Sitting on a Miracle (August 16, 2026)

When everything starts glitching and falling apart, it’s easy to assume the day is ruined. We push back on that mindset and lean into a bigger question: what if the pressure, the lack, and the interruption are actually setting the stage for God to move?

We walk through the feeding of the 5,000 from John 6 and slow down to notice what most people miss. The disciples calculate the problem like Jesus isn’t standing there, but a shortage looks different when you include Him in the equation. We talk about faith and real life, bills, jobs, family stress, and the moments when your circumstances scream louder than your hope. Faith doesn’t pretend the need isn’t there, it refuses to believe the need is bigger than God’s provision.

Then we shift to John 5 at the Pool of Bethesda, where a man waits thirty eight years for healing he thinks must come one specific way. Jesus asks the question that cuts through every excuse: “Do you want to get well?” We unpack identity, disappointment, and the habit of negotiating with God on timelines and methods, and we end with a clear challenge for Christian growth and obedience: pick up your mat and walk, then tell somebody what the Lord has done.

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Transcript

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When Everything Starts Falling Apart

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Most of you guys who know me know that I noticed that stuff immediately. I knew as soon as that battery pack dropped out. I knew as soon as that TV started acting. Like, I felt all of those things starting to happen. I was like, this is not gonna be a fun morning for me. But let me tell you something. Because I become frustrated and I become like it's it consumes me. Because why? Why today of all days? We can do this, we could come here every day of the week. And the day that God gathers everybody in this building is the day that things are gonna start to fall apart. I don't think so. Not today. Not today.

Five Loaves Two Fish Big Lesson

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Not today, Satan. He was testing Philip for he already knew what he was gonna do. Philip replied, even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them. Then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, spoke up. There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish. But what good is that to this huge crowd? But what good is that to this huge crowd? Can you imagine speaking to Jesus and telling him about these two fish and these five loaves? But there are thousands of people on the hillside. He has the nerve to say, Well, there's this boy who's got this tiny amount of food, but that's no good to us. Tell everyone to sit down, Jesus said. So they all sat down on the grassy slopes. The men alone numbered about 5,000. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks to God, and distributed them to the people. Afterward he did the same with the fish, and they all ate as much as they wanted. And after everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, Now gather the leftovers so that nothing is wasted. So they picked up the pieces and filled twelve baskets with scraps left by the people who had eaten them from the five barley loaves. And when people saw him do this miraculous sign, they exclaimed, Surely he is the prophet that we have been expecting. When Jesus saw that they were ready to force him to be their king, he slipped off into the hills by himself. That story sounds amazing. This miracle is performed by Jesus. Now the problem is when he's got five loaves and he has two fish, he lifts them up to heaven, he blesses them, and then he just hands them out. He's not counting how much everybody takes. He's not trying to deter, take just a little piece, make sure there's enough for everybody. Don't take as much as you just take as much as you have to have. Amen. They ate until they were full and then had leftovers. That's a miracle. The people did not see the miracle for what it was. They saw it and said, surely he is the prophet that we have expected. Let's make him our king. And Jesus thought, man, they really don't get it. And he slipped off into the hillside. Thousands of people are sitting there gathered. And Jesus asks a simple question: Where can you buy enough bread to feed all of these people? And the reason wasn't that he wanted him to go find a Walmart and buy all of the bread. The reason he asked the question was to hear the doubt. He asked a question so that he could hear them say, There's no way we can feed these people. Jesus set himself up to perform one of the greatest miracles that we would ever see. He performs the miracle, and it's happening little by little. It's not one giant miracle. It's not Lazarus being raised from the dead, it is not the sick being healed, the lame walking. It is none of those things. It is little by little people eating and becoming full. If I was sitting next to you and you handed me the basket and I ate until I was full and handed the basket off, I have no idea what the basket looks like once it leaves my hands. So you don't understand the gravity of the miracle when you're sitting in it, and all of a sudden we've determined that he is a great prophet and he should be king. He looks at the crowd, he sees the resources, he sees the problem, and basically Philip says, Jesus, we don't have enough. The problem is, is there was already enough in the room. There was already enough on the hillside. Five loaves, two fish. See, Philip didn't understand that when Jesus is standing beside you, you can never calculate the miracle without including him in that equation. Amen? So when I'm doing the math on my life, I can't assume what my life is going to look like in ten years without figuring Jesus into the equation. Now, some of us are sitting here thinking, well, God's never moved in my life like that. I promise he has. See, you're sitting on a miracle, you're sitting on a miracle that you don't even know about. Have any of us ever looked at our checking account and went, that's not good? Whew. How are we gonna make it? Your circumstance may say one thing about you, your family may say another thing, the doctor may have told

