House of Mercy

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Happy birthday, Awakening Church.

Very, very good.

Now, for those who are wondering why in the world do we have a birthday?

I get it.

It's a little different for a church, but uh the short answer is birthdays are way more fun than anniversaries.

Uh but the real I think so.

I think they're funner.

Um you shut up.

Uh the but I think deep down actually the real answer is because um we believe 11 years ago God birthed the movement, a new community called Awakening Church that exists to awaken this generation to new life.

And we want to pause and stop and celebrate his faithfulness, his work of what he's done all these years.

And so, yeah, happy birthday.

Um today the sermon title is House of Mercy.

Why don't you go ahead and just say that to your neighbor, House of Mercy?

And now that you're warmed up, go ahead and say it to your other neighbor, House of Mercy.

As we celebrate year 11, as we're now a official tweener as church, I think it's important to ask the question: what kind of house do we want to be?

You know, we've yet to have a permanent home as a church, and we're so grateful.

We've been 11 years here at Del Mar High School.

So yeah, it's a great partnership there.

Um but we gotta ask, what kind of house do we want to be?

And a better question is, what kind of house does Jesus want us to be?

Uh, Dr.

Martin Segelman, he's actually the father of like positive psychology.

Uh what he was first uh well known for, came on the map for, was actually a study in the 1960s uh that he was doing with dogs.

And it started with this uh group, group A, and group A was called the uh escape group.

And this group of dogs, they would be put into this pen, the floor gave an electrical shock, not enough to seriously hurt the dog, but to bother the dog.

And um there was a button, and if they pushed the button with their nose, the electrical stop, uh, electrical shock would stop.

And so, group A, the escape group, learned over the course of time if I press the button with my nose, the shock stops.

Well, group B, group B was the you can't escape group, and you can figure out what that was for them, is nothing they did would stop the shock.

And so it's kind of cruel, I know today.

Uh so if they pushed the button with their nose, nothing stopped it.

Then they took all the dogs together and they did another experiment.

This time you had the floor, the surface that would shock the dogs, and then a low barrier that the dogs could easily hop over to escape the shock.

Now, what happened and what they were expecting was that every dog eventually would learn to jump over that gate and, you know, stop, get away from the shock.

But what happened surprised them is of course the escape group did this very quickly.

The you can't escape group didn't even try.

They actually simply laid down because they thought there was no hope, and why even try?

Even though right in front of them was a little low gate that they could have jumped over and escaped at any moment.

What Dr.

Segelman noted was this condition that's actually famous today.

He said they were in the condition of learned helplessness.

Learned helplessness that I've tried and nothing works.

Been there?

There's nothing I can do to change.

Why try?

I'll never break free from and you fill in the blank.

And at the end of learned helplessness is this idea that nothing I do matters.

It has no impact.

I just exist in this state, in this condition.

Let me ask you.

Is there something in your life that you believe will never change?

Is there something in your life where you've just given up?

You've lost hope, you refuse to try anymore?

Maybe it's that pervasive sense of loneliness.

We have a loneliness epidemic in our culture today, and you're like, I've tried, I've put my out my I've put myself out there.

But I just constantly feel rejected and alone, and nothing I do changes it.

Maybe you in Silicon Valley, it's the workaholism, it's the drive, it's the thing in you.

And you want to be present, you want to be with your family, but but there's just something that just keeps you going and moving.

And then yet at the same time, isn't there this sense of like you just always feel like you're failing and nothing you do changes it?

Or that sense of worthlessness or being unlovable.

Maybe it's the addiction that's been running your life, and sure, you're really great at coping with it, and you put on a good face, and you know, nobody ever really sees it, but but the drinking or the pornography or the eating disorder or whatever it is, or maybe you're the one attached to the addicted person, and and you can't quite get out of that because your need to be needed is so strong, and nothing you do changes it, or perhaps you've been treated so poorly by someone.

Repeat, and it's just become your identity, this is who you are, and you fall into those well-worn grooves of life and anxiety or depression.

Is there something in your life that you believe will never change?

And what does this have to do with the kind of house Jesus wants us to be?

Um, in the ancient day in for Israel, there were three feasts that every Jewish male that lived within a 15-mile radius of Jerusalem had to attend.

