Elevation with Steven Furtick - I've Tried Everything

Episode Date: June 11, 2018

What do you do when you’ve tried everything? Roanoke Campus Pastor Dustin Stradley teaches us what to do when your “everything” isn’t enough. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://ele.vc/TI55jRSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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 fate. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message. Valentine. You look good. You smell good. You sound real good. And I'm thrilled to be here. My name is Dustin Stradley. I'm the campus pastor of our Roanoke, Virginia.

location. I know we've got some people from Roanoke here. What's up, Noak? God's doing some amazing things in Roanoke and at all of our campuses. And so if you're here at Valentine, I need you to take that enthusiasm that I feel right here and translate that through the camera to everyone tuning in online and give them a big welcome, show them some love. We're at one church many locations and people tuning in, even in cities where we don't have a location. I'm excited to share the Word of God with you today, but the reality is the effectiveness of me sharing the Word of God really depends on your readiness to receive the Word of God. So I need you to do me a favor and turn to your neighbor right now and say, hey, neighbor. Are you ready to receive what God has for you?

Now turn to your second option. I'm not going to get into why you chose some second. And say, hey, neighbor, I'm ready. Let's go. I'm going to jump into John 5. You can follow with me on the screen. You guys can stay standing in honor of reading God's word if you want to. I mean, I'm just saying.

But sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now, there is in Jerusalem near the sheep gate, a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda, which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition, everybody say condition. For a long time, he asked him, do you want to get well?

Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down. ahead of me. Do you ever feel like you've just tried everything? And every time you try, someone always gets ahead of you. I'm trying, sir, but someone else goes down ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and walked. I need you to turn your neighbor and help me announce my title. Say, I've tried everything. I've tried everything. Now you can go ahead and take a seat.

And while you're at it, why don't you go ahead and grab your flippy floppies, your bathing suit, and your ray bands? Because we're heading down to the pool of Bethesda, where this scene takes place. Who doesn't love a good pool party? I know that our late Norman campus and our Melbourne campus love a good pool party. So let's pick up in verse three to see who was invited to the pool party. It said to hear a great number. of disabled people used to lie. The blind, the lame, the paralyzed, the cynical, the addict, the perfectionist, the workaholic, the prideful, the people pleaser. If I continue to list

them out, I could hit yours too. People with various conditions. We all have conditions in our life. We all have that we struggle with. And all of these people with various conditions are gathering around the pool for a certain reason. And we find that in verse four that we read through earlier. So if you've got your Bible turned to verse four, shout amen when you got it. Shout amen when you got it. Gentleman right here looks confused. You don't have verse four? I was confused too. When I was reading the Bible the other day. I noticed that in my in my in my niv version of the Bible, that it went straight from verse three to verse five. And I thought, is my Bible broken? Do I need to get a new Bible? So then I begin to look at some other translations. I noticed that verse four was was missing

from a few other translations, but I found it. I found it in the footnote. So let me read it to you and then talk about why it's not there. It said in verse four from time to time, an angel of the Lord would come down and stir up the waters. The first one in to the pool after each such disturbance would be cured of whatever disease they had. Now, why this is missing from certain modern day translations of the Bible is that it was not in earlier manuscripts of the Bible. And it was really known as more of a superstition. There was no proof that an angel of the Lord was the one stirring up the waters, but instead there were streams of water that connected to the pool. The water would be stirred up.

There was minerals in the water which could provide some medicinal value. It's like bathing yourself and all your favorite essential oils like you like to do. So all of these people with conditions are lying out by the pool trying to get from one place to another. And if they are the first one into the water, they would experience healing. They would experience comfort. The pool represents comfort. And the man in the passage, there's really a focus on one person. This man who was an invalid for 38 years of his life.

