Nick Ferreiro - Levántate

All right, what's up Church by the Glades? It's good to see you. For those who don't know me, my name is Nick. I'm one of the pastors here at CBG. And I want to welcome you to our new series which is called Breaking Bad. And in it, we're going to be walking through trying to break those bad habits, those cycles that have affected your life using the Bible, the Scriptures, the Word of God, not only as a resource, but as a source of truth for our topic of conversation in the coming weeks. Here, what we want to tell you is that God wants you to grow. And that's why we open this book every time we meet and we apply it in our lives because we don't think or believe that God wants to limit your human experience or limit you in any way, but we believe that God wants to maximize his human experience through the free will and autonomy that he has given you to experience life in fullness. It's true, Church by the Glades. And this is the cross

that our conversations in the next few weeks will take. He wants you to grow in every possible way. He wants you to grow spiritually, but also in a relational way. He wants you to grow emotionally, financially, and in your habits. God wants you to grow in hope, in peace, in patience, in perseverance. He wants you to grow in your mindset, your perspective. Come on, God wants you to grow. But here's the thing. Growth never happens by accident. There's always going to be growth. There's always going to be intention, together with strategic action. And this precedes any area of your life. And for some of us, growth is like starting something new that we're not doing yet.

It could be the case for you, but for many of us, and the reason we started this series is that growth is the determination to stop doing things that we're doing right now that will come by way of Jesus Christ. In other words, a purpose for growth is going to be a purpose for change. And what I've learned is that everyone wants to grow, but no one wants to change. And if you follow me on social media, you've probably seen that I've been trying to teach my son, Avery, to play baseball. I love my son. It's been so much fun for me because I played baseball for 15 years. I feel comfortable as a coach. I know the game, I know the mechanics, but what I want to tell you is that I can play ball. But sometimes, I can say that my son is a prodigy.

He's been really doing it super well. He's been hitting home runs all over the house. And here, this is crazy. It's incredible what a four-year-old can do with a bat. And I know it's silly to think that your kids can play any sport that they play professionally because the odds are so low. It's ridiculous to think that your kid from Parkland, Coral Springs, Florida is going to defile all the statistics and get to the major leagues. But I've become this dad that says, look, my name is Nick. Do you know that my son is going to the major leagues? But it's so much fun, and I've enjoyed playing this sport that I love with my son. And it's good for him. And it's so much fun.

But it wasn't always like that. We thought he was frustrated because he wanted to hit the ball well. He's like his dad, super competitive. But he couldn't hit the ball well. And everything that had to do with his swing, he did it down and went to the floor. Or he did it very early and didn't hit the ball. Or he looked away from the ball and missed. I remember he was frustrated because he kept doing his swing down and he was getting frustrated. And he was getting frustrated. And as he got more frustrated, he got worse. So I had to pause and look at his face and say, Avery, remember what I'm going to tell you. The good swings They lead to good hits in the ball, but if you keep sliding the bat this way, you're going to keep getting the same result, so if you want to do it better, start doing your swings to the bat better. So, people, what you've been doing isn't working. What you've been doing, when what you've been doing doesn't lead to growth, then there's something that needs to change. Sometimes it seems like you're putting the phone down, or you leave it there with all the distractions, comparisons, and all the voices, and you open your Bible better to see what God has to say to you. Sometimes it seems like you're going to have to cut the credit card and go to Financial Peace University to learn how to do it. Sometimes it seems like you're going to have to distance yourself from this friend or this group that isn't good for you and find better friends.

