Best Year Ever | Part 2

kind of set up where we're to be by by telling you a story. Okay? We're going to see this really bizarre encounter in John chapter five with Jesus and this guy that's been by this pool.

But the the story doesn't make a lot of sense on the surface until you get to really what Jesus was trying to do. And we are in week two of a series called the best year ever really looking at what it takes for us to experience the best year that we could ever have and we believe that the good news of the gospel is that in Christ, our best days are always in front of us. Amen? That in him, our best days are ahead and we really believe that 2019

could be the greatest year ever and I think what we're going see today is it's not the things that we think are holding us back that really are the things that are holding us back. And so I'm

a pretty extroverted guy. Okay? I like talking to people. I like making new friends. And my wife is very much the opposite. She's very introverted. I have to constantly force her around people and like push her into crowds. I'm like, you can do it, babe. Just say, hi. I'm Ashley. Okay? And then they'll respond with something about usually their name and then just say, how are you doing? And then it'll open up this whole conversation. It'll be really exciting stuff, but it's always funny to watch our dynamics because I love to talk to everybody. I'm, like, at the grocery store talking to the grocery clerk, and I'm, like, making best friends with the guy in the aisle because we bought the same box of rice. And my wife is like, what is wrong with you? And my my daughter actually made me a Christmas card this year, and she wrote the top 10 things of why she loves me. And number nine was that I can make friends with a tree. And

she's like, my dad is literally the only person I know that can make friends with a tree. Doesn't even talk back yet. Somehow, he he makes friends with them. And and if you're extroverted in the room, you will understand what I'm talking about. K? Sometimes in your pursuit of, like, getting to know people and talk to people, you end up in some pretty awkward conversations and some pretty awkward moments because truthfully, there are a lot of introverts in this world. And as much as I like talking and I like interacting with people,

they equally hate talking to people and they hate interacting with people. And you know you're talking to an introvert when every answer they give you to every question is yes, no,

maybe, sure, whatever. How are you gonna leave me? Get away from me. No eye contact. They don't smile. They just one word answers, and they're like, palms are sweating. They're like, please, god, walk away from me and let me go about my business. Well, the hard part is that I feel like it's almost a challenge to, like, push into the people that are introverted to find the, like, one thing about them that they are excited about because if you get to that one thing, they'll talk about it forever. Right? Lot A of times, it's like Lord of the Rings or Pokemon or some book series they're they're reading and you you just say Pokemon. They're like, Pikachu and they come alive and it's exciting stuff. Well, there there was one time I was having this conversation with this lady at the church that I came from and she was the quintessential introvert. K? She was giving me nothing. We're sitting there having this conversation waiting for this class or something to start at church, and I'm I'm talking to her and asking her different things, and she's just like, what are you doing? Leave me alone. And I just keep asking, but the hard part is that we did hit this, like, impasse where I knew this was not gonna happen. Whatever hobbies that people have, she has none of them, and this is never gonna actually lead to anything. But I didn't have an exit strategy out of the conversation. Like, there wasn't coffee to my left where I was like, okay. Well, I'm gonna get some coffee. Like, I couldn't say I was leaving to the class because it wasn't started yet. So I just I just kept asking questions, and eventually, I'm like, man, this is going nowhere. She doesn't know the basic laws of human interaction. She asked me no questions because if she asked me something, I'll talk about anything forever. So I

end up just going through all these questions. I'd literally run out of things to ask her. And so I finally like, man, what am I gonna say? And I ask her this question because it looks like she's carrying a child. And so I know. I know. I know. Yes. I know. Stop judging me. Okay?

I asked the question that should never be asked. Okay? I've had at least some people came up to me last night and they were like, hey. I did this too and I and I asked the lady the question that you all know that I never should have asked her and I said, so how far along are you? Thinking that maybe she would be excited to talk about the child that she was about to give birth to unless she's not pregnant and she looks at me and the look that she gives me, I was like, oh, she's not pregnant. This is really,

this is really uncomfortable now and she responds to me and she just says, how far along in what? I was like, the

the women's studies are going to the book of Titus. How far along are you in the book of Titus? So I was in chapter two, but chapter one was really exciting. How far along are you? How about the charges? I'll see you later and just oh my like, there's there's no way to backtrack out of that question and that conversation