Now, an invalid is someone who is sick, has some sort of affliction, maybe even paralyzed. And this man had been carrying his condition for 38 years of his life. And if we all look at our life, we all have conditions. Maybe not a physical condition, but mentally, spiritually, a condition of the heart. If we look deep down into our life, we all have conditions. I've got many conditions, if I can be real. I'm just going to share at least one of my conditions. I can stand here for the next three days and share all of my conditions, all of my issues, because I got plenty.

But there's one that just seems to keep creeping back in in my life, and that's the condition of pride, which is really me just overcompensating for this inward insecurity that I have. And I find comfort in achievement. If I can just achieve more, if I can just achieve more. Every time I work hard, if I can just try more and I can achieve more, I find comfort of that really only to find out that it's never enough. And we all have conditions that are crippling us from moving forward. Maybe you're still carrying the shame of a decision that you made 10 years ago. You have a condition where you can't release it. Maybe it's anxiety within you because you're comparing yourself to anyone and everyone around you.

Constantly scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, it looks like everyone else has their life together. and you think that maybe you're just not good enough. Or maybe you're trying to please everyone around you, but you're not pleased with yourself. We have conditions. A few months back, I was driving my 15-year-old Accura down the highway and paint chipping off and all, and the steering wheel, as I'm driving down the highway,

begins to rapidly shake, which I don't know a lot about cars, but I know that's probably not a good thing. And I immediately pulled into a gas station and got out and I realized that the tire is about to pop on the car. Now, we went to the trunk of the car, opened the trunk of the car. I see the spare tire in the trunk of the car. So I'm going to change the tire. But as I'm looking at the tire in the trunk of the car, I had an epiphany. I don't know how to change the tire.

Now, I'm getting married in 26 days, y'all, to Maddie on the front row right here. And thank you. And I've got to stand before this woman as a 32-year-old man and tell her that I don't know how to change the tire on a car, not on my watch. I'm going to do whatever it takes to figure out how to change this tire. So first things first, owner manual, in the trunk. Take it, toss it out. Don't need it. I'm a man, right?

Maybe pride kicked in. So I take the spare tire. I go get on my hands and knees next to the car. Put the tire down. Then I realized I probably need some tools to get the other tire off. Go back to the trunk. Find some tools. Take them back over.

Then I put one underneath the car and started to crank the vehicle up. I don't know what it's called a jack maybe. Start to crank the car. Don't judge me. It started to crank the car up. Then I was able to successfully get the first tire off. I said, I'm doing this with ease, y'all. This is common sense.

I got this right now. Get the first tire off. Got ready to put the spare tire on. and then in slow motion, the whole car begins to shift and just falls over on the ground on top of the jack. First things first. I'm like, anybody see that? We good? No, we're good.

Nobody's watching. So I take a tool. I knocked the jack out from underneath the car. It had pierced through the side little skirt of my car, put a hole in it. But I put it back underneath a different part of the car. I was able to crank the car up again. I said, okay, second time's a charm. We got this.

get ready to put the spare tire on, car begins to shift again. Car falls on the ground six times. Six times the car falls over. Four hours later, I finally just sit down in the parking lot, take my man card out, toss it in the wind, and just accept the fact that I'm never going to be able to change a tire. And I might as well accept that I'm just going to be here all night until this big Jack Diesel truck pulls in to the gas station and these country boys get out and walk over to me and say, well, I'm a man, boy, you know what you're not, I'm tired. Don't have any idea what you just said. But they reached down and literally, in their own strength, pick up the side of my car and slide this

little donut tire on. I said, yeah, bro, that was my next move. It's taking a break, man. and what I couldn't do in my own strength, they did with ease. And like this man in the passage, he spent 38 years trying with everything that he had in his own strength to change his condition. And we learned two things in this passage about how we tend to cope with our conditions. And the first one is the comfort of trying. The comfort of trying. Write that down. Now, trying isn't always a bad thing.

I mean, you're trying to get out of debt. Not a bad thing. Trying to get in shape. That's a good thing. You're coming to church. You're trying. You bought somebody at Starbucks. You're trying to be nice.

