Time To Stir Things Up

2023 is upon us - How many of you know God is in the transformation business. He loves positive change.

New and exciting ministries and relationships. God gives you a taste of his creative power right from the beginning as you open up Genesis. It is indeed an exciting time.

What is status quo?

Defined a - THE EXISTING STATE OF AFFAIRS

It is a place stuck between the past and the future.

It is the valley between two mountains.

Its the get up everyday to the dead end job and work. Then tomorrow do it all over again.

It is looking back five years and looking ahead five years and seeing absolutely no change.

What changes status quo?

A redefining moment, when God steps into the picture.

The Hebrews were in bondage to Egypt- they didn’t forget who they were I believe they gave in to the status quo - They forgot who they really were.

It wasn’t until Moses said , hey I'm going to tell Pharoah to Let my people go.

The story leads the people on a journey that has never ended. The exodus is all about shattering the status quo. (Thats OT) When Jesus shows up in the NT He changes everything.

Show Chosen Clip

What changes things?

A Change Agent.

John 5:1–8 ESV

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?” 7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

John 5:9–16 NASB95

9 Immediately the man became well, and picked up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was the Sabbath on that day. 10 So the Jews were saying to the man who was cured, “It is the Sabbath, and it is not permissible for you to carry your pallet.” 11 But he answered them, “He who made me well was the one who said to me, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk.’ ” 12 They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your pallet and walk’?” 13 But the man who was healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “Behold, you have become well; do not sin anymore, so that nothing worse happens to you.” 15 The man went away, and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. 16 For this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

A very sad scene turned into a very powerful scene.

”What a sad scene this was. Here are all of these people maybe up to 3,000 just waiting around this little body of water just waiting for something to happen hoping that good fortune might come their way. Bethesda means place of mercy.

Hoping they might be healed of their disability. Just waiting.

It was not a place of mercy it was a place of hopelessness. A place of total weakness.

Some of our emergency rooms are starting to match the description. If not here for, sure in a third world country.

St Augustine said “For there are two tormentors of the soul, torturing it not at once, but alternating their tortures. These two tormentors’ names are, Fear and Sorrow. When it is well with thee, thou art in fear; when it is ill, thou art in sorrow.

That is what a lot of people are doing. They are just waiting. Waiting for something to happen.

There was a psychologist named William Marsten who asked 3000 people what are you living for. He found that 94% of them were simply enduring the present while waiting for the future. They said they were just waiting for something to happen.

Benjamin Franklin said, God helps those who help themselves

Remember this is not found in the Bible - I’m pretty sure the man at the pool, Lazarus , all those healed from diseases, lameness, blindness etc were in need of something greater than them selves.

Yes some shouted Jesus, some touched his garment, some cut holes in roofs , but what was the common denominator - Jesus

But Jesus sees Him?

His eye surveys this mass of suffering, needy, hopeless humanity, and then His eyes rest on one individual and He looks at him and He knows something about him and then He goes to him.

My point is that mercy begins by how we see—how we see people, how we see their condition.

2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

We need to see the way Jesus sees.

Greg Laurie Sermon Archive

He is looking for the person who is looking for Him. And Jesus says, “Those that seek Me will find Me.” And if you really want to know Him He will reveal Himself to you tonight.

So Jesus changes the Status Quo, and while we wait for His return we must remember the Holy Spirit changes the status Quo

The Holy Spirit: The Rejecter of the Status Quo

The Holy Spirit brings the past to the present and strengthens us to face the future courageously with hope.

He rescues us from being victims of the status quo .

His generosity in giving hope delivers us from the “sin of despair,” as Moltmann puts it, which tempts people to withdraw themselves from doing good and striking for excellence.

His hope grants us courage to bear the trials that follow taking risks.

Because of this courage, there is the possibility of improvement, of reaching perfection and of achieving the goals that God has set for us.

A Holy Spirit Renewal, characterized by the miraculous works of the Holy Spirit, inspires hope among those who have tasted the grace and experienced the power.

This reflects the fact that the Holy Spirit refuses to compromise with the status quo .

The Holy Spirit of hope is able to change this status quo and we can work hard for the prospect of hope, for as Paul says,

1 cor 9:10

1 Corinthians 9:10 ESV

10 Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope and the thresher thresh in hope of sharing in the crop.

Jeremiah 29:11 ESV

11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

CONCLUSION