and it's terrible. And I'm telling you, even if a lady is standing there and she's holding ultrasound pictures, don't ask her if she's pregnant because that might be her sister's ultrasound pictures and you have no clue who she is. Okay? And you are gonna put yourself in a situation like me that's just awkward and uncomfortable and you're like, why are you telling me any of this? Here's why. In John five, we're gonna look at a story where Jesus asks a question kind of like mine where on the surface, it it's it's it's it's

non logical. It's illogical. It's it's kind of dumb and it's almost offensive. The question that he asked but obviously, unlike my question, there's purpose behind the question that Jesus asked. There's no redeeming the question that I ask

but what Jesus's question is going to do is he's going to force the guy in the conversation

to answer a part of of where his heart was at that on the surface you never would know and it's the same thing it's gonna force you and I this morning to answer and here's the big idea that we're gonna work from that this question forces us to reconcile in our heart is that if you really want 2019 to be the best year ever and you are asking and praying for things in your life to change,

you better be willing to change some things about you. If you want things in your life to change, here's the simple big idea. Hear nothing else I say. Here's this. You better be willing to change some things about you. John five, you there?

You there? Yes. There we go. K. John five, it says, this is a story where Jesus heals a lame man. This is not just Patriots fans. This is also people that have illnesses. Okay? So verse one, it says, afterward, Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days.

Inside the city near the Sheep Gate was the Pool Of Bethesda. Now, obviously, I'm not a city planner but if I was gonna put a pool somewhere, probably wouldn't put it next to the thing called the Sheep Gate. That just sounds gross in a place like I don't wanna swim but who knows? Maybe it's awesome and it's great for them but there there's near the Sheep Gate. There's a pool called Bethesda

that has five covered porches. Verse three says, crowds of sick people who were blind, lame, or paralyzed lay on the porches. Let me set up the scene

of what's happening in John five, okay? It says that there's a holy day happening at the temple. We looked a few weeks back about one of those holy days called Passover where people would make a journey to the temple to fulfill their annual obligations. Well, one of those holy days is happening.

One of those holy days is taking place at the temple. So, people are making their journey towards the temple. Well, right next to the temple is there's this natural body of water that they've built these porches and stairs around and it's called the Pool Of Bethesda right next to the temple and it's important to understand what it's called because it gives us insight into why people were there.

Every anytime you see the word Beth in the Bible, the word Beth actually means house, okay? There's a city in the Old Testament called Bethel. It means the house of god. Jesus is from the hometown of Bethlehem.

It's kind of a weird one. It means the house of bread, okay? Jesus came from a city called the house of bread which doesn't make a lot of sense until you see in a few weeks where Jesus says, I am the bread of life who came from the house mercy

or the house of grace depending on the translation you look at. The pool that Jesus is walking to is called the house of mercy or the house of grace. It is a quintessential name for the church.

Just like this today would be called the house of mercy, the house of grace, the place you come to experience mercy and grace. That's what this pool is and for whatever reason, there's hundreds, if not, thousands of people that have all types of diseases and sickness sitting around this pool. Now, I will give you an insider scoop. They're not just getting a tan, okay? They are not just by the pool trying to get some skin color. Now, if you look, a lot of your Bibles will skip from verse three to verse five. Verse four, in some of your translations, if you have older ones, it will be in there but a lot of them, it's not in there. There might be an asterisk at the bottom of the page. It will actually say what verse four means. The reason that it's not in there is because in a lot of the oldest manuscripts,

verse four isn't there but verse four is important because it gives us context and there's other historical documents, not the Bible that scribes referenced and actually would then put in verse four and what's important to note is that this gives us cultural understanding of what's happening. It is not that what is taking place is actually biblically true but if we're going to understand the scene in chapter five, if we're going to understand why these people would be at by this pool, we have to read verse four. So look what it says in verse four.

It says, there's a crowds of people that have all these things wrong with them sitting by the pool. In verse four says, waiting a certain movement of the water. Verse four says, for an angel of the lord came from time to time and stirred up the water.

The first person to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever disease he had. So, here's what's happening. There is an urban legend

that apparently a lot of people have begun to believe and I don't know if that means that people have actually experienced the healing from this urban legend and then they told their friends about it, who then told their friends, who told their friends that led to thousands of people gathered around a pool who believe that at some random point, periodically, an angel would show up, stir the water in the pool, and if you could be the very first one to jump in the water, you would be healed of whatever was wrong with you. Whatever you were dealing with, a physical ailment, an addiction, something that was wrong with you because the word that's actually used in the

water after the waters got stirred, you would be healed instantly. Now, think about this. If you had incurable cancer, you you had something that was wrong with you that was going to for sure take your life.

