The Power Of Dependency (Lisa Harper)

0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:02.800 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. 0:00:02.840 --> 0:00:05.840 I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast. 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.320 I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:11.040 this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith. Hope it 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:13.560 gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:18.119 Enjoy the message. 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:24.639 My name is Lisa, and I can't even tell y'all 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:30.760 how excited I am to be here, how overwhelmed I 0:00:30.800 --> 0:00:34.720 am to be here. You are family to me, whether 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:40.120 you claim me or not. I claim y'all. I deeply, deeply, 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:45.479 deeply love and respect Pastor Holly and Pastor Stephen, and 0:00:45.640 --> 0:00:49.600 I know full well you could have anybody from around 0:00:49.680 --> 0:00:52.320 the world and it would be an undeserved privilege for 0:00:52.360 --> 0:00:56.400 them to be in this house. And so I'm always 0:00:56.480 --> 0:01:02.000 surprised flying from Nashville to Charlotte that, yeah, I kind 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:03.600 of feel like the girl and the math club and 0:01:03.640 --> 0:01:08.240 the quarterback aster to prom it is. I mean, not 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.240 that there aren't amazing girls in math clubs. My apologies 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:12.280 if you're in the math club, but. 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.320 I just I'm always. 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:20.080 Just kind of undone that I get to be with 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:23.480 y'all because I love this house so much. Chunks and 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:26.679 Amy Corbett. I would follow y'all off a cliff. I 0:01:26.920 --> 0:01:30.839 just think you hung the moon. And I'm feeling especially 0:01:31.040 --> 0:01:34.480 nostalgic this week, and so I'm glad I get to 0:01:34.480 --> 0:01:39.520 be with surrogate family because my little girl, some of 0:01:39.560 --> 0:01:41.440 you I've met, and some of you know I became 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.959 a mom through the miracle of adoption, and the year 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:45.720 I turned fifty. 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:47.280 I don't have a baby daddy yet. 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:50.400 So if you know somebody, I'm sixty one, If you 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:53.279 know somebody between fifty five and death, I'll go younger 0:01:54.240 --> 0:02:00.240 who's employed and loves Jesus and doesn't live in his 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:01.000 mother's basement. 0:02:01.040 --> 0:02:03.360 But anyway, it's just Missy and me. 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:07.840 And she's turned in sixteen a week from today, and 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:13.280 so just all those all those mama feelings have been 0:02:13.360 --> 0:02:16.080 well enough over the last week, and I've been talking 0:02:16.080 --> 0:02:19.400 to her about all these memories I have from when 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:23.400 I first brought her home from Haiti in twenty fourteen, 0:02:24.000 --> 0:02:27.359 and she had all these just precious habits, like one 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.560 of them was she called me Pablo the entire time 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:34.079 that I was adopting her from Haiti for two years, 0:02:34.160 --> 0:02:37.000 she called me Mama Blah White mama in Creole. 0:02:37.360 --> 0:02:38.919 And then the day I. 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:43.080 Brought her to Haye, Haiti to Nashville from Haiti, she 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:47.080 started calling me Pablo, and I thought that's just odd. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:49.400 She would switch to. 0:02:49.320 --> 0:02:53.400 Pablo and I'd go, no, no, baby, morialy mama, blah, 0:02:53.440 --> 0:02:57.280 my name is white mama, and she'd go, no, Pablo, 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.040 And I thought, this is going to be just awkward 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.240 when she gets married, because if y'all don't get on 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:06.400 the stick and I don't have a husband, I'm going 0:03:06.480 --> 0:03:09.240 to be the one that the pastor says, who gives 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:14.440 this woman, I'm going to go meet Pablo. And so 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:16.960 I kept trying to dissuade her from calling me Pablo. 0:03:17.040 --> 0:03:20.200 She was insistent for about a month until we found 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:23.680 out that the very last Sunday stool Sunday school curricula 0:03:23.800 --> 0:03:26.760 she had done in her orphanage, they don't make enough 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:30.080 curricula to print them in Creole, and so they'll borrow 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.480 from Spanish curricula because that's close enough to Creole that 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:37.000 the kids can usually get it. And the very last 0:03:37.000 --> 0:03:39.640 little lesson she had done was on the missionary journeys 0:03:39.960 --> 0:03:42.920 of Paul Pablo, and when she asked one of the 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.800 nannies at the orphanage. What does my mama blanc do, 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:48.920 my white mama do? Does she sell mangos? 0:03:49.000 --> 0:03:49.320 Does she? 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:52.760 So they said, well, she's kind of like a missionary. 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.280 She travels around and talks about Jesus. And so my 0:03:55.440 --> 0:04:00.000 punkin conflated those two stories and decided I was apostle Paul, 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:03.320 and so I could just imagine Paul and Glory going 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.880 really Jesus, like, really, could we get a better doppelganger. 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:08.240 So that was one of her habits. 