Transformation happens when Jesus shows up |04.19.26|Is That In the Bible? pt.2

So my son Jackson asked me a really good question the other day. He's seven years old, but this was not an elementary question. And I'm sure some of you have wondered the same thing at some point. So we were driving, we were running some errands, I had to drop off the mower, unhook the trailer. We were worshiping, we were listening to some Forest Frank, many Forest Frank fans out there. We were just, yeah, we were doing the whole thing. And he stopped me, he said, "Daddy,(...) if Jesus is the most important, then why are there other stories besides Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?"

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Great question, right?

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And I explained to him how, at a(...) very simplistic level, of how the Bible is laid out. And I explained to him that in the Old Testament, we see the character of God, who he is. And then we also see the character of people and how ultimately we fall short of his standard. And that points us to the Gospels. It points us to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, where we meet Jesus and we learn about his life, death, and resurrection. And then the rest of the New Testament explains why that's significant for us here today.(...) And that's what we're gonna be talking about in the second week of our series, is that in the Bible, wondering what is in there. And we're gonna roll a clip. Yeah, no, right on.

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Shalom.

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Me?

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Yes.

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Shalom.

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I have a question for you.

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For me. Shalom.

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I don't have(...) many answers,(...) but I'm listening.

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Do you want to be healed?

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Who are you?

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I'll get to that later.

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But my question remains.

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Will you take me to the water? (Water Splashing)

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Look,(...) I'm having a really bad day.(...) You've been having a bad day for a long time.

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Shalom. Shalom.

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Sir,(...) I have no one to help me into the water when it's stirred up.(...) And when I do get close,(...) the others(...) step down in front of me.

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So,(...) look at me.

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Look at me.

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That's not what I asked.

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I'm not asking you about who's helping you,

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or who's not helping,(...) or who's getting in your way.

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I'm asking about you.

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I tried.

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For a long time, I know.

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And you don't want false words. I hope again I understand.

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But this poor, it(...) has nothing for you.

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It means nothing.

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And you know it.

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But you're still here.

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Why?

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I don't know.

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I don't need this poor. No.

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You only need me.

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So,(...) do you want to be healed?

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So let's go.

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Get up, pick up your mat,(...) and walk.

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(Water Splashing) (Hums) (Laughs) Me, gee. (Laughs)

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(Somber Music) (Laughs)

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I'm free to walk, like he said.

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Don't forget your bed. (Somber Music)

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Why does this matter? Because you're not coming back here.

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That life is over.

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Everything changes now.

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You got me? Great.

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So, we're gonna be asking the question today, and we wanna answer, is that in the Bible? So I wanna invite you guys to open your Bibles. It's a really important part of this process. We hear things, we see things, and we wanna know, is it in the Bible? So let's open our Bibles up. And we're gonna be in the book of John chapter five, starting in verse one today. And while you're getting there, I wanna share with you guys something really special that has been happening here at New Life. See, a little while back, a generous person donated a bunch of Bibles to us. And we have been able to hand them out at our youth group to any team that shows up. It doesn't matter how long they show up for. They show up, and they wanna have the word of God in their hands. We make that happen, because there is no excuse that anybody should not have access to this good book. And I wanna extend that to you all as well. If you don't have a Bible at home that you actually read, or you don't understand, you need a different translation, come talk to me. After this, talk to Drew, or go check out the office, and we'll make sure we get you set up with a Bible that you can read, you can understand, and you can continue to invite God into your life each and every day.(...) So again, we're in the book of John chapter five, starting in verse one.(...) And I would ask you all to rise as you're able for the reading of God's word.

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Now after this, there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.(...) Now in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, there is a pool called in Hebrew, Bethazathah, or Bethesda,(...) which has five porticos.

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In these lay many ill, blind, lame, and paralyzed people. One man was there who had been ill for 38 years.(...) And when Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

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The ill man answered him, "Sir, I have no one to put me "into the pool when the water is stirred up, "and while I'm making my way, "someone else steps down ahead of me."(...) And Jesus said to him, "Stand up, take your mat and walk." And at once, the man was made well, and he took up his mat and he began to walk.(...) Now that day was a Sabbath. And so the Jews said to the man who had been cured, "It is the Sabbath. "It is not lawful for you to carry your mat." But he answered them,(...) "The man who made me well said to me, "Take up your mat and walk."(...) And he said to him, "Who is the man who said to you, "take it up and walk?"