What would you be willing to do if I told you the way to be healed was to make sure you were the first one at the Pool Of Bethesda to get to the water after the bubble started to show up.

If I told you, hey, at some point, an angel is going show up and he's going stir the water and if you just get in first, you will be healed of whatever you have and maybe not for you but imagine if your child, your your spouse was going to die. Incurable doctors can do nothing.

But I told you, there is one place that you can find hope. And it's at this pool outside of the temple. But here's the catch. There's thousands of people that are there. You have to be first. You have to get in before everybody else. What would you be willing to do if that was your only hope?

We see thousands of people where this is their only hope and the reason that this matters is because it paints the picture of this scene. This is not an orderly church service. This is not the house of grace where they're saying bless you. Yes, please and thank you. This is a scene of absolute chaos of people clawing

and trying to get in front of the other ones because they know that the only way that their daughter is going to see their next birthday is to make sure she's the first one in the pool when the water gets stirred and so they they they hire people to hold people back. They they claw and they try to get over everybody to make sure they're first.

It is a perfect picture of the rat race that our world is. Of people just climbing and clawing and scratching, trying to get ahead, trying to be first and if you really look at just the rawness of a lot of our existence, it is represented perfectly in this scene of just this hyper competitive, hyperchaotic

scene where we're trying to get ahead. That's what what Jesus walks into. That's the scene that he enters into on a holy day. He shows up to a temple where thousands of people are fighting to fulfill something that we don't even know if it's actually true but their hope is that it is and look at what he does.

Verse five says this, it says, the Jesus walking on in the scene, he says, one of the men lying there had been sick for thirty eight years.

Thirty eight years. Four decades, there's been a guy sitting there and verse six says that when Jesus saw him, he knew that he'd been able for a long time and he asked him the dumb question. He asked him the offensive, illogical, kind of idiotic question. Do you want to get well? I

imagine at this point, the disciples were like, did Jesus not read the sign because it clearly said adult pool to the left, pool of healing to the right, okay? If this guy was here for fun, he'd be the adult pool because they've got the umbrella drinks and all the awesome stuff. This guy is at the pool for healing.

And he's been here for forty years. Obviously, he wants to get well, right? Why would Jesus ask a guy who's been sitting at a pool notorious for healing ailments for forty years? Why would he walk past all of these other people find the guy that a lot of scholars say is the guy who's been there the longest,

the guy who everybody would know, the guy who everybody has seen, the guy who day after day, people would walk past and know, man, that poor guy, I hope he gets in first today. I hope today is his day because he's been here for a minute. He's been really trying. Jesus walks past all of these people walks up to him and he goes, hey, bro, do you wanna get well?

Like Jesus. Yeah, obviously. Obviously, he wants to get well. Why would he be here for thirty eight years if he didn't want to get well? Well, here's what you have to know. Jesus knew what was in his heart. Jesus knew that though his actions and where he he was might have made it look like he wanted to get well.

Jesus knew that there were some things in his life that he just was refusing to do that actually would have led to him being well.

So he walks up and he asks him a question and says, do you want to get well? And look at the guy's heart. I think what he says to Jesus gives us massive insight into how we have the best year ever. Verse seven, he says, I I I I can't, sir. For I have nobody to put me in the pool when the water bubbles up.

Somebody else always gets there ahead of me.

You would think that when somebody asked the guy at the pool for healing if they wanted to get well, they would just shout a resounding yes. Absolutely, I'll do whatever it takes. Are you are you trying to help me? I would love whatever you want do, man. Build me a ramp. Throw me in. I'm I'm in. I want I want to get made well.

But Jesus asks him, do do you want to get made well? And he goes, man, I I totally would but you know what? The the funny part about it is it's actually not my fault that I'm not well and

so, like, I I I would but it's my friend's fault that I I'm not well. I keep telling him, dude, just grab my legs and throw me in the pool. Just just huck me in. As soon as the waters go, just throw me. No no regard. I'll be healed. It'll be awesome. I'll swim out but they won't do it and I don't know what to do. I've done everything I can because it's it's their fault that I can't get made well and then he goes, and then the few times that they have thrown me, they they were slow and they didn't do it right. And so I was like the second or third person in the pool, then somebody always beats me.

