Lisa Bevere (0:00)

This is an Iheart podcast.

Steven Furtick (0:04)

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Elevation Church Host (1:05)

Hey, this is Steven Furtick. 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 faith. Hope it gives you perspective to see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.

Lisa Bevere (1:22)

My name is Lisa, and I can't even tell y' all how excited I am to be here, how overwhelmed I am to be here. You are family to me, whether you claim me or not. I claim y'. All. I deeply, deeply, deeply love and respect Pastor Holly and Pastor Stephen, and I know full well you could have anybody from around the world and it would be an undeserved privilege for them to be in this house. And so I'm always surprised, flying from Nashville to Charlotte, that I kind of feel like the girl in the math club and the quarterback asked her to prom. It is. I mean, not that there aren't amazing girls in math clubs. My apologies if you're in the math club, but I just. I'm always just kind of undone that I get to be with y' all because I love this house so much. Chunks and Amy Corbett, I would follow y' all off a coup. I just think you hung the moon. And I'm feeling especially nostalgic this week. And so I'm glad I get to be with surrogate family because my little girl, some of you I've met, and some of you know, I became a mom through the miracle of adoption. And the year I turned 50, I don't have a baby daddy yet. So if you know somebody. I'm 61. If you know somebody between 55 and death, I'll go younger. Who's. Who's employed and loves Jesus and doesn't live in his mother's basement. But anyway, it's just Missy and me, and she's turning 16 a week from today. And so just all those mama feelings have been welling up over the last week. And I've been talking to her about all these memories I have from when I first brought her home from Haiti in 2014. And she had all these just precious habits. Like, one of them was she called me Pablo the entire time that I was adopting her from Haiti. For two years, she called me Mama Blanc, White Mama in Creole. And then the day I brought her to Haiti, Haiti, to Nashville, from Haiti, she started calling me Pablo. And I thought, that's just odd. She would switch to Pablo, and I'd go, no, no, Baby Morelli. Mama Blah. My name is White Mama. And she'd go, no, Pablo. And I thought, this is gonna be just awkward when she gets married, because if y' all don't get on the stick and I don't have a husband, I'm gonna be the one that the pastor says, who gives this woman? I'm gonna go, me, Pablo. And so I kept trying to dissuade her from calling me Pablo. She was INS until we found out that the very last Sunday school curricula she had done in her orphanage, they don't make enough curricula to print them in Creole. And so they'll borrow from Spanish curricula, because that's close enough to Creole that the kids can usually get it. And the very last little lesson she had done was on the missionary journeys of Paul Pablo. And when she asked one of the nannies at the orphanage, what does my mama blanc do, my white mama do? Does she sell mangoes? Does she sow? They said, well, she's kind of like a missionary. She travels around and talks about Jesus. And so my pumpkin conflated those two stories and decided I was Apostle Paul. And so I could just imagine Paul and Gloria going, really, Jesus? Like, really? Could we get a better doppelganger? So that was one of her habits. Another thing that I thought was precious, that she got confused was her last name. Because I love teasing and giving nicknames, and the Whole time I was adopting her, I called her Scooter mctooter. And so the first couple of times people asked her what her last name was in Nashville, she'd go, Missy McTuda. And I was like, no, no, no, it's Harper, baby. It's Harper. Her last habit, I told her about this last week. That was priceless. It was a little alarming, but it was priceless. Was anytime we came near a wall, like if we were walking next to this or a fence, if I wasn't paying attention, Missy would run up on the wall or the fence and then without any war, hurl herself off the wall of fence toward me. Because she just knew, like she knew her name that I would catch her. And it was so precious and a little scary to just have this precious little, little Haitian hurling herself off high things into my arms. She, after about maybe a month, dropped that habit. I was glad. It might be hard to catch her now, but are you okay if I tell the hurling story? Okay. Will you put in your earbuds for this next little part? Hurling is still a habit in the Harper household. It's not Missy, though. It's me. I was driving her to school for the last week of school just a few weeks ago, the end of May. And we were going over her history final, going over her notes for her history final. And we were driving to school. And Missy had stayed up most of the night studying for her finals. So she wasn't in a good mood. Do you have a minute? But the other one. And she was. I'll let you know when you can pull em out. She did tell me I could tell this story, but she's turned 16, and I don't want to embarrass her unduly. When Missy, there's. How many of y' all have teenage daughters? You know, there's just like