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Now the man who(...) had been healed did not know who it was for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.

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Later, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, "See, you have been made well. "Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse happens to you."

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The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.(...) Beloved, this is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.(...) You may be seated.

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Now I wanna set the scene for you guys. The chosen does a pretty good job,(...) but a part that I think that they're missing is the time at which this is happening is a festival. And we don't know exactly what festival this is, but we do know that when there is a festival in Jerusalem, if you are able-bodied, you are to travel from wherever you live. If you are Jewish, you travel from where you are and you go to Jerusalem to partake in the worship and the celebration, okay? So there would have been people coming to Jerusalem in droves and while they were traveling, it would not be uncommon for them to become ritually unclean. And the problem is if you are ritually unclean, you cannot go to the temple. There's the whole reason that they're going. And so what they did is they built this giant pool, okay? The pool that we're talking about here, the pool of Bethesda, okay? Now people, before they would come into the city, they'd be outside the city, the pool was there, they would go and they would cleanse themselves. And also any sacrifices that were going to be made, they were cleansed at the pool and then they could go into the city.

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They could go to the temple.(...) Now(...) in Jerusalem,(...) sorry,(...) I need verse four, okay? Does anybody have, if you're in your Bible, can you guys look for verse four for me real quick? Somebody, anybody?

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Raise your hand if you got it. Verse four,(...) John chapter five, verse four, nobody.

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Interesting, right? Why is there no verse four? Here we go, chapter five, one, two, three, no verse four and straight to five. So why is that? Well,(...) is it really in the Bible? Is there supposed to be a verse four in the Bible? And the reason it's important is because in some translations of the Bible, people had written in an explanation as to why these lame, sick, ill people were here at this pool. And what they believed was that at that time,(...) an angel would come down(...) and an angel would stir up the water. And then the first person who would make it to the water would be healed. They would receive this miracle.

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Now, the reason that that's not in your Bible, you probably have it in a footnote of your Bible. The reason it's not in there is because theologians can't really agree on whether or not that was original to the text. The earliest manuscripts don't have it. And so I actually think this points to the reliability of your Bible. They don't just throw whatever they want in there because an angel coming down and healing people sounds good. But we don't know 100% if that's true. So you can trust that people are only putting in your Bible what is actually supposed to be in there. Okay, so this explains(...) this man that we meet, if you've watched the(...) show, his name is Jesse. We don't know his name, but it explains why he's there. He believes and the other people there believe that an angel's gonna come down, stir up the water, and if they get in there, they're gonna be healed.

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And he has been there for 38 years.

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Now, it's easy to just skip by this verse and just say at 38 years, let's get on with the narrative. What's the big picture here?

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I'm almost 38 years old.

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Look, that's my whole life. And I think about that, I'm like, imagine being sick your entire life. Imagine being sick your entire life.

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Your, whatever it is, physical, mental, emotional, disability, your entire day, your entire life is planned around, well, how am I gonna navigate this day? I need other people to take care of me. I rely on other people, I put my hope in other people and they see me as a burden.

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Now, I wanna pause for a minute.

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We are called to bear one another's burdens.

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But there is not a person in this room, not a person in this world, born or unborn, that is a burden.

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Each and every one of us is a child, made in the image of a living God, and you have value and you are not a burden.

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And that's how Jesus sees this man.

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Jesus sees,(...) you've been here a long time.

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And the time lapse that is shown in the chosen,

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does a really good job.

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And if you watch it to the end or you read it through and you're thinking, well, like he's been here so long, why is he still there? He hasn't received healing.(...) Why is he still there?

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But that's(...) the only hope he has. And he knows that it's empty. He sees the hopelessness in the thing that he put his trust in, and yet he still goes back. He still stays there.

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And it's really easy for us to look at him from this side of the screen or this side of the pages of the Bible(...) and think, obviously, you keep doing the same thing, nothing's gonna change. That's the definition of insanity. You keep doing the same things, and you expect a different outcome. It's insanity.

