Frankie Mazzapica - Stay Where The Water Stirs
Hello, my name's Frankie. The title of today's message is "Stay Where the Water Stirs," stay where the water stirs. Let me just kind of dive right into it straight away. In John chapter 5 we discover that there was this massive pool and there were these porches around the pool where sick people would lay. Now, the Bible says that there were multitudes of people, which means there were thousands of people that would gather around this large pool. Now, the only people that gathered around the pool were people who were sick, people who were lame, people who couldn't walk, or their arms were shriveled up. Those were the only people who gathered around the pool and many of them had a friend that wasn't lame that would help them get into the pool, but only when the water in the pool would stir.
You see, there would be an angel of God that would come down at a certain time, and the angel has no power on his own, so he comes down with the power of God and stirs the pool. And the first one in the pool would be healed. So, let's just dive right into it. There's John chapter 5, verses 6 through 9. The Bible says that Jesus came to the pool of Bethesda and he saw a lame man. He was lame, he was laying on a mat. He saw a lame man laying and Jesus knew that he had been there a long time. And so, he said to the man, "Do you want to walk"? And the lame man said back, "I don't have anyone to push me into the pool when the water stirs. As soon as I try to get into the pool," the Bible says this, "someone else steps in the water before me". Jesus looks back at the lame man and he says, "Stand up, take your mat and walk".
So the lame man stands up, clackity clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack clack. He sets off. I've got three major points for you this morning. The first point is how he stayed where the water stirs. The second point is you are just like him, you are not like the others. How many of you already figured that out? I'm not like you guys. You know, stop hating on me. I'm not like you. My wife is real outgoing. She likes to be around people. The more she's around people, the more, you know, alive she feels. Me? You'll never believe it. I'm an introvert. A total introvert. When I'm in groups of people, I'm incredibly nervous.
And I know you think I'm lying, but I'm incredibly nervous. I never go out to coffee with somebody because I think the conversation is gonna bomb, so I bring Allie. Honestly. Anyway, I don't have time for a counseling session, so. Anyway. I know I'm different, you know you're different. Let me go ahead and say the last point. This is gonna take some perseverance. All right, so one more time. Stay where the water stirred, you are different, it's gonna take some perseverance. This lame man had been there for 38 years.
Now, why does he want to continue to show up? He's already come to the realization he's not gonna get in there first. He's lame. But he knows that God is doing something in that pool. He knows he can't figure it out, he doesn't have all the answers, but he knows that God is moving in that pool. See, the reason why you're here today is you know that God moves in the sanctuary of God. You come in, like me, many times depleted, discouraged, very little faith. Sometimes I walk in like this... Faith like Moses. Other times I walk in, I think, God, I don't think you want me speaking today. My faith is like this. But like you, I keep coming to the house of God because I know this is where angels are sent and the presence of God is moving in this place.
Now, what's fascinating, I was thinking about this, the lame man is on a bed and he can't get off the bed fast enough to get to the pool before everybody else. So, if he can't get from the bed into the pool, how in the world did he get from his house to the pool? Well, obviously, he had a friend or someone in the family that helped him get there. I don't know how that worked. Luke, why don't you come on up here real quick? I don't know how this worked, okay. Now, maybe he had someone strong in the family that just kind of brought him there. It's your birthday, but Daddy can still beat you. I had to do it, I love you. Give him a big round of applause. I don't know. But what I do know is after the family member or the friend got them there, they left.
The Bible says that the layman said, "I don't have anyone to push me in the pool". Other people had someone to push them in the pool. He didn't. So the person that brought him there, listen, could only take him so far. But have you already noticed that? You have people who care about you, but they can only help you so much. It's like they take you as far as they can and then they stop.
Now, let me tell you this. This is so good. I didn't say this in the first service because I love you more. Sometimes we get angry at people for not doing what they are not capable of doing. We get mad at our mom or our dad or this person or that person and they don't have the tools to do it. I don't know what they're missing, but they're missing something in their relationship with you to be able to carry you any further than they've already have. Don't beat them up because there's something in you and I that can only help people so much. We can only help people get here, but we can't manufacture the miracle.