Faith Refuses To Crown Reality

SPEAKER_00 6:32

you something, and your past may be screaming at you. But Jesus has the final word where the disciples saw a shortage, Jesus saw a setup. Jesus saw work for a perfect miracle. We're gonna go back to verse 7 for just a second. It says, Philip replied, even if we worked for months, we wouldn't have enough money to feed them. Philip is looking at that situation and says, it doesn't matter how long we work, it doesn't matter how long we minister, we will never be able to feed everybody. And I think every person in here should be able to relate with that statement. Amen. I don't think any of us have ever said, you know what? I am completely broke and I don't know how I'm gonna get to work tomorrow. I don't think any of us have ever said, have ever been able to not say these things in our life. We recognize that life is hard. Being on earth, being in the flesh is an incredibly difficult thing to do. But Philip is calculating and analyzing, he's being realistic. Right? But the reality is, faith doesn't deny that reality. And this is a hard one for us to hear. See, faith doesn't tell us that there aren't hungry people in the world. Faith doesn't tell us that there aren't hurting people in the world. Instead, it refuses to believe the reality is greater than God. That's a big statement. The reality that you live in right now is not bigger than the God that lives inside of you. You're broke? Yep. That's hard. You lost your job? That's hard. You don't know what you're gonna do? How you're gonna get to work tomorrow? That's hard. I'm not trying to trivialize any of that. Faith in Jesus tells those worries that my God is bigger than anything happening in my life today. My God is bigger than the struggle that I face. Yes, it is a struggle. Yes, I am going to have a hard time figuring this out. But Lord, I depend on you and only on you. I don't depend on myself because guess what? I'm gonna get it wrong. I'm gonna do something that serves me, not that serves you. I'm not looking to serve myself anymore. I'm looking to serve God in all things. The challenge with that statement is faith when faith seems ridiculous. Have you ever had faith in God for something that seems so incredibly ridiculous? That you're like, there's no way God could ever pull this off and then he does something even better than what you thought he could do? I never thought in a million years that God would bring me to the places that he's brought me, or that he would restore me from the things that I have put myself in. And I want to be clear, I have put myself in those places. I don't ever go to the valley just for fun. Because I don't know about you guys. I've never had a good time in the valley. I get down there and it's poor pitiful me. Why is this happening in my life? What's going on in my life? What did I do so wrong that God would leave me here? God didn't leave me there. I took myself there. And he says, Hey, here I am. Look at the view from the mountaintop. Look at the beauty in what I'm doing for you right now. Faith simply refuses to believe that the reality that you're living in is greater than God. See, there's a difference. Faith doesn't say there aren't hungry people. It says there are hungry people, but Jesus is here. See, churches should do more of that, right? They should say, I understand that you're hungry, but Jesus is here. See, we can do that with food. We can give people food, right? It's harder when you're trying to house people. I need my rent paid. If you have five people a month that asked for their rent to be paid, assume that you spend $5,000 a month to pay rent for people that need their rent paid. We can't afford to do that. But you know what? There are churches that are, that are capable. And there are churches that don't. There are churches that won't. That's okay as long as you've wrestled that out with God. And let me tell you what, God has never said to me, don't help that person. God has never said to me, Hey, don't step out in faith. We will go without so that God can have his way. The disciples saw too many people, not enough money, not enough bread, not enough resources. They saw all of the negative things in this situation. And maybe some of us are sitting here thinking the same thing. Well, I'm not called to that, or I don't have enough education, or my connections aren't good enough, or I don't have enough help, or I don't have enough strength. But let