From Hopelessness to Healing: Encountering Jesus' Hope

1. "But one of the things I've realized is this we don't like the process of reaching solutions we just want it fixed we don't like the process I don't like the process as you see I'm kind of injured and I wish I would stand up here and tell you hey you know what I got in a fight with someone like I think that'd be like a better story to tell or I went snowboarding you know I was balling up with some kids you know I wish that was my story but I was just in my office moving things and I fell and you don't realize you get heavier like I am there's weight and impact right in physics all these different things right and and my wrists broke and I've been going and I've been going through this process." [08:05] (51 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


2. "And many of us get into this kind of desperate mode where we say, you know what, I'm just going to go to another church service. I'm just going to be more consistent in church and I hope this works. I'm going to read my Bible more. I hope this works. I'm going to pray more. I'm going to join this team. I'm going to join this. I'm going to be a part of everything and I just hope this works. And then I show up to church and nothing happens. I pray and I hear no response. I do my best and I'm not recognized or appreciated. You do the right thing and nothing shifts and we don't see any results and we become hopeless." [11:27] (42 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


3. "You see, a paralysis is the loss of the ability to move, sometimes even to feel in part or most of your body due to injury or illness. And I believe that many of us in this room perhaps are going through a time where we have an area in our lives that isn't working. Whether that's our marriages, whether that's our relationships, whether that's our finances, whether we have prodigal sons and daughters, whatever it may be, we perhaps have an area in our lives that isn't working. That isn't working to the way we think it should be working. And we can walk into this house and we can look like we have it all together. But if we were to keep it 100, we would realize real quick that there's something in our lives that needs to get resolved." [12:54] (50 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


4. "And so after preaching from this passage for many years I look back and I say man I was unjust and looking at this man because I thought it was an excuse but what I realized now is that when your situation goes long enough it becomes your only reality and so here's your second point which is inviting you see this man had been in this setting for 38 years it's a long time i can imagine that first time they brought this man by the pool of bedesta and they laid in there and he was hopeful he was like you know what something's going to change very much like the first time we walk in through the doors of the church we come in with hope recognizing and hoping that something would shift in our lives but after the prayers and after after asking god to a miracle and nothing changes because the environment that we're in we become dissolution by the deficit of hope." [20:31] (63 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


5. "And it's easy to say that it's just an excuse without fully understanding this man's story. Now, at the same time, you know, 38 years is a long time to suffer from a condition that prevents movement. And you know, I grew up in church, and I remember hearing many times, well, you're a Christian. You're a Christian. You're a Christian. You're a Christian. You're a Christian. You just need to read more. You just need to pray more. You just need to do these things. And it's easy to get up here sometimes to say what we need to do without recognizing that there's people that, that their environment has shaped them and become who they are. And so before being rooted into God's word and into his truth, we need to uproot all that crap. You know what I'm saying? There's so much that needs to be uprooted." [22:05] (47 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


6. "You see, learned helplessness is one of the most debilitating things that we can have as human beings. And regardless about my feelings to this man, at one point I realized that any step forward is progress. See, this man does not provide an excuse, but a summary of his environment, and hope is restored when we encounter Jesus. That's my third point, encounter. You see, when we encounter Jesus, even if we don't recognize him, he has been working in our lives before we even realize it's him. The setting of the encounter is important because the encounter happens in a city called Podesta. Podesta literally means house of mercy." [26:59] (59 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


7. "You see, when this man made excuses, perhaps I thought that God would have said, well, you know what? I'll find someone else. There's many other people here that I can heal. He didn't. When the man says he can't, Jesus says he can. You see, when we encounter Christ, Jesus can establish a new hope within us. There's point four, establish. Jesus told him, stand up, pick up your mat, and walk. And instantly, the man was healed. He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking. I like to picture that that Jesus looked at this man and said, get up. But even if Jesus said, get up, that man wouldn't heal. Because it doesn't have to do with tone. It has to do with who spoke the words. Who spoke it? Jesus spoke it." [29:11] (64 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


8. "You see, I may not be a perfect father, but I know that I'm doing my best. I may not be a perfect husband, but I'm doing my best. I may not be a perfect leader, but I'm doing my best. You may not be perfect, but so long as you're doing your best, there is progress. Paul says, I pray that the God, the source of hope, will find you completely, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust him. When we encounter Jesus, our hope, can emerge out of despair. And here's my final point, emerge." [34:05] (38 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)


9. "I find it how incredible scripture is that here in chapter five, the bubbling spring, the bubbling water provided healing for those that were ill and paralyzed, but Jesus, chapter before says, I am the bubbling spring within you. So you don't need to go to no pool. You don't need to go search somewhere else. I am the living water that will bubble within you. That will give you healing that will set your feet on solid rock. I am new life. That is what Jesus is. believe that Jesus sees us this morning and he asks this question. Do you want to believe in Jesus? to get well let me show you this and here i have my favorite soda my addiction both of these cans look the same they're very much the same they're made out of the same material they were made in the same factory they're the same but they're very much different you see this can this can's empty so when i squeeze the empty can i'm able to crush it even with one hand there we go this can on the other hand is filled and as much pressure as i put on it i cannot burst it i cannot pop it i cannot rupture it and it is the same with our faith and our hope when we have no hope every problem every struggle every lie of the enemy destroys us it brings us down it crushes us but when you got hope when you got hope there is nothing in life that no pressure no trial no challenge no lie no circumstance that the enemy will try to bring you down there is nothing because you got the hope of the living god." [35:38] (60 seconds) (Download raw clip | Download cropped clip)