Uh many people would make the great pilgrimage for these feasts, sometimes once in a lifetime.

So you can imagine the great city of Jerusalem during these feasts are at surge capacity.

They're maximum.

It's just, it's it's a party, it's huge, it's big.

Um and yet in big your family, like, hey, we're not gonna go there.

The sheepgate was one of those places.

The sheep gate was actually where they would lead often the uh sacrificial lamb into the city, through the gate to the temple.

But but what was near the sheepgate is the reason why you wouldn't go in that area.

There was this pool, and in fact, it was two pools, big pools.

They they were constructed under Herod the Great during his big construction, and uh, you know, like he wanted to show how amazing he was.

These pools were a hundred yards long, twenty feet deep.

They had these covered patios that protected from the midday sun.

It sounds amazing.

It sounds amazing, and they were called Bethesda, or the house of mercy, the house of outpouring.

But there was, as there was in Jerusalem, as there were all over the ancient world, there were these cults of healing, these places where you bind in this moment.

And thousands of cripples and blind and lame and sick all came to this place to hope to be healed.

There was legend that had it that an angel would come and stir the waters.

You know, later you look back on it and go, well, there's a mineral spring there, and it's probably the gurgling up of that in the subterranean surface.

But if you were able to get into the water first, you would be healed.

I can't begin to express how the sheer um depravity of humanity.

How painful it would be to come and see this, the sick, the disabled flocking to the magical waters of Bethesda, the gravity of suffering and purity of staggering.

This is an open up to John chapter 5, verse 1.

John 5:1

John chapter 5, verse 1.

John 5:1

You see, learned helplessness is not a new phenomenon.

In fact, it's as old as time.

And in chapter 5, we get a picture of how Jesus meets us in our hopeless places of our lives and a vision for what kind of house we are called to be.

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

Now, there in Jerusalem near the sheep gate, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda, and which is surrounded by five colored uh covered colonnades, here a great number of disabled people used to lie the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked them, Do you want to get well?

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

And at once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked.

Is there any hope for the things that I'm ha hopeless and helpless to change?

And how does the presence of Jesus change the areas of my life, your life, that we believe will never change?

I just want to draw your attention to a few observations from the text, and I believe the foundation, the beginning part of experiencing hope and healing in the areas where we are most helpless begins right here.

There is no magic healing pool.

Now, we kind of think that's a mute point, right?

You're like, of course, Ryan.

We understand the subterranean mineral springs.

In fact, we go up to Calistoga to enjoy those now, regular and some medicinal purposes, and oh, isn't that nice and refreshed and all that?

But but is it gonna produce true healing?

No, of course not.

We know that we're modern, we we get this.

But here's the interesting part every single person on the planet has a magic healing pool.

They're looking to bring wholeness and healing to their life.

We all are, we're all longing for something.

We maybe maybe it's the area of if I only I was married.

If only I had a boyfriend or girlfriend, if I only had my person, because then if I had that, then the ache of my soul, this area, this thing that just isn't quite right, then it would be fixed.

If only we could have kids.

If only I was smarter, if only I was taller, if only I was prettier, if only I, if only I had that job, if only, and we have these healing pools that we visit, that we attend, that somehow offers something that ultimately we think will bring wholeness and life and satisfaction, and at the core of our beings, they operate often in the background, ever pursuing, never satisfying this longing, this hungering.

And the first thing we have to understand if we're gonna step and experience the hope of Jesus is there is no magic healing pool.

In fact, I like how Dr.

Townsend said it.

Um I was a part of a week-long um cohort thing with him, and he's talking about our strategies to deal with the brokenness inside, those areas where we're helpless, the stuff that we don't actually want to tell or show people.

Oh, that I'm just gonna ignore it.

Second strategy: work harder.

I think that's the Silicon Valley mantra.

I'm just gonna work harder, I'm gonna fix it, I can do this, I can do this on my own.

I'm gonna be the best version of me.

I gotta be true to myself.

Oh, I wasn't.

I gotta be true to myself.

Oh, I'm not.

I don't even know what myself is now.

Deny the real, work harder.

Strategy number two, three, self-judgment.

We just pour on self-judgment.

