May 2, 2025 • 46 mins
No one wants to admit when something isn’t working. Learn how Jesus came to challenge the systems we’ve been unwilling to confront.
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Mark as Played
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God has moving in your life.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're continuing in a series called Savage Jesus. I planned
the conclusion of this series to align with Easter. Then
when I found out that we were learning so much
and having our paradigm of Jesus challenged and really starting
to see him in a fresh way, I thought we
(00:38):
would continue for a little while longer. So we're in
the bonus round today of this series from Mark's Gospel,
and I'll pick up at Mark chapter three, verse one,
and now that you've rested for four minutes, stand up
for the reading of God's Word.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Another time, Jesus went into the synagogue and a man
with the shriveled hand was there, and some of them
were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they
watched him closely to see if he would heal him.
On the Sabbath, Jesus said to the man with the
shriveled hand stand up in front of everyone, and then
(01:19):
Jesus asked them which is lawful on the sabbath, to
do good or to do evil, to save life, or
to kill? But they remained silent, and he looked around
at them in anger.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
In anger, Come on, be nice, Jesus, She say nice
for what.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He looked around in anger and deeply distressed at their
stubborn hearts, said to the man, stretch out your hand,
and he stretched it out and his hand was completely restored.
Then the fear of He's went out and began to
(02:02):
plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Now,
this is going to be a fun title to tell
the person next to you. So look at them like
you're frustrated with them and disappointed in them. If you
could do that for me, and just look at them
and say, real slow, real deliberate, this.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Isn't working. And now shake your head and sit out.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Have you had anything in your life lately that doesn't
seem to be working.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I mean, maybe it worked at once.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I'm not talking about a washing machine or something
like that. I'm talking about real stuff, like a relationship
that sounded fresh. It really takes courage to admit that
a relationship isn't working, especially if it feels comfortable to you.
(03:01):
I preach one message called dysfunctional comfort and how that
sometimes it's easier to stay in familiar bondage than it
is to embrace uncomfortable freedom, and so to admit that
it's not working requires a certain amount of courage to
say it used to work, or it may appear to
others to be working, but this isn't working. Just coming
(03:26):
to that point alone can be difficult from time to time,
because sometimes we don't really know if it's going to
work if we keep doing it, if we just need
to give it more time and it will work, which
is typically what we preach, you know, just keep trying,
just keep moving. But I've been to the gym, and
(03:46):
the way that some of us work out, we can
keep working out until the rapture and it will not work.
Not the way we're working. Our form is off. We
take more breaks than we do reps. Yeah, this, this
isn't going to work. That's what my twelve year old,
my man Elijah, the one that I raised and pay for,
(04:07):
he was saying the other day, like he's starting to
try to lift weights. So we put him on a
little program, didn't we bucking. After two days he came
to me and said, this isn't working. He wants he
wants PEX real quick. And what he didn't understand is
process touch. Somebody say no process, no pecks or if
(04:30):
you don't want to tell him that, that's that's really weird.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
What a cringey touch your neighbor. Now listen to the Bible.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Bible says another time Jesus went into the synagogue and
a man with a shriveled hand was there, and there
were some people there who were looking for a reason
to accuse Jesus.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Now I'll stop there, because.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
What we have in this passage is a a let
me see. I want to say this a failed system
and a frust savior. And really what bridges the gap
between the failed system and the frustrated savior is a
(05:12):
man who is there that day.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The Bible calls him this, Mark calls him this. He
says he was a man verse three with a shriveled hand.
In verse one, they're announcing his presence in the synagogue.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It says Jesus, who is the most.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Important person in human history, was in the synagogue and
a man, and I'm expecting for it to be and
a man with one hundred million dollar net worth. I'm
expecting if we're going to take time to call this
guy out by name, it would be a man with
a Grammy, or it would be a man, you know
what I'm saying, with a contract to play in the NBA.
(05:50):
But yet, when Mark gets ready to call the role
for who is in attendance that day, he does not
mention a man with a BMW, a Mercedes, or a Maserati.
He mentions a man with a situation that could have
and should have prohibited him from being there in the
first place. With this kind of deformity, it is likely
that he would have been excluded from synagogue worship. The
(06:12):
good thing is he only had a deformity in one hand,
and when you have a deformity in one hand, that
means you can shake hands with your good hands while
you hide your bad one. Yet, much to this man's chagrin,
it must have felt like a nightmare when Jesus called
him out in front of anyone, stood him up, and
used him as an object lesson Really to say that
(06:33):
sounds cruel, but Jesus will always use your situation to
fix the system.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That created it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
This is the premise of Mark III one through six.
And we all have situations in the place today. Don't
make me guess when you look at me smug when
I say we all have situations, it makes me want
to ask God to show me what you did last week,
so I could start, say in your situation. If I
set every situation in this room, if I started throwing
(07:08):
your real your not your Sunday situation, that's much different.
I really didn't come to preach to Sunday, and neither
did Jesus. Jesus speaks to that place that is not working.
He speaks to that place that is not functioning. He
speaks to that place that you have learned to conceal
and reveals His glory and his strength through your weakness.
(07:34):
One thing I'm grateful for that I learned from Paul,
who wrote a lot of the New Testament letters. He
taught me that it is a theological impossibility for my
situation to separate me from God. It's a wonderful list
that he gives us in Romans Hate. If you're ever
inclined to read it, If you're having one of those
(07:56):
days where you find yourself in a situation that you
don't feel God since God, or maybe even believe he's there.
Go to Romans eight thirty five, where you will find
a list of situations that cannot, will not, may not,
do not have the permission or the power to separate
(08:19):
you from God. So Paul makes a list, and in
his list he starts with trouble.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's almost like he's picking a fight.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
He says, who shall separate us from the love of God?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And then he starts naming situations.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
In personifying the situations, he wants us to understand the
power of the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
It's always greater.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
That's why we say his name is above all other names.
What that means is, if you can name a situation,
there is a name that is greater, and a work
that is greater, and a behavior that is greater, and
a grace that is greater than your situation. Paul says,
(09:06):
who somebody say, who come on, get your owl on?
Say who shall trouble? That's a situation, Shall hardship, that's
a situation, shall persecution?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Who doesn't like you?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Who talks about you, who doesn't think well of you,
who doesn't speak kindly about you, that's a situation. Shall
famine what you don't have? Shall nakedness or exposure to
the elements? Shall danger or trouble? Shall sword? Shall watch
this We're going to raise the stakes death or life.