me tell you, God has never needed you to have enough. God has never needed you to have enough. All he needs is you to surrender the need to him so that he can provide thee enough. Yes. Have you ever been without and said, God, I'm giving this to you? And when he provides it, you say, God, that was great. I think oftentimes when God provides it, we say it's about time. I have been faithful and I have served. I have shown up and I have done what I am asked. It's about time. God does not provide in your time or what you want. He provides in his time what you need. Let me tell you something. That means you're not gonna die if you don't get a new car. It means you're not gonna die if you don't get to have steak and potatoes for dinner tonight. Anybody ever lived on ramen? It's a terrible way to live. But guess what? You're here today to tell about it. I was going through a CPR class. By the way, I am CPR certified. Don't make me use it. Don't ever want to have to do that. So is my wife. I would volunt her. When I was taking the class, they talked to you about chest compressions. Anybody want me to demonstrate on them? It's two inches deep. That compression is supposed to be two inches on somebody's body is a lot. Right? She said, if you feel it cracking, know that you're doing it right. Say what? They got these little rubber dummies that you're practicing on and it clicks when you do it. And I was like, I don't like the way that feels. Can't imagine doing it on somebody's body. And here was her response. If they live to complain about you cracking the cartilage in their ribs, you've done your job. If they live to complain, you've done your job. Listen, God is providing in all things, and sometimes it's painful, but you've lived through it. Right? Learn to not complain. Learn to be thankful for what God has actually done. God has never needed you to have enough. He has never, I need you to hear that. He has never needed you to have enough. Now, sometimes that means being responsible, right? God provides you with good finances. He gives you money. He provides you with the ability to feed your family. You don't get to go spend that on a new car. Right? He's called you to care for that family. That's what you should be doing. I think oftentimes people get that blessing and they squander the blessing. Anybody ever seen somebody squander a blessing? Anybody ever squandered a blessing? It's hard. It's hard not to say that God is providing for me in such a way that then I don't turn around and make an absolute mess of it. Andrew tells Jesus about this young boy who has five loaves and five fish. Now, listen, there are thousands of people, and he has five loaves and two fish, and it almost sounded ridiculous to even mention it, right? Anyone ever said something so incredibly obvious to you? You're like, why are you even talking right now? It feels like that's one of those moments where he's like, Well, there's that kid over there, he's got five loaves and two fishes, but you know, obviously that's not enough. Why'd you even mention it? If it's not enough, why did you even mention it? And imagine standing in front of those thousands of hungry people and saying, hey, good news, everybody, we found lunch. We've got five loaves and two fish. First come, first serve, right? Isn't that how that works? You ever been through a buffet line? Listen, we went, no, no, I'm gonna tell it anyway. We went to East of Chicago last night in Yorksville. First of all, it was $101 to have dinner there last night for six people. How much? $85? It's expensive, right? But we got the buffet because why do you get the buffet? Eat as much as you want. Here's the problem when you go to a buffet that ain't got no food on it. I spent $101 and I got two slices of pizza. I'm not joking. The buffet was empty the whole time we were there. I'm picturing them standing there with five loaves and two fishes and saying, eat everything you want, folks, because you know the first guy. He's like, Well, I'm not going hungry. I've seen people go through buffet lines at potlucks here that say, I ain't going hungry. They hit the first person in line. It's wild that he would even mention it. Imagine Jesus standing there and saying that. Everybody starts to get excited, and then the question gets asked, Well, how much do we have? Five loaves and two fish. But eat everything that you want. A little bit becomes so much more when it is placed in the hands of Jesus.