0:04:10.000 --> 0:04:12.920 Another thing that I thought was precious that she got 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:16.479 confused was her last name. Because I love teasing and 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.960 given nicknames, and the whole time I was adopting her, 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.200 I called her Scooter mctudor, And so the first couple 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.480 of times people asked her what her last name was 0:04:27.000 --> 0:04:30.240 in Nashville, she'd go Missy Maketuda. I was like, no, no, no, 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.080 it's Harper, baby, It's Harper. Her last habit I told 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:38.120 her about this last week that was priceless. It was 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:42.240 a little alarming, but it was priceless was anytime we 0:04:42.560 --> 0:04:45.160 came near a wall, like if we were walking next 0:04:45.160 --> 0:04:48.360 to this or a fence, if I wasn't paying attention. 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:50.800 Missy would run up on the wall or the fence, 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:54.839 and then without any warning, she would just hurl herself 0:04:55.240 --> 0:04:58.360 off the water fence toward me because she just knew, 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:00.920 like she knew her name, that I would catch her. 0:05:01.400 --> 0:05:04.719 And it was so precious and a little scary to 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:10.239 just have this precious little little Haitian hurling herself off 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.960 high things into my arms. She, after about maybe a month, 0:05:15.720 --> 0:05:18.400 dropped that habit. I was glad it might be hard 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:20.880 to catch her now. But are you okay if I 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:21.960 tell the hurling story? 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:24.800 Okay? Will you put in your earbuds for this next 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:25.200 little cart? 0:05:27.440 --> 0:05:31.080 Hurling is still a habit in the Harper household. It's 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.120 not Missy though, it's me. I was driving her to 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.479 school for the last week of school just a few 0:05:38.480 --> 0:05:41.760 weeks ago, the end of May, and we were going 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:46.000 over her history final, going over notes for her history final, 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.880 and we were driving to school and Missy had stayed 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.720 up most of the night studying for her finals, so 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:53.320 she wasn't in a good mood. Do you have them 0:05:53.360 --> 0:05:57.279 in another one? And she was, I'll let you know 0:05:57.320 --> 0:05:59.039 when you can pull them out. She did tell me 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:01.120 I could tell this story. But she's turned sixteen, and 0:06:01.160 --> 0:06:05.160 I don't want to embarrass her unduly. When Missy, there's 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:08.560 how many of y'all have teenage daughters, you know, there's 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:12.080 just like three days a month that they swallow grimlins, 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:16.200 And so only like three days a month that she 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.360 Missy is normally the kindest. That's how you can tell 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.880 she doesn't have my DNA. She is kind, deeply kind, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:26.000 But three days a week, she's a bear. 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:28.120 So she had stayed. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:29.960 Up most of the night studying for her finals, and 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:33.400 then she had swallowed PMS grimlins, And so we're driving 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:36.760 to her Christian private school and she's just mad. And 0:06:36.920 --> 0:06:39.960 I'm I think I'm Jesus junior. You know, I'm driving, 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.320 I've gotten her sausage biscuit from her favorite place. You know, 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:47.960 I'm just very patiently going over electromagnetic fields and characteristics 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.320 with her on the way to school so she'll pass 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:53.880 her test. And I said something, I remember what I said, 0:06:53.920 --> 0:06:57.760 and Missy said something very sarcastic under her breath. 0:06:58.480 --> 0:06:59.719 Now, I can handle j. 0:07:00.400 --> 0:07:04.560 About anything as a mama, except for disrespect. 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.640 Disrespect it's my achilles heel. 0:07:08.640 --> 0:07:12.480 And so I looked at this beautiful miracle child of 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.360 mine who was tired and had PMS. But I have 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:28.200 PMS two. It's called post menopausal demonic syndrome. And my 0:07:28.360 --> 0:07:34.240 grimlins are big and tatted. My grimlins have little tears 0:07:34.760 --> 0:07:38.880 on them, and they want to fight. And so when 0:07:38.920 --> 0:07:44.120 I'm around disrespect my PMS, grimlins come out in hordes, 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:47.800 big angry hordes. And so I looked at Missy and 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:49.920 I said, what did you say? 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:52.200 And she said hmmmm. 0:07:53.440 --> 0:07:57.160 And I pulled the car over to the side of 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:03.600 the road and I said, in this home, we at 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:09.840 least have the integrity to speak disrespect out loud. 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:12.840 We don't say it under our breath. 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:15.520 So would you like to try again and say that 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:16.240 out loud? 0:08:16.280 --> 0:08:17.600 Any of y'all have a mama like this? 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:21.240 I mean, I should have been in time out myself. 0:08:22.160 --> 0:08:26.120 But Missy, because of that three day period, she gets 0:08:26.160 --> 0:08:31.240 braver than usual. She said it out loud, and you know, 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:33.680 I was backed into a corner at that point. I 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:37.360 had to do something, and so I didn't really know 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:41.199 what to do, and so I just snatched her biscuit and. 0:08:41.160 --> 0:08:44.760 Threw it out in the window. It's her older biscuit 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:45.960 out the window and. 