That's a good thing. Try is not a bad thing. I'm all about hard work. I'm all about doing some things and achieving some things. That's great. But I'm talking about the kind of trying that we saw in verse four. The first one in wins mentality that we have in our culture. If I can get into the pool first,

I will get the healing. And so as all of these different people with their conditions are lying out by the pool, you got blind people, you got lame people, you got paralyzed people with all kinds of various conditions. My man is laying here tanning his backside and chilling by the pool. Let's just say he's paralyzed from the waist down. And he's thinking to himself, if I can get from here to there, I'll have the comfort that I'm looking for.

And they're fighting over each other, they're elbowing each other, crawling their way, knocking each other out. If you get close enough, hold somebody under the water. Whatever you got to do to get what you need. Work hard enough. Try it with everything you've got. And don't we do the same thing in our culture today? If I can just get a few more followers, if I can just get a few more likes, if I can just

make a little bit more money, if I can just work a little bit harder for that house, If I can just try a little bit harder for that car. If I can just collect a few more trophies. If I can just please a few more people. I know my dad didn't accept me, but if I sleep around with so many men, maybe somebody will accept me. If I just work a little bit harder, I'm exhausted. Maybe I'll fall short, but then I can work harder. Because if I can get from here to there, then I'll have the comfort that I'm looking for.

And some of you, not only are you trying to get from here to there, But some of you, you made it to the pool. You got in the pool, but you found out it wasn't what you thought it would be. You've got more money than you could ever imagine, but you're still completely empty on the inside. You've got more influence. Your social media following is through the roof, but you're still crying yourself to sleep at night. And a couple of years ago, I got a call from Wade Joy, our worship pastor. Don't you guys love Wade? He's amazing. He preached a couple weeks back.

And Wade said, Dustin Pastor. Pastor Stephen and I have been talking, and pastor would love to give you the opportunity to preach the Word of God to the entire church. I said, stop it. He said, stop what? I said, no, like, I'm just saying, are you for real? He said, yeah. Like, we see something in you, and Pastor Stephen would love to give you the opportunity to preach. And that's a big deal for me, y'all, because 10 years ago, I had just gotten out of jail for a DUI.

Four days later, somebody brings me to Elevation Uptown campus. I got saved in this church. I got baptized in this church. I started volunteering at our blatanty campus. I was a greeter. I would hold the door open, smile, hug on people, love on people. Ten years later, I'm a pastor in this church. And now you're going to give me the opportunity to preach the word of God to the entire church

and the same love and the same grace that he brought into my life. I can share about it with the church. What? Won't he do it? He's so good. I say, yes, I'll preach. Thank you. Hung up the phone.

I said bye. Then I hung up the phone. So I go into a room, shut the door, looking at a whiteboard. Four hours go by. Whiteboard's still empty. I had another epiphany. It takes me a minute. I don't know how to write a sermon.

I mean, I had done a few teachings. I had watched other people. I mean, it's one thing to watch Pastor Stephen preach. It's another thing to preach. It's one thing to read a book. It's another thing to write it. It's one thing to watch a movie. It's another thing to direct it.

But then my condition kicked in. And I thought, okay, I got a couple of options. Either I can tell Wade that I don't know how to preach or write a sermon. But obviously, he sees something in me. They see something. They believe in me. Maybe it's in there. I just need to figure it out on my own.

Because if I tell them I might lose the opportunity. So for the next four weeks, I lock myself in that room. I was going to do anything and everything I could to figure out how to write a sermon. I was going through every translation of the Bible, memorizing scripture, right and left. I was putting anointing oil all over my head. I was speaking in tongues. I was just anything I could do. I was studying other communicators.