Notice what the guy does. Notice his response. He does the exact same thing that you and I do when presented with the opportunity to be made well.

When presented with the opportunity to actually make right the things in our life that are holding us back from experiencing the fullness of what god would have for us. We go, yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds awesome but

it's really my spouse's fault that we're having a terrible marriage. Like, I I want to get it better but he won't come to church with me and and I I I've asked her but she just won't go to counseling and so I I would love to have an incredible marriage but it's it's it's really not my fault that I don't have a good marriage. So, I'm just going to sit here for forty years.

And I'm going to blame her. I'm going to blame him. I'm going to blame them because at the end of the day, the biggest lie that the enemy will tell you is that it's not your fault why you are where you are.

If you want to experience the greatest, the best that god has for you in 2019, the first thing you have to do is you have to stop making excuses for why you're stuck where you are.

What I am not trying to do is to tell you that there are not real things that have happened to you that have led you to where you are but you are the only one that controls the destiny of what's gonna happen to your future.

You are where you are because of what's happened, what you are going to do moving forward is your responsibility because standing in front of you is a god that has healing for you, a god that will empower you to be changed and I think my fears that we walk into places like this and we come in and we lift our hands and we ask for blessing and we go, yes, I wanna have the best year ever but the truth is as if we were honest,

there are some real things in our life that we know we need to deal with. We know we need to address. We know we need to look at but we've made excuses for so many years. We've justified why we are where we are for so many

years that even if I told you right now, healing was here. Healing is right in front of you. You would go, yeah, that's cool but not for me. Because the truth is, as much as it is not god's best for us, it is incredible what we are able to justify as people. It's crazy

how much we can take what we know to be merely existing, merely surviving, and we try to go, yeah, yeah, yeah. This this is god's best for me. This is incredible. This is awesome. Really? You think god wants you to go home day after day to a marriage that is barely hanging on?

You think he wants you to continue in your addiction for another year? You think god wants you to just keep limping forward through life and that somehow you've convinced yourself that this is his best for you? It is such a lie from the pit of hell to believe that the mess that we are in is the best that god has for us

but what it takes is us having just a moment of honesty to go, you know what? At some point, I do have to stop making excuses. At some point, I do have to receive the healing that Jesus is offering me. I do have to invite him into the places that I don't really want him to go because please don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that you ask Jesus into your heart and he redeems you and then you and I have to work to earn the rest. That's not what I'm saying. That's not the message of the gospel

but we like to invite god into the places of our lives that are comfortable but the funny part about god is that he often wants to deal with the places that were the most uncomfortable in. He

goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know you want me to bless your finances but what about this? Let's deal with this. I know you want a promotion. I know you want all these things. I know you want a title and all these things but what about this? Let's deal with this. You deal with some things pretty unhealthily.

Invite me into this place. Allow my restorative power to be here as well as here.

You and I have to realize that in front of us is the opportunity for healing and it's really not that simple but or it's really not that complicated but what it's going to require of us is some effort because look at what Jesus tells this guy. Look at what he tells him to do.

Verse eight, after the guy gives him all of his excuses. Verse eight, Jesus tells him, stand up, pick up your mat, and walk. This guy gives Jesus all of his excuses on why he can't be healed. He goes, it's not my fault. It's their fault. I would do it but they it Jesus looks past all of it and he goes, today is your day.

Today is your day to leave all of your weaknesses behind. Today is your day to step into the promises of god for your life but here's what you gotta do. You gotta pick up your man. You gotta get up and you've gotta leave this place. You can't sit here any longer.

And I know on the surface, he goes, okay, so Jesus healed his legs. That, that, that, that's awesome. But think about the invitation of what Jesus just gave him. Yes, walking sounds appealing. But what Jesus really just asked him to do by healing him and restoring him physically,

he just changed everything that this guy has known for the last forty years. All of his friends are the people by the pool. He survived every week. By getting people to feel sympathetic for him and throwing him a couple bucks, they walked to the temple and that's how he survived

and he he he settled into this. He goes, man, at least they do bingo on Thursdays and there's a fish fry every other week and I know this isn't really awesome but at least I'm moving the ball forward. At least I'm surviving

a little bit and Jesus says, do you wanna be made well? And he says, yes and he goes, here's your opportunity to change every single part about your life. Your friends will change. Your income will change. Everything about you is now gonna be dependent on my faithfulness and not your own ability.