That's a situation. Or angels or demons. That's a situation
(09:42):
you can't even see, or the present what I'm dealing with,
or the future, what I'm worried about that I don't
even know yet, Shall hight nor depth and watch this
clause or anything else in all creation. See there, Paul
gets it. He wants to close it all in. He says,
if you can name a situation, I can point you
(10:03):
to a grace that is greater than your situation. So
then I don't care what you did, what they said,
what you lost, what you don't have, where you've been
or where you're going. It is impossible for your situation
to separate you from your source. Now shove somebody and say,
it's just a situation. It's not my identity, it's just
(10:32):
my situation. And this man has a situation, but his
situation is not him. Somebody went through a divorce, but
a divorce is not you. Somebody is dealing with an addiction,
but the addiction is not your identity. We know this
(10:52):
because Mark calls him a man with a shriveled hand,
not the shrivel handed man. He's a man with an issue,
but the issue is not the man. Y'all don't want
to help me appreciate it all today I feel so alone.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Situation, But the.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Real situation in this text is not the man's hand.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
It is the people's hearts.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Did you notice that it's one thing to have a
bad hand, especially in Vegas, but when you have a
bad heart. And so, what I saw when I was
reading this very familiar text that is simple on the surface,
(11:48):
was a depth of understanding of five things that Jesus
came to fix. Now he's going to fix this man's situation.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You saw it. Man left home with two good hands.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But before he fixes the situation, he is going to challenge.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
The system, because that's what God does.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The reason he does it that way rather than just
fix the situation without addressing the system, is because if
he fixes the situation without addressing the system that created
the situation, you will stay stuck in the same system
that created that situation, and then you will have seven
(12:33):
more baby situations that are worse than the first.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Now, many of us live our lives going.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
From situation to situation to situation to situation, and we
can't even find time to pray because when we go
to pray, we feel like we have to get through every.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Situation that we're dealing with.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
We gotta pray for our mom and she's sick, and
we got to pray for the missionaries and we never
even met him. And by the time we get done
praying with every situation in our lives, we're asleep.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
If you ever identify this is for leaders.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Any of you own a business or leader department, I
want to share something with you real quick. This is
a free breakout leadership John Maxwell Seminar. When you run
around fixing situations all day, you actually disempower the decision
making ability in your organization. Because it's one thing to
(13:31):
know when something isn't working. A lot of people are
good at that. How many know that it doesn't take
a genius to see when something isn't working. All it
takes is a Facebook account and you can spend your
whole day telling everybody who doesn't care what's wrong with
(13:52):
everything that you don't know how to fix either. Good thing.
I brought my own holy ghost today because you're are
giving me no love. It's one thing to know when
this isn't working. I'm pretty good at that. It's another
thing to know why this isn't working. It's one thing
(14:14):
to know that this tennis ball isn't going over the net.
It's another thing to know why it's not going over
the net. It's one thing to know I want to
kill my kids. It's another thing to know why our
communication is breaking down as they are getting older and
the approach needs to change. It's one thing to know
(14:36):
I feel lonely. It's another thing to know why do
I feel lonely? And maybe it's not everybody else's fault.
Maybe the system that is keeping me lonely is within
my heart. See, we always want to point fingers at situations,
but you might just find that the situation you're pointing
(15:00):
at is trying to alert you to a system within
yourself that God wants to deal with. Because God is
not a situational god. God is a god of systems.
God is a god who gets to root causes. So
he went to the synagogue, which was their system of worship,
(15:22):
and he went on the Sabbath, which was their day
of rest, and he found a situation and he stood
it up in front of everyone, and he used.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
The situation to fix their system.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And the first thing that he has to fix is
their pessimism. There are five of these. When we get
to all five, who knows. But I'll be here next week,
she said me too. Pessimism is the result of considering
(16:01):
your situation before you consider your source. It's what makes
you look at your life and feel so overwhelmed by
all your situations. And I'm guilty of it, and be
honest with you, I'm guilty of I'm guilty of evaluating
my situation without considering my source, and when I do,
(16:24):
I always feel overwhelmed. You will notice that there were
some there that day who were actually Verse two looking
for a reason to accuse Jesus. They were looking for
something wrong. Principle of the universe. You don't have to
be a Christian to believe this. You will always find
(16:45):
what you're looking for. If you are looking for a
reason to be offended, you will find it every time.
If you are looking for a reason to be bitter.
You will find one at any time when you come
through you know, a church like this.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I am well aware that in a crowd this size,
there are.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Many people here today who are looking for something not
to like about our church. It's okay, I understand it.
I understand it because we have almost almost been trained
for it. We have been trained not to trust our politicians.
(17:28):
We have been trained, and maybe for good reason. In
many cases, we have been trained, sometimes by our disappointments,
not to expect much out of life. We have been
trained by by our insecurities not to expect people to
like us. And so guess what happens when we go
(17:50):
around all day believing secretly that nobody likes us, when
we're telling ourselves before we even go out into our day,
nobody really cares about me. Nobody ever checks on me,
nobody appreciates me, nobody talks to me, nobody notices me,
nobody texts me, and nobody friends me, and nobody likes me.
(18:14):
Nobody friends me, nobody likes me. Guess what's gonna happen?
Your situation is going to reflect your psychology.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
As a man thinketh in his heart, So is he.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So it's just a matter of time before your situation
looks like yourself talk and now you said it enough
to yourself. You are looking for a reason to prove
to yourself a verdict that you arrived at before you
even collected evidence. So it causes you to look at
people and situations and think it can't get any better
(18:48):
because it's always been this way. But Jesus said, stretch
out your hand. I can't just speak a better word
and fix what you say within yourself. Nobody likes me,
(19:10):
nobody touched me, I mean, mpaned me no money. Then
why are you surprised when they fulfill your prophecy? Well,
they always and they never. There's the second thing that
Jesus came to fix is our prejudice. Yet there's nothing
(19:37):
in the passage about the man's skin color. There's nothing
in the passage about gender equality. There's nothing in the
passage about his sexual orientation, none of that. Yet I
still see prejudice in the synagogue on the Sabbath in
Mark III. And this prejudice is not directed at the man.
(20:01):
They are prejudice towards Jesus. I see you, you look
like you want to believe me, but you confusing. Let's
take the word apart prejudice. The definition is in the word.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Pre judge. That's what prejudice is.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And it doesn't just happen racially or socioeconomically. Prejudice is
when you put yourself in the judge's seat or the
jury box. These men had the opportunity to witness a miracle,
(20:47):
but rather than be a witness, they wanted to be
a judge. And every day that you and I wake up,
we have an opportunity to witness direction power all around us.
We get to witness it in the lives of others,
(21:07):
and we get to witness it on our own behalf.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
We get to be a witness.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
But you can't be a witness if you insist on
being a judge. What I'm trying to say is this,
have you already made up your mind how God can bless?
And who God can bless? And when God can bless?
Have you already made up your mind about how God
can do it to the extent that you miss that
(21:34):
the very author of life is right in front of you,
and they are trying to kill the very thing that
God sent to save them. Why Because they've already made
up their minds. We pray for wisdom, and God trist
to send it through our wives. But we are prejudice.
(21:57):
We prejudge the people that God sends to help us.
So rather than accept the wisdom, since we don't like
the truck that it came in, we'll send back the
wisdom because well, she's always like that. Well she's the
one that God might use to show you your system.
He might. This whole chapter is worth preaching. I wish
(22:22):
we had all week.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
All right, touch your neighbors, say fix the system. Fix
the system. They were looking.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I see it sometimes I see people who look like
they came to church as a favor or like a
last resort, or something like will you stop asking me
if I come once? And man, they are looking for something,
not to like. I just sometimes you can feel the
(22:57):
energy of somebody where it's just like mmm. And they
will miss a revelation because one of the worship leaders
had to rip in his jeans.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I just don't know if.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
And God was trying to show you how holy he is,
and God, you missed it.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Looking for a reason, looking for reason.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
He was a threat to them, so they already made
up their mind, they already had their verdict and now
they just needed to collect the evidence.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
It's called confirmation bias.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
When you wake up believing God is for me, you
look for evidence to support that verdict. When you wake
up believing that all things work together for my good
and that nothing can separate me from the love of God.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Here's how good it is.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
When you believe that. When you are looking for a
reason to rejoice rather than a reason to accuse, it
causes you to weigh things differently. So you say, like
Paul said in Corinthians, he said, on one hand, we're pressed,
but on the other hand, we're not crushed. On one hand,
we're persecuted, but on the other hand, we're not abandoned.