Do you know, as smart as the scientists are in this world, the United States, China, India, all these scientists, they can't figure out how a seed in the ground grows. They just like, "Put it in good soil, water it, have sunlight, and then..." They can't figure that out. They can only go so far. And so, the Lord shows up and he says, "Get off your mat". He wants to stay there. Let me tell you, I continue to show up to the house of God, not because it's my job.
I was in love with the house of God before I ever met you. I showed up to the house of God when I was 16, 17 years old, only showing up because my parents made me. Late, sitting in the back row. I don't know what happened to me, but all of a sudden Ezekiel 36:26 happened to me. The Lord reached in, grabbed my heart of stone, pulled it out, replaced it with a heart of flesh, gave me a new heart and a new spirit. Since that day, I have been ruined. Is there anyone else that's ruined by God? You can try to run away, you can try to stop thinking about him. Come on, somebody. You can try. "I'm not going to church anymore," but it never gets off your mind. You're ruined. Nod at me if you're ruined. You're completely ruined.
I was praying for somebody over here and he was so angry, just mad. You could see his face angry. And I knew that there's only one way you can be that angry, that there was a demonic spirit that was on him. And so, I prayed for him, just stood there. Prayed for him again, just stood there. He's the one that came down for prayer, I didn't go to his seat. And so I'm like, God, I don't know what to do from here. And so I said to him, "I'm gonna ask the Holy Spirit to bring to your mind anyone you need to forgive". You're exactly right. It is always, not always, but most of the time it's unforgiveness that's keeping us from our miracle.
And so I said, "Holy Spirit, bring to mind anyone he needs to forgive". And he says, just barely gets it out of his mouth, "God, I forgive the person who shot my best friend". He lost his strength and fell to the ground. At that moment, he just started crying and that demon that was tormenting him left. This is what happens in the house of God. What's happening here? The water is stirred in the house of God. The water is stirred here. It wasn't his turn for a long time, but if you never heal me, God, I'm staying where the water is stirred. Have you ever said that? "If you never give me anything good again, I'm still gonna worship you. I'm gonna praise you. You've done too much".
Come on. You never give me anything again. Job was going through hell on earth. People were dying around him and he said this in Job 23, verse 3. He says, "Where do I go to meet with God? Where do I go"? What a paralyzing feeling. But David comes along in Psalms 26, verse 8 and he goes, "Oh, I love the sanctuary of God because it's where his presence dwells". Hey, I'm like you. I wanna walk throughout my week like Enoch did and just talk with God, be a friend of God's. I'm like you, I wanna do that too. And it is our purpose, it is what God wants, it is why we were born. But we can never forget that the water gets stirred in the sanctuary and God is raising up a remnant, a small group of people, compared to the billions on earth that just say, "I just wanna be where the water gets stirred".
I was preaching here at Celebration one time and something happened, I will never forget, but ever since it happened, I don't wanna miss church. When my family goes on vacation, I'm thinking to myself, God, if you move like that again while I'm not there, I'm not gonna be happy for anyone. I was speaking and I walked over here and something happened. If I had every word in the English language at my demand, I still could not explain what happened. I walked over here and the presence of God became so real that everybody in the room didn't move. Not every other person, everyone, all of us. And I was right here and I didn't know what to do. And it only lasted about five seconds and we just froze.
And I've talked to the Lord over and over about this. I'm like, God, what should I have done in that moment? And if you ever move like that again, please tell me what to do. I've thought about that over and over again. When I show up to the house of God, I know that the water stirs differently here than any other room in the world. He moves differently in the sanctuary of God. And the Bible says this, don't do what some people do where they forsake the gathering of the people. "I don't need, I don't", don't do that. Now, the lame man was saying, "I will show up here because God's moving here," and he didn't even understand what was happening. You are different. The layman was different. What was different? He was going to get healed and touched by God differently than anyone else.