Who are you?

What were you thinking?

You'll never amount.

Strategy number four, he says, is where you want to be.

And it's so counterintuitive because it actually feels like the learned helplessness.

Strategy number four, he says, is despair.

And he says, you want to be in despair because that is where God meets you.

Ten years down the road, I need a new person because it's not working out right, and I need this job, as long as it's out there, you will never, never, ever get to experience Jesus and the healing and the wholeness that He offers.

First, there's no magic healing pool.

Second, only Jesus brings healing and wholeness.

Only Jesus brings healing and wholeness.

Not Jesus plus.

Think about this story, by the way.

This man, thirty-eight years, his sickness was his identity.

And standing before him is one who can heal him in a moment's notice.

And what is he doing?

What is he doing?

No one is here to help me.

Where?

Get there.

And friends, I just got to tell you, I think so often, here's what we do with Jesus.

We ask Jesus to help us get there when he's standing here to heal us.

And we have in a picture in our mind, Jesus, help me over here, help me get over here.

And we want to add Jesus as our personal genie, as our self-realization guru to help us live out our best life, and it's just Jesus.

The problem is we've made Jesus a means to the end.

He is the end.

It's only him.

And until you get that, you'll miss out on the freedom and the healing and the wholeness because you're looking at him saying, help me get there.

And he says, But I'm right here.

I'm right that we're stuck in.

First, we have to go, you know what?

Identify.

What are your healing pools?

What are the areas that you you go, you know, I just gravitate towards and I just keep going there.

And get to the point, I love how AA says it, where you let go and you let God.

Where you finally let go of that and realize in and of myself, I can't, but he can.

I am helpless in and of myself, but I have one who is greater than me, beyond myself, who can lift me up, and I will rely, I will lean, and I will call upon him.

For only he is the source of life.

Friends, that is not just for someone who is new to the faith, that is for all of us.

That we return back to it time and time again.

And then what does this have to do with the type of church, the type of house we were to be?

See, I believe Jesus sets for us an example to follow.

Who he is, how he was.

He called his disciples and said, follow me, which means follow him.

I don't know why we complicate it.

I don't really know.

What does Jesus want me to do?

Um He said, follow him.

It's pretty clear.

Where?

Well, whatever Jesus was doing, you go and do that.

That's what a group of followers do.

Whatever the person in front is doing.

He sets the examples.

I love that picture, Bethesda.

Literally, like I said earlier, means house of mercy, house of outpouring.

And this man was hoping this pool would be the house of mercy, and yet the man of mercy, full of grace and truth, stood before him, and then we're called to be his hands and feet to a hurting and broken world.

So, what examples did Jesus give us first?

I want you to notice that Jesus went where others avoided.

Jesus went where others avoided.

Bethesda was not a family day at the pool.

You kept your family from there.

Let me ask you this.

Who do you tend to avoid?

Who do you tend to avoid?

You know, it was odd in Silicon Valley.

You know who we tend to avoid?

Our neighbors.

And then, like, if we're gonna say we're gonna follow Jesus, what do you say?

Love your I don't think it was like this, like, big, you know, metaphysical like question, like neighbor.

You mean neighbor?

But isn't it weird how we just avoid people?

Uh we moved recently and it's across the street from the park, and I've realized this is in myself.

It's this idea of willful blindness.

It's the decision to feign ignorance when you actually know or have knowledge.

I can't have willful blindness anymore because across the street from the park there are those who sleep outside who are unhoused.

I knew that, but I avoid it and live in my safe, comfortable existence, and I'm okay with it somehow.

And then I see a lady sleeping on the sidewalk and a man on a bench, and I'm still figuring out how to respond to that and how to love.

But it makes us feel uncomfortable.

We don't want to go there.

And friends, we can all come up with plenty of excuses, why not?

Jesus, by the way, if we're going to be a house of mercy, we must go where others avoid.

We cannot turn a deep a blind eye.

And by the way, I think one of the things we avoid is we avoid good conversation.

We avoid deep conversation, really getting to know someone.

We can stay on the surface with people.

I can talk cowboys all day long.

I know you can't, but I can.

And we avoid those deep waters of like, how are you?

And that's what Jesus does next.