(24:17):
On one hand, we're struck down, but on the other hand,
we're not destroyed. In other words, what I'm trying to
say is that if you would get out of the
judges seat and get a get a witness mentality God.
I want to see the good in people. I want
to see the best in people. I want to believe
the best about people.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
See the opportunity and opposition.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Somebody shot I'm looking for it.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I'm not looking for a reason to be offended.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
A way to forgive. How many are glad that God
look beyond your faults and saw your knees. He could
have accused you, He could have condemned you, He could
have cast you to but he didn't. How many are
grateful for what he didn't do, for what he overlooked.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
But they got it twisted. We get it twisted.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Instead of looking for an opportunity to meet a need,
they were looking for a reason to accuse. Sometimes God
puts you in difficult situations and you get it twisted.
He puts you there to change it, not to complain
about it, and you're out of order. You're out of order.
(25:37):
I wish I had a gabble. This isn't working. The
man can't work because his right hand. Luke tells us
it's his right hand. It must mean it's his dominant hand.
It must mean it's the hand of blessing. And Jewish
(25:59):
culture use the right hand to bless so he needs
a blessing to be a blessing. Sometimes we try to
be something that we have not received from God, and
it never works. Jesus stands the man up and he
picks a fight.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I'm sorry to disrupt your you're mister Rogers. Jesus' relationship
with the Lord, you know, the one where Jesus wondering.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Come on, guys, stop that.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
We're not finding that Jesus so far in Mark. Maybe
he'll come later, you know, the exasperated mom. Guys, be nice.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
He hasn't made an appearance so far, and we're in
Mark chapter three, and he's he's still he's challenging their
whole system because number one two things I noticed.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
He could have taken the man to the side. He didn't.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
He could have easily been like Peter. Peter was always
ready to do something. Grab that guy with the bad hand.
You gonna throw him out?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
No, No, Peter, see distracted, you know, Peter. I want
to talk to him after.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I'm gon fix his hand, But it's the Sabbath and
we're not supposed to work on the Sabbath, and I
don't want to offend anybody to side. I talked to
him later. I'll when I wrap it up, just make
sure he doesn't leave. I want to see him because
on the Sabbath, remember it's the day of rest. Six
days God created, one day, God rested it was the
order of creation. The sabbath is the only one of
the ten commandments that reflects the order of creation. It's
(27:38):
like a chance for us to be like God. How
he rested. Okay, But but not this work work work, work,
work work.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Why am I sounded like Rihanna on this stage.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I didn't mean to rest.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Work work, work, work, work work rest work work, work, work, work,
work rest.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So for everybody who wants to just pray, not rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Work, that's out of order.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
But after you have worked, rest, like God rested from
his labor. It's a shadow, though it's not the substance,
because the real sabbath.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Is Jesus himself. It's his work that enables us to
rest from ours love the Gospel.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So they are so consumed with their sabbath that they
are missing God's sabbath.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
It's a perversion.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I know we usually use the word prejudice for racial reasons,
and we use the word perversion for sexual reasons. But
this is a perversion. A perversion is anytime that a
gift is used against its intention.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
That's the perversion.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And Jesus heels him, not only does he stand him out,
publicly and call him out publicly. But he does it
on the Sabbath, which is understandable if the guy has
a gunshot wound because the Sabbath had Okay, here's what
the teachers of the law did. God gave them this
gift called the Sabbath. He said, I want you to
(29:19):
rest one day. When you rest like that, it is
a picture of how I rested.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It is a gift to you, and it is a.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Shadow of a rest that is to come for the
people of God, where you can cease from your works
and receive by grace what you could not attain by labor.
So I want you to rest, to get into the
rhythm of resting from your works. But they did what
we tend to do with the gifts that God gives us.
When we don't understand the intention of the gift, we
(29:49):
get it twisted. We get it twisted. So Jesus shows
up on the day where they're not supposed to work.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Little rules like this they made.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
They had over six hundred of them. There was one
command and they made six hundred rules around it. They
had like a system for every possible situation that could
come up. Okay, so if you need to take a journey.
You can go ninety nine paces, but if you take
a two thousandth step, then that's technically work.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So you had to counter steps.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Okay, if somebody has a dislocated foot or a dislocated hand,
you can't set it back into place on the Sabbath.
That's from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. Observant juice cill
celebrate the Sabbath in the same way today Sabbat, and
you can't set the bones back in place on the Sabbath.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
But there's an exception.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
If the person's about to die, you.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Can do it.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Well, that's awfully nice of the pastors to make that exception.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
If you see someone about to die and you can
save their life, you can do it on Sabbath. It
sounds crazy to us.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
That they would that they would take a gift that
God gave like a day off, like a day to
rest from their labor, and twisted to the point where
they forgot what Jesus said in Mark two twenty seven.
When his disciples were working one day on the Sabbath,
(31:24):
they were actually walking and they did something that was
considered work. They took some heads of grain and they
were hungry, so they rubbed the what do you call
it on the grain that membran.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I'm gonna call it. It's not called that, but i'm
gonna call it that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
They rubbed that hard part off and ate the stuff
they could eat. And the Pharisee said, ah, they're working
on the Sabbath. Jesus said, you missed the entire point
of the Sabbath, which was a gift, because you were
so caught up in your system that you perverted and
twisted the gift.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Watch what he says. This is very, very strategic.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
That the son of God would say to the people
that he came to save.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
The Sabbath.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. I
know it's a little difficult for us to get much
meaning out of that because we don't celebrate the Sabbath
in the same way. So let me try this. Stuff
(32:33):
was made for man, not man for stuff. The essence
of the lesson is this, when you take a good
gift and turn it into a god, it becomes destructive.
(32:54):
Let me try another one. Sex was made for man,
not man for sex. And what the enemy loves to
do is to take a good gift that God gave
you and twisted and disfigure it like this man's hand
(33:15):
was disfigured. That's what had happened to the people's hearts,
so that they had taken a gift and turned it
into a prison. They were serving something that was supposed
to be serving them. When God sees you chasing material possessions,
(33:35):
he says, that stuff is meant to serve you. Why
are you serving what I gave to serve you is
out of order. We've got one man who can't work
because he has a condition a situation. We've got a
(33:57):
system of religion that will work. Why it's the Sabbath.
We can't do it on the sapath. Jesus said, the
sap of this for you, not you for the Sappath.
I gave it as a gift. Why would you twist
the gift? And it causes me to wonder how many
gifts has God given me in my life that I
(34:20):
have twisted. God gives you people in your life so
you can encourage them, and then you become so needy
you twist the gift and ruin the friend chef. Now
y'all are quiet, How many gifts has God given us?
How many how many people will you sleep with before
(34:45):
you realize that sex is a gift. It's a wonderful gift,
but it's a terrible master. Within a certain context, it's
a wonderful gift, but if you get it twisted, it
begins to take over your life. You're out of order.