Here's the thing that we don't understand in the church. Yes, salvation is a free gift. God wants to restore, redeem, and reconcile you in a moment and in a moment, you can go from eternal damnation to eternal glory with god in heaven in a second and it won't cost you anything. It will be free

But do not be mistaken. The process of discipleship, the process of sanctification, following Jesus daily, dying to yourself, picking up your cross, doing the hard things. It will cost you more than you realize.

It will cost you more than you understand but here's the good news of why it's worth it because Jesus says, this is the only way that your life will ever make sense.

It's the only way that you will ever find the purpose and the meaning and the satisfaction that you've been looking for. It is not in continuing down the easy road. It is not by sitting around the same people talking about the same things about why your friends are the worst and why you're stuck where you are.

And getting up and picking up your mat and going enough is enough. It doesn't matter why I'm here. Yes, people have wronged me. Yes, people have done all these things. I'm not trying to say that it's not hard and that it's not difficult but what I'm saying is that the enemy would love for you to sit in your misery and sit in your pity because misery always loves company.

And I'm telling you, one of the greatest things holding you back from experiencing everything that god has for us in 2019 is saying, enough is enough. At some point, if I actually want things to change, I have to be willing to change things.

I can't just keep walking to the door and asking god to do everything and then not be willing to do anything. Sometimes, the most difficult message for us to hear in church is just be obedient.

People come to me all the time and go, man, god's not speaking. I go, what's the last thing god said to you? Well, he told me to do this but I I don't I really wanna do that. I'm like, well,

you're god's not not speaking. He already spoke. You're just not listening. So, he's probably gonna remind you to do the thing that you he already told you to do.

If you're like, man, I don't know what god told me to do. I I would really push back. No, I bet you you do. I almost guarantee without even much thought, you know the exact area of your life that you have settled for mediocrity and you've allowed a weakness become your normal and what god is saying in 2019 is no more.

You have to take that area. You have to be willing to press into the pain, into the difficulty, into the hard things because on the other side of them is the life that you've always dreamed of. The the the hope is on the other side of doing

these difficult things and and man, I'm telling you as a 19 year old kid who got saved in college, this was the realest thing that I ever had to walk through.

I walked in to a Sunday morning gathering after like partying all weekend. Somehow, I stumbled into church and god radically transformed my heart and in a moment, like the Bible says that from us is removed the heart of stone and we're given a heart of flesh and he gives us new desires and he makes us brand new. That happened to me that day in church and I walked out of there an entirely new being

but the problem was, is I'd spent the last five years with the same people and so come the next Friday, I didn't know what to do. So, I went back to the same parties that I was at the week before

but the problem was is I was completely different. I didn't wanna do the things that they were doing at this party, but I didn't know where else to go. I didn't know what else to do. It's what I had always done.

And week after week, I went to the same parties until eventually my friends called me like, we're having a party on Friday. And we would really like for you to not be there. I was like, what?

They're like, yeah, you're making it really awkward for us because you just, we feel like you're judging us and you're really just not, yeah, you're not doing any things that we're doing and it would make us all feel better if you weren't there. I'm like, wait, you're firing me? Like, I'm supposed to fire you. Like, you're, I'm so like, this makes no sense to me but I realized a really, really powerful truth that day that sometimes god will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves and what it seems like is it something that's really hard and that I was losing all of the friends that I'd ever had but I realized that if I kept going to the same place and doing the same things, I would keep getting the things that I had always

gotten because here's the truth. You and I can only sit in a barbershop long enough before we eventually get our haircut.

You keep sitting in the barbershop day after day. Don't be shocked when eventually you get your haircut no matter how much you say I'm not cutting my hair. Because you and I will be influenced by the environments that we surround ourselves with.

The people that we are around have such a massive influence into our lives

and I'm telling you for some of you to have the best year ever, it's really not super complicated. You have to begin to change the people that you live life with, the people that you allow to speak into your life, that if the people around you are not pursuing the same things as you, I'm telling you, they will always, always, always drag you down.