Small Provision Strong Stewardship

SPEAKER_00 17:06

Little bit becomes so much more when it's placed in the hands of Jesus. What does that mean? When your paycheck hits the bank, pray about it. God, what would you have me do with this money? God, how can I best benefit the kingdom of God? And I'm not talking about tithing or giving to the church. I'm saying, if, Lord, it is your will that I should pay the car payment instead of the rent, or if it is your will that listen, we need to be prayerful about what God would have happen in our lives every day. Every step of the way. See, everybody thinks that when you get saved, that everything gets easy. Everything is just, well, listen, I'm walking on Easy Street. God has saved me, He's redeemed me, He's called me His own. That means when I go out into the world, I'm gonna get everything I want. I'm gonna pray that I get the exact job that I want, and they're gonna pay me enough that I'm not gonna have to worry about anything else, and then you get a job, and it sucks. And they're not paying you nearly what you think you're worth. And what do we start to do? We start to complain. Well, I don't like it here, and I'm not gonna stay here. I don't even want to do this. I'll tell you what, I'm just gonna quit and I'll just hope for something better, and I'll just believe that I'm gonna get a different job, and then all of a sudden, God shakes you and makes you realize this is the better today. Sometimes we have to walk through the things that don't feel great in order to get to the things that are great. He's trusting us with something small, but when it's in his hands, it is so much bigger. Your little strength, your little faith, your little talent, all of the things that we think are small in our lives are big in the hands of Jesus. Amen. When I place all of my trust in Jesus, all of the things that are small will become insurmountable. Now, I wrote this and I thought it was a kind of a funny line. Because I think this is something that we do without recognition. I believe that we insult God when he gives us something small because it doesn't look big enough yet. Right? Have you ever been so prayerful about a job that when he gives you a little job or gives you something small that you can't be thankful for it because it wasn't what you wanted? We wanted so much bigger. I uh anybody ever ordered anything on Tamu before? You order a sofa and it comes and it's this big. Takes you 14 weeks to get it, you're so excited, you get the text message and it's out for delivery, you go home, and on your front porch is this little tiny package. And we become frustrated because we didn't get what we expected. We do the same thing to God all the time. We pray big, we believe big. Why isn't he delivering big? Because when he delivers big, we squander. When he delivers big, so one of the things that Jesus said is go and collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted. Can we agree that we are a wasteful society? Listen, how many of you throw away dinner every night? Right? It's easy to do. Nobody's gonna eat it. We throw it away. My wife throws away nothing. It goes into a container in the refrigerator where it lives until it grows hair. And sometimes a few more months after it's grown hair. I said to her, she said to me yesterday, she said, you need to eat lunch. I said, I did. I ate the leftover tortellini. She said, There was leftover tortellini. I was like, Yeah, but it was pushed in the back. Even if it had hair, I was still eating it because I love tortellini, right? It was fine. It was only like a week old. It was fine. Everything was fine. I lived through it. It's fine. My stomach is hurting a little bit this morning, but I'm fine. The problem is we become wasteful, not just with the physical, not just with our food, but with the spiritual blessings that God bestows upon us, right? Listen. When God calls you into a union, when God calls you into a marriage, you cannot be wasteful of that marriage. What does that mean? That means that when you have the opportunity to spend time with one another, take it. That means when God says, hey, I need you to listen to your spouse, shut up and listen to your spouse. I'm preaching to myself right now. Right? Listen. I think most of us who are married can say that about ourselves. We know when God is doing something inside of our lives, and oftentimes we will neglect whatever it is because it is not exactly what we want. We become wasteful with blessings. We become wasteful with a move of the Spirit. Zechariah warns us not to despise small beginnings. And see, God loves starting with something small that looks insignificant because if you think back, think about David and his sling. David, not yet a king, slays a giant with a simple slang and a stone, right? David will rise to be king. Moses and his staff, the widow had a little oil, Samson and the jawbone of the donkey. This boy had five loaves and two fishes. And God says, Give me what you've got. I want to tell you something. Right now, God is calling you to give him what you've got. It may not be much. For some of us, it may be next to nothing. I want to remind you of the widow who gave her last two mites. And Jesus said, She is far more blessed because she was willing to give everything she had, while those who are rich and are dropping money into the box, they look extravagant. They look like they are doing something great, but it's a drop in the bucket for them. Have you met people like that? That show up and show out? My oldest son, I love him to death, but he still has a lot of learning to do in life. But at 18, he's figured it all out. Amen? Anyone else at 18 had it all figured out? I'm 40 and realizing I still don't have it all figured out. But sometimes I like to pretend like I do, right? And so when he gets his paycheck, he's got to show out, right? Take his friends out to dinner, whatever it may be. And one of the things that I have always done with my kids, how many of us love to go to Jerry's and eat? Who said ooh? You said ooh, Beth? You said ooh? You need to leave. Get your stuff. It's good. Listen, and I'm not saying the place is clean, I'm saying the food is good, is what I'm saying. Like sometimes your eggs need to be cooked in a little bit of bacon grease, right? Like, I'm just saying, like, there's just stop. It's good food. I like it there. Okay? Hold your judgment for somebody else. I like it there. Anyway, when I would go there with my boys, we would have our dinner and I would tell them, pick a table, we're paying for their food. And we did it every time we went to Jerry's. The difference is, is I could afford to do that at the time, right? So my son shows up at my house and he takes two of my kids to Jerry's for dinner. So there are four of them, was it four of you that went out to dinner? Four of them go out to dinner and he tells them, we're gonna pay for this other table's food. I'm thankful I planted that seed. Don't get me wrong. But he doesn't have the money to do that. But he had to show out in that moment. Can we agree that we like to do that when God blesses us? And that's where the squandering comes, that's where the irresponsibility comes because we feel like we have to show out. He says, give me what you've got. Give me what you've got, regardless of how big or how little. Give me what you've got. And I think the problem that we realize is we feel like everything that we give has a limitation. And I want to tell you something that your limitation is not God's limitation. Your limitation is personal. It's what you think you are limited by. God says nobody in his family is limited. That he will continue to call you and provide for you in ways that you can't imagine. All we have to do is give him the little that he has already blessed us with. Has God blessed you with little? Has he trusted you with little? Has God ever trusted you with much? Has God ever taken that much away? And you still have to be faithful with the little.