I don't know what it is for you, but when what you're doing doesn't work, it's time to change. In John 5, which will be our text for today, Jesus confronts this man in a situation he's been in for a long time, and I think this confrontation reveals the hidden disposition of this man, a disposition that many of us don't admit that he has, but sadly, many of us have it. It's a disposition that has limited his growth, and we can call this behavior in the man, the man that we have in the man, and see it, and distinguish it, so that we don't have it in us. Are you ready for the word of God, Daisy 30? John chapter 5, beginning in verse 2, the word of the Lord says, Now, in Jerusalem, through the gate of the sheep, there is a pool called Bethesda, which has a roofed area where a multitude of paralytic invalids gather, and there was a man who had been there for a long time, and when Jesus saw him, and had been there for a long time, he said to the man, Do you want to be healed? And the sick man said to him, Lord, I don't have anyone to put me in the water when it moves, and while I come, someone comes before me. And Jesus said to him, in verse 8, Get up, take your bed, and walk. And immediately the man was healed, and he took his bed, and he walked. It's a good time to applaud the word of God. So, let's break this down a little bit, because Jesus was in Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. He makes a stop in this pool to confront a man who had been in the same situation, weakened by some disease, for 38 years. For 38 years, he was in the same situation, for 38 years, he was around the same people, 38 years in the same environment, he and a multitude of other people who had gathered around that pool of Bethesda. But the reason they did this is because they believed that pool had healing properties. The belief was that from time to time, an angel of the Lord would come and remove the waters from this pool, and that when the waters were removed, healing would occur there. But here's the point, the pool was only going to heal the first person who achieved it in the water, at the immediate sign of the movement. And unfortunately, for those who gathered here with the hope and the belief that it had healing properties, their belief in the pool was nothing more than superstition. As I was studying, for our time today, I couldn't, and when I see something as fascinating as this detail, I applaud if they were here on Holy Week, last week. That was something incredible. And let me stop for a moment and tell you, if you were here last week, and you came back for this new series, well done. Well done, church. We are proud of you. You are brilliant for doing this for us. And thank you for being here. And my prayer is that God reveals you in a powerful and unique way, so that you can continue coming to his house and seeking him. But last week, Pastor David, in his incredible sermon, and he's going to be here next week to preach to you, so make sure to come back. But in the sermon, he mentioned a detail in the scripture, with respect to a suggestion that the disciples made, that they found their root in this wrong science.

And this had to do with mythology, with a Greek god called Asclepius, a god who considered himself a healing god, who revealed himself to the world. remedy to your illness in your dreams while you were sleeping. The crazy thing is that when I was studying for our time today, I found that at one point in time the pool of Bethesda was dedicated to the healing god Asclepius. This tells me that it is very likely that the people who had gathered around this pool were not waiting for an intervention from the god of the Bible. They were waiting for an intervention from a cheap and unimportant alternative. Now I begin to understand the pool a little better. I begin to understand all the legend, the superstition and the pagan associations. And I begin to understand that while they talked about the remote possibility of finding a healing, it was a dream as such. Because for 38 years this man had placed his hope of healing in a pool that really did not have the power to heal in the first place. And before you judge this man for his belief and power, know that you also have your pool, something in which you have been placing your hope, something that you have expected to change the reality of your circumstances, but that you do not have the power to do it. Things like thinking that you will find a complete fulfillment when you have that position that you dream of, reaching the bottle or a cigarette thinking that this is the way to cure anxiety, or constantly looking for another relationship because you think that if you find the next one, the next one, you will find the correct one, that it will complete you, or thinking that a certain amount of dollars or followers in a social media account will make you happy and will bring you affirmation and fulfillment that you have wanted. These are the pools of today that distract us and make us think that we can become complete with them. But what you long for is not found in a pool. Maybe this is why that when Jesus finds this man who had been sick for a long time, sitting in the pool of Bethesda, he asks him one of the strangest questions in the Bible. He says, Do you want to be healed? If I am this man who is sitting next to the pool, I would look at him a little offended, that if I want to be healed, what do you mean? Of course, I'm sitting here in the pool, I don't have the swimsuit, what do you mean? Of course I want to be healed. What an insensitive question. How do you ask me that? There is nothing that I want more than to be healed. But in verse 7, I don't have anyone to help me get into the pool when the water moves. And even when I can always do it, someone comes first. Can you imagine that there was some silence after the man said this? Probably he said this, he said something like, Jesus, what's wrong with you? And probably,