You put the Sabbath before people. God puts people before
(35:07):
the Sabbath. Religion always gets it twisted, though, and we
always tell you ten things you got to do to
be a good Christian. But God taught me that I
don't change, so he will love me. I change because
He has loved me. This is the revelation of the Cross.
(35:32):
We love him because he first loved us. And when
you get that out of order, you will twist great
gifts that God gives you in your life. And Jesus
looked around and said this isn't working. So he calls
the man as an object lesson. Are you ready for this?
He doesn't give us speech. He gives a lesson. He
gives a demonstration. Faith is a demonstration, not an explanation.
(35:58):
So stand up. He could have called him back tomorrow.
By the way, I mean, the guy's not dying. He
lived this long with a bad hand, he could live
with another one.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
By the way, when life deals you a bad hand, let.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Me tell you what to do. Don't fold.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
I know some of you are holding a bad hand
today and it's a terrible situation you're in. And I
understand all of that, and Christ has.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Compassion for you.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
But whatever you do, touch somebody say, don't fold. Because
God is about to change the entire system through the
most desperate situations. This is how hope works, he says,
stand up and stretch out. Stand up and stretch out,
(36:48):
because if you keep procrastinating, this is the fourth Procrastination
will always keep you from experiencing the power of God,
always when you wait, until when you put it off.
I did it the other day. I'm almost forty now,
I got some gray coming in. I'm not worried about that.
(37:08):
That makes me feel like I've been a good pastor.
If I could pastor this church twelve years, it's not
a little gray on the beard. Jerry, I'm sleeping. But
I said the other day, there are about three things
in my life I really want to change.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
You got at least three things you want to change.
Let me see if you've arrived and I'm just up
here by myself trying to improve.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I was like, yeah, So by the time I'm forty,
it was the first thing. I thought, it's a nice
round number.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
By the time I'm.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Forty, God said, why not now, because it would require action,
not theory, you know.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So they do it all the time the way I
want the verse to work. The moment that the miracle happens,
I wanted to work like this. It looked around at
them in anger, deeply distress, their stubborn hearts. Remember what
this man's heart looks like externally, or his hand looks
(38:09):
like externally, their hearts look like inwardly.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
He's using the visible the situation. That's what he does.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Trouble, hardship, persecution, sword, the things that come against you.
He uses those situations to show you a system to
fix the system. And he looked around in frustration at
the field system. And he had asked them a question
(38:38):
because he's so savage. He answered a question that they
didn't ask, with a question they couldn't answer.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
He's such a savage, such a savage.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
And deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man,
stretch out your hand. The way I want the verse
to work is it up on the screens. I wanted
to say his hand was completely restored, and he stretched
it out. In my mind, that's the way it should work.
(39:09):
When God changes my situation, is that he fixed the
man's hand. It was restored and there, because the man's hand.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Was restored, he stretched it out.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
What we find instead in the syntax is this, in
the order it happens, there is a revelation of the
way God works. The man stretched his hand and then
it was restored. He did what he couldn't do. And
(39:44):
in doing what he could not do, and in loving
who you cannot love and who in forgiving who you
can't forgive, and in trusting and believing what your eyes
cannot see, he did not st wretch out his hand
because it was healed. His hand was healed because he
(40:06):
stretched it out. And we keep waiting for feelings, but
feelings follow faith. You don't have to feel it to
believe it. If you believe it, you will see it
(40:27):
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
So God says to everybody with a bad hand, because
I know you come to church sometimes with your good
hand out and I know you go through life sometimes
with your good hand out. And we have all these
profiles and all these images and all these fursonas and
(40:50):
all these one sentence bios on our social media accounts.
But God doesn't bless your bio. He blesses your brokenness
and in his own when you lay down, here's the
fifth one.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Your pride.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
To stand up in the middle of controversy, to stand
up in the middle of a hopeless, desperate, naked situation,
to stand up in the middle of famine, to stand
up in the middle of lack, to stand up in
the middle of weakness, to stand up in the middle
of discouragement, to stand up in the middle of failure,
and stretch out your hand, and stretch out your faith
(41:26):
and open your heart and believe that He is here
and all things are possible. You're not gonna get this
blessing with your arms crossed, waiting to see if God
will do it, and pretending like you don't need it.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
He stretched his hand.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Jesus healed him in an unusual way, at an unusual time,
on an unusual day, on the day they weren't supposed
to do any work.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
The men's hands started working again. You know when God's
gonna do it when you least expect it.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
You know who God's gonna do it through the ones
who least deserve it. You know who's not gonna get it,
the one who's just sit there waiting.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Man, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
But if you don't mind praising him right now, I
would love to see you stretch your hands, clap your hands.
Come on, Blakeney, come on rock Hill, and lift your voice.
Don't praise him because you've got the blessing, praise him
because he is the blessing. Jesus did what he shouldn't do,
(43:04):
so the man could do what he couldn't do right there,
with all the critics watching, and all the people who
didn't like it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Because they were out of order. You keep going to
people you're out of order. But if you do what
he told you to do, I promise you this. Look,
it's simple.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Stretch your hand, don't you know he was tempted to
show him the good one. So then it's on the
other hand, right hand, the hand that you need to
be a good husband, the hand that you need to
be a good father, the hand that you need to
(43:48):
get the disciplines working in your life because you got
some things that aren't working.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
But you didn't know why. You keep running from.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
Situation and you're so stressed out from situation a situation,
situation to relationship to relationship to relationship, to think to
thing to job, to drop the job, from.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
High to high to high. It's the system. So he said,
he said, I'm gonna do this. Jesus found a loophole
because he's a savage.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
He said, I can't set the man's hand back in
place today because it's the Sabbath, and I didn't come
to break the law, but to fulfill it.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
So watch what he does. Jesus tells the man stretch.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Everybody says stretch, and he doesn't touch him.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
The Pharisees are watching. You can do that. It's the sabbath.
No working on the sabbath.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
Jesus said, oh this, this isn't working.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
A word.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
I didn't stretch my hand. He stretched his. So that's why.
Now I know why he went to the cross, so
it wouldn't be from my words. Now I know why
he stretched his arms. Now I know why he did
it cause I couldn't. Now I know it's my grace,
(45:26):
thorough fame, not of works.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
So I did both.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
They all they think I can do is live by
see Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
the link in the description to give now, or visit
Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more information and
(45:53):
if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can
share it with your friends. You can click the share button,
take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
and tag us at Elevation Church.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
God bless you.
Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
see God has moving in your life.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
We're continuing in a series called Savage Jesus. I planned
the conclusion of this series to align with Easter. Then
when I found out that we were learning so much
and having our paradigm of Jesus challenged and really starting
to see him in a fresh way, I thought we
(00:38):
would continue for a little while longer. So we're in
the bonus round today of this series from Mark's Gospel,
and I'll pick up at Mark chapter three, verse one,
and now that you've rested for four minutes, stand up
for the reading of God's Word.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Another time, Jesus went into the synagogue and a man
with the shriveled hand was there, and some of them
were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they
watched him closely to see if he would heal him.