I was watching sermons. I was going to either walk out of that room with a sermon in hand, Skyler, where I was going to be carried out on a stretcher. Nothing was going to stop me from figuring out how to write this sermon. Then I went on a four-night binge, staying up till four o'clock in the morning, drinking all kinds of caffeine. By the end of it, I'm on my knees, just like, I am so exhausted. How does he do this every single week?

But isn't that what we do? We try with everything that we have in our own strength and our own power to figure it out to the point where we fall on our knees in exhaustion, realizing that maybe, maybe there's a better way. And in this passage, the man, he was trying. For 38 years, he had this condition. But finally, Jesus shows up on the scene. And Jesus, when he finds the man, ask an interesting question.

Now, when Jesus asks a question, we should pay attention. Because Jesus knows all things. I don't think he's asking a question because he needs information. But maybe he's asking a question because he wants to produce something in the man. Maybe he's asking a question to help the man discover a thing beneath the thing. And so let me go to verse 6. When Jesus sees the man lying on the mat and he asked this question, he said he saw him lying there. He learned that he had been in this condition for a long time.

So he asked him, do you want? want to get well? Do you want change? Do you really want to get well? And he's asking some of you the same question today. Do you want to get well? Do you want to keep trying in your own effort to do this thing? Do you really want change? See, Jesus knew that the man had just at this point accepted that maybe, maybe this is all there will ever be to life. Maybe I should just stop here because nothing will ever change. Let's talk about the comfort of acceptance. The comfort of acceptance. Not only was Jesus's question to the man, interesting, but the man's response back to Jesus was interesting.

The man could have easily replied. And I would hope that maybe and think that we would all reply in this way. Yeah, bro. I want change. What do you think I'm doing? Hanging out by the pool. Of course I want change. If I can get from here to there, I'm going to get the comfort that I need.

I've been living with this thing for 38 years. Why do you think I'm hanging out by the bull? He's like educating Jesus on what's going down. Because in verse 7, his response, He said, sir, I mean, at least he was respectful. He had manners. The invalid replied, I have no one to help me. And everyone always gets ahead. I've tried everything. Maybe this is all that life will ever be. Maybe I should just accept that my marriage will always be this way. Maybe I should just accept that I'll always live paycheck to paycheck. Here's one you've

heard before. Well, when you get my age, then you'll understand. Or you just, you don't know what I've been through. You just, you don't understand. If you knew what happened to me, then then you would understand that maybe this is just the way it's always going to be. Maybe I'll never change. Maybe I should just stop right now and accept the fact that nothing is going to change. Because it's easier to live in the comfort of dysfunction than to embrace the uncertainty of change. The dude is still hanging out by the pool with all of these people in their various conditions. Sometimes we get to the point where we just accept that, you know, maybe this is the way it is.

So I'm just going to surround myself with other dysfunctional people, and I don't feel as bad about it. I mean, they're all going to do the same thing, and so maybe I don't even have to embrace this process of change now. Maybe I don't have to tell anyone that deep down inside that I need something, that I need to get well. And I wonder how many of you are still crippled by the condition in your life. And you've just accepted. You're coming to church. I've tried. I've tried the whole God thing.

I've tried the whole church thing. I had worked for him, but I don't know if it can work for me. If you know what I did. You remember a sermon I told you about from a couple of years ago? So I was getting ready to preach it in front of some of our pastors and leaders and some of our staff five days before. I was going to preach it to the entire church. So I think we were at our blatanty campus at that time. I was freaking out on the inside, which maybe nobody knew.

I don't know, Philip. I don't know if you saw it in me, but I was freaking out, but I put it pretty good game face on. And so right before I go up, I'm standing down on the ground, and we've got worship going, and I'm about to go up right out of worship, and I'm about to preach. And people like, Philip's like, man, I believe in you. You're going to kill this thing, man. You got it in you. I'm like, yeah, thanks for Philip.

