No excuses!

John 5
The Healing at the Pool
1 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?”

7 “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.”

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

Read verse 6 again. There is something to grab there. Did you miss it? I almost did, but its too good to pass by. You see, Jesus didn’t ask the man if he wanted to feel better. Jesus didn’t ask him if he wanted his situation in life to improve. Jesus didn’t ask him if he needed some help.
Jesus asked him if he wanted to get well. Big difference.

We can go to church to feel better and never get well.
We can go to church to fix a problem, but leave unchanged.

We can go to the altar and ask God to take our problem away, walk out the door after church, and go right back to the problem on Monday.

Am I stepping on some toes? I should be. Mine hurt too.

This man was at the pool every single day with all of the other people who had disabilities. He was in his comfort zone. If you want to feel comfortable, go to the place where there are other people with the same problems. You fit in there, just like this man. He fit in.

And we are all guilty of making our church our comfort zone. Our pool. And “our” pew becomes our mat in the same place every Sunday. We can ask people to church, but why can’t we take Jesus to them? Its easy to talk about Jesus when we around other people talking about Jesus. It’s a different story when we are one-on-one at work with people who NEVER talk about Jesus.

But, when Jesus asked this man if he wanted to be well, the man responded with the only answer he knew. He had been this way for 38 years. What would possibly be different for the 39th year?

We get used to dealing with life the way it has always been. “Some things never change”, we say. “I’ll never have the things that I want. I’ll always be broke. I’m not smart enough to get that job. I guess I don’t deserve to be loved like I want to be. My kids will never respect me. My parents did it that way” We get used to things being the way they are because that’s the way they have always been and we feel powerless to change them.

And so we settle.

This man gave Jesus all of the natural and worldly reasons as to why he could not get to the water. And, he was right. He had no one to help him. And, because of his own limitations, he could not get to the water before everyone else. He was waiting on an angel to come down and stir the waters for him.
We all have reasons. We all have excuses.

Your breakthrough will come where your excuses end.

Read that again.

And, Jesus already knew this. He knew this man’s limitations. That is why He came to him instead of one of the others there. Jesus knew that this man had the least amount of hope of things ever changing in his life.

He knew that the man could not get to the water, so He brought the Water to him!!!!

Pretend that the man is you and Jesus has bypassed everyone else with problems and walked right up to you. Now, pretend that He asked you the same question. Jesus didn’t ask you if you wanted things to get better. He didn’t ask you if you wanted an easier life. He didn’t ask you if you wanted him to help you get out of that situation that is making you miserable. He asked you if you wanted to be well. He asked you if you wanted Him to fix it all.

So, look at what Jesus did next. The lame man didn’t even tell Jesus that he wanted to be well. Jesus knew that he did. He knew that the man had given up on anything changing in his life. The man was waiting for his miracle to happen. He was probably crying and begging God for it every day.
If you are begging God for something….if you are pleading for your breakthrough…..then listen closely. You don’t have to beg Him for something that He already has purposed for you. When God decides to do a work in your life, He will find you and make it happen!

Jesus said three things:
1) “Stand up” – Something this man had not done most of his life. Not only had he forgotten how it felt to stand up mentally, but his muscles had forgotten how as well. Something as simple as putting his feet flat on the floor, tightening those leg muscles, and pushing against the ground had not happened in a long time. And all at once, it happened.

2) “Pick up your mat” – That comfortable place that this man had been sitting in for 38 years was no longer a part of his life. He would no longer have to sit in that place waiting for his miracle. So now, not only has he stood up, but Jesus told him to bend over and get rid of his old life. You see, in order to start the life that Jesus has for you, you have to vacate the life that you had before. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! “

2) “Walk away” – There is no need to go back to the way that your life was before because the new way of life will take you to places and levels you have never experienced before. When you walk out of your church on Sunday morning, your life should be changed. You should be walking into places as a different person and it should show. I can imagine the looks on this man’s family and friend’s faces as he walked by on the street, carrying his mat, looking at them with a big ole smile, and waving as he walked by.

Do your friends, your co-workers, your family see a difference?

So, tell me. Are you ready for breakthrough? Do you want to be well?

Maybe you are waiting for God to change your situation and God is waiting for you to walk away from the situation you are hurting in right now. it is Just like the man who felt like he was stuck in his current problem.

Maybe while you are waiting for God to come down, God is waiting for you to get up.