three days a month that they swallow gremlins. And it's only like three days a month that she. Missy is normally the kindest. That's how you can tell she doesn't have my DNA. She is kind, deeply kind, but three days a week, she's a bear. So she had stayed up most of the night studying for finals, and then she had swallowed PMS gremlins. And so we're driving to her Christian private school, and she's just mad. And I think, I'm Jesus Junior, you know, I'm driving. I've gotten her sausage biscuit from her favorite place. You know, I'm just very patiently going over electromagnetic fields and characteristics with her on the way to school so she'll pass her test. And I said something, I remember what I said. And Missy said something very sarcastic. Her breath. I can handle just about anything as a mama, except for disrespect. Disrespect, Ooh, it's my Achilles heel. And so I looked at this beautiful miracle child of mine who was tired and had pms, But I have PMS too. It's called post menopausal demonic syndrome. And my gremlins are big and tatted. My gremlins have little tears on them and they want to fight. And so when I'm around disrespect my pms, gremlins come out in hordes, Big angry hordes. And so I looked at Missy and I said, what did you say? And she said. And I pulled the car over to the side of the road and I said, in this home, we at least have the integrity to speak disrespect out loud. We don't say it under our breath. So would you like to try again and say that out loud? Any of y' all have a mama like this? I mean, I should have been in timeout myself, but Missy, because of that three day period, she gets braver than usual. She said it out loud and, you know, I was backed into a corner at that point. I had to do something, and so I didn't really know what to do. And so I just snatched her biscuit and threw it out the window. It's hurt. Her biscuit out the window. And Missy just went. And I was like, I know. I can't believe I hurled your biscuit. I was so grateful that within like 30 seconds, humor and humility invaded our car. And some of my fruit of the spirit came back. Patience came lipping back. My PMS gremlins had beaten Patience, but it finally crawled back in the car and we laughed and I gave her my breakfast biscuits so she wouldn't have a headache during her history exam. And we laughed by the time we got to school. But I was like, man, it is different raising an almost 16 year old than it was raising a 4 year old when she was 4. I put just. I'm so sorry I scared your child, baby. Your mama, your mama will not throw your biscuit. I can promise. I'm the only hurler in the house this morning. When she was 4, I put most of my attention, my affection into her establishing roots so she would have deep, deep roots, that she would know that she was loved, that she was, affirmed that I wasn't going anywhere. That unlike her first mama, who passed when she was a baby, I was gonna do everything I could to stay here. So those formative years were all about roots. Now that Missy's growing up, it's all about wings. It's all about me learning how to get behind her and affirm her. I've given her the parameters. She knows the boundaries. Now it's about giving her the grace to fly and to become the woman God has created her to be. When she was little, our intimacy was all about her total dependency on me. Now that she's growing up, our intimacy, it's no longer based on her being totally dependent on me. As a matter of fact, the more she matures, the less dependent she'll be on me if she's healthy. Now hang on and listen to me, Efam. Do not mess with your Nespresso machine right now. Hang on to this next truth. For human children, it's important as they grow up that they become more independent. For children of God, it's exactly the opposite. If you want to mature as a Christ follower, we should be increasingly dependent on our creator, Redeemer. It's counterintuitive in this world we're plopped in. You want to grow as a Christian follower, it means you become increasingly dependent on God. You don't cut the apron strings. They become steel cables. If you brought your Bibles, turn to John's Gospel. We're going to look at John, chapter five today. Very, very, very familiar story. You have heard this story before. If you grew up in a conservative church, you've seen it. Flannel graft. You may have taught it before. John 5, 1, 9. Going to look at my favorite healing in John's Gospel account. John is different than the other three gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Those are called the Synoptic Gospels. That's just a fancy seminary word. That means those three are written in a similar literary format. They all have some type of a birth narrative. They all have parables. Those are the stories Jesus taught. That's half of his sermonic material. And they have a lot of healings. 