I think he failed to understand what Jesus' question was, because it was more complex than what he understood immediately. Because I can understand that Jesus paused for a moment and smiled at the man. And then after a brief moment of silence, he said, you didn't answer my question. I asked you if you want to be healed, not if you want to be helped. I didn't ask you if you had someone to help you get into the pool. I asked you if you wanted to be healed from your disease. I think this man's answer revealed his way of thinking. I don't have any help, so I'm stuck here. I don't have any help, and I can't change. I don't have any help, so that's the reality I have. I don't have any help, so I find myself in the same cycles and the same patterns. And listen, because the help has its source in trusting other people. When the help doesn't come, there's only one logical answer. It's to blame. Oh, I'm not healed because they didn't help me. No one put me in the pool. I'm not healed because they abandoned me. I'm not healed because they hurt me. I'm not healed because they stole me. I'm not healed because they stabbed me in the back and betrayed me. I'm not healed because they did something to me. Help, or the lack of help, always shifts the responsibility and looks for someone else to blame. Ah, but if you want to be healed, if you want to be healed, you have to blame yourself for the situations you find yourself in. Because healing requires responsibility, to be responsible, to let the mentality that you are a victim and that you are the subject of the things that happened to you in this life, Because there is freedom and victory when you stop blaming others because your life looks the way it does, and you start walking in the healing power that only Jesus Christ can offer you. And listen, please listen to me. I'm not preaching to you today. I'm trying to preach from my own experience. This is my story. If you know me, you know it. But my dad was never around when I grew up. I have a good relationship with him now, but we're not going to deny the pain I experienced when I was young. And I was trying to see why my father was never at home. And for us to be on the same page, it's not that he was there sometimes and sometimes he wasn't, it's that he was never there. If you see my birth certificate, under the name of father it says, not applicable because he didn't show up that day. I don't even have a memory of my dad from the moment I met him. The earliest I have is when I was 13 years old. We were always my mom and me. So we applaud the single parents who are here. We love you. We are grateful. And as the product of a single parent's home, thank you. Thank you for what you are doing.

It matters a lot more than you know. All of this to tell you that I never had a father who taught me what I should do as a son. A man never taught me how to shave. This was self-taught, you know? A man never taught me how to use tools. A man never told me what it meant to be a man, to carry the weight of responsibility, to carry the pressure appropriately. All of this to tell you that I should be a statistic. I know a lot of people in the same situation who are a statistic. So I should be a statistic. But by the grace of God, I am not a statistic. By the grace of God, the cycle does not continue through me. Because at one point in my life, I was sitting in Bethesda pool and I met Jesus with a similar question. Hey, do you want to continue making excuses in your life for what you have or do you want to be healed? Oh, at some point, I had to stop blaming my dad for what I did not have and open up YouTube. At some point, I got to stop blaming my dad because I was looking for validation in the wrong places. And I had to open up my Bible and see that my Heavenly Father loves me, accepts me, calls me, and puts me on purpose, and redeems me, and saves me, and sends me to heaven. Not because of anything I have done, not because of who I am, but because of who I am. I belong to Jesus Christ. That makes me a son of God. I want you to hear me very clearly today. What happened to you, it happened. It was real. It was painful. And I want you to hear me. It was not your fault. What happened to you is not your responsibility. But what you do after what happened to you is your responsibility. Because what you do after is crucial if you want the cycles to break. And I think that Jesus talks about this in the passage that we are reading. If you skip a few verses and read number 14, where we are going to read it together on the screen, it says, when you are ready, after the miracle happened, Jesus found this man in the temple and said to him, I see that you are well, do not sin any more, so that nothing worse may happen to you.

So after this miracle happened, after the initial encounter with Jesus, where the grace of God was dispensed and applied to his life, this man was in the temple and received the instruction not to sin anymore. How can we understand what was happening? I want to remind you that for 38 years this man was in the same situation. For 38 years he was in the same environment, with the same way of thinking and surrounded by the same people. In a place that proved to be of no power, no fruit. And then Jesus enters the scene and has an encounter with this man, where he miraculously healed his body, telling him the words, get up, take your bed and walk. And I always understood the reason why Jesus asked this man to take his bed, because when people saw him walking freely, then with the bed, carrying it, they would recognize him. It's like the person who couldn't get up from there. It was to serve as a testimony of the grace and the power of God. And I still think it's true. I think God can take what you carry so that it can be a testimony of the power of God in your life. Come on, God can take your pain and make a platform out of it. God can take your disaster and turn it into a message. He can take your rejection and prove that it was always divine protection. He can take what the enemy tried to do to you for evil and change it and use it not only for your good, but for his glory. Because when people see you sailing with grace, they're going to have no choice but to admit that there must be a God and that this God is on your side. Come on, God can still use your camel. But the more I read this passage, and the more I struggle with this affirmation of Jesus,