And Anna's like, hey, I got this. I'm like, yeah, dude, come, man. You guys can do some awesome. So I get ready to go preach. I run up, and I just start talking, man. I just start going after. And I just start saying things. And I had a 30-minute clock, which means I can't go over 30 minutes, and I can't go under 30 minutes.

I need to fill the entire 30-minute clock. 12 minutes in. I ran out of things to say. I blacked out. I choked. And even the 12 minutes that I did speak, I don't even know what came out of my mouth. It was bad, y'all. It's embarrassing even to think about.

It's embarrassing to look back at. It didn't make any sense whatsoever. I bombed it. I destroyed it. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that that was just messy. So as quickly as possible, I was like, thanks for coming. I'm going to head out. And I left.

And I went home, and I'm throwing up a little bit inwardly. Like, oh, God, like, what just happened? And I got another call from Wade and I knew before I even picked up the phone I ruined this opportunity. It was done before I even picked it up. So I pick up the phone. I don't have a flip phone, but this is my version of a phone. I said, hey, Wade, and sure enough, I lost the opportunity.

Now maybe you're thinking like, oh, you lost the opportunity to preach a big deal. You don't know what I'm going through. Imagine you work your entire life for a promotion. And your family is throwing you a surprise party because this is the day that you're going to get the promotion. You come home, open the door, surprise. I didn't get the promotion. Kind of embarrassing. Or you got the job offer.

You call all your family members, all your friends, you tell everyone. And the next day you get a call, they did a background check. The job offer was revoke. For me, this was embarrassing. That condition, it hurt. So, first thing I do, take the phone, slam it into my passenger seat, trying to break it, because that's going to help. And I only cry. I only cry like once a decade.

But this day, I ugly cried. I'm talking like the kind that has like the snot and I'm talking like hyperventilating, just like and it was bad y'all and then just long enough for me to and i don't eat fast food but just long enough for me to wipe the blurry like tears through my blurry vision across the street i see in arby's i whip that acura over to arby so quick i got an extra large roast beef sandwich curly fries and sweet tea as i'm yamming that down while i'm driving to starbucks to get four k pops and a venty iced coffee. Then I went home and ordered a Papa John's pizza and sat down on the couch and watched full house. Not fuller house, full house. And I yammed every slice of that pizza as tears are trickling down my face onto each pepperoni. And I had this overwhelming sense of maybe I'll never be good enough. I'll never be a good communicator. I'll never be a good leader. Definitely won't get the opportunity to preach again.

I tried. I tried. Maybe I should just accept. This is the way it is. So I curled up in fetal position with my body pillow and cried myself up to sleep the night. The next day, I get a call from Pastor Stephen. He said, how you doing? How are you processing things?

I said, I'm embarrassed. I feel like I let God down. I feel like I let you down. I feel like I let a lot of people down. And I was paralyzed. And what he did and what he said next spoke to me and will be something that I remember for the rest of my life. First, he spent the next 30 minutes at his son's baseball game. There was a break in the game. Walking me through step by step, how to clearly articulate what God was speaking into my life.

And even over the past year, he's been spending time with our campus pastors and some leaders on how to structure everything together and clearly hear from God and speak what God's put in our life. and he invested so much into me, and that meant the world to me. But then he said, Dustin, you've got the gift, you've got the anointing. I believe in you. I love you. And at some point, you're going to get another chance. In my greatest moment of embarrassment for my leader to step in and say, I believe in you, you're going to get another chance. This man was lying on the mat with this condition for 38 years to the point of giving up. And somebody today is on the brink of giving up. But Jesus shows up on the scene.

Jesus realizes that the man would never make it to the pool. And the man is lying at the pool of Bethesda. Bethesda means House of Grace. The pool is surrounded by five beautiful columns. The number five in the Bible represents grace. The man was lying in the presence of grace all along, but he had never received grace. And with Jesus understanding that he would never make it to the pool,

Jesus instead came to him. Grace was never in the pool. Grace was in the person. He couldn't work hard enough in his own power to make it to grace. That's why grace came to him. And some of you think you're so far from the grace of God, that God couldn't love someone like you. That thing that you did, that thing that you don't even want to talk to anyone about, that thing that you've buried deep inside.