I was praying a while back a few years ago, I went to Bible college, went through an internship, and some of my friends have become pastors and they seem, from the naked eye, so much more successful than me. And I've told the Lord, "Why are they so successful when you and I both know they're dum-dums"? They're dum-dums! We were kids, they're dum-dums. Have you ever looked at a friend and their life is going really good and you're like, "That shouldn't be happening to you, you're a dum-dum"? Are you with me? "You shouldn't be making that much money. I know you, you're dumb". "Where did you get that car? You're a dum-dum, you shouldn't have that car".
Some of you guys are like, "I don't ever, never", well, let's talk about lying just for a moment. And the Lord spoke to me a couple of things. First of all, he said this. He goes, "You don't know what you're looking at, so mind your own business. Secondly, what I'm doing with you is unlike anything I've ever done with anyone else. Anyone else". The layman by the pool experienced something that God had not done with anyone else. What God is doing in your life, what he's preparing in your life, will only be slowed down if you look at other people and say to yourself, "I should be doing that. I should be doing that. I wanna be doing that. I should be doing that".
If that's you, get comfortable where you are because you're not going anywhere. Until we back up and say, "I don't want what anyone else has," which is really hard because now we're laying our dreams on the altar. I don't want what everyone else has. I want what you have prepared for me because if I get what you've prepared for me, oh my goodness. If I get to be touched in a way that no one else has ever been touched, I can't even imagine it. You are different. Just stay where the water gets stirred. And if you don't like this sanctuary, if you don't like this church, go down the street and find a church you do like because the sanctuary is where the water gets stirred. It always has, it always will, and that's where God says do not stop coming.
Come on. Do not stop coming. You are not like the person next to you. The Lord will never treat you like the person next to you. The Lord God is everywhere. He's omnipotent. But in the strangest way, you are alone with him. Your issues, your problems, your hopes, your fears, your concerns, the idea that you're stuck, the idea that you're being overlooked, the Bible says this in Psalms 116, verse 1, where he says, "I love the Lord, because he hears my voice and my cry for mercy". In the strangest way, you're alone with God. Watch this, "Because he bends down to listen to me".
How many of you have children and you bend down over their bed? Do you remember when they were little, you bend down over their bed? When I've talked to people who are sick, they can't lift their voice, what do we do? We bend down to listen. God is everywhere. He's everywhere. But he says this, "I love the Lord because he hears my prayer and my cry for mercy. Because he bends down to listen to me, I will pray as long as I have breath". In the strangest way, God is everywhere, but you are alone with him, and because you're alone with him, he treats you different than everyone else. He will touch you different from everywhere else. The lame man, he was not touched like everyone else.
Here's my encouragement for you, point number three: persevere. Continue to tell yourself the truth in the world of doubt. I read somewhere, it was one phrase, never forgot it. It said, "Bust through quitting points". Bust through them. Sometimes the only way to bust through quitting points is just to stand firm. You don't know how to go forward, you know going backward is not an option, you're stuck in the hallway, the doors you walked out of... man, this is so good, oh my goodness.
Clearly, I love you guys more. This wasn't in the first service. When you're in the hallway, the door you came out of closes behind you and now you're in the hallway and you're waiting for the next door to open, but there's no door open because you're stuck in the hallway. Have you ever been there? Am I talking to anybody or am I talking to myself? Say, "Yes," if I'm talking to you. Stuck in the hallway, the guy was stuck in the hallway but he was stuck on his mat. What's he do? He keeps showing up to where the water is stirred and the Lord treated him differently. He will treat you differently.
He's got a plan for you unlike anyone else, so stop looking around at everybody else. What he's got for you is so good, people are gonna look at you and want what you got, and you're gonna look at them and say, "Look here, girlfriend. You don't want what I got. What God has for you is absolutely insane. Just stay where the water is stirred". This is what he's trying to say. Stay where the water is stirred. He's trying to say you are different. But the key: Persevere. Dig your heels in the ground and say, "If nothing else happens, if God does nothing more for me, I will worship you because you bend down to listen when I pray". Does that help anybody? Come on, does that help anybody?