Tashara Angelle - May 25, 2025

This Eastertide season sermon explores how God consistently works in ways that defy human expectations and conventional wisdom. Through the stories of the man at the pool of Bethesda and Paul's unexpected encounter with Lydia in Macedonia, the message challenges our tendency to exhaust ourselves trying to "fix" everything through our own efforts.

The sermon addresses the modern struggle of feeling overwhelmed by personal and global problems, our impulse to become "fixers" who must control every outcome, and the despair that follows when our efforts fall short. Rather than promoting inaction, it calls listeners to find rest and peace in Jesus as the ultimate source of salvation—not in our own abilities, political solutions, or self-help strategies.

The central message is one of liberation: God always has a "back door," a creative workaround that doesn't require what we think He needs. Just as Jesus didn't need the pool to heal, and God didn't need a man to spread the gospel in Macedonia, He doesn't need our frantic efforts to accomplish His purposes. The sermon concludes with an invitation to trust Jesus and lay down our expectations of how problems should be solved.

Todays Readings: Acts 16:9-15 | Psalm 67 | Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 | John 5:1-9

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