You think that you're so far from the grace of God. But I'm here to tell you today that the grace of God has come to you. The grace of God is greater than your struggle. The grace of God will meet you exactly where you are because your Heavenly Father loves you more than you could ever imagine. And nothing will ever change that. How long will you try to change your condition before you let the grace of God change the condition of your heart? How long will you continue to try in your own effort with everything that you have to earn the love of God? But you can't earn the love of God.

God loves you and has sent his grace into your life because he is standing with you every step of the way. You cannot outrun his grace. In verse 8, Jesus looked at the man, and he said, I don't care what you've done. I don't care what you'll do. But, sir, I need you right now to get up and walk. And in verse 9, the man immediately jumped to his feet after 38 years of carrying this condition, and he walked. It was God's grace that got him up. And the grace of God today is here to get him.

get you up. You can't outrun it. You can't hide from it. His grace is sufficient for all your needs. His grace is greater than your pain. His grace is bigger than your depression. His grace is sufficient for your addiction. His grace is greater than your frustration. His grace is greater than your bitterness. His grace is bigger than your struggle. If you'll just open your heart, Open your mind to receive the grace of God. What the man couldn't do in his own effort, Jesus did. Jesus knew that you couldn't figure it out. He knew that you couldn't do it on your own.

That's why he came to this earth to give you his grace because he loves you so much. and some of you are hiding, thinking to yourself that the grace of God, can it really help me? I've tried everything. Have you tried Jesus? Have you tried grace? Have you tried this undeserving, wonderful, beautiful grace that you've heard about so many different times from so many, yeah, it works for that person, but I don't know if it works for me. and the man finally came to the end of himself. And the end of yourself is the beginning of grace. And maybe today, you're exhausted. I'm trying to be the best pride so hard.

But you've come to the end of yourself. And maybe that's exactly where God wants you. Because His grace will meet you in that place. And that's where His grace begins. And for many of you, you've never accepted. the grace of God into your life at all. But I'm here to tell you it's available. It's a gift.

But just like any gift, you have to receive it. If you come in with your arms crossed and your fists quenched, yeah, I'm trying. I come to church. But you can come to church for comfort and never leave changed. But if you will just open your heart and receive it, the grace of God. It can change everything. And so standing at all of our locations right now, we're going to say a prayer together for all of those who maybe need to accept the grace of God

into your life for the first time, or maybe you need to come back to Christ today and accept His grace into your life. It is by grace that you have been saved through faith, not by your own works, not by anything that you can do, but it is by grace through faith that you have been saved. And so bow your head and close your eyes right now. And I want you to repeat this after me. We're all going to say it out loud together. Say, Heavenly Father, I come to you, a sinner in need of a Savior. Thank you, Jesus, for dying from my sin.

I believe God raised you from the dead. I accept your mercy. I embrace your grace. And I'm choosing today. To follow you for the rest of my life. With heads still bowed and eyes still closed, if you just said that prayer for the first time, or maybe you're coming back to Christ on the count of three

at all of our locations, I want you to shoot your hand into the air so I can acknowledge and celebrate that decision with you. Do not be ashamed. Do not hesitate. One, two, three. Shoot them up. Shoot them up.

Shoot them up. Hallelujah. Praise God for you. I see you in the back. Praise God for you. The grace of God is in this place. The grace of God is here for you. I hope you enjoyed the podcast today.

If you did, there are just a couple things I'd love for you to do. Number one, subscribe to our show. That way, the most recent episode will always be in your feed, waiting for you, ready when you are. And secondly, if this ministry has impacted you, and you'd like to help us continue to reach others, you can click the link in the description, and you can give now. And I'll see you next time on the Elevation Podcast.

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