Not only does he go where others avoid, he asks where rather than assume.

I encourage you, read through the gospels and just underline every time Jesus asks a question.

It's a lot.

He's constantly asking questions.

And I love this.

This is so incredible.

This man, 38 years, he's probably been spat on, he's been overlooked, he's been walked by, most likely, stepped over.

Nobody would give him time the time of day.

And if you notice in the text, it says that Jesus learned of his condition.

Like he took time to really understand who this man was, that he had uh been an invalid for 38 years, and then he looked.

Looks at him and asks, Do you want to get well?

He didn't ask, Do you believe in me?

Listen, you're at Bethesda.

This is actually kind of a friend.

Theologically, you're wrong.

Just want to let you know, theologically you're wrong.

And in fact, he would know, and we'd come to find out later, that his sickness and his ailment is because of sin and wrongdoing he did.

So he kind of deserved it too.

Jesus just sees the man in pain, his heartache, and he just asks him the question.

Oh church, that we would be a people who look at one another, see the other person.

Isn't that what we're longing for?

We're all looking and longing.

Do you see me?

Do you care that I'm here?

Am I enough in this moment?

Do I need to be better?

We're all wrestling with those questions, and that we would be those who lean in and ask.

I like how Simone Weil says it.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

That was well, well, well, well, well before the iPhone when she wrote that.

David Augsburger in his book writes this being heard is so close to being love that for the average person they are almost indistinguishable.

We so are quick in the church to have the answers, but are we just asking and hearing and listening?

It is so powerful.

It is so powerful.

Jesus went where others avoided.

Jesus asked rather than assumed.

And finally, Jesus led with compassion, then followed with clarity.

We talk about this a bit here at Awakening.

And we'll start a series next week called Controversial Jesus and look at his teachings over these big subjects like uh politics and sexuality and anger and all the rest.

And I hope it's going to be a great series.

But one of the most fascinating things about Jesus, uh in John chapter 1 tells us that he is the fullness of grace and truth.

John 1 · chapter mention

And when he was around those who were, quote unquote, the ungodly, the wrong people, what you'll find consistently is he always leads with compassion and then follows with clarity.

He reverses that with the people who shouldn't have the right answers, with religious leaders, he actually leads with clarity and then follows with compassion, like Nicodemus.

But with those who are far from him, he's not giving them a doctrinal dissertation on why he's the son of God.

He's leading with compassion in this moment.

You are seen and you are loved.

He said, Do you want to get well?

Yes.

And then he followed with clarity.

He found the guy later and said, Listen, man, change your life, change, stop what you're doing, or you might fall back into this very same thing.

The church so often, too often, leads with clarity and never gets to compassion.

In fact, I think there's two equal and opposite dangers in the church.

They're both represented in this text.

The first is syncretism.

Syncretism is changing the gospel, the message of the gospel to fit the culture.

And we're seeing that all around and by culture, and how do we just adjust the message to whatever we're seeing?

And the reality is, is it's the unchanging message of the gospel that has the power of life change for every single person in an ever-changing world.

It's the unchanging message of the gospel and syncretism.

You saw this with the paganism and Judaism of the healing pool.

But then on the other side, and I wish we had time to unpack this, and when you have high syncretism, then you'll see more of this.

It's Phariseeism, legalism, wanting a quote, pure church, and so cast judgment, looking down on those who don't measure up.

Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath.

We don't have time to get into this.

He picks up his mat, which you weren't, you know, allowed to do is considered work.

He hasn't walked for 38 years, people.

Say it out loud.

38.

I want to do this.

Like, how many of you are under 38 in this room?

I won't do it.

But 38 years, he hasn't walked.

He's walking.

He's so strong.

He can carry his own mat.

And all the Pharisee can see is not a man healed.

They just begin to condemn him.

How could you do that?

See the house of mercy.

The house of mercy goes where others avoid.

The house of mercy asks rather than assume.

And it leads, we're going to lead with compassion and follow with clarity.

I guess said another way, followers of Jesus.

A new command.

By the way, I don't know if we know this or not, but um commands are not optional.

Especially if you call Jesus Lord.

A new command I give you, love one another.

See, love goes where others avoid.

Love stoops low and asks the question and sees you and meets you in your need.