On the Sabbath, Jesus said to the man with the
shriveled hand stand up in front of everyone, and then
(01:19):
Jesus asked them which is lawful on the sabbath, to
do good or to do evil, to save life, or
to kill? But they remained silent, and he looked around
at them in anger.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
In anger, Come on, be nice, Jesus, She say nice
for what.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
He looked around in anger and deeply distressed at their
stubborn hearts, said to the man, stretch out your hand,
and he stretched it out and his hand was completely restored.
Then the fear of He's went out and began to
(02:02):
plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus. Now,
this is going to be a fun title to tell
the person next to you. So look at them like
you're frustrated with them and disappointed in them. If you
could do that for me, and just look at them
and say, real slow, real deliberate, this.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Isn't working. And now shake your head and sit out.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
Have you had anything in your life lately that doesn't
seem to be working.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
I mean, maybe it worked at once.
Speaker 1 (02:38):
And I'm not talking about a washing machine or something
like that. I'm talking about real stuff, like a relationship
that sounded fresh. It really takes courage to admit that
a relationship isn't working, especially if it feels comfortable to you.
(03:01):
I preach one message called dysfunctional comfort and how that
sometimes it's easier to stay in familiar bondage than it
is to embrace uncomfortable freedom, and so to admit that
it's not working requires a certain amount of courage to
say it used to work, or it may appear to
others to be working, but this isn't working. Just coming
(03:26):
to that point alone can be difficult from time to time,
because sometimes we don't really know if it's going to
work if we keep doing it, if we just need
to give it more time and it will work, which
is typically what we preach, you know, just keep trying,
just keep moving. But I've been to the gym, and
(03:46):
the way that some of us work out, we can
keep working out until the rapture and it will not work.
Not the way we're working. Our form is off. We
take more breaks than we do reps. Yeah, this, this
isn't going to work. That's what my twelve year old,
my man Elijah, the one that I raised and pay for,
(04:07):
he was saying the other day, like he's starting to
try to lift weights. So we put him on a
little program, didn't we bucking. After two days he came
to me and said, this isn't working. He wants he
wants PEX real quick. And what he didn't understand is
process touch. Somebody say no process, no pecks or if
(04:30):
you don't want to tell him that, that's that's really weird.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
What a cringey touch your neighbor. Now listen to the Bible.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Bible says another time Jesus went into the synagogue and
a man with a shriveled hand was there, and there
were some people there who were looking for a reason
to accuse Jesus.
Speaker 2 (04:48):
Now I'll stop there, because.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
What we have in this passage is a a let
me see. I want to say this a failed system
and a frust savior. And really what bridges the gap
between the failed system and the frustrated savior is a
(05:12):
man who is there that day.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
The Bible calls him this, Mark calls him this. He
says he was a man verse three with a shriveled hand.
In verse one, they're announcing his presence in the synagogue.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
It says Jesus, who is the most.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Important person in human history, was in the synagogue and
a man, and I'm expecting for it to be and
a man with one hundred million dollar net worth. I'm
expecting if we're going to take time to call this
guy out by name, it would be a man with
a Grammy, or it would be a man, you know
what I'm saying, with a contract to play in the NBA.
(05:50):
But yet, when Mark gets ready to call the role
for who is in attendance that day, he does not
mention a man with a BMW, a Mercedes, or a Maserati.
He mentions a man with a situation that could have
and should have prohibited him from being there in the
first place. With this kind of deformity, it is likely
that he would have been excluded from synagogue worship. The
(06:12):
good thing is he only had a deformity in one hand,
and when you have a deformity in one hand, that
means you can shake hands with your good hands while
you hide your bad one. Yet, much to this man's chagrin,
it must have felt like a nightmare when Jesus called
him out in front of anyone, stood him up, and
used him as an object lesson Really to say that
(06:33):
sounds cruel, but Jesus will always use your situation to
fix the system.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
That created it.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
This is the premise of Mark III one through six.
And we all have situations in the place today. Don't
make me guess when you look at me smug when
I say we all have situations, it makes me want
to ask God to show me what you did last week,
so I could start, say in your situation. If I
set every situation in this room, if I started throwing
(07:08):
your real your not your Sunday situation, that's much different.
I really didn't come to preach to Sunday, and neither
did Jesus. Jesus speaks to that place that is not working.
He speaks to that place that is not functioning. He
speaks to that place that you have learned to conceal
and reveals His glory and his strength through your weakness.
(07:34):
One thing I'm grateful for that I learned from Paul,
who wrote a lot of the New Testament letters. He
taught me that it is a theological impossibility for my
situation to separate me from God. It's a wonderful list
that he gives us in Romans Hate. If you're ever
inclined to read it, If you're having one of those
(07:56):
days where you find yourself in a situation that you
don't feel God since God, or maybe even believe he's there.
Go to Romans eight thirty five, where you will find
a list of situations that cannot, will not, may not,
do not have the permission or the power to separate
(08:19):
you from God. So Paul makes a list, and in
his list he starts with trouble.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
It's almost like he's picking a fight.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
He says, who shall separate us from the love of God?
Speaker 2 (08:32):
And then he starts naming situations.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
In personifying the situations, he wants us to understand the
power of the person and the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
It's always greater.
Speaker 1 (08:46):
That's why we say his name is above all other names.
What that means is, if you can name a situation,
there is a name that is greater, and a work
that is greater, and a behavior that is greater, and
a grace that is greater than your situation. Paul says,
(09:06):
who somebody say, who come on, get your owl on?
Say who shall trouble? That's a situation, Shall hardship, that's
a situation, shall persecution?
Speaker 2 (09:18):
Who doesn't like you?
Speaker 1 (09:19):
Who talks about you, who doesn't think well of you,
who doesn't speak kindly about you, that's a situation. Shall
famine what you don't have? Shall nakedness or exposure to
the elements? Shall danger or trouble? Shall sword? Shall watch
this We're going to raise the stakes death or life.
That's a situation. Or angels or demons. That's a situation
(09:42):
you can't even see, or the present what I'm dealing with,
or the future, what I'm worried about that I don't
even know yet, Shall hight nor depth and watch this
clause or anything else in all creation. See there, Paul
gets it. He wants to close it all in. He says,
if you can name a situation, I can point you
(10:03):
to a grace that is greater than your situation. So
then I don't care what you did, what they said,
what you lost, what you don't have, where you've been
or where you're going. It is impossible for your situation
to separate you from your source. Now shove somebody and say,
it's just a situation. It's not my identity, it's just
(10:32):
my situation. And this man has a situation, but his
situation is not him. Somebody went through a divorce, but
a divorce is not you. Somebody is dealing with an addiction,
but the addiction is not your identity. We know this
(10:52):
because Mark calls him a man with a shriveled hand,
not the shrivel handed man. He's a man with an issue,
but the issue is not the man. Y'all don't want
to help me appreciate it all today I feel so alone.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Situation, But the.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Real situation in this text is not the man's hand.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
It is the people's hearts.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Did you notice that it's one thing to have a
bad hand, especially in Vegas, but when you have a
bad heart. And so, what I saw when I was
reading this very familiar text that is simple on the surface,
(11:48):
was a depth of understanding of five things that Jesus
came to fix. Now he's going to fix this man's situation.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
You saw it. Man left home with two good hands.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
But before he fixes the situation, he is going to challenge.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
The system, because that's what God does.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
The reason he does it that way rather than just
fix the situation without addressing the system, is because if
he fixes the situation without addressing the system that created
the situation, you will stay stuck in the same system
that created that situation, and then you will have seven
(12:33):
more baby situations that are worse than the first.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Now, many of us live our lives going.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
From situation to situation to situation to situation, and we
can't even find time to pray because when we go
to pray, we feel like we have to get through every.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
Situation that we're dealing with.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
We gotta pray for our mom and she's sick, and
we got to pray for the missionaries and we never
even met him. And by the time we get done
praying with every situation in our lives, we're asleep.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
If you ever identify this is for leaders.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
Any of you own a business or leader department, I
want to share something with you real quick. This is
a free breakout leadership John Maxwell Seminar. When you run
around fixing situations all day, you actually disempower the decision
making ability in your organization. Because it's one thing to
(13:31):
know when something isn't working. A lot of people are
good at that. How many know that it doesn't take
a genius to see when something isn't working. All it
takes is a Facebook account and you can spend your
whole day telling everybody who doesn't care what's wrong with
(13:52):
everything that you don't know how to fix either. Good thing.