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.880 Missy just went and I was like, I know, I 0:08:49.920 --> 0:08:53.200 can't believe I her old true biscuit. I was so 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:59.360 grateful that within like thirty seconds, humor and humility invaded 0:08:59.480 --> 0:09:02.560 our car, and some of my fruit of the spirit 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:07.240 came back. Patients came lipping back, my pms. Grimlins had 0:09:07.280 --> 0:09:10.200 beaten patients. But it finally crawled back in the car 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:12.720 and we laughed, and I gave her my breakfast biscuit 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:14.959 so she wouldn't have a headache, dear in your history exam, 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:18.400 and we laughed by the time we got to school. 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.200 But I was like, man, it is different raising an 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:25.800 almost sixteen year old than it was raising a four 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:26.240 year old. 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:27.360 When she was four. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:32.480 I put just I'm so sorry I scared your child, baby, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:36.240 your mama, Your mama will not throw your biscuit. I 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.240 can cross. I'm the only hurler in the house this morning. 0:09:41.760 --> 0:09:44.400 When she was four, I put most of my attention, 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:50.000 my affection into her, establishing roots so she would have deep, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.840 deep roots, that she would know that she was loved, 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:57.320 that she was affirmed, that I wasn't going anywhere that 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.920 unlike her first mama, who passed when she was a baby, 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.040 I was going to do everything I could to stay here. 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:07.400 So those formative years were all about roots. Now that 0:10:07.440 --> 0:10:11.520 Missy's growing up, it's all about wings. It's all about 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:16.400 me learning how to get behind her and affirm her. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:21.040 I've given her the parameters. She knows the boundaries. 0:10:21.160 --> 0:10:24.640 Now it's about giving her the grace to fly and 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.720 to become the woman God has created her to be. 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:33.240 When she was little, our intimacy was all about her 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:38.760 total dependency on me. Now that she's growing up, our 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:43.920 intimacy it's no longer based on her being totally dependent 0:10:44.040 --> 0:10:46.439 on me. As a matter of fact, the more she matures, 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:51.360 the less dependent she'll be on me if she's healthy. 0:10:51.440 --> 0:10:54.360 Now hang on and listen to me, Epham, do not 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:56.480 mess with your an espresso machine right now. 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:57.880 Hang on to this next truth. 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:03.520 For human children, it's important as they grow up that 0:11:03.559 --> 0:11:12.040 they become more independent. For children of God, it's exactly 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:17.760 the opposite. If you want to mature as a Christ follower, 0:11:18.400 --> 0:11:25.480 we should be increasingly dependent on our creator, Redeemer. It's 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:29.960 counterintuitive in this world where plopped in you want to 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:35.200 grow as a Christ follower, it means you become increasingly 0:11:35.720 --> 0:11:39.440 dependent on God. You don't cut the apron strings, they 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.240 become steel cables. 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:42.040 If you brought your. 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.000 Bibles turned to John's Gospel, We're going to look at 0:11:45.360 --> 0:11:49.880 John chapter five today, very very very familiar story. 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:51.520 You have heard this story before. 0:11:52.080 --> 0:11:54.680 If you grew up in a conservative church, you've seen 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:57.920 at flannel graft. You may have taught it before. John 0:11:58.000 --> 0:12:00.880 Chapter five, verses one through nine. We're gonna look at 0:12:00.920 --> 0:12:04.480 my favorite healing in John's gospel account. John is different 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:08.000 than the other three Gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke. Those are 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.320 called the Synoptic Gospels. That's just a fancy seminary word. 0:12:11.360 --> 0:12:16.079 That means those three are written in a similar literary format. 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:19.000 They all have some type of a birth narrative. They 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.520 all have parables. Those are the stories Jesus taught. That's 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:25.960 half of his sermonic material. And they have a lot 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:30.800 of healings forty healings. In the Synoptic Gospels. John's Gospel 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.439 there are no parables. John is very different in the 0:12:34.480 --> 0:12:37.360 way he describes the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:39.600 He wrote it much later in his life. 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:42.520 Theologians think he was probably in his sixties when he 0:12:42.559 --> 0:12:43.200 wrote the gospel. 0:12:43.200 --> 0:12:46.320 According to John, and he only has four healings, And. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.080 This is my favorite of the four John Chapter five, 0:12:50.440 --> 0:12:54.199 beginning with verse one, I'm reading from the ESV. After this, 0:12:54.280 --> 0:12:56.960 there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went 0:12:57.120 --> 0:12:58.439 up to Jerusalem. 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.400 Now there is in jerus Us Islam by the sheep Gate, a. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:06.600 Pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:10.640 In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lamb and paralyzed. 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.160 One man was there who had been an invalid for 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:17.719 thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and 0:13:17.800 --> 0:13:19.760 knew that he had already been there a long time, 0:13:20.160 --> 0:13:23.960 he said to him, do you want to be healed? 0:13:24.040 --> 0:13:27.320 How many of y'all have heard this story before? Do 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.480 you want to be healed? One of my closest friends 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:33.320 grew up really close to here in Concord, North Carolina. 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:36.400 Her name is Eva Whittington's self one. 