Love has compassion.

And it's not just compassion for compassion's sake, but then as clarity is grace and truth, both beautifully combined so that you experience the fullness of the life God intended for you and the healing you desperately need.

Love one another.

Is that clear?

Is that simple?

And is that difficult?

By this, by the way, everyone will know you're my disciples.

Not how you post on social media, people will know you're my disciples.

Not by how you vote politically.

We'll talk about that next week.

That'll be fun.

Not even, and I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna jab a little bit.

Not even by your doctrinal correctness, which is very important.

The hallmark, the distinguishing mark of a disciple of Jesus Christ is loving the way he loved you.

That's it.

And that, by the way, is a mature Christian.

And that is our calling.

And that's what it means to be a house of mercy.

So what kind of house are we going to be?

What kind of house does Jesus want us to be?

A house of mercy.

And by the way, I really think that the church in America, I don't think just people dive in to learn helplessness.

I think the church in America has learned helplessness.

Oh, culture's so bad, it's so hard.

We've tried, we don't know what to do.

He showed us.

He told us.

And by the way, the early followers of Jesus lived in a hostile, hostile, both Judaism and Rome were against them.

And it was by the way they loved that transformed the entire world as we know it.

So what do I do with this?

Who am I?

I'm just I'm just a single person, Ryan.

I get the house, I get the whole big thing.

Agnes.

Ganja Bohojiu.

Try saying that five times fast.

Was born August 26, 1910, in what's known as Macedonia.

Her father died when she was eight.

At 12 years of age, she just felt this call from God to serve.

Her mother, incredibly godly, compassionate, would invite all sorts of people to their house and serve them.

At 18, she left her house to go serve with the sisters of Loretta, teaching high school at St.

Mary's High School in Calcutta, India.

As she was there, think about this 18-year-old little girl.

I have an 18-year-old, almost 19-year-old.

She's not a little girl, but I'm sorry.

Dad's hard talking there.

Showing up into India.

As she's teaching, she's becoming increasingly more concerned with what's happening outside the convent than what's happening in.

She's on a train ride and feels this call from God to begin to serve into the slums, into the poorest of poor in India, in Calcutta.

She asked for permission to go serve.

And they said, sure, go for it.

And so on her own, all by herself with no funding and no people, she went to go serve those in the poorest of poor, all with the goal, I love this, no goal more than this, to serve the unwanted, the unloved, the uncared for.

She got about six months of medical training and started an open-air school for the kids in Calcutta, wanting them to come to know the love of Jesus and meeting their basic needs.

Shortly after, more volunteers began to join her, and then funding came her way.

She chartered what's known as the missionaries of charity.

This order of sisters today is about 5,000 in 130 countries.

And of course, you know her today, and I know her today as Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Think about this.

She stands a mere five feet, or stood.

She's no longer with us.

She stood five feet tall.

And yet she stands with the giants of the 20th century who did incredible humanitarian work.

She stands with Dr.

Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu and Mahatma Gandhi.

This one little girl that was born way far away from where God had her, God put on her heart just to serve.

And at 18 years of age, Jesus had her yes.

And she said yes.

One person.

See, it's so easy to go, that's somebody else.

But you are called to do something terribly important.

God has placed you here for this time.

God has gifted you.

You are called at your university.

Those unwanted, unloved can experience the goodness of God, the healing of Jesus.

What I want to invite you to do is on your way out, grab one of these.

This is our 40 days of prayer.

That God, would you just begin to align my heart with your heart?

I'm going to begin to lean in and pray into this.

And God, would you begin to use me?

You have my yes.

You have my yes.

You can grab one at the connection table or to the left over there.

And for 40 days, we're going to just be praying together and looking for opportunities where God opens up doors for us simply to be Jesus to those around us.

And as we close, would you just stand with me?

And I just want you to, I want to pray.

One of Mother Teresa, dear Jesus, help me to spread thy fragrance everywhere I go.

Flood my soul with thy spirit and love.

Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly that all my life may be only a radiance of thine.

Shine through me and be so in me that every soul I come into contact with may feel thy presence in my soul.

And Lord, make our house a house of mercy.

In Jesus' name, and all God's people said.com slash card.