I brought my own holy ghost today because you're are
giving me no love. It's one thing to know when
this isn't working. I'm pretty good at that. It's another
thing to know why this isn't working. It's one thing
(14:14):
to know that this tennis ball isn't going over the net.
It's another thing to know why it's not going over
the net. It's one thing to know I want to
kill my kids. It's another thing to know why our
communication is breaking down as they are getting older and
the approach needs to change. It's one thing to know
(14:36):
I feel lonely. It's another thing to know why do
I feel lonely? And maybe it's not everybody else's fault.
Maybe the system that is keeping me lonely is within
my heart. See, we always want to point fingers at situations,
but you might just find that the situation you're pointing
(15:00):
at is trying to alert you to a system within
yourself that God wants to deal with. Because God is
not a situational god. God is a god of systems.
God is a god who gets to root causes. So
he went to the synagogue, which was their system of worship,
(15:22):
and he went on the Sabbath, which was their day
of rest, and he found a situation and he stood
it up in front of everyone, and he used.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
The situation to fix their system.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And the first thing that he has to fix is
their pessimism. There are five of these. When we get
to all five, who knows. But I'll be here next week,
she said me too. Pessimism is the result of considering
(16:01):
your situation before you consider your source. It's what makes
you look at your life and feel so overwhelmed by
all your situations. And I'm guilty of it, and be
honest with you, I'm guilty of I'm guilty of evaluating
my situation without considering my source, and when I do,
(16:24):
I always feel overwhelmed. You will notice that there were
some there that day who were actually Verse two looking
for a reason to accuse Jesus. They were looking for
something wrong. Principle of the universe. You don't have to
be a Christian to believe this. You will always find
(16:45):
what you're looking for. If you are looking for a
reason to be offended, you will find it every time.
If you are looking for a reason to be bitter.
You will find one at any time when you come
through you know, a church like this.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
I am well aware that in a crowd this size,
there are.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
Many people here today who are looking for something not
to like about our church. It's okay, I understand it.
I understand it because we have almost almost been trained
for it. We have been trained not to trust our politicians.
(17:28):
We have been trained, and maybe for good reason. In
many cases, we have been trained, sometimes by our disappointments,
not to expect much out of life. We have been
trained by by our insecurities not to expect people to
like us. And so guess what happens when we go
(17:50):
around all day believing secretly that nobody likes us, when
we're telling ourselves before we even go out into our day,
nobody really cares about me. Nobody ever checks on me,
nobody appreciates me, nobody talks to me, nobody notices me,
nobody texts me, and nobody friends me, and nobody likes me.
(18:14):
Nobody friends me, nobody likes me. Guess what's gonna happen?
Your situation is going to reflect your psychology.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
As a man thinketh in his heart, So is he.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
So it's just a matter of time before your situation
looks like yourself talk and now you said it enough
to yourself. You are looking for a reason to prove
to yourself a verdict that you arrived at before you
even collected evidence. So it causes you to look at
people and situations and think it can't get any better
(18:48):
because it's always been this way. But Jesus said, stretch
out your hand. I can't just speak a better word
and fix what you say within yourself. Nobody likes me,
(19:10):
nobody touched me, I mean, mpaned me no money. Then
why are you surprised when they fulfill your prophecy? Well,
they always and they never. There's the second thing that
Jesus came to fix is our prejudice. Yet there's nothing
(19:37):
in the passage about the man's skin color. There's nothing
in the passage about gender equality. There's nothing in the
passage about his sexual orientation, none of that. Yet I
still see prejudice in the synagogue on the Sabbath in
Mark III. And this prejudice is not directed at the man.
(20:01):
They are prejudice towards Jesus. I see you, you look
like you want to believe me, but you confusing. Let's
take the word apart prejudice. The definition is in the word.
Speaker 2 (20:20):
Pre judge. That's what prejudice is.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
And it doesn't just happen racially or socioeconomically. Prejudice is
when you put yourself in the judge's seat or the
jury box. These men had the opportunity to witness a miracle,
(20:47):
but rather than be a witness, they wanted to be
a judge. And every day that you and I wake up,
we have an opportunity to witness direction power all around us.
We get to witness it in the lives of others,
(21:07):
and we get to witness it on our own behalf.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
We get to be a witness.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
But you can't be a witness if you insist on
being a judge. What I'm trying to say is this,
have you already made up your mind how God can bless?
And who God can bless? And when God can bless?
Have you already made up your mind about how God
can do it to the extent that you miss that
(21:34):
the very author of life is right in front of you,
and they are trying to kill the very thing that
God sent to save them. Why Because they've already made
up their minds. We pray for wisdom, and God trist
to send it through our wives. But we are prejudice.
(21:57):
We prejudge the people that God sends to help us.
So rather than accept the wisdom, since we don't like
the truck that it came in, we'll send back the
wisdom because well, she's always like that. Well she's the
one that God might use to show you your system.
He might. This whole chapter is worth preaching. I wish
(22:22):
we had all week.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
All right, touch your neighbors, say fix the system. Fix
the system. They were looking.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I see it sometimes I see people who look like
they came to church as a favor or like a
last resort, or something like will you stop asking me
if I come once? And man, they are looking for something,
not to like. I just sometimes you can feel the
(22:57):
energy of somebody where it's just like mmm. And they
will miss a revelation because one of the worship leaders
had to rip in his jeans.
Speaker 2 (23:08):
I just don't know if.
Speaker 1 (23:15):
And God was trying to show you how holy he is,
and God, you missed it.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
Looking for a reason, looking for reason.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
He was a threat to them, so they already made
up their mind, they already had their verdict and now
they just needed to collect the evidence.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
It's called confirmation bias.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
When you wake up believing God is for me, you
look for evidence to support that verdict. When you wake
up believing that all things work together for my good
and that nothing can separate me from the love of God.
Speaker 2 (23:53):
Here's how good it is.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
When you believe that. When you are looking for a
reason to rejoice rather than a reason to accuse, it
causes you to weigh things differently. So you say, like
Paul said in Corinthians, he said, on one hand, we're pressed,
but on the other hand, we're not crushed. On one hand,
we're persecuted, but on the other hand, we're not abandoned.