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:40.880 Of the godliest, most amazing friends I have, And when 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:43.559 she was seventeen years old, she was in a hint 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:47.000 and run accident on an icy road. Her car flipped 0:13:47.040 --> 0:13:50.520 into a ravine and her spine was severed, so she 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:54.319 was paralyzed. When she was seventeen years old, has two 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:58.920 steel rods to stabilize her spine. She's been pair lized 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.800 from this level since she was seventeen. She's a little 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:04.480 bit older than me in her early sixties, so she 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:09.520 has not been ambulatory for over forty years. She walks 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:13.880 in faith much more stable than I do. Has the 0:14:13.920 --> 0:14:19.240 most amazing life, most amazing story, has two kids, miraculously 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:24.040 got pregnant and delivered her children, married to an amazing man, 0:14:24.200 --> 0:14:26.840 a judge in Kentucky by the name of Andrew's self. 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:32.880 That I love Eva Whittington's self, and I love being 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:37.440 with my friend at women's conferences because every time, if 0:14:37.480 --> 0:14:40.040 there's a ramp and I'm wheeling, even she's strong as 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.040 can be, super independent, drives herself, does everything, is much 0:14:44.080 --> 0:14:45.480 more accomplished than I am. 0:14:45.920 --> 0:14:47.880 But if there's a ramp, I have to help. 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:51.640 Wheel or wheelchair and I'll watch women and it's like, oh, 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:55.280 college cheapers. I might as well have walked into a 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:58.360 Kido convention with hot bread. I mean, it's just like 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.160 I know somebody's going to come up and ask Eva 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:03.360 if they can pray for her healing. 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:04.400 It happens every time. 0:15:05.160 --> 0:15:10.040 Now, God absolutely could heal her spine if he wanted to, 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:15.560 but her spine was severed when she was seventeen, severed. 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:21.360 Medically speaking, it is impossible for her spine to come 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.080 back together again if she had had that accent. Today, 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.880 things have changed in the way they treat those type 0:15:27.880 --> 0:15:30.200 of victims. There's a chance in a couple of years, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.960 with what they're doing now, maybe maybe some stuff could 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:36.760 be regenerated, but not when Eva was injured. And of course, 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.040 thousands of people, including a lot of well known saints, 0:15:41.120 --> 0:15:44.640 have laid hands on Eva, on an auditor with oil, 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:48.800 and in God's merciful sovereignty, He's chosen not to heal 0:15:49.040 --> 0:15:51.280 that facet of her life. 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:52.840 But if you talk to. 0:15:52.880 --> 0:15:56.520 Eva, she'll say, I don't hate this cheer. God has 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:59.400 used this chair to introduce me to my husband. God 0:15:59.400 --> 0:16:02.360 has used the chair is a canvas on which to 0:16:02.520 --> 0:16:07.320 paint what a good God he is. Her testimony includes 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.600 this part of her story. Well, we were at a 0:16:09.640 --> 0:16:12.040 conference recently and I saw a woman and I thought 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:14.280 she's going to come up and be insistent about praying 0:16:14.320 --> 0:16:14.760 for Eva. 0:16:15.080 --> 0:16:16.960 So sure enough she comes up and she said, I 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:20.160 would like to pray for you, and Eva said that 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:21.200 would be lovely. 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:25.720 Now I'm holding her chair and I'm like, she said 0:16:25.760 --> 0:16:28.440 that would be lovely. I'd really appreciate if you would 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:32.600 pray for my patience because I've been really short lately 0:16:32.680 --> 0:16:35.560 with my daughters and my husband, and I know when 0:16:35.600 --> 0:16:36.960 we get the through of the spirit, we have all 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:40.280 the fruit. But my patience is it's just a little 0:16:40.280 --> 0:16:43.040 bitty green orb on my tree. And so would you 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.480 pray for God to give me more patience? Y'all? 0:16:45.560 --> 0:16:49.040 This woman got so ticked because she had an agenda. 0:16:49.760 --> 0:16:52.600 She wanted to be the hero who prayed and Eva 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:55.200 would stand up and walk. So when Eva said that, 0:16:55.400 --> 0:16:57.960 I watched this woman's face and it just kind of 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:03.120 went you like she'd been sucking on lemons or her 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:09.400 spanks were just too tight, and she went, don't you. 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:13.719 Want to get out of that chair and walk? And 0:17:13.760 --> 0:17:15.920 I was like, do you want to call nine one 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:18.359 one before I punch you in the threat? 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:24.879 I'm so sure you have the arrogant audacity to ask 0:17:25.200 --> 0:17:28.320 my friend if she wants to get out of this 0:17:28.480 --> 0:17:30.720 chair and walk. You don't know what it was like, 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:34.160 was she wanted to stand up and kiss Andrew when 0:17:34.160 --> 0:17:35.840 they got married. You don't know what it was like 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:38.800 when her baby started crying and she had to transfer 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.679 into your chair and roll down to the nursery. You 0:17:41.720 --> 0:17:43.919 don't know what that was like for young mamma, And 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:48.359 yet you dare to question her. Oh I got so 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:51.879 ungodly mad. I mean sorry, I'm in leather pants, have 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:56.080 probably squeaked really terribly. But it made me so mad 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.479 because it was so condescending. And yet, and yet, if 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.760 we're on it, doesn't it almost sound like that's what 0:18:02.880 --> 0:18:07.960 Jesus is asking the sky. Thirty eight years, he's been 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:10.639 going to the Pool of Bethesda. If you've studied the 0:18:10.680 --> 0:18:14.080 background of the story, you know that people have gone 0:18:14.119 --> 0:18:19.960 to this particular body of water for centuries because even 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:25.600 the Pagans believe there's something supernatural there. Something happens when 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:29.719 the water ripples and it has healing properties in it. 