40 healings. In the Synoptic Gospels, John's Gospel, there are no parables. John is very different in the way he describes the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. He wrote it much later in his life. Theologians think he was probably in his 60s when he wrote the Gospel according to John. And he only has four healings. And this is my favorite of the four. John, chapter five. Beginning with verse one. I'm reading from the Esv after this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem, by the sheep gate, a pool in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids, blind, lame and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, do you want. How many of y' all have heard this story before? Do you want to be healed? One of my closest friends grew up really close to here in Concord, North Carolina. Her name is Eva Whittington. Self one of the godliest, most amazing friends I have. And when she was 17 years old, she was in a hit and run accident on an icy road. Her car flipped into a ravine and her spine was severed. So she was paralyzed when she was 17 years old, has two stings to stabilize her spine. She's been paralyzed from this level since she was 17. She's a little bit older than me, in her early 60s. So she has not been ambulatory for over 40 years. She walks in faith, much more stable than I do. Has the most amazing life, most amazing story. Has two kids, miraculously got pregnant and delivered her children. Married to an amazing man, a judge in Kentucky by the name of Andrew. That I love Eva Whittington's self, and I loathe being with my friend at women's conferences because every time if there's a ramp and I'm wheeling Eva, she's strong as can be, super independent, drives herself, does everything, is much more accomplished than I am. But if there's a ramp, I have to help wheel or wheelchair, and I'll watch women. And it's like, oh, golly jeepers, I might have as well have walked into a keto convention with hot bread. I mean, it's just like. And I know somebody's gonna come up and ask Eva if they can pray for her healing. It happens every time now. God absolutely could heal her spine if he wanted to, but her spine was severed when she was 17. Severed. Medically speaking, it is impossible for her spine to come back together again. If she had had that accident today. Things have changed in the way they treat those type of victims. There's a chance in a couple with what they're doing now, maybe, maybe some stuff could be regenerated, but not when Eva was injured. And of course, thousands of people, including a lot of well known saints, have laid hands on Eva, anointed her with Oil. And in God's merciful sovereignty, he's chosen not to heal that facet of her life. But if you talk to Eva, she'll say, I don't hate this chair. God has used this chair to introduce me to my husband. God has used this chair as a canvas on which to paint what a good God he is. Her testimony includes this part of her story. Well, we were at a conference recently, and I saw a woman, and I thought, she's going to come up and be insistent about praying for Eva. So sure enough, she comes up and she said, I would like to pray for you. And Eva said, that would be lovely. Now I'm holding her chair and I'm like, she said, that would be lovely. I'd really appreciate if you would pray for my patience, because I've been really short lately with my daughters and my husband. And I know when we get the fruit of the spirit, we have all fruit. But my patience is just a little bitty green orb on my tree. And so would you pray for God to give me more patience, y'? All. This woman got so ticked because she had an agenda. She wanted to be the hero who prayed, and Eva would stand up and walk. So when Eva said that, I watched this woman's face, and it just kind of went, you know, like she'd been sucking on lemons or her Spanx were just too tight. And she went, don't you want to get out of that chair and walk? And I was like, do you want to call 911 before I punch you in the throat? I'm so sure you have the arrogant audacity to ask my friend if she wants to get out of this chair and walk. You don't know what it was like when she wanted to stand up and kiss Andrew when they got married. You don't know what it was like when her baby started crying and she had to transfer into her chair and roll down to the nursery. You don't know what that was like for a young mama, and you dare to question her. Oh, I got so ungodly mad. I mean, sorry, I'm in leather pants. I probably squeaked really terribly, but it made me so mad because it was so condescending. And yet. And yet, if we're honest, doesn't it almost sound like that's what Jesus is asking this guy? 38 years he's been going to the pool of Bethesda. If you've studied the background of the story, you know that people have gone to this particular body of water for centuries because Even the pagans believe there's something supernatural there. Something happens when the water ripples and it has healing properties in it. The pagans weren't sure what it was, and then the Jews came along. They believed it was the finger of Yahweh. It's actually underground springs, but they believe there's something in that pool that could bring about physical healing. This guy's been going there for 30 years, years. And the first question Jesus asks is, do you want to get well? I mean, humanly speaking, that's almost an eye roller. Of course, I've been dragging myself here for 38 years and we don't actually get the poignancy of this question unless we get the socio historical context. Because we think as first world modern believers, this is a first century culture based on shame and honor. If you're a note taker, write