Sit Down Before The Miracle

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Now Jesus tells them to sit down. Nobody has eaten yet. He just says, everybody sit down. And I picture that as like a are you sitting down? Because he's about to perform a miracle that they don't even see happening in the moment. When do they realize a miracle has happened? When the leftovers are collected. Five loaves, two fish, all of a sudden we have baskets and baskets of leftovers. Now we realize that a miracle has happened. And immediately we decide that we should appoint him as king. Jesus tells them he's about to do something by having them sit down. There were thousands of people. We know that there were 5,000 men, and they were sitting there and they were hungry. And then Jesus feeds them with such a small provision. They were literally sitting on that miracle. They were sitting there having no idea what God was about to do. You may not see it and you may not understand it. You don't even know how God's gonna do it. Amen. I was working on something here the other day and I was arguing with God a little bit. I was like, why do you drag me here in the middle of the week and not prepare me for what it is that you're sending me to do? And oftentimes he'll say to me, I didn't drag you here. You chose to be here. You didn't prepare. You weren't ready. And that doesn't feel good because I think that I prepare myself going into as much as I possibly can. But sometimes we get so wrapped up in what we think God is doing that we can't see what He is actually doing. One of the things that I think we have to remember is that when God calls us to sit, we've been I've been called to sit many of times. I know Pastor Holly has been called to sit many of times. Pastor Roger has been called to sit. What that means is this is a season of waiting, a season of rest for what God is gonna do. And here's what I think happens to people who God calls to sitting or to rest or to waiting. You get up just before the miracle is about to happen. Because you don't trust that God is actually going to do it. That's frustrating to me. Because I hear people all the time who say, Well, I tell him, Lord, here I am, use me, and then he doesn't use me. It's because you're not prepared to be used. You haven't asked him to prepare you for use. See, you get frustrated when the miracle hasn't shown up.