(24:17):
On one hand, we're struck down, but on the other hand,
we're not destroyed. In other words, what I'm trying to
say is that if you would get out of the
judges seat and get a get a witness mentality God.
I want to see the good in people. I want
to see the best in people. I want to believe
the best about people.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
I want to.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
See the opportunity and opposition.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Somebody shot I'm looking for it.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
I'm not looking for a reason to be offended.
Speaker 2 (24:46):
I'm looking for.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
A way to forgive. How many are glad that God
look beyond your faults and saw your knees. He could
have accused you, He could have condemned you, He could
have cast you to but he didn't. How many are
grateful for what he didn't do, for what he overlooked.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
But they got it twisted. We get it twisted.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
Instead of looking for an opportunity to meet a need,
they were looking for a reason to accuse. Sometimes God
puts you in difficult situations and you get it twisted.
He puts you there to change it, not to complain
about it, and you're out of order. You're out of order.
(25:37):
I wish I had a gabble. This isn't working. The
man can't work because his right hand. Luke tells us
it's his right hand. It must mean it's his dominant hand.
It must mean it's the hand of blessing. And Jewish
(25:59):
culture use the right hand to bless so he needs
a blessing to be a blessing. Sometimes we try to
be something that we have not received from God, and
it never works. Jesus stands the man up and he
picks a fight.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
I'm sorry to disrupt your you're mister Rogers. Jesus' relationship
with the Lord, you know, the one where Jesus wondering.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
Come on, guys, stop that.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
We're not finding that Jesus so far in Mark. Maybe
he'll come later, you know, the exasperated mom. Guys, be nice.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
He hasn't made an appearance so far, and we're in
Mark chapter three, and he's he's still he's challenging their
whole system because number one two things I noticed.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
He could have taken the man to the side. He didn't.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
He could have easily been like Peter. Peter was always
ready to do something. Grab that guy with the bad hand.
You gonna throw him out?
Speaker 2 (27:11):
No, No, Peter, see distracted, you know, Peter. I want
to talk to him after.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
I'm gon fix his hand, But it's the Sabbath and
we're not supposed to work on the Sabbath, and I
don't want to offend anybody to side. I talked to
him later. I'll when I wrap it up, just make
sure he doesn't leave. I want to see him because
on the Sabbath, remember it's the day of rest. Six
days God created, one day, God rested it was the
order of creation. The sabbath is the only one of
the ten commandments that reflects the order of creation. It's
(27:38):
like a chance for us to be like God. How
he rested. Okay, But but not this work work work, work,
work work.
Speaker 4 (27:48):
Why am I sounded like Rihanna on this stage.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
I didn't mean to rest.
Speaker 1 (27:53):
Work work, work, work, work work rest work work, work, work, work,
work rest.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So for everybody who wants to just pray, not rest, rest, rest, rest, rest, rest.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Work, that's out of order.
Speaker 1 (28:07):
But after you have worked, rest, like God rested from
his labor. It's a shadow, though it's not the substance,
because the real sabbath.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Is Jesus himself. It's his work that enables us to
rest from ours love the Gospel.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
So they are so consumed with their sabbath that they
are missing God's sabbath.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
It's a perversion.
Speaker 1 (28:41):
I know we usually use the word prejudice for racial reasons,
and we use the word perversion for sexual reasons. But
this is a perversion. A perversion is anytime that a
gift is used against its intention.
Speaker 2 (28:56):
That's the perversion.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
And Jesus heels him, not only does he stand him out,
publicly and call him out publicly. But he does it
on the Sabbath, which is understandable if the guy has
a gunshot wound because the Sabbath had Okay, here's what
the teachers of the law did. God gave them this
gift called the Sabbath. He said, I want you to
(29:19):
rest one day. When you rest like that, it is
a picture of how I rested.
Speaker 2 (29:25):
It is a gift to you, and it is a.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Shadow of a rest that is to come for the
people of God, where you can cease from your works
and receive by grace what you could not attain by labor.
So I want you to rest, to get into the
rhythm of resting from your works. But they did what
we tend to do with the gifts that God gives us.
When we don't understand the intention of the gift, we
(29:49):
get it twisted. We get it twisted. So Jesus shows
up on the day where they're not supposed to work.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
Little rules like this they made.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
They had over six hundred of them. There was one
command and they made six hundred rules around it. They
had like a system for every possible situation that could
come up. Okay, so if you need to take a journey.
You can go ninety nine paces, but if you take
a two thousandth step, then that's technically work.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
So you had to counter steps.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Okay, if somebody has a dislocated foot or a dislocated hand,
you can't set it back into place on the Sabbath.
That's from Friday sundown to Saturday sundown. Observant juice cill
celebrate the Sabbath in the same way today Sabbat, and
you can't set the bones back in place on the Sabbath.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
But there's an exception.
Speaker 1 (30:48):
If the person's about to die, you.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Can do it.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
Well, that's awfully nice of the pastors to make that exception.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
If you see someone about to die and you can
save their life, you can do it on Sabbath. It
sounds crazy to us.
Speaker 1 (31:03):
That they would that they would take a gift that
God gave like a day off, like a day to
rest from their labor, and twisted to the point where
they forgot what Jesus said in Mark two twenty seven.
When his disciples were working one day on the Sabbath,
(31:24):
they were actually walking and they did something that was
considered work. They took some heads of grain and they
were hungry, so they rubbed the what do you call
it on the grain that membran.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
I'm gonna call it. It's not called that, but i'm
gonna call it that.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
They rubbed that hard part off and ate the stuff
they could eat. And the Pharisee said, ah, they're working
on the Sabbath. Jesus said, you missed the entire point
of the Sabbath, which was a gift, because you were
so caught up in your system that you perverted and
twisted the gift.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Watch what he says. This is very, very strategic.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
That the son of God would say to the people
that he came to save.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
The Sabbath.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
Is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. I
know it's a little difficult for us to get much
meaning out of that because we don't celebrate the Sabbath
in the same way. So let me try this. Stuff
(32:33):
was made for man, not man for stuff. The essence
of the lesson is this, when you take a good
gift and turn it into a god, it becomes destructive.
(32:54):
Let me try another one. Sex was made for man,
not man for sex. And what the enemy loves to
do is to take a good gift that God gave
you and twisted and disfigure it like this man's hand
(33:15):
was disfigured. That's what had happened to the people's hearts,
so that they had taken a gift and turned it
into a prison. They were serving something that was supposed
to be serving them. When God sees you chasing material possessions,
(33:35):
he says, that stuff is meant to serve you. Why
are you serving what I gave to serve you is
out of order. We've got one man who can't work
because he has a condition a situation. We've got a
(33:57):
system of religion that will work. Why it's the Sabbath.
We can't do it on the sapath. Jesus said, the
sap of this for you, not you for the Sappath.
I gave it as a gift. Why would you twist
the gift? And it causes me to wonder how many
gifts has God given me in my life that I
(34:20):
have twisted. God gives you people in your life so
you can encourage them, and then you become so needy
you twist the gift and ruin the friend chef. Now
y'all are quiet, How many gifts has God given us?
How many how many people will you sleep with before
(34:45):
you realize that sex is a gift. It's a wonderful gift,
but it's a terrible master. Within a certain context, it's
a wonderful gift, but if you get it twisted, it
begins to take over your life. You're out of order.