Solomon said it so simply in the book of Proverbs. He says, good character will always be corrupted by bad company. It says, walk with the wise, become wise, walk with the fools, become a fool. If you want to experience the best, say we can give god shout for that. If

you want to experience all that god has for you, the two things that that this story tells us is you have to stop making excuses and you have to be willing to put in some effort but here's the thing as we wrap all of this up. This entire story has nothing to do with physical healing

because yes, god god wants to restore your marriage. God wants to fix your finances. He wants to give you a job that you like. God wants to fix all of those things but they are secondary to the real work that god wants to do in your heart and in your soul and the rest of the story proves

why Jesus did what he did because if Jesus was only about the physical healing, he really didn't do that great of a job because he walked past thousands of people, stepped over people who needed healing to find one guy, heals one guy, and then he leaves.

Jesus's physical healing. Yes, he wants to heal you. Yes, he wants to restore you but he wants to do it out of an overflow of the restoration that he does in your heart and in your soul. Let's see how the story ends.

He tells this guy to pick up his mat and walk. In verse nine, instantly, the guy's healed. He rolls up his sleeping mat and he begins to walk but this miracle happened on the Sabbath.

So, the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who was cursed, you can't work on the Sabbath. The law doesn't allow you to carry that sleeping mat but he replied, the man who told me, the man who healed me, told me, pick up your mat and walk. Who said such a thing as this? And I love his answer. I don't know. It was just a dude. He had like a posse and he looked pretty awesome but I no no idea who he is. No clue.

Look at what happens. The guy that everybody knows is paralyzed, gets healed, picks up his mat, walks through the temple, and meets some religious leaders and they get mad. They aren't rejoicing and celebrating what god has done going, man, this is a miracle. They're mad about what? That he's carrying a mat?

Because it's the Sabbath and you can't work on the Sabbath. It's a day of rest. It says, nowhere in the Old Testament that you can't carry a mat on the Sabbath, okay? This this is just purely man made religion put on top of god's laws. It is religion's attempt to save humanity. It always

falls short because it is just a bunch of rules to do and not do and I love the guy's answer. The guy's like, oh yeah, like that law sounds pretty awesome and you guys' robes are like next level but

I've been sitting by a pool for forty years and my legs have not worked. This guy walked up and said, do wanna be made well? And now my legs work. So I'm gonna go with this guy. Okay? You guys can figure out the theology and stuff. Let me know. But I'm with this guy. Here here's why

this story is in the Bible because sometimes, we have to get past our religious experiences. We have to move past our religious upbringings that say, it only ever looks like this.

The problem with Jesus is a lot of times he blows the religious system out of the water and he goes, no, no, no. Your healing is in me. Your theology is made perfect in me. I am everything you are looking for. It is not in how you do things. It is all in who I am. It is the overarching

thing that the book of John screams is not what or how Jesus does things but who he is. And the end of this proves that none of this has anything to do with him healing

his body because the guy doesn't even know who Jesus is but Jesus goes and finds him in the very next verse. It says, but afterwards, verse 14, Jesus found the guy in the temple and he told him, now that you are well, stop sinning or something else may happen to you.

There's a lot of people who've taken that verse and said, if you have any type of illness or weakness or thing that you're dealing with and you've been praying and asking for god to remove it and he's not, it's because you have sin in your life.

That is not what god is saying in this passage. That is not what Jesus is inferring. He's not saying, hey, dude, I healed you and

now, if you don't be perfect and to stop sinning, I'm gonna come back and not only will I break your legs, I'm gonna break your arms too, okay? So, you better, you better not screw up from here forward.

What I am not saying is that there are not times that we have illnesses and weaknesses that sin in our life causes because you and I are our own worst enemies. But what Jesus is really telling this guy is he's getting to the heart of why

he healed his legs and so that it would open the door to the conversation to go, look, man, your legs are temporary. You might use those legs to walk into the street and get hit by a bus and die tomorrow. You will still be held in judgement for your sins.

Yes, god god wants to heal your bodies but here's what he really wants to do. Jesus reveals to this guy the business that he's really in.

I'm not the guy that can heal your body. I'm not the magic genie that's gonna make your paycheck bigger and heal everything that you've ever had wrong with you. What Jesus wants to do is to come into your soul, come into your heart, and pay the penalty that the Bible says that we deserve for our sin

because all of us at some point will have to give an account for our lives and if we have not accepted the free gift of salvation through Jesus, our consequences will be so much greater than those of just a guy whose legs didn't work and had to sit by a pool for forty years.

