I've Tried Everything

Virginia location. I know we've got some people from Ronoke here. What's up, noake, 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 are 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 your neighbor right now, say hey, neighbor, are you ready to receive what God has for you? Now turn to your second option. I'm not gonna get into why you chose some second and say, hey, neighbor, I'm ready. Let's go. I'm gonna jump into John five. 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 Sheepgate a pool which an era make is Calledesda, which is surrounded by five covered at 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 thirty eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition, everybody say condition for a long time, he asks 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 titles. Say I 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 and 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 can hit yours too. People with various conditions. We all have conditions

in our life. We all have things 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 a men when you got it. Gentlemen 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 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 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's set in verse four, from time to time 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, and due to nature, 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 thirty eight 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 thirty eight 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 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 a more every time I work hard, if I can just try more and I can achieve more, I find comfort 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 ten 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, 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 fifteen 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. I 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 twenty six days, y'all to Maddie on the front road right here, and thank you. And I've got to stand before this woman as a thirty two 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 gonna do whatever it takes to

figure out how to change this tire. So first, thanks, first owner Manuel 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. 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 thanks first, I'm like anybody see that we're good. Now we're good.

Nobody's watching them. So I take a tool. I knocked the jack out from underneath the car, and it pierced through the side little skirt of my car, put a hole in it. But I put it underneath a different part of the car. I was able to crank the car up again. I said, Okay, second time's the charm. We got this, get ready to put the spare tire on. Car begins to shift again, and 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 gonna be able to change a tire. And I might as well accept that that I'm just gonna 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 made ball. You know. To me, no, no, don't tire, 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 doughnut 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 thirty eight 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's 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 paralyze 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 gotta do to get what you need, work hard enough, try it with everything you 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 hard. 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 Or worship pastor. Don't you guys love Wade. He's amazing.

He preached a couple of weeks back, and Wade said, Dustin, 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 says, stop what I said? No, Like, I'm just saying, are you for real? Said? He said, yeah, like we see something in you. And Pastor Sema would love to give you the opportunity to preach. And that's a big deal for me, y'all, because ten 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 blatanety campus. I was a greader. I would hold the door open, smile, hung on people, love on people. Ten years later, I'm a pastor in this church, and now you're gonna 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 to my life. I could 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 him, I might lose the opportunity. So for the next four weeks, I locked myself in that room. I was gonna 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 annoying to go 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 gonna either walk out of that room with a sermon in hand, Skyler, or I was gonna be carried out on a stretcher. Nothing was gonna 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 thirty eight 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 asked 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 six, 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 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? 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. Uh 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 from here to there, I'm gonna get the comfort that I need. I've been living with this thing for thirty

eight years. Why do you think I'm hanging out by the ball. He's like educating Jesus on what's going down, because in verse seven 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 when you've heard before, Well, when you when you get my age, then you'll under stand, or you just you don't know what I've been through. You don't understand. If you knew what happened to me, then you would understand it. 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 a 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 were 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 worked for him, but I don't know if it can work

for me. If you know what I did. You remember the 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 Blakeney campus at that time, and 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

pretty 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 Phillip's like, man, you gotta kill this thing. Man, you got I'm like yeah, thanks, Philing, and it's like, hey, I got this. I'm like, yeah, dude, come man, God's gonna do something awesome. So I get ready to go preach.

I run up and I just start talking. Man. I just I start going after and I just start saying things. And I had a thirty minute clock, which means I can't go over thirty minutes, and I can't go under thirty minutes. I need to fill the entire thirty minute clock. Twelve minutes in, I ran out of things to say. I blacked out. I choked, and even the twelve 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 dow that that was just messy. So as quickly as possible, I'll say thanks for coming, I'm gonna head out. And I left and I went home, and I'm thrown up a little bit and relas 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. Say hey, Wade, sure enough, I lost the opportunity. Now maybe you're thinking like, oh, lo's the opportunity to preach, 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 gonna get the promotion. You come home,

open the door surprise, I didn't get the promotion. Kind of embarrassing. Or you got the job off. 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 revoked. 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 gonna 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 and I'm talking like hyperventilating, just 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 an RB's. I with that accurate over to Rby's.

So quick I got an extra large roast beef sandwich, curly fries, and sweet sea as I'm yamming that down while I'm driving to Starbucks to get four cake pops and a Vincy iced coffee. Then I went home and ordered a Papa John's pizza and sat down on the couch and watch full House, not fuller House, Full House, and I gammed 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 crawled up in fetal position with my body pillow and cried myself to sleep the night. The next day, I get a call from Pastor Steven. He said, Hey, you doing, How are you processing things? I said, I'm embarrassed. I feel like I'll let God down. I feel like I'll let you down.

I feel like I'll 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 thirty minutes at a 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 map with this condition for thirty eight 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 present 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 into 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 out run his grace. In verse eight, Jesus looked at the man and he said, I don't care what you've done. I don't care what she'll do. But sir I need you right now to get up and walk. And in verse nine, the man immediately jumped to his feet after thirty eight 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 you.

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 brace is greater than your frustration. His grace is greater than your bitterness. His grace is bigger than your struggle. His grace is bigger than anything than your face in your life. 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 parent I could be. I've tried 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 clenched, why, 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 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 for 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 headsta about

and eyes still close. If you just said that prayer for the first time, or maybe you're coming back to Christ on the counter 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. Up pays God for you, ma'am, shoot him up. Hallelujah, past good for you. I'll see you in the back pace. God for you. The grace of God is in this place. The grace of God is

here for you. The grace of God is with you wherever you go. Let's give him pray, Let's give him honored. Let's thank God for a beautiful break. Oh well, 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