You put the Sabbath before people. God puts people before
(35:07):
the Sabbath. Religion always gets it twisted, though, and we
always tell you ten things you got to do to
be a good Christian. But God taught me that I
don't change, so he will love me. I change because
He has loved me. This is the revelation of the Cross.
(35:32):
We love him because he first loved us. And when
you get that out of order, you will twist great
gifts that God gives you in your life. And Jesus
looked around and said this isn't working. So he calls
the man as an object lesson. Are you ready for this?
He doesn't give us speech. He gives a lesson. He
gives a demonstration. Faith is a demonstration, not an explanation.
(35:58):
So stand up. He could have called him back tomorrow.
By the way, I mean, the guy's not dying. He
lived this long with a bad hand, he could live
with another one.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (36:08):
By the way, when life deals you a bad hand, let.
Speaker 2 (36:13):
Me tell you what to do. Don't fold.
Speaker 1 (36:19):
I know some of you are holding a bad hand
today and it's a terrible situation you're in. And I
understand all of that, and Christ has.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Compassion for you.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
But whatever you do, touch somebody say, don't fold. Because
God is about to change the entire system through the
most desperate situations. This is how hope works, he says,
stand up and stretch out. Stand up and stretch out,
(36:48):
because if you keep procrastinating, this is the fourth Procrastination
will always keep you from experiencing the power of God,
always when you wait, until when you put it off.
I did it the other day. I'm almost forty now,
I got some gray coming in. I'm not worried about that.
(37:08):
That makes me feel like I've been a good pastor.
If I could pastor this church twelve years, it's not
a little gray on the beard. Jerry, I'm sleeping. But
I said the other day, there are about three things
in my life I really want to change.
Speaker 2 (37:21):
You got it.
Speaker 1 (37:22):
You got at least three things you want to change.
Let me see if you've arrived and I'm just up
here by myself trying to improve.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
I was like, yeah, So by the time I'm forty,
it was the first thing. I thought, it's a nice
round number.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
By the time I'm.
Speaker 4 (37:34):
Forty, God said, why not now, because it would require action,
not theory, you know.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
So they do it all the time the way I
want the verse to work. The moment that the miracle happens,
I wanted to work like this. It looked around at
them in anger, deeply distress, their stubborn hearts. Remember what
this man's heart looks like externally, or his hand looks
(38:09):
like externally, their hearts look like inwardly.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
He's using the visible the situation. That's what he does.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Trouble, hardship, persecution, sword, the things that come against you.
He uses those situations to show you a system to
fix the system. And he looked around in frustration at
the field system. And he had asked them a question
(38:38):
because he's so savage. He answered a question that they
didn't ask, with a question they couldn't answer.
Speaker 2 (38:44):
He's such a savage, such a savage.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
And deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man,
stretch out your hand. The way I want the verse
to work is it up on the screens. I wanted
to say his hand was completely restored, and he stretched
it out. In my mind, that's the way it should work.
(39:09):
When God changes my situation, is that he fixed the
man's hand. It was restored and there, because the man's hand.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Was restored, he stretched it out.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
What we find instead in the syntax is this, in
the order it happens, there is a revelation of the
way God works. The man stretched his hand and then
it was restored. He did what he couldn't do. And
(39:44):
in doing what he could not do, and in loving
who you cannot love and who in forgiving who you
can't forgive, and in trusting and believing what your eyes
cannot see, he did not st wretch out his hand
because it was healed. His hand was healed because he
(40:06):
stretched it out. And we keep waiting for feelings, but
feelings follow faith. You don't have to feel it to
believe it. If you believe it, you will see it
(40:27):
the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
So God says to everybody with a bad hand, because
I know you come to church sometimes with your good
hand out and I know you go through life sometimes
with your good hand out. And we have all these
profiles and all these images and all these fursonas and
(40:50):
all these one sentence bios on our social media accounts.
But God doesn't bless your bio. He blesses your brokenness
and in his own when you lay down, here's the
fifth one.
Speaker 2 (41:02):
Your pride.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
To stand up in the middle of controversy, to stand
up in the middle of a hopeless, desperate, naked situation,
to stand up in the middle of famine, to stand
up in the middle of lack, to stand up in
the middle of weakness, to stand up in the middle
of discouragement, to stand up in the middle of failure,
and stretch out your hand, and stretch out your faith
(41:26):
and open your heart and believe that He is here
and all things are possible. You're not gonna get this
blessing with your arms crossed, waiting to see if God
will do it, and pretending like you don't need it.
Speaker 2 (41:48):
He stretched his hand.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Jesus healed him in an unusual way, at an unusual time,
on an unusual day, on the day they weren't supposed
to do any work.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
The men's hands started working again. You know when God's
gonna do it when you least expect it.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
You know who God's gonna do it through the ones
who least deserve it. You know who's not gonna get it,
the one who's just sit there waiting.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Man, I don't know.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
But if you don't mind praising him right now, I
would love to see you stretch your hands, clap your hands.
Come on, Blakeney, come on rock Hill, and lift your voice.
Don't praise him because you've got the blessing, praise him
because he is the blessing. Jesus did what he shouldn't do,
(43:04):
so the man could do what he couldn't do right there,
with all the critics watching, and all the people who
didn't like it didn't matter.
Speaker 2 (43:15):
Because they were out of order. You keep going to
people you're out of order. But if you do what
he told you to do, I promise you this. Look,
it's simple.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Stretch your hand, don't you know he was tempted to
show him the good one. So then it's on the
other hand, right hand, the hand that you need to
be a good husband, the hand that you need to
be a good father, the hand that you need to
(43:48):
get the disciplines working in your life because you got
some things that aren't working.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
But you didn't know why. You keep running from.
Speaker 5 (43:56):
Situation and you're so stressed out from situation a situation,
situation to relationship to relationship to relationship, to think to
thing to job, to drop the job, from.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
High to high to high. It's the system. So he said,
he said, I'm gonna do this. Jesus found a loophole
because he's a savage.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
He said, I can't set the man's hand back in
place today because it's the Sabbath, and I didn't come
to break the law, but to fulfill it.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
So watch what he does. Jesus tells the man stretch.
Speaker 1 (44:36):
Everybody says stretch, and he doesn't touch him.
Speaker 2 (44:43):
The Pharisees are watching. You can do that. It's the sabbath.
No working on the sabbath.
Speaker 1 (44:51):
Jesus said, oh this, this isn't working.
Speaker 2 (45:00):
A word.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
I didn't stretch my hand. He stretched his. So that's why.
Now I know why he went to the cross, so
it wouldn't be from my words. Now I know why
he stretched his arms. Now I know why he did
it cause I couldn't. Now I know it's my grace,
(45:26):
thorough fame, not of works.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
So I did both.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
They all they think I can do is live by
see Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to those
of you who give generously to this ministry. Is because
of you that this ministry is possible. You can click
the link in the description to give now, or visit
Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more information and
(45:53):
if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can
share it with your friends. You can click the share button,
take a screenshot and share it on your social stories
and tag us at Elevation Church.
Speaker 2 (46:03):
Thanks again for listening.
Speaker 1 (46:04):
God bless you.
Host
Steven Furtick
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