4th and 10

delete

it was Dec. 7th 1980

a 3-0 start to the 49ers season quickly turned to a 5-8

in the first half of the game the Saints who were 0-13 dominated the 49ers by scoring 5 touchdowns in only 20 downs and the 49ers only getting 1 TD

However in the 2nd half when the world thought that the 49ers were going to go into another loss, they came back with a fury throwing 259 yards and also running in for a touchdown.

this would cement Montana start to becoming one of the best quarterbacks ever to play the game as they won 38-35.

We all love underdog stories, stories that seem like all is lost but with HOPE the lost cause comes back and is successful

We as a society love Underdog movies, movies like

Rocky

The mighty Ducks

Rudy

Miracle

I mean even movies Like I.D.4 when the earth is attacked by Aliens and we only have one shot at winning and they come through

WE LOVE These stories, but when it comes to our life many people tend to just give up.

We say and think things like

There is no way I can do it

its too much work

things never work out for me

and insert excuse

Some times we give up just before the time that whatever it was comes to be

John 5:1–9 NIV

Some time 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 and 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 thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this 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 am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.” Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,

Let’s break this down a bit

There is this man who had been invalid for 38 years, who was lying trying everything he could to get to this water so that he could be healed

How many of use have been in a situation that we are trying everything we can, even when it seems like a long shot?

It could mental, physical, circumstantial.

We feel like we just keep trying and something keeps us from getting to where we need to be.

like this man trying to get to the water but someone always gets there first.

How about putting our trust in something that is not of God?

This pool of Bethesda is now to be known for it being a healing center of Asclepuis (Ass-Cleepy_ES)

So you have a man that is relying on something other then God to heal him, to be the answer to his long shot

Some scholars believed this man to be a gentile because there is no way he would be at a pagan pool for healing, but the pool was probably a part of Hellenization of Jerusalem, and many jews fell into the trap of the pagan worship.

SO

What Are You Putting Your Trust In?

when things are not looking good, are you putting your trust in something other than God?

Before you answer that to yourself, lets think about it for a moment

Ourselves

I can handle it on my own

other people

Asking for advice from everyone, but God

ungodly sources

So on

Where do you turn to when things are not going so well, or you do not get your answer right away?

This man put his trust in a pagan, source and did not give up

Maybe you are in this mindset

I to far in to give up

Then Jesus shows up and asks “Do you want to get well?”

the man doesn’t say yes

he complains,

he tells Jesus no one will help him

He is complaining that no one would help him with a pagan practice .

Jesus then heals him, showing that Jesus had the power not a false God or false practice.

What Are You Going Through?

There are things everyday that hit us that we try to take care of the wrong way.

There are big issues that hit us that we try to handle the wrong way

big or little what are you going through?

How Are You Handling It?

Are you going to God right away?

or are you trying it on your own, or every other way except going to God?

______

I want to look at one more part of this passage with you all today

John 5:14 NIV

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

See the man was in sin

He was relying on a false God for what he should have been giving to God, He was in sin.

We might not be relying on a “False god” but we when we a turn to other things and not on God, we are working from a sense of pride, and not trusting God

We are told in scripture 191 times to Trust God, I think with that many times we can come to the conclusion that it might be important to trust God.

Maybe you feel like you have asked God to many times for the same thing, and you are hesitant or just don’t want to “bother” Him, or make Him mad, so many times in the Bible people continually pray for the same thing

Ephesians 1:17 NIV

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

There are time when when need to continue to pray until God gives us the answer to the prayer

2 Corinthians 12:7–10 NIV

or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

So my hope for you is that today would would be the day that we stop trusting other outside influences, and put our trust in God, and He would be our first thought when we need not only a long shot, but anything.