of verse 14, maybe it wasn't the only purpose to ask this man to lift his camel. What I've learned is that people who struggle with addiction or with breaking habits or patterns or cycles, what happens is that it's easy for them after a momentary success in their battle, to go back to what they had already been released. So it would be possible that the reason why Jesus confronted this man again, after the miracle happened and gave him a new instruction not to sin anymore, is because Jesus was aware of the human propensity to return to the systems and cycles that once held us captive. This gives me a little more vision in the direction or instruction of taking your camel. Maybe this man doesn't have enough space to return to it. Because if he had left the camel in that location, he would have been tempted to return there. There are so many of us who are struggling in cycles and patterns and habits that it seems like we can't get rid of them because we have simply left our camel in places where God has told us to move from there. And that's why there are so many good people saved by grace, so many Christians that have inherited the eternal life in the King Jesus and that he died for them to have it. The grace of God is not only for eternity. The grace of God is also for your day here on earth. Jesus did not die on the cross for you to have life in heaven one day. He died on the cross for you to also have life on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. He wants you to have life, both eternal and abundant life. And there is nothing you can do to earn eternal life.

It is by the grace of God through your faith and the complete work of Jesus. There is nothing you can do to earn it. It is a gift. That is how you earn eternal life. But if you want to experience abundant life, it only comes through your obedience to the commandments and the words of Christ. You see? Jesus is not only a genius of grace who will do whatever you want and at your disposal. He is not full of grace and truth. You see? Grace is what buys our eternal freedom. But it is our obedience to the truth that gives us freedom. It is, get up, it is grace. But take up the bed and do not peck any more. That is the truth. Get up. It is how you get out of there. But take up. It is how it keeps you out. What is the word? Get up and find a new environment. Get up, take your mat and walk. We make it plain. Get up, take your mat and bring it to a group of life. Get up, young adult and bring your mat to a rally. Get up, teenage, and make it into the best that you can ever do during the summer and meet God, and make friends, and have fun, and listen to great sermons, and worship. Get up, take your mat and bring it to United Knights. Leave it to the student pastor for the information, this commercial. You can go to the lobby and get informed.

So, get rid of the phone number on your list. You're not going to buy them anymore. If we're going to make it simple, then block the phone number on your list. You're not going to buy them anymore. If we're going to make it simple, then block the phone number on your list. and stop following what your eyes should not see on social media. Get out of the group of friends that just don't lift you up. Get up. Take your mat and walk. No more. I hear you, Pastor. I really do hear you. And I know what you're saying is true. But I want you to know that this is not an excuse for me. I'm not blaming my situation. I'm not blaming anyone. And I wouldn't like anything more than to leave this circumstance in which I am and not go back to it. But I'm stuck here. This disease in my body, this mentality that I can't shake, this hereditary habit that I can't get rid of, what's still happening in my family, and I can't get rid of the habit. So I know what you're saying is true, and it's probably for someone else there, but I don't think it's for me because I'm stuck here and I really feel that nothing is going to change this circumstance in me. Is it possible that this is how the man who was sitting in the pool of Bethesda felt? Perhaps his answer to Jesus was not an excuse after all. Perhaps his answer was a statement of not having a remedy. Jesus, I've got nobody to put me in the pool.

And even if I can do it for myself, which I can't, even if I could, someone else always beats me to get to the water. So I've been here 38 years because my situation has no hope. That's a layer of context to the man's answer. But not just his answer, but Jesus' question, the question of, do you want to be healed? Perhaps it was not about his desire to be healed, but about his will to be healed. Because after all, this disease, for 38 years, had paralyzed his body. But for 38 years, this man had allowed the disappointment to paralyze his hope. And because his hope had been paralyzed, he had lost all the desire to find another way to be healed. So he was delivered, comfortable, sitting around the pool, under the shade of the roof, in a little jacuzzi, surrounded by people who understood his situation because they were in similar situations. And so, can we blame him for this situation? Do you know how disheartening it can be to see the possibility of healing for 38 years just to realize that it was always going to be out of his reach? Do you know how devastating it must be to see the potential of freedom just to understand that we don't have the ability to acquire it? When you can see the possibility of what could be your marriage, when you can see the potential that your children have,

but if they were only around the right people, when you see that having children is possible because everyone has them around you, but you can't have a pregnancy, when you can see what a life of financial freedom is like, but you can't get out of debt, it's not a surprise that you've been heartbroken and discouraged for so long. But here comes Jesus. Here comes Jesus in the darkest moment of this man's life with a question that I think he's asking you and me tonight. Are you happy with just continuing through life around a situation that you've accepted as your reality forever or do you want to be healed? I don't know about you, but that really speaks to me because it proves to me, it says to me that even when I'm not looking for Jesus, he's still looking for me. That even when I've already abandoned my life or I've abandoned myself, I've lost hope, I've abandoned my dream of being healed, God hasn't abandoned me. Maybe the reason why Jesus chose this man in particular from the crowd that was there is because he wanted to communicate a truth that the power and the grace of God can touch even the most desperate situation of all. Just because you've abandoned your circumstances doesn't mean that Jesus has abandoned your circumstances. He's still looking for you because there's life beyond your bed. He's still looking for you because he doesn't want you to give up