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But how many of you, how many of us,

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binge watch Netflix night after night after night, and we think, well, maybe I'll find some joy there, but every single time we find a new show to watch, because it's empty.(...) How many times do you check your phone or your social media and you're thinking, maybe I'll find some peace here? I'd ask for a raise of hands if you've ever found peace in social media, but I know it would come up empty.

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How often do you go back to pornography looking for some semblance of love,

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and you come up empty?

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How often do you go back to the bottle trying to numb the pain that you feel and you wake up the next morning and it's still there?

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Or you go back to the ex-relationship expecting something different to happen,(...) but it's the same every time.

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And now I know I said a word in there that made some ears perk up, but I wanna tell you guys, this is a real church filled with real people with real problems.

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There's a reason that you're here and you're here to be healed.

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Now each and every one of us has our own thing that we try to use to cover up to mask the symptoms of our condition.

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And the condition we have is the sin nature. And that sin nature creates division. It creates separation between us and God. And then we are left with this God-sized hole inside of us that we try to fill with whatever, whatever temporary thing of this world and the result of that is the same, it's temporary.

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We cannot fill the God-sized hole inside of us with anything in this world. We need something from outside. We need an eternal source.

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And that's where Jesus shows up.

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And he asks what seems to be an absurd question.

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Do you want to get well? (Audience Member Speaks Faintly)

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Now I wanna ask you guys the same question. Do you wanna get well? Do you want to get well?

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Because it doesn't matter how you're gonna get well if you don't wanna get well. And you might think that's crazy, who doesn't wanna be healed?

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But some people don't.

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Some people think if I'm healed of this sickness or this emptiness or this hurt,

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then I no longer have an excuse for the way that I'm living.

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If I'm healed from this circumstance, then I might have to change. Things will change and I'll have to change the way that I'm living. And I don't know if I can do that,

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but you don't have to do it alone.

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Some people are afraid to be healed because they have(...) attached their identity to their hurt. They've attached their identity to the scars of their past. And without those scars, I mean, it's not much, but it's all I am. And if I'm not that, who am I? But I wanna tell you guys, I wanna tell you this.

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You do not have to be identified by the scars of your past. And here's why.

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Jesus,(...) he took upon his body the punishment for your sin.

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He was whipped, beaten, hung on a cross.

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And he has these nail pierced hands.(...) And you can put your identity in his scars

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that you are identified as a child of God because of his work.

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So my question is, do you want to be healed?

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Do you want your family to be healed?

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Do you want your trauma to be healed, your marriage to be healed?

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Do you want your finances to be healed?

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Do you want healing from the choices that you've made in your past?

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Now, this is a yes or no question.

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And yet the man(...) comes up with something different.(...) The man says, I can't.

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Everybody else gets in front of me. When the water is stirred up, they get in front of me and I try, but I can't do it. It's not my fault, it's them.

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And again, we might judge him as making excuses,

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but we do the same thing.

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Do you want your family to be healed? Well, yeah, but my brother is always causing trouble, making up mischief, and(...) I just,(...) it's an excuse.

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Do you want your marriage to be healed? Yeah, but there was an affair and we can't get past it. I don't know how to get past it. Do you wanna be healed? Yes, but.

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Do you want your trauma to be healed? Yeah, but then if I let somebody too close to me, then they might hurt me.

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Yes, but.

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And on top of all of that,

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he's standing in the presence of God and he's still searching in the wrong places.

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And again,(...) we do the same thing.

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Some of you guys are standing, realize this, you are standing in the presence of God at this very moment,

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and you are still putting your hope in something else. That something else is gonna make you whole.

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We think that our freedom and our happiness(...) is attached to some outside circumstance where the stars are gonna align.

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We think if I get that job, then I'll have enough.

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But you don't, because then you want the promotion and you get the promotion and you don't have enough.(...) If I make this post on social media and I get a bunch of likes, people will accept me, they'll like me and I'll be good enough.

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But then you wanna post again.

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Or if I win this event or I make the team, then I'll be a part of something and it'll be good until the season's over.

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If my kids are successful, then I'm a good dad.

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My kids leave the house and what am I?

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If I'm in the right place at the right time, maybe with the right people, again, I think these proverbial stars are gonna align,

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but we're still left searching.