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:32.600 The Pagans weren't sure what it was, and then the 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:36.679 Jews came along. They believed it was the finger of Yahweh. 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:40.240 It's actually underground springs, but they believe there's something in 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.639 that pool that could bring about physical healing. This guy's 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:48.760 been going there for thirty eight years, and the first 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:52.480 question Jesus asked, is do you want to get well? 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:58.560 I mean, humanly speaking, that's almost an eye roller. Well, 0:19:00.200 --> 0:19:06.760 of course, I've been dragging myself here for thirty eight years. 0:19:07.400 --> 0:19:10.760 And we don't actually get the poignancy of this question 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:15.120 unless we get the sociohistorical context, because we think as 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:23.840 first world modern believers, this is a first century culture based. 0:19:23.480 --> 0:19:25.280 On shame and honor. 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:32.160 If you're a note taker, write down t z e 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:36.560 d a k a h. 0:19:37.640 --> 0:19:42.600 Tz ed ak ah. 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.600 It's a pronounced saduka, almost like the game math game 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:49.280 you play in the airport, but not quite. It's a 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:54.040 Hebrew word. Some say sideka saduka. You can just say 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:55.760 it with authority in your small group and they'll think 0:19:55.760 --> 0:20:02.080 you're smart. It's a Hebrew word that describes alms giving, charity, 0:20:02.359 --> 0:20:06.200 or it's even translated righteousness in some of our English Bibles. 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:13.359 Their culture hinges on sideka when it comes to invalids, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:15.359 when it comes to the blind, when it comes to 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:19.840 the lame, because in this shame and honor culture, they 0:20:19.920 --> 0:20:25.880 were taught it is honorable to beg if you are 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:32.200 legitimately sick. So if you're blind, if you're paralyzed, as 0:20:32.280 --> 0:20:37.240 this man was it is actually honorable for. 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.560 You to beg and provide for your family. 0:20:40.320 --> 0:20:44.520 Several rabbis who are contemporaries of Jesus Christ actually taught 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:48.720 that begging was positive for the community because it gave 0:20:48.760 --> 0:20:53.879 the community an opportunity to be generous. It was basically 0:20:53.960 --> 0:21:00.439 the cultural ancestor of humble brags on social media. What 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:03.879 better way to prove you were a good person than 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.480 to drop some coins in somebody's outstretched hand in the 0:21:07.480 --> 0:21:11.679 middle of a public place. So for this man to 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:16.040 be able to provide for his family and it to 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:21.640 be considered honorable for thirty eight years, I'm not suggesting 0:21:21.680 --> 0:21:25.240 that he enjoyed being a paralytic. I am saying he 0:21:25.280 --> 0:21:29.119 had grown comfortable in that he's able to do that 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:31.280 and provide for his family. He's able to do that 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:36.400 and actually be honored by culture, and Jesus says, do 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:38.360 you want. 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:42.240 To get well, because this is going to change everything 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:46.159 for you. Son. For you to get. 0:21:46.640 --> 0:21:52.240 Deeply healed is going to cause some serious discomfort in 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:56.480 your story. Here's an old movie called The Shawshank Redemption, 0:21:56.600 --> 0:21:58.600 and I don't want to encourage y'all to watch it. 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:00.439 I see a lot of you have when you were 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.600 struggling in your quiet times, but those you haven't watched 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:05.560 some real questionable language in it. 0:22:05.600 --> 0:22:06.960 But there's this one scene. 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:09.359 It's a movie that kind of centers around a prison 0:22:09.840 --> 0:22:13.479 and around this wise old convict played by Morgan Freeman. 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:16.679 There's this one scene where Morgan is sitting next to 0:22:16.960 --> 0:22:21.080 a guy who's only recently been incarcerated for I think 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:25.280 he embezzled. Tim Robbins is the actor who plays them 0:22:25.280 --> 0:22:27.879 so young convict and the Morgan Freeman's sitting there and 0:22:27.960 --> 0:22:31.240 Tim Robbins is just completely discompopulated because one of their 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:35.399 friends had gotten out after years of being in prison. 0:22:35.720 --> 0:22:39.840 He had gotten out and he reoffended really quickly and 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:42.879 was brought back on conditions of parole after only being 0:22:42.880 --> 0:22:44.439 out for like a week or two, and Tim is 0:22:44.600 --> 0:22:46.080 just undone. 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:47.560 He's like, what a yay? 0:22:47.600 --> 0:22:49.280 Who I mean? 0:22:49.359 --> 0:22:54.399 He got out, He made it out of here, and 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:58.600 then it seems like he almost purposely got arrested and 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:00.720 go what info world? 