He's saying, if you go and you die and the penalty of your sin has not been paid and reconciled by me and your account brought back into right standing, your consequences will be eternal separation from god and I'm telling you, they will be so much worse than just the consequences of your legs being not working.

This is the real key to us having the greatest year ever. If you have not accepted Jesus

and allowed him to be the the big word, the propitiation for our sins to be the atonement, the the penalty for our sins to allow him to take our place. I'm telling you right now, everything else we attempt to do, everything else that we try to do is all just behavior modification and Jesus does not want to modify your behavior. He wants to transform you from the inside out.

He wants to make you a brand new person.

And this is how the story ends. Jesus, it doesn't say this in the Bible but I I I believe that Jesus told this guy to go and tell the Pharisees who he was Because at the end of the day, Jesus chose to heal him on the Sabbath.

He could've waited till Monday. He could've done it on Saturday but he did it on the Sabbath because he knew. He knew that he had to go to the cross and the only way to go to the cross was to begin to make the religious in

We're We're the

going to We're in

be

god his father. To We're Thereby, in making himself equal with god. Here's the entire point of why Jesus would have this bizarre encounter with this guy and ask this weird question so that he could get in front of the religious leaders and tell him, you guys are missing who my dad is.

You are just playing church. You are just going through the motions. You are just doing all of this stuff. You're getting upset when people are healed because they're carrying a mat. You don't know who my father in heaven is. He doesn't say our father. He says, my father because you don't understand him.

They're getting upset that Jesus is doing anything on the Sabbath and Jesus tells him, if you were in heaven like I was, you would see that my father is not just hanging out and chilling on Sundays. He has been relentless in his pursuit of humanity ever since the fall. Ever since there was a break between the relationship of him and man, he has been relentless and there is no longer a Sabbath in heaven for my dad because there are people who still need to be reached and that's what he's doing and that's what I'm doing

and in one statement, he solidified that me and god are the same and he put the final nail in his coffin knowing that this was gonna be the thing that led him to be killed but he knew.

The reason that he did all of this stuff, the reason he waited for the Sabbath is because he knew he had to go to the cross. He knew that he had to be the atonement for our sins. The only way that he could fulfill the promise that he just made to a guy that was lame that can now walk is that he can now forgive his sins is he was gonna have to pay the penalty that the Bible says is the penalty for our sin and it's death and Jesus went to the cross and he was beaten and brutalized and died a horrendous death so that you and I wouldn't have to be guilty of our sins any longer for that we would not have to pay the penalty of the poor choices that we've made. The invitation in front of each of us is you can go before god and you can give an account for your own sins on your own and I'm telling you, it will not end well for you or we can accept the free gift, The free gift that salvation is understanding that in a moment, god will come into our hearts and he will transform us. He will begin to do a work in us and make us new and what he will do is give us an invitation

to a life beyond our wildest dreams and he'll start to If you're willing to stop with the excuses, if you're willing to put in some work, I will put inside of you the same spirit that rose Jesus from the grave, a spirit where you will not sit into a room where temptation will overcome you. I will always give you a way out. You can be and do the same things he told his disciples. You'll even do greater things than I did on this earth if you would just

trust me. If you would just allow me, invite me into the places that you're so afraid to expose, that you're so afraid of people seeing. That's where Jesus wants to do the greatest work. But you and I have to realize if we actually want things to change, we have to be willing to change things.

To end and wrap all this up, I wanna tell you a story about my dog that's possessed by a demon, okay?