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Because when we put our faith and our ability to heal ourselves, we always come up short.

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Now, in spite of the excuses and the misplaced faith,(...) Jesus still offers healing.(...) He says, pick up your mat and walk. And immediately, the man was restored and it hearkens back to the creation story where God speaks a word and transformation happens.

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As John says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us

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in the person of Jesus Christ.

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And it's true for the paralytic man and it's true for you.

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Transformation begins when Jesus shows up.

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It doesn't require your circumstances to be perfect.(...) It doesn't require you to do anything special. The transformation happens when Jesus shows up.

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What a beautiful ending.

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But wait, there's more.

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Now, the series, the clip that we watch will continue on if you're interested, season two, episode four. If you wanna keep watching,

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we're not gonna be able to be here all day just watching The Chosen. So we'll get back into the word. We take off in verse nine. Now, that day was the Sabbath. And it's important to remind you all the purpose of Sabbath. Maybe you've heard this word before, it's Sabbath. It is for rest. It is for restoration.

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And Jesus shows up and he brings miraculous restoration. And yet the Jews, the leaders, start pointing to what he did wrong.

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Now, these Jewish leaders, these priests, I want you to understand, as you read your Bible, you'll understand the type of person they are. How many of you guys know the type of person where their value is attached to how good they look compared to other people? Like, they're the type of people that will blow out your candle so theirs looks like it shines brighter. That's these guys. That's the Pharisees. That's the priests, okay?

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They wanna show up where they're supposed to be,

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but they're not really doing the thing that they're supposed to be doing. They just wanna be seen.

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And,(...) okay, so a good portion of(...) the Old Testament, remember I told you guys, the Old Testament talks about God's character. I wanna bring us back to the book of Leviticus. And when I talked about this, when I brought this up first service, I looked over at Pastor Drew and he was like,

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is he really gonna preach on Leviticus?

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Bear with me, because this is special, okay?(...) Leviticus chapter 14, so there's five books in the Torah, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Leviticus, right in the middle. Verse chapter 14, right in the middle. This is the heart of the Torah, okay? And it explains the job(...) of the priests. So when people were ill, they didn't want them to contaminate the rest of the camp, the rest of the people, so they'd be cast out. They would be cast out of the camp.(...) But God, who's rich in mercy, doesn't want them to just sit there. And so he creates this law for the priests. They would go outside of the camp.(...) And they would offer restoration and cleansing to the people who have been cast off.

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They're not allowed inside the camp. They have to be outside. God sends the priests to heal them, okay? That is God's character. He always wants to go outside of the camp and bring people back into the fold, okay?

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Back to the story.(...) The Jewish priests, they're outside of the camp. They're doing the thing that they're, they look like they're doing the right thing, but they're not offering healing. They're not offering cleansing. And if we get back to the Bible,

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they see miraculous cleansing, and they say, "Why are you breaking the law right now?"

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Don't(...) worry about God at work. Let's talk about what God said before and how you're breaking the law. They wanna extinguish this light so that theirs looks better, that their righteousness looks better.

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These priests are falling short.

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God's people need a better priest.

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Jesus is the better priest. Jesus is the perfect priest. Jesus is the priest that offers restoration. He is outside of the camp, as the priests are supposed to do, offering healing the way the priest is supposed to offer healing.

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Jesus is the way to transformation.

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And now, while the Jewish leaders, while the priests were making a scene about all this, Jesus kinda slips out. And so the man is kinda just left there to,(...) he's told, "Go." Where does he go?

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Well, he recognizes a miraculous thing has happened, and so he goes in search of God.

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And the place you go when you are in search of God,

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in his mind at that time, is the temple. And so he goes to the temple, and that's where Jesus meets him. Jesus reveals himself at the temple, and he says, "See, you are well. "Now go and sin no more, "so nothing worse will happen to you." Now, what could be worse than being sick your entire life? I asked the question before. The reality is we are all sick. We have this sin nature, and the(...) wages of sin is death.

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Without Christ, that is the direction that we are barreling towards. And so(...) Jesus doesn't just restore this man for his ability to get up and then walk himself to hell,

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because if that were the case, he could stay by the pool and wait for hell to come get him.

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Jesus reveals himself to the man so that he may know God and join him on his mission.