the bed that you're lying on. He wants you to not accept your current reality as your reality forever. and that you can still do something with your camels. It is the grace of God that when we are not looking for Him yet, He is already looking for us. This is grace, because grace always starts, always makes the first movement, but grace always requires an answer. And in verse number 8, we see that the grace of God applies to this man's life through a commandment. In verse number 8, Jesus says to him, get up, take up your camels and walk. And when the man was healed, he took up his camels and walked. Doesn't it sound like grace? Doesn't it sound like something difficult? Like Jesus didn't help him, didn't give him a pat on the back, and says, your life has been hard, didn't allow him to buy an excuse, or resign himself to despair. He just gave him a commandment. Get up, take up your camels and walk. And the answer to this commandment? He got up. Did you hear what I just said? He got up. The man got up. He had no reason to believe that he could get up, because for 38 years, he couldn't get up. For 38 years, he couldn't feel his legs.

For 38 years, he was lying on a bed. For 38 years, he had to take him to this pool every day. He was begging people to help him. But just because you've been in the same situation for 38 years, doesn't mean God can't change your situation. Because when God speaks a word, he acts on that word in faith. And as he did, he got up. You may not be able to get up by yourself, but when God speaks a word, his grace will give you the ability to get up. The grace will lift you up from your bed. The grace will lift you up when your effort can't do it, or when the pool doesn't work. The grace, when things seem hopeless, or in the darkest moment of your life, will lift you up, because it's never about your power, it's about the power that lives within you, the same power that lifted Jesus up from the grave. So if he got up, you can get up too. Someone has to say, get up! Get up! No command from God will come without the divine power to accomplish it. You just have to trust God and his word, and trust that whatever he asks you to do, he will empower you to do it. And I'm closing, I promise, but this is something I've tried to teach my daughter. She's two years old, and we're trying to teach her how to swim, and she hasn't quite gotten it yet, but we've been practicing, and she's getting it. But every time she goes a little further,

we try to push her limits. We try to get her to jump in the pool, and I catch her. But I remember the first time we did it, I put her on those stairs, and I asked her to jump towards me, and she was so scared, she said, no, daddy, I don't want to do that, I'm scared. And I said, well, I'm going to catch you. I've got you here, I'm right here. You don't have to swim alone. You don't have to do everything alone. I'm not going to let you sink. I'm not going to let you fall. I'm not going to let you drown. I'm going to catch you. And she still said, no, I don't think I can do it. I'm scared. And I said, Everly, do you trust me? And she looked at me and said, no. But as her father, I knew she was just talking out of fear. So I asked her again, do you trust me? And if an earthly father can ask his earthly daughter that question, it's the same question that your heavenly father is asking you today, I believe. And I know all you've been up to is your bed, and I know it's hard, and I know what I'm asking you to do, you've never done it before. But do you trust me? I know that you've placed your hope in some pool, but I need you to know that I'm not a pool. I'm the living water. And you don't need to enter the water.

You just need the water to enter you. Do you trust me? I know you don't have the strength to do it, but it's not about your strength. It's about mine. Do you trust me? I know you had to be the first person to enter the pool, and there were so many things that went wrong, that you never got in there. But trust me, where I'm going to take you, you can't go in there. That's why I've made a path for you, and you don't have to be the first, because all who seek my name will be saved. Do you trust in me? There is freedom, victory, and life beyond the path you are on today. But are you going to trust God enough to move when he tells you to move? Get up, take your mat, and walk in the name of Jesus. Father, we come before you to thank you for the power that is in your word. When you speak, things don't stay the same. When you speak, things come back to life. When you speak, things start to happen. So we are waiting for a word today. And God, we believe that when that word comes, everything is going to change in our life. So give us the strength to obey it, and to walk not only in grace, but in obedience and in truth. And may we find in your word victory and freedom. And Jesus, we are going to glorify you, and we are going to testify of your goodness, of your power, and testify of your grace, because you are worthy of our praise and our worship. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.