Bethesda Healing And The Hard Question

SPEAKER_00 29:01

But this brings me to another man, and I want to go to John chapter 5. So we're gonna flip back a little bit. We're gonna go to John chapter 5, and we're gonna go to verse 1. This is one of my I preached on this uh passage a couple of years ago, and I actually went back and reread the message because I absolutely love this story, and I love it because I think it's a true depiction of the church today. It says, afterwards Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the sheep gates, was the pool of Bethesda with five covered porches, and crowds of sick people, blind, lame, and paralyzed, come to lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty eight years. That's almost as long as I have been alive. For 38 years, he is sick, and he just lays by the pool. When Jesus saw him, he knew he had been ill for a long time, and he asked him, Would you like to get well? Hear his response. It says, I can't, sir, the sick man said, for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Now, these people would gather around the pool, and when the water would bubble, somebody would get into the water, receive a healing. For 38 years, this man laid crippled at the side of the pool, and he had no one to put him into the water. Why is that? They're selfish. If I'm here because I'm sick, why would I put you in the pool before I get in the pool? Right? And so the man has laid there and he responds, I can't, sir, for I have no one to put me in the pool when the water bubbles. Someone else always gets there ahead of me. And Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your mat, and walk. Instantly the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. But this miracle happened on the Sabbath, so the Jewish leaders objected. Can you imagine? You just saw a man who has been laying by that pool for 38 years, paralyzed. Get up, roll up his mat. Medically speaking, it's not even possible. Because he would have no muscle to be able to get up and walk. Jesus says, get up, pick up your mat, and get out of here. He stands up and he does it, and what happens? They get mad because Jesus did it. They're trying to negate the miracle because of the day that it happened on. Can I promise you something? God will move every day. Our timing is not God's timing. He will move when he moves, and when a miracle happens, guess what? We should be excited about it. We shouldn't be critical of it. You guys have seen other people receive miracles, right? I love miracles. I think they're amazing. I have never seen anybody get a miracle, have a healing in their body, whatever the case may be. Chris Crohn, I mean, my gosh. We can talk about this one all day. She's telling us she's got cancer. The doctors have found cancer. We pray over her. She goes back to the doctor, there's no cancer. These aren't mistakes, tumor. These aren't mistakes. This isn't a botched MRI or whatever that made us think, you know what it is? It is a miracle from God. And that is what it is. Now, I never once heard that story and went, man, I really wish God would do something cool like that for me. Why is he doing it for everybody else? Well, because if he wanted to do that for me, I would have to be sick first. Can I not be thankful that I've never experienced sickness like that? Can I not be thankful that instead of having to expand to expect a miracle or experience a miracle, that I've just never had to experience being sick like that? I have seen God do some pretty amazing things. When Ed had his heart attack, you guys know how Kathy found out that Ed had a heart attack? Anyone heard that? His dog. Wild, right? The dog went back to the house. No, he was up in the pig pen. Listen, still feeding the pigs. The dog goes back to the house. Kathy goes, that's not right. She goes up and she finds him and he's sweating profusely. He's like, I'm fine, let me feed the pigs. And she says, if you don't get in the car, I'm gonna call the ambulance. He says, I'll walk back to the house. Stubborn. Listen. That is a miracle that we can't even begin to understand. Amen? It's wild that we can't appreciate that miracle. Now I've never, well, man, that's God's doing something cool over there, but he ain't never doing nothing cool over here. Can I be thankful that I've never had a heart attack? Can I be thankful that I've never had to experience that? God is good all the time, and I will be thankful when he is good for other people. The same as I will be thankful when he is good for me. When he is faithful to me, I will be excited. When he is faithful to others, I will be excited. And then Kathy decides to have a heart attack. I told him, I'm like, it's not a competition. Where's Vicky? Is Vicky Hickey here? No? Vicki Hickey falls, cuts her head open. And Margie falls, cuts her head open. It's not a competition. We don't have to chase God's blessings like everybody else is chasing God's blessings, okay? Let's just know that God is good and he can, in fact, heal us. Amen? Listen. We have to stop chasing the blessing and understand that God is, in fact, a miracle worker. For 38 years, he watched other people move while he stayed stuck. 