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:05.280 And Morgan Freeman is listening to him complain about why 0:23:05.359 --> 0:23:08.119 in the world would this guy give up his hard 0:23:08.480 --> 0:23:12.879 won liberty? And he waits for a minute and he says, 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.679 you know, at first these walls, and he gestures to 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:19.880 those prison walls with a barber wire on top. 0:23:19.960 --> 0:23:23.240 He said, at first these walls, you hate. 0:23:23.040 --> 0:23:29.560 Them, and then after a while you get used to him, 0:23:32.200 --> 0:23:36.400 and then if you're in here long enough, you realize 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.359 you need them. 0:23:39.480 --> 0:23:44.840 I wonder how many of us have gotten so comfortable 0:23:46.160 --> 0:23:53.040 being sick that we've started decorating our prison cell so 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:59.520 it'll feel more like a living room. How comfortable are 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:03.600 you being sick? Do you want to get completely well? 0:24:05.480 --> 0:24:11.560 Because to be completely well it'll change everything. Do you 0:24:12.359 --> 0:24:14.959 want to be well? 0:24:15.520 --> 0:24:20.760 Stick a finger in Luke and head backwards to Mark's gospel, 0:24:20.840 --> 0:24:26.919 Mark chapter two, another very familiar encounter Jesus has with 0:24:27.080 --> 0:24:38.720 some up adeat Pharisees. He went out again beside the sea. 0:24:38.840 --> 0:24:41.960 This is Mark chapter two, beginning in verse fifteen. And 0:24:42.080 --> 0:24:45.600 all the crowd was coming to him, and he was 0:24:45.640 --> 0:24:47.960 teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, 0:24:48.160 --> 0:24:51.240 the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth, and 0:24:51.280 --> 0:24:52.560 he said to him, follow me. 0:24:52.680 --> 0:24:54.000 And he rose and followed him. 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:56.760 And as he reclined at table in his house, many 0:24:56.880 --> 0:24:59.960 tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciple, 0:25:00.440 --> 0:25:02.520 For there were many who followed him, the scribes of 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:04.800 the Pharisees. When they saw that he was eating with 0:25:04.880 --> 0:25:09.000 sinners and tax collectors, said to be his disciples, they said, 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:13.400 why does he eat with sinners and tax collectors. When 0:25:13.480 --> 0:25:16.000 Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are 0:25:16.080 --> 0:25:19.880 well have no need of a physician, but those who 0:25:19.920 --> 0:25:25.720 are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. 0:25:28.800 --> 0:25:36.879 Underneath that question, which is irony. Underneath that question, was 0:25:37.000 --> 0:25:44.919 what's more important to you? Healing or comfort? Okay, because 0:25:45.040 --> 0:25:50.679 oftentimes for a mature Christ follower who recognizes neediness as 0:25:50.720 --> 0:25:58.199 a spiritual necessity, deep healing does cause discomfort because it 0:25:58.280 --> 0:26:01.760 means we have to acknowledge I'm sick. 0:26:03.320 --> 0:26:05.360 I don't have it all together. 0:26:05.960 --> 0:26:09.640 I can't carry the weight of my whole life anymore. 0:26:10.200 --> 0:26:13.160 I became a christ Follower when I was five years old, 0:26:14.240 --> 0:26:17.080 and right after I became a Christian. Right before I 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:19.399 became a Christian, my father had left us for another 0:26:19.440 --> 0:26:22.640 woman and her child. And right after I became a Christian, 0:26:22.680 --> 0:26:25.080 partly because I wanted a dad who wouldn't leave. That's 0:26:25.119 --> 0:26:27.800 what the pastor preached on when I walked an aisle 0:26:27.920 --> 0:26:30.280 and they sang just as I am seven hundred times 0:26:30.680 --> 0:26:33.160 because you used to. They'd sing it until somebody walked forward, 0:26:33.200 --> 0:26:34.520 and then you could finally go to lunch. 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:37.879 But I put my hope in Jesus. 0:26:37.880 --> 0:26:40.640 I was just a peanut, and I understood at a 0:26:40.760 --> 0:26:43.399 very very very basic level that I was a sinner 0:26:43.800 --> 0:26:45.840 and God was the only one who had the deterchant 0:26:45.920 --> 0:26:49.520 to clean my heart. I understood at a very basic 0:26:49.640 --> 0:26:52.600 level that he was a heavenly father who doesn't abandon 0:26:52.680 --> 0:26:53.360 his children. 0:26:54.200 --> 0:26:58.000 That's all I understood. And after I gave. 0:26:57.760 --> 0:26:59.920 My heart to Jesus, some men came and went from 0:26:59.880 --> 0:27:02.520 our family who did things to. 0:27:02.440 --> 0:27:04.480 Me that no man should do to any woman, much 0:27:04.600 --> 0:27:05.400 less a little girl. 0:27:06.080 --> 0:27:10.360 And so from my earliest memory, I have felt dirty, 0:27:11.440 --> 0:27:15.240 And so I learned really early on I conflated a 0:27:15.280 --> 0:27:18.280 dirty heart with being just dirty because of what had 0:27:18.280 --> 0:27:22.120 been done to me, And so I conflated those two truths, 0:27:22.119 --> 0:27:24.040 and I just resolved, I'm just going to try to 0:27:24.080 --> 0:27:25.840 do better and be better. I'm just gonna try to 0:27:25.880 --> 0:27:28.600 be good. I'm gonna fill in all the Bible state plants. 0:27:28.640 --> 0:27:30.919 I'm gonna go to youth group. I'm gonna volunteer at 0:27:30.960 --> 0:27:34.320 youth group. I'm gonna stack chairs, I'm to go to 0:27:34.359 --> 0:27:36.800 youth camp. I'm just gonna do everything good that I 0:27:36.800 --> 0:27:39.960 can possibly do to make up for how bad I am, 0:27:40.480 --> 0:27:41.560 to somehow make. 0:27:41.440 --> 0:27:43.120 Up for how dirty I am. 0:27:43.680 --> 0:27:50.639 So I became a class a poser, just a poser. 0:27:51.600 --> 0:27:56.159 I love Jesus, and I believe this was true. I 0:27:56.160 --> 0:27:58.400 didn't think this was a rule book. I really did, 0:27:58.400 --> 0:28:00.679 at some level think it was a love story. I 0:28:00.760 --> 0:28:03.120 just couldn't understand how God like that could really love 0:28:03.119 --> 0:28:03.720 a girl like me. 0:28:04.920 --> 0:28:06.840 So I just tried to do better, be better, do better, 0:28:06.880 --> 0:28:09.280 be better, do better, be better. It's exhausting. 0:28:10.400 --> 0:28:14.920 It's so exhausting to pretend like you don't need more healing. 0:28:17.280 --> 0:28:20.679 How often in America do we pretend like atonement is 0:28:20.720 --> 0:28:21.959 one and done. 0:28:22.160 --> 0:28:24.440 I came to Christ, I got baptized. I'm good. 0:28:25.800 --> 0:28:29.960 I'm good. I'm sixty one in single. I have four 0:28:30.119 --> 0:28:37.120 chain sauce chain sauce. I mean, that's like an obsession. 