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I want you guys to notice the sequence of events that happens here. Jesus, at the end, he says, "Go and sin no more." He doesn't say it at the beginning of this story. He doesn't say, "Don't sin at all anymore." And then if you can do that right,(...) then you'll get healing. Don't sin, then you'll be accepted. That's not the character of God. He offers radical grace. (Audience Member Speaking Faintly)

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He doesn't offer just a sliver of grace,(...) because that would be enough for us. That would be more than enough. He offers all of it.

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And now, if at any point during this message, you've thought, "Wow, I can't believe that Mike "is up there delivering this sermon," who would have thought?

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I heard a chuckle.

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Don't feel bad. You and I are on the same page.

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My life has a story. This man, his life has a story. And I know that each and every one of you has your own story.

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But this man's life is more than just a story. His life has a purpose.(...) My life is more than a story. It has a purpose. And your life is not just a story. Your life has a purpose. You have a purpose.

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If you take nothing else away from today, know that your life has a purpose.

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I don't care if you are(...) a small child,

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or you're wheeling towards the end of your life.

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You're never too young to have a purpose. And you're never too old to be past your purpose.

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I don't care if you have made mistakes in your life believe me, I have.

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But you have not squandered your purpose.

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When you encounter Jesus and he gives you restoration and forgiveness,

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when you take a minute to think about the direction that your life was going,

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that you were barreling towards hell, damnation and destruction and the lengths that Jesus went to to save you from that,(...) reflect on that for just a moment,

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and realize there are still people at the pool.(...) There are still people in your life that are barreling towards hell because they do not have hope in Jesus. They have not encountered Jesus.

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Now I mentioned earlier the design of the Bible. Today we learned about God's character in Leviticus. We learned about how the priesthood had fallen short. And we learned how Jesus is this perfect priest, but now he has gone away to prepare a place for you.

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And so who are the priests now? You might think Pastor Drew or Mike, whoever's delivering this message,(...) but in 1 Peter chapter two,(...) listen to this, he says, "As you come to him, a living stone, "rejected by people, but chosen and honored by God, "you yourselves as living stones, a spiritual house, "are being built into a holy priesthood."

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You are the priesthood. You are the priests now.

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You are the one that God wants to send outside of the camp, outside of these four walls. You are the one that God wants to send to the people that are still laying by the pool in search of hope. You are the people that God wants to use to deliver Jesus.

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You don't have to come up here and deliver a whole sermon. You go out and you share.(...) This is how Jesus has transformed my life.

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And then you offer that same Jesus to them.

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Because transformation happens when Jesus shows up.

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Now, if you're sitting here today and you've been waiting for healing, you don't have to wait.

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Jesus offers his life(...) through his body and blood that we receive a communion. You receive his life.(...) And through the waters of baptism, you will receive every single promise that God has given.

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And it is here right now. And so you might be thinking, "Well, he better not call me up to the waters of baptism. "This better not be some altar call. "Listen to me."

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If you're trying to make an excuse as to why you can't come up and receive this transformation, you receive this healing, you think, "Well, what will the people I came with think? "We gotta go to lunch after this." I promise, they'll wait.

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You better wait. (Chuckles)

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Every promise that God has given is yours in Christ Jesus. And we receive that in baptism.

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And so I'm about to pray us out of this,(...) but before I'm done, I wanna let you guys know, I'm gonna walk to the back of the sanctuary after this sermon, after this prayer. And if you feel God calling you to the waters of baptism, if you feel God calling you towards him, you need a Bible, you need anything, meet me back there, meet Pastor Drew back there,

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and don't worry about the logistics.

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Jesus shows up and he will get it done for you.

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Let's pray.

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Thank you, God, for this day.(...) Thank you for this church family and thank you for your word.

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Thank you for putting in the work.

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Thank you for meeting us where we are.

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And Lord, I am praying your healing hand over every person in every relationship in this room.

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Lord, strengthen us and empower us to serve you well, to serve as your royal priesthood.

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Lord, lead us into divine appointments with your children so we can offer your healing and transformation, that we can make this community look a little bit more like heaven each and every day.

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We love you, we love you, we praise you, in Jesus' precious name,(...) amen.