down T, Z E D A K a H T Z E D A K a H. It's pronounced seduka, almost like the game math game you play in the airport, but not quite. It's a Hebrew word. Some say tzedeka seduka. You can just say it with authority in your small group and they'll think you're smart. It's a Hebrew word that describes almsgiving, charity, or it's even translated righteousness. In some of our English Bibles, their culture hinges on tzedekah when it comes to invalids, when it comes to the blind, when it comes to the lame. Because in this shame and honor culture, they were taught it is honorable to beg if you are legitimately sick. So if you're blind, if you're paralyzed, as this man was, it is actually honorable for you to beg and provide for your family. Several rabbis who are contemporaries of Jesus Christ actually taught that begging was positive for the community because it gave the community an opportunity to be generous. It was basically the cultural ancestor of humble brags on social media. Because what better way to prove you were a good person than to drop some coins in somebody's outstretched hand in the middle of a public place? So for this man to be able to provide for his family and it to be considered honorable for 38 years. I'm not suggesting that he enjoyed being a paralytic. I am saying he had grown comfortable in that he's able to do that and provide for his family, he's able to do that and actually be honored by culture. And Jesus says, do you want to get well? Cause this is gonna change everything for you, son. For you to get deeply healed is gonna Cause some serious discomfort in your story. There's an old movie called the Shawshank Redemption and I don't wanna encourage y' all to watch it. I see a lot of you have when you were struggling in your quiet times. But those of you who haven't watched it, some real questionable language in it. But there's this one scene, it's a movie that kind of centers around a prison and around this wise old convict played by Morgan Freeman. There's this one scene where Morgan is sitting next to a guy who's only recently been incarcerated for. I think he embezzled. Tim Robbins is the actor who so young convict and the Morgan Freeman's sitting there and Tim Robbins is just completely discombobulated because one of their friends had gotten out after years of being in prison. He had gotten out and he reoffended really quickly and was brought back on conditions of parole after only being out for like a week or two. And Tim is just undone. He's like, what a yahoo. I mean, he got out, he made it out of here. And then it seems like he almost purposefully got arrested and go, what in the world? And Morgan Freeman is listening to him complain about why in the world would this guy give up his hard won liberty? And he waits for a minute and he says, you know, at first these walls. And he gestures to those prison walls with a barbed wire on top. He said, at first these walls, you hate them. And then after a while you get used to them. And then if you're in here long enough, you realize you need them. I wonder how many of us have gotten so comfortable being sick that we've started decorating our prison cell so it'll feel more like a living room. How comfortable are you being sick? Do you want to get completely well? Because to be completely well, it'll change everything. Do you want to be well? Stick a finger in Luke and head backwards to Mark's Gospel. Mark, chapter two. Another very familiar encounter Jesus has with some uppity Pharisees. He went out again beside the sea. This is Mark, chapter two, beginning in verse 15. And all the crowd was coming to him and he was teaching them. And as he passed by, he saw Levi, the son of Alphaeus, sitting at the tax booth. And he said to him, follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. For there were many who followed him. The scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was Eating with sinners and tax collectors said to be his disciples. They said, why does he eat with sinners and tax collectors? When Jesus heard it, he said to them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Underneath that question, which is irony, underneath that question was, what's more important to you? Healing or comfort? Because oftentimes, for a mature Christ follower who recognizes neediness is a spiritual necessity, deep healing does cause discomfort because it means we have to acknowledge I'm sick. I don't have it all together. I can't carry the weight of my whole life anymore. I became a Christ follower when I was five years old. And right after I became a Christian. Right before I became a Christian, my father had left us for another woman and her child. And right after I became a Christian, partly because I wanted a dad who wouldn't leave. That's what the pastor preached on when I walked an aisle and they sang Just as I am 700 times. Cause you used to. They'd sing it until somebody walked forward and then you could finally go to lunch. But I put my hope in Jesus. I was just a peanut. And I understood at a very, very, very basic level that I was a sinner and God was the only one who had the detergent to clean my heart. I understood at a very basic level that he was a heavenly father who doesn't abandon his children. That's all I