38 years of disappointment. Is anybody in this room living with disappointment right now? I'll be the only one. I'm okay being the only one. It doesn't hurt my feelings. Listen, I am disappointed in so many things that have happened in my life. I'm disappointed in other people. I get disappointed in situations, and guess what? For 38 years he laid there, disappointed, hoping, and watching people walk past him and wondering the very same question that each and every one of us wonder today. When is it my turn? When is it my turn to experience a move of God? The people gathered around the pool, hoping for a healing. And that man laid there waiting for God to do something, waiting for a miracle. He is so close, but he is so stuck. He is so close, but he is so stuck. The question, God, when is it my turn? And Jesus asked him something. Do you want to get well? Do you want to get well? And this is the part that hurts. Some of us sitting in here do not want to get well. Because the sickness is our identity. The sin is our identity. The struggle is our identity. Because when people look at me, they see this broken person that can't ever catch a break and they feel bad for me. And that's what I want. I want people to feel bad for me. I don't want Jesus to heal me. Because if Jesus heals me, my identity is lost. Your identity is in Jesus. Your identity is not in your sickness. Remember last week when I said you can't be a blank Christian? Because that overrides being a Christian. Whatever that adjective is, whatever that describing word is, means that is what you are, and God is not allowed to touch that? I've heard people say, well, sometimes I'm just mean. So you're a mean Christian? Does it make sense? You're a hurtful Christian? It doesn't make sense. Because it is the exact opposite of what God has called us to be. Here's what I am. I am a blood-bought child of the Almighty. I am a child of God. I am not the head nor the tail. I am the head and not the tail. Nobody was going to correct me either. That was scary. Pastor Holly, I didn't catch the full look, but she's like, wait a second, you better fix that. Listen, I know that God wants what's best for me. Amen? I am not going to submit myself to what the world tells me I can have. I am only going to submit myself to what Jesus tells me I can have. When Jesus says, Do you want to get well? The answer is yes, every time. And it's not just a word, it is a truth. It is a statement of desire to be well and whole in the kingdom of God. Listen, I may not get well in my body the way that I want to get well in my body. I believe that God can do all things. I believe that if he wants to heal me, he will heal me. But I am also not too stubborn to say that I don't need to go see a doctor. Right? I get it. I get it. I think when we doubt Jesus, when we doubt the Spirit, oftentimes what we do is we'll start to negotiate with Jesus about how it should happen. Have any of us ever done that? Lord, I'm gonna get married. And after I get married, then I'm gonna have a child. And after I have my first child, then I'm gonna get have a second child. And we argue with God about we set this thing into motion, this plan into motion. We're gonna have a little boy first, and then we're gonna have a little girl. Ashley over here. And then a third, and then a fourth, and then a fifth. She's crazy, y'all. She's crazy. We say, God bless me, God give me, God do, but do it this way, because this is exactly how we need that blessing to come. Restore my family, but do it this way. Have you ever been through that? Have we ever had a family member that we just simply don't like? And let me tell you something. If you don't have one, you are one. It's kind of how that works. Like, if you're like, I don't think we have that in my family, it's you. Don't ask though, because if they tell you, it hurts your feelings. And we say, God, restore my family, but do it this way. God, I want you to make my family complete, but leave that person out. Right? God, restore my relationship, but don't do it if it's going to cause me to have to talk to that person. It's true, isn't it? We all negotiate the prayer with God. God is not asking you to negotiate, he's asking you to trust Him. He's asking you to surrender, provide for me, but use this person. Open a door, but make it this door. God, heal me, but do it according to my timeline. See, I love the my timeline because I think that's where we get stuck. It has to happen now, otherwise it can't ever happen. God, I know that I've got this going on, but if you don't heal me now, then I'm going to have to X, right? Anyone ever done that with other people? Like, hey, I need you to do this for me, but if you don't do it right now, it's gonna ruin everything. Or had somebody do that to you? Listen, the job that I work in, people think things can happen within minutes. It doesn't work like that. Right? You have to do your part as well. What if the miracle doesn't come from where you expect it to come from? And I think this story tells that because the man is laying by the pool for 38 years. He sleeps there because he can't get up and walk. So he sleeps under this covered porch for 38 years. He laid there, believing his healing would come from bubbling water. He never touches the water. And Jesus says, get up, pick up your mat and go. The miracle did not come from where he expected it to come from. Jesus gave him a word. Get up. Church, get up. Why are you sitting here not desiring a move of the spirit? Listen, last week I preached a message, and when I walked out of the pulpit, I was like, whoo, that was fire. And I was talking to somebody later in the week, and they said, hey, listen, that was a great message. I don't think they got it. I agree. Because we show up every week and we do the same stuff and we expect something different. And guess what? That's psychotic. If we continue to do the same thing over and over again and nothing happens, but we keep doing it believing that something will happen. For 38 years, he laid at the side of that pool, just hoping somebody would eventually pick him up and put him in the water. Just hoping that that would happen. For 38 years, for 10 years, for five years, for six months, you've sat around just hoping that something would happen. Just hoping that something would happen.

