Get Up, Pick Up, Walk!!

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.

What would a John 5 experience look like for you?

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey guys, thanks for tuning in to Unfiltered. My name is Jesse B. Really quick, I want to extend a warm welcome to Baldwin in Republic, Missouri, Columbus, Ohio, and Wine Dot, Oklahoma. All locations where the newest listeners have joined the Unfiltered Podcast listening family. To all listeners, if you enjoy this content and know of others who would too, go ahead and share an episode or two with them, and make sure to subscribe if you haven't already. Sharing and subscribing doesn't cost a thing other than time