We we have this dog and she she's awesome but man, when she was little, she was crazy. Anybody else who's ever had a crazy dog like I I don't know how. I just always pick the worst ones but we love em to death and they're awesome but this dog, Bear, man, she was the dog that if you open up the door and you didn't like barricade the entrance, she was gone and she was sprinting for the next twelve hours trying to avoid you and I'm like, dude, I'm the one that picks up your poop, feeds you, and gives you a place to live. You don't wanna run from me, okay? I'm I'm your god. Come back home but she wouldn't. She would just run and she was crazy and we would go to the dog park and I'd look at like my neighbors and their dogs and they're like clicking this thing. And the dog does, like, three back flips, and then they, do all this awesome stuff. And I'm, why can't that be me? Like, why can't I be the awesome guy at the dog park? Instead, I've got the dog that pees on your stuff, bites your kid, and jumps to the fence. Like, that's that's the fulfillment of my life and so, me and my wife eventually because it it got it got pretty bad. She was like running away all the time. It just was she was crazy. You come over. She jump on you and lick your face and all the gross stuff that that pets do and so we were like, here here's what we're to do. We're going do the responsible pet owner thing and we're going to hire a dog trainer, okay? We're going to hire a lady to come in and fix my dog. So, we we go online, look up some people, and we find this lady and she comes in and I said, look, here's what we're to do. Tell me what's going to cost but I my goal is pretty simple. K? My goal is to be the guy at the dog park that clicks the thing and does the backflips. I'm 95%

of doing this is to impress my neighbors. So make sure you make my dog awesome. Tell me what it's gonna cost, and I'll I'll pay it. And I'm going go watch the charger game, and then you let me know when my dog's better. And I'll come back, and this is this is going be great. I'm so excited that you're here. So this lady sits me and my wife down. And she's like, yeah, the funny part is is people think that I'm in the business of training dogs.

It's like, what do you mean? She's like, well, I'm I'm actually in the business of of training humans how to interact with dogs. So 99% of what I do is I work with correcting humans behaviors in the way that they interact with their dogs.

So was like, wait. Hold on a second. Let let let me make sure I'm tracking with you. I hired you to come into my house and fix my dog, and you're gonna tell me that this is my problem? You're gonna tell me that I have to do this, and I've gotta train my dog, and I can't sit on my couch, and I can't just sit here and do nothing while you do everything and make my dog awesome.

I'm out. You're fired. Like, out of my house. I will find a dog trainer that knows what they're doing and the sad part is is every dog trainer we brought in told us the same thing. It's about changing your behavior. The invitation to change your dog is to change your behavior so that you can actually be the one that affects the change. It's the exact same invitation that we have this morning.

If you wanna have the best of your effort, you cannot walk in the door, kick your feet up on the couch, and go, god, hey, get my paycheck bigger. I I need a raise, fix my spouse, make my kids listen better, a new car would be awesome, some toys would be cool, a better house would be good. I like all those blessings.

Let me know when you're done and then I'll get into the game and if you want, I'll throw you a couple bucks here and now and then but not 10%. That's crazy. That that's not going to happen. So, I'll give you a tip when it's good and if it's not, I'm going to walk out and let me know when everything's done.

And it sounds really crazy but is that not truth of exactly how we approach God 95% of the time? And then we get mad at him when our best year ever is not happening. This this message is not super profound. It's pretty simple and that I think our blessings,

our our our fullness of life is right on the other side of our willingness to walk in obedience and our willingness to do the things that we know we're supposed to do because if you came here this morning and you are hoping things would change,

I'm telling you, you are going to be given an invitation for you to change and you better be willing to change things. So, knowing all of that, here's the question that I have for you. Whatever it is that's been holding you back, that kept you from experiencing the fullness of what God had for you in 2018.

As you enter into 2019, I have a simple question for each of you. Do you actually want to be made well? Jesus is standing right in front of you. Healing is there. Father, I thank you for every person that's here. God, I thank you that you stand right in front of us. And so often, we are blinded by our excuses.

We are so blinded by our comfort that we don't even see you. So, father, right now, may maybe even right now, just give us a moment of of clarity and sanity where we would see past all of the excuses that we've come up with and we would just see you standing in front of us asking, do you want to get well?

The father that we would do what the Bible says and that we would cast our burdens onto you. That we would receive your grace, that we would put on your yoke, that the Bible says is is light that we can carry because father, you are with us. You will not forsake us and

god, you are not asking us to do everything. You are just asking us to do our part. So, father, I pray right now for every single person that's in here that you would speak powerfully

to them, that they would not walk out of here and just make an excuse about why this wasn't for them and that they would know that this is you speaking to them and not just some guy on a stage,

that this is the Holy Spirit doing what the Holy Spirit does and speaking through one person but convicting and speaking specifically to a room full of people. Father, give us the courage to actually do the difficult things, confess the sins, say the things that have been holding us back.

Jesus, we trust you. We love you, and we know that in you, our best days are ahead of us. It is in the mighty name of Jesus everybody said. Amen.