understood. And after I gave my heart to Jesus, some men came and went from our family who did things to me that no man should do to any woman, much less a little girl. And so from my earliest memory, I have felt dirty. And so I learned really early on I conflated a dirty heart with being just dirty because of what had been done to me. And so I conflated those two truths and I just resolved, I'm just gonna try to do better and be better. I'm just gonna try to be good. I'm gonna fill in all the Bible study blanks. I'm gonna go to youth group. I'm gonna volunteer at youth group. I'm gonn. I'm gonna go to youth camp. I'm just gonna do everything good that I can possibly do to make up for how bad I am, to somehow make up for how dirty I am. So I became a class A poser. Just a poser. I love Jesus and I believe this was true. I didn't think this was a rule book. I really did at some level think it Was a love story. I just couldn't understand how a God like that could really love a girl like. So I just tried to do better, be better, do better, be better, do better, be better. It's exhausting. It's so exhausting to pretend like you don't need more healing. How often in America do we pretend like atonement is one and done? I came to Christ. I got baptized. I'm good, I'm good. I'm 61 and single. I have four chainsaws. Chainsaws. I mean, that's like an obsession. I just want to cut things up. The reason I have four chainsaws is I live out in the boonies and we have five acres. And whenever we have a storm that comes through and these charlatans who masquerade as tree service guys tell me it's gonna be $3,500 to cut up a tree that fell down, I'm like, you can kiss my big toe because I'm not paying you $3,500. I'll cut up my own tree. So I bought a chainsaw, and then I couldn't figure out how to get the chain back on, so I'd buy another one and that one messed up. And so then. But I am independent, baby. I mean, I grew up in an era where one of the famous advertisements, I think it had to do with perfume, but the melody was, I can bring home the bacon. Da na na na na. Fry it up in a pan. Thank you. And never ever let you forget you're a man. That part I missed. Cause I'm a wom. I just believe that hook, line, and sinker. Because I wasn't cared for when I was young, I decided it was a high value in my life to learn how to take care of myself. When I begin to hear me say those things to my creator, Redeemer. I've got it. I'm fine. I've got it. I'm fine. I realized I'm not as healed as I thought I was because I can't admit I'm sick anymore. And he came for those who recognize they're sick. How well do you want to be? Do you want. Do you want to be healed or do you want to be comfortable? Because those two are rarely congruent for a Christ follower. Fifteen years ago, God mercifully kicked my self reliant legs out from under my stool. I lost two primary relationships, and I was diagnosed with cancer that initially presented as brain cancer. And y', all, I just lost the capacity to be self Reliant. And I was ashamed. I was so ashamed that I couldn't carry the weight of my own life anymore. And I remember being curled up. I lived by myself. Little cottage south of Nashville. I remember being curled up on the floor. And God spoke to me as clear as a bell. I've never heard an audible voice. You know, sometimes his voice is so loud. Did you ever hear him when you're wrestling? Does he ever whisper encouragement to you? Like, you know, it's the Lord? And it's different than your dad's voice, isn't it? It's just, you know, John says that if you put your hope in Jesus, you'll recognize his voice. It's different than any other voice. And he said, and I'm so stupid, I'm shocked. He comes back again and again and again. I can be so slow to learn and listen. But he said, lisa, you've been running scared your whole life. And so I'm gonna take you to the basement, and I'm gonna sit there with you in the dark until fear doesn't own you anymore. Great church father from the 1600s, St. John of the Cross. He called those seasons in our lives when we feel like we can't carry the weight of our own life, when we feel like we're in a dark valley. He called that a dark night of the soul. My dark night of the soul lasted for six months. I was so weak, I couldn't get out of bed. And I'm not being hyperbolic. I could not physically get out of bed without saying the name Jesus out loud. I had to just speak in the quietness of my little cottage. Jesus. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. I'd get out of bed and go to the bathroom, and I had Scripture laminated next to my sink. And I just had to speak those promises out loud to remember them. I don't know about y', all, but sometimes my heart's a colander. I mean, I'm finishing a doctorate in seminary. I know enough Greek and Hebrew to be dangerous. My poor little crooked heart lags so far behind my head because I spent so long saying, I'm fine. I'm fine. When I wasn't. He so graciously carried me. When I was weak, so gracious. I would go back to that valley again. Because it's in that weak place that I learned what a kind, strong God he is. That's where I learned to peel off my emotional Spanx and say, lord, I need you. Oh, I need you. Every hour, I need you. Do you want to get well