0:28:37.280 --> 0:28:42.000 I just want to cut things up. The reason I 0:28:42.000 --> 0:28:44.000 have four chain saws is I live out in the 0:28:44.000 --> 0:28:47.200 Boonies and we have five acres, and whenever we have 0:28:47.240 --> 0:28:54.040 a storm that comes through, and these Charlatans who masquerade 0:28:54.160 --> 0:28:56.880 as tree service guys tell me it's going to be 0:28:56.920 --> 0:28:58.920 thirty five hundred dollars to cut up a tree that 0:28:58.960 --> 0:28:59.360 fell down. 0:28:59.440 --> 0:29:00.320 I'm like you, I can. 0:29:00.280 --> 0:29:05.080 Kiss my big two because I'm not paying you thirty 0:29:05.080 --> 0:29:09.920 five hundred dollars. Oh cut up my tree. So I 0:29:09.960 --> 0:29:12.000 bought a chainsaw, and then I couldn't figure out how 0:29:12.000 --> 0:29:13.840 to get the chain back on, so I'd buy another 0:29:13.880 --> 0:29:20.400 one not messed up, and so then But I am independent, baby, 0:29:21.000 --> 0:29:23.200 I mean, I grew up in an era where one 0:29:23.200 --> 0:29:27.320 of the famous advertisements I think I had to do 0:29:27.360 --> 0:29:32.240 with perfume, but the melody was I can bring home 0:29:32.320 --> 0:29:38.360 the bacon done on fried up in a pan, thank. 0:29:38.120 --> 0:29:41.080 You, and never ever let you forget you're a man. 0:29:41.200 --> 0:29:45.160 That part of miss because I'm a warm I just 0:29:45.320 --> 0:29:49.160 believe that hook line and sinker. Because I wasn't cared 0:29:49.280 --> 0:29:53.920 for when I was young, I decided it was a 0:29:54.000 --> 0:29:56.120 high value in my life to learn how to take 0:29:56.200 --> 0:29:59.960 care of myself. When I begin to hear me say 0:30:00.000 --> 0:30:02.640 say those things to my creator redeemer, I've got it. 0:30:03.000 --> 0:30:07.240 I'm fine, I've got it, I'm fine. I realized I'm 0:30:07.320 --> 0:30:11.560 not as healed as I thought I was because I 0:30:11.600 --> 0:30:15.400 can't admit I'm sick anymore. And he came for those 0:30:15.440 --> 0:30:19.240 who recognized they're sick. How well do you want to be? 0:30:22.760 --> 0:30:26.960 Do you want to be healed or do you want 0:30:27.000 --> 0:30:32.240 to be comfortable? Because those two are really congruent for 0:30:32.280 --> 0:30:39.320 a Christ follower. Fifteen years ago, God mercifully kicked my 0:30:40.120 --> 0:30:44.680 self reliant legs out from under my stool. I lost 0:30:44.760 --> 0:30:49.160 two primary relationships, and I was diagnosed with cancer that 0:30:49.240 --> 0:30:53.240 initially presented as brain cancer. And y'all, I just lost 0:30:53.320 --> 0:30:57.080 the capacity to be self reliant, and I was ashamed. 0:30:58.000 --> 0:31:02.040 I was so ashamed that I couldn't carry the weight 0:31:02.080 --> 0:31:05.000 of my own life anymore. And I remember being curled 0:31:05.040 --> 0:31:08.440 up and lived by myself little cottage south of Nashville. 0:31:08.680 --> 0:31:11.440 I remember being curled up on the floor and God 0:31:11.560 --> 0:31:14.640 spoke to me as clear as a belle. I've never 0:31:14.680 --> 0:31:18.080 heard an audible voice, because sometimes his voice is so loud. 0:31:18.440 --> 0:31:20.760 Do you ever hear him when you're wrestling? Does he 0:31:20.800 --> 0:31:23.240 ever whisper encouragement to you? Like you know? It's a lord? 0:31:23.960 --> 0:31:26.520 And it's different than your dad's voice, isn't it. It's 0:31:26.640 --> 0:31:28.360 just you know. 0:31:29.280 --> 0:31:31.960 John says that if you put your hope in Jesus, 0:31:32.560 --> 0:31:36.920 you recognize his voice. It's different than any other voice. 0:31:37.040 --> 0:31:39.880 And he said, and I'm so stupid. I'm shocked he 0:31:39.960 --> 0:31:42.400 comes back again and again and again. I can be 0:31:42.520 --> 0:31:46.400 so slow to learn and listen. But he said, Lisa, 0:31:47.600 --> 0:31:51.360 you've been running scared your whole life, and so I'm 0:31:51.400 --> 0:31:53.680 going to take you to the basement and I'm going 0:31:53.760 --> 0:31:57.480 to sit there with you in the dark until fear 0:31:57.520 --> 0:32:04.520 doesn't own you anymore. Great church father from the sixteen hundreds, 0:32:04.560 --> 0:32:08.440 Saint John of the Cross, he called those seasons in 0:32:08.440 --> 0:32:11.280 our lives when we feel like we can't carry the 0:32:11.320 --> 0:32:12.920 weight of our own life and we feel like we're 0:32:12.920 --> 0:32:13.720 in a dark valley. 0:32:13.760 --> 0:32:16.240 He called that a dark night of the soul. 0:32:17.360 --> 0:32:21.480 My dark night of the soul lasted for six months. 0:32:22.360 --> 0:32:25.600 I was so weak I couldn't get out of bed. 0:32:25.640 --> 0:32:30.240 And I'm not being hyperbolic. I could not physically get 0:32:30.240 --> 0:32:31.480 out of bed without. 0:32:31.360 --> 0:32:33.680 Saying the name Jesus out loud. 0:32:34.480 --> 0:32:41.920 I just speak in the quietness of my little cottage, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. 0:32:42.880 --> 0:32:44.600 I'd get out of bed and go to the bathroom 0:32:44.640 --> 0:32:47.920 and I had scripture laminated next to my sink, and 0:32:47.960 --> 0:32:51.120 I just had to speak those promises out loud to 0:32:51.200 --> 0:32:53.720 remember them. I don't know about y'all, but sometimes my 0:32:53.800 --> 0:32:58.240 heart's a calender. I mean, I'm finishing a doctorate in seminary. 0:32:58.360 --> 0:33:01.800 I know enough Greek and Hebrew to bedous. My poor 0:33:01.840 --> 0:33:07.600 little crooked heart lags so far behind my head because 0:33:07.640 --> 0:33:11.400 I spent so long staying I'm fine, I'm fine When 0:33:11.440 --> 0:33:17.160 I wasn't. He so graciously carried me when I was weak, 0:33:17.800 --> 0:33:21.720 So gracious. I would go back to that valley again 0:33:22.840 --> 0:33:27.360 because it's in that weak place that I learned what. 0:33:27.440 --> 0:33:31.760 A kind, strong god he is. 0:33:33.120 --> 0:33:36.280 That's where I learned to peel off my emotional spanks 0:33:36.320 --> 0:33:38.040 and say, Lord. 0:33:37.840 --> 0:33:38.880 I need you. 0:33:39.200 --> 0:33:46.640 Oh, I need you every hour. I need you. Do 0:33:46.840 --> 0:33:49.840 you want to get well? 0:33:51.720 --> 0:33:53.080 How well do you want to get? 0:33:55.480 --> 0:33:59.479 Because he had to leave this place of comfort and honor, 0:34:00.520 --> 0:34:02.600 and I bet you he thought, how am I going 0:34:02.680 --> 0:34:03.560 to provide. 0:34:03.160 --> 0:34:04.280 For my kids? Now? 0:34:05.520 --> 0:34:11.319 For thirty eight years, I knew who I was. I 0:34:11.400 --> 0:34:16.759 got pretty comfortable using my arms in my brain. If 0:34:16.800 --> 0:34:21.880 I walk behind him, everything is changing. 0:34:21.960 --> 0:34:23.680 I want to ask y'all. 0:34:23.680 --> 0:34:27.680 A couple of questions if I can be so old bold. 0:34:28.160 --> 0:34:34.239 I was thinking old because I feel like I'm your nana. 0:34:34.520 --> 0:34:41.759 Do you trust Jesus enough to become solely dependent on him? Y'all? 0:34:41.840 --> 0:34:43.600 I have to answer these, but I want you to 0:34:43.680 --> 0:34:48.600 think about him. Is being his beloved more important to 0:34:48.640 --> 0:34:51.560 you than being a husband, a wife, your bestie's first call, 0:34:51.640 --> 0:34:55.560 your children's parent, your company's CEO or volunteer the year? 0:34:58.640 --> 0:35:03.040 Is Jesus a high life right in your story? Or 0:35:03.120 --> 0:35:11.560 is he the sole author? Which is more important to you? 0:35:14.280 --> 0:35:26.120 Comfort or healing. Intentional dependency is not an option for 0:35:26.239 --> 0:35:35.080 healthy christ followers. Deep intimacy with Jesus requires conscious neediness. 0:35:36.880 --> 0:35:40.520 As soon as this fella in John five said I 0:35:40.760 --> 0:35:46.840 can't heal myself, Jesus said, take up your mountain walk. 0:35:46.920 --> 0:35:48.399 He didn't have to go to the water. 