pen and paper and some reflection time this week, but we said that faith flows from God's grace.

And so this week I want you to take time, whether it be 30 minutes, whether it be an hour, to sit down and revisit how you came to Christ, how you came to saving faith.

I want you to compare the old man to the new man.

And if that's not you this morning, I want you to reflect.

Reflect on really, do I desire a relationship with God?

What does that look like?

And I want you to, man, I hope that you reach out with someone in here, one of the pastors, whether it be someone in your mission group or someone that brought you to church this morning.

I would love for you to reflect on that.

But then I want you to take what you what you wrote down, and I want you to share it.

If you're a parent, I want you to share it with your kids.

If you don't have kids, I want you to share it with someone in your mission group so that your heart might be reminded of the grace that's been extended to you, that you might be moved to a greater place of thanks and worship and adoration.

We said that faith trusts in God's ways.

I want you to take time this week to reflect on a time when your faith wavered, when you doubted God's goodness, but now being on the other side, your faith has grown and strengthened.

I want you to reflect on that.

I want you to be authentic and real, and I want you to share that story with someone in your mission group.

Share that with your friends.

Share that with a spouse.

Share that with someone who brought you here.

Or maybe I want you to share a story of where right now you're struggling to trust God right now.

Where you're struggling to trust God.

And lastly, faith works till heaven's gates.

We said that faith without works is dead.

So what is Jesus calling you today?

See, being saved by Jesus is an enlistment into his mission, into his work, to seek and save the lost, like the man lying at the pool that Jesus pursued.

So I want you to think about someone that God has placed sovereignly in your life that you can share the good news of Jesus with, the good news of the gospel, that Jesus can meet him or her right where they're at today.

I want you to go from this place thinking and looking with eternal eyes and lens of who you can share this good news with.

So, in closing, I began with a question that what if everything in your life had a bigger, deeper purpose?

See, God deeply desires a relationship with you.

No, he's a relational being who wants to meet with you today.

He's jealous for your affection, your worship, your time, your talent, your treasure.

All things are from him and for him, and you are no different.

And sometimes in his sovereign wisdom, he uses our weakness to bring an end to ourselves so that we might turn to him and walk in union with him.

Like the desperate father or the hopeless paralytic, or maybe allowing a rare throat infection to save seemingly take your life.

But maybe he's sovereign.

Maybe he's in complete control.

And he loves you so deeply, so deeply.

And he doesn't just heal your physical disease.

No, he heals your spiritual disease.

See, Jesus speaks life into deadly situations.

He speaks life.

And he welcomes us into relationship with him.

And so wherever you're at this morning, I pray that God wouldn't meet you there.

I pray that God wouldn't meet you there.

He's not surprised by any anger or doubt or fear or brokenness.

But this morning he's has an invitation to sit in his abiding love, to trust in his goodness, for your glory or for his glory and your good.

Let me pray.