Pick Up Your Mat And Go

SPEAKER_00 43:29

Let me tell you, it's time to pick up your mat and walk. It is time to stand up, pick up your mat and go. He didn't call you to lay around being miserable. He didn't call you to lay around hoping that someday somebody would fix it for you. He called you to get up and walk. Church, we can't sit here anymore. We can't sit here hoping that someday something good will happen to us. God is calling us to action. Sometimes that action is simple surrender. Sometimes that action is simple prayer. Sometimes that action is simple trust. But He is calling you to get up and go. Pick up your mat and go. For 38 years, that mat represented his condition. For 38 years he laid on that mat, unable to move. When he was told to get up, he was told to pick up the mat. Not because Jesus didn't want him to litter. But the thing that defined you, you now carry. It becomes your testimony. Can you imagine him carrying this mat around town, able to walk? And somebody's like, Why are you still carrying that? And he says, Because Jesus. Because Jesus. We are walking through things broken and hurting. And when we come through them, we aren't telling people about Jesus. I was on the phone with our HR lady the other day. She called me to ask me a question. And she was asking me about my job and potential new roles and all of these things. And she said, So, so how are you liking it? And I said, if I can be honest with you, I never thought that I would be here for long, for very long. And she said, Oh, what do you mean? I said, when I took this job, I thought, this is a pastor, this is a place where I will stop for a moment. But God has planted me there. But God has done something big. And I said that to her, and she just got quiet. I cannot be ashamed to tell anybody about what God has done in my life. Because if I, even at work, if I can't tell you that I am only here because God has called me here, I am not here because I like any of you. I am not here because I like what I do. I am here because God has called me here. Now I have formed friendships and I have met people that I adore. Don't get me wrong. But I am here because God called me here. And when I can accept that and I can live in that, that's good for everybody. Listen, stop begging God. Pick up your mat and walk. Look what the Lord has done. Look what the Lord has done. I look around this building and I see miracles sitting in all of the seats. I see miracles in everywhere that I look. Listen, my wife planted this beautiful garden in our backyard this year. If anybody wants to come cut flowers, our yard is the yard to do it in. Zinnia's, and what's the other one that you the the they were disappointing to me this year. What were they? Dahlias, yes. I wanted dinner plate size. You ever seen dahlias that are like that big? Nobody's there. Like, I don't even know what you're talking about. Just finish, land the plane so we can go to lunch. Anyway, these big, beautiful plants, and then these giant sunflowers. And those storms that came through ripped out all the sunflowers. And those sunflowers smashed all of the zinnias. And everything that looked so beautiful just looks desolate now. It looks broken and terrible. And yet the bees still come. The butterflies still come. The hummingbirds still come. What looks like it's broken and messy to us is small in the hands of God. Because God will make it beautiful. Pick up your mat and walk. Stop expecting somebody else to do the work for you. God has called you into healing. God has called you into new life. He does not expect you to lay around. Listen, obedience will take you to places you've never expected to be. Being obedient to God and saying, here I am, Lord, use me. I have picked up my mat, I will walk, and I will tell the world about the goodness of you is more important than anything else. I promise you, He will provide for you. I promise you, He will take care of you. Stop being stubborn. Amen. Let's pray.

Prayer And A Midweek Challenge

SPEAKER_00 48:23

Father, I thank you and I praise you. For your move in the house today, Lord, I know that when we started, oh, the enemy wanted nothing more than for us to stop. And Lord, I thank you for not allowing that. I thank you for attentive hearts today. And Lord, I pray that as we leave this place, we are all picking up and carrying the mat. The thing that has identified us for years, Father, is now a symbol of your love. A symbol of your goodness and your faithfulness in our lives. Bless us as we move into our week. Bless those around us. Give us the desire to proclaim the name of Jesus in all things. Father, I thank you and I praise you. I give you honor and glory. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Love you guys. We'll see you on Wednesday night.