0:35:50.600 --> 0:35:56.480 He had to acknowledge I'm sick and I can't heal myself. 0:35:58.239 --> 0:36:00.000 Y'all, let me tell you this from experience. 0:36:00.000 --> 0:36:05.359 Hands you can have stage four emotional cancer and come 0:36:05.400 --> 0:36:08.360 to church and raise your hands and sing the songs. 0:36:08.160 --> 0:36:13.879 And nobody knows you're sick because I did it. 0:36:14.840 --> 0:36:18.520 For a long time. I did it, and the questions 0:36:18.560 --> 0:36:19.560 in my head were. 0:36:19.520 --> 0:36:22.960 Is this all? Is this all there is? Is this 0:36:23.080 --> 0:36:23.600 all there is? 0:36:23.640 --> 0:36:27.080 And I knew I was posing, but I was scared 0:36:27.080 --> 0:36:28.719 to death. One of y'all would look under the hood 0:36:28.719 --> 0:36:37.400 of my life and say, she's sick. Yeah, apart from Jesus, 0:36:37.840 --> 0:36:40.319 I am the sickest one of the lot. 0:36:41.360 --> 0:36:43.680 Apart from Jesus, I have no hope. 0:36:43.719 --> 0:36:48.840 Apart from Jesus, I will hurl sausage biscuits every single morning. 0:36:50.719 --> 0:36:54.120 Apart from Jesus, I can't carry the weight of my 0:36:54.280 --> 0:36:59.319 own life. I want to be so increasingly dependent on 0:36:59.560 --> 0:37:04.040 Jesus that I can't get out of bed without saying 0:37:04.080 --> 0:37:05.920 his name. And you know what that does for my 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:10.239 relationship with you? It lets you off the hook. Then 0:37:10.280 --> 0:37:13.239 I can just be your friend. Then I can be 0:37:13.360 --> 0:37:17.840 your mom. But I'm not looking to you from my identity. 0:37:18.760 --> 0:37:21.560 I'm looking to you as brothers and as sisters. But 0:37:21.640 --> 0:37:26.560 I've taken y'all off the cross. We've got to learn 0:37:26.600 --> 0:37:30.720 what it is to be interdependent with each other as family, 0:37:30.800 --> 0:37:36.279 as community, and solely dependent on Jesus. Chris and the 0:37:36.320 --> 0:37:41.400 worship team are to come back up and just usher 0:37:41.520 --> 0:37:44.920 us into the waiting arms of God. But if I 0:37:45.000 --> 0:37:47.880 can be. Is it okay if I just act like 0:37:47.920 --> 0:37:52.040 your old nana for another minute or two. The thing 0:37:52.080 --> 0:37:54.600 I love about being sixty one is man I can 0:37:54.680 --> 0:37:57.360 hug like a boss. And now I hug everybody and 0:37:57.440 --> 0:38:00.879 it's not sexual. Big old boys, little bitty girl. It's 0:38:01.280 --> 0:38:06.840 fun to be like a gorilla hugger. I'm going to 0:38:06.920 --> 0:38:12.080 ask y'all to stand up as a family. And again, 0:38:12.160 --> 0:38:16.280 I know, as a as an undeserved guest in this house, 0:38:16.400 --> 0:38:19.520 I have not earned the right to ask you such 0:38:19.640 --> 0:38:24.799 an honest question, and so thank you forgive me the 0:38:24.840 --> 0:38:30.359 grace to do so and bearing with me. But if 0:38:30.400 --> 0:38:34.919 you resonated maybe a little bit with me, maybe when 0:38:34.960 --> 0:38:38.960 you were a kid, you weren't cared for the way 0:38:39.080 --> 0:38:43.319 God designed you to be cared for, and so you 0:38:43.600 --> 0:38:47.800 learned to take care of yourself as a survival skill. 0:38:48.320 --> 0:38:49.720 That too, is God's gift. 0:38:49.760 --> 0:38:52.640 It's just when we carry it into adulthood, it can 0:38:53.400 --> 0:38:58.279 become armament that puts distance between us and others, and distance. 0:38:57.920 --> 0:38:59.040 Between us and God. 0:38:59.120 --> 0:39:06.400 If you consider yourself to be independent, self reliant, and 0:39:06.440 --> 0:39:09.400 the Holy Spirit is whispering right now, you've done a 0:39:09.400 --> 0:39:11.560 little bit too much of that with Jesus. 0:39:12.680 --> 0:39:16.040 You've got to learn how to be needy with Jesus. 0:39:16.520 --> 0:39:25.000 Would you just sit down wherever you are. Thank you 0:39:25.080 --> 0:39:36.480 Jesus for those of you. 0:39:37.960 --> 0:39:43.359 Who had to take care of yourselves because nobody else did. 0:39:44.560 --> 0:39:47.520 Maybe you had a dad who left, or a mom 0:39:47.560 --> 0:39:51.799 who didn't hug, or a spouse who hit. I'm so 0:39:51.840 --> 0:39:57.239 sorry that that was a reality for you. As a 0:39:57.320 --> 0:40:00.480 child of God. I want to remind you you don't 0:40:00.520 --> 0:40:04.320 have to be strong with him. Your weakness he actually 0:40:04.680 --> 0:40:10.160 transforms into strength. That doesn't mean victimhood. That means I 0:40:10.160 --> 0:40:12.960 don't have to be scared because He's already assured the victory. 0:40:14.040 --> 0:40:16.239 I don't have to pretend I'm something I'm not because 0:40:16.280 --> 0:40:21.640 he says I'm beautifully and wonderfully made. Perfection is overrated, 0:40:21.719 --> 0:40:25.359 he says, come as you are and I'll clean you up. 0:40:26.120 --> 0:40:29.720 Those of you who are standing, can I encourage you 0:40:29.880 --> 0:40:31.880 as they lead us in worship, and then we're going 0:40:31.920 --> 0:40:34.520 to have a closing prayer. Can I encourage you to 0:40:34.640 --> 0:40:37.480 just scoot over by one of those saints around you, 0:40:37.560 --> 0:40:40.200 one of those brothers or sisters in the faith, and 0:40:40.280 --> 0:40:42.359 lay hands on them. If this is your first time 0:40:42.400 --> 0:40:47.720 at elevation that might not be in your comfort zone. 0:40:47.920 --> 0:40:51.840 But again we're elevating heat, elevating healing over comfort. This morning, 0:40:52.239 --> 0:40:54.120 would you just reach over and put your hand on 0:40:54.160 --> 0:40:58.000 a saint and just pray for him. Pray that even 0:40:58.040 --> 0:41:02.440 in this moment of such beautiful honesty, they would recognize 0:41:02.440 --> 0:41:06.280 the nearness of God, that they'd recognize that His grace 0:41:06.480 --> 0:41:11.160 really is sufficient for us, That they'd have the same 0:41:11.280 --> 0:41:14.920 grace that this gentleman did in John's gospel when he said, I. 0:41:15.960 --> 0:41:19.920 I can't heal myself. I need you Jesus. 0:41:20.040 --> 0:41:23.239 That's all we have to confess, y'all. That is the 0:41:23.360 --> 0:41:29.080 gateway to intimacy with Jesus is to say I need you. 0:41:30.719 --> 0:41:35.359 I needed you for salvation and I still need you. 0:41:35.719 --> 0:41:37.759 Jesus. You are my breath. 0:41:38.560 --> 0:41:41.640 I can't breathe without you. You are my hope. 0:41:42.320 --> 0:41:44.680 I have no hope in my heart without you. You 0:41:44.760 --> 0:41:45.840 are my peace. 0:41:46.920 --> 0:41:50.880 Apart from you, Jesus, I have too much anxiety. I 0:41:51.000 --> 0:41:55.760 need you. Oh, I need you. I need you every hour. 0:41:58.440 --> 0:42:01.000 Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those of 0:42:01.040 --> 0:42:04.000 you who give generously to this ministry. Is because of 0:42:04.040 --> 0:42:06.960 you that this ministry is possible. You can click the 0:42:07.000 --> 0:42:10.720 link in the description to give now or visit Elevationchurch 0:42:10.880 --> 0:42:14.160 dot org slash podcast for more information and if you 0:42:14.239 --> 0:42:17.480 enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can share it 0:42:17.520 --> 0:42:19.799 with your friends. You can click the share button, take 0:42:19.840 --> 0:42:22.200 a screenshot and share it on your social stories and 0:42:22.239 --> 0:42:25.080 tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. God 0:42:25.120 --> 0:42:30.480 bless you.