how well do you want to get? Because he had to leave this place of comfort and honor. And I bet you he thought, how am I going to provide for my kids now? For 38 years, I knew who I was. I got pretty comfortable using my arms and my brain. If I walk behind him, everything is changing. I want to ask y' all a couple of questions. If I can be so old, bold, just thinking old. Cause I feel like I'm your nana. Do you trust Jesus enough to become solely dependent on him? Y' all not have to answer these, but I want you to think about them. Is being his beloved more important to you than being a husband, a wife, your bestie's first call? Your children's parent, your company's CEO or volunteer of the year? Is Jesus a highlight in your story, or is he the sole author? Which is more important to you? Comfort or healing? Intentional dependency is not an option for healthy Christ followers. Deep intimacy with Jesus requires conscious neediness. As soon as this Fella in John 5 said, I can't heal myself, Jesus said, take up your mat and walk. He didn't have to go to the water. He had to acknowledge, I'm sick and I can't heal myself. Y', all, let me tell you this from experience. You can have stage four emotional cancer and come to church and raise your hands and sing the songs. And nobody knows you're sick because I did it. For a long time, I did it. And the questions in my head were, is this all? Is this all there is? Is this all there is? And I knew I was posing, but I was scared to death one of y' all would look under the hood of my life and say, mm, she's sick. Yeah. Apart from Jesus, I am the sickest one of the lot. Apart from Jesus, I have no hope. Apart from Jesus, I will hurl sausage biscuits every single morning. Apart from Jesus, I can't carry the weight of my own life. I want to be so increasingly dependent on Jesus that I can't get out of bed without saying his name. And you know what that does for my relationship with you? It lets you off the hook. Then I can just be your friend. Then I can be your mom. But I'm not looking to you for my identity. I'm looking to you as brothers and as sisters. But I've taken y' all off the cross. We've gotta learn what it is to be interdependent with each other as family, as community, and solely dependent on Jesus. Chris and the worship team are to come back up and Just usher us into the waiting arms of God. But if I can be, is it okay if I just act like your old Nana for another minute or two? The thing I love about being 61 is, man, I can hug like a boss. And now I can hug everybody. And it's not sexual. Big old boys, little bitty girls. It's fun to be like a gorilla hugger. I'm going to ask y' all to stand up as a family. And again, I know as a. As an undeserved guest in this house, I have not earned the right to ask you such an honest question. And so thank you for giving me the grace to do so and bearing with me. But if you resonated maybe a little bit with me, maybe when you were a kid, you weren't cared for the way God designed you to be cared for, and so you learned to take care of yourself as a survival skill. That too is God's gift. It's just when we carry it into adulthood, it can become armament that puts distance between us and others and distance between us and God. If you consider yourself to be independent, self reliant, and the Holy Spirit is whispering right now, you've done a little bit too much of that with Jesus. You gotta learn how to be needy with Jesus. Would you just sit down wherever you are? Thank you, Jesus. For those of you who had to take care of yourselves because nobody else did, maybe you had a dad who left or a mom who didn't hug or a spouse who hit. I'm so sorry that that was a reality for you as a child of God. I want to remind you, you don't have to be strong with him. Your weakness, he actually transforms into strength. That doesn't mean victimhood. That means I don't have to be scared because he's already assured the victory. I don't have to pretend I'm something I'm not because he says I'm beautifully and wonderfully made. Perfection's overrated, he says, Come as you are and I'll clean you up. Those of you who are standing, can I encourage you as they lead us in worship and then we're gonna have a closing prayer. Can I encourage you to just scoot over by one of those saints around you, one of those brothers or sisters in the face and lay hands on them? If this is your first time at elevation, that might not be in your comfort zone. But again, we're elevated. He elevating healing over comfort this morning. Would you just reach over and put your hand on a saint and just pray for them. Pray that even in this moment of such beautiful honesty, they would recognize the nearness of God, that they'd recognize that his grace really is sufficient for us. That they'd have the same grace that this gentleman did in John's gospel when he said, I I can't heal myself. I need you Jesus. That's all we have to confess, y'. All that is the gateway to intimacy with Jesus is to say I need you. I needed you for salvation and I still need you. You are my breath. I can't breathe without you. You are my hope. I have no hope in my heart without you. You are my peace. Apart from you Jesus, I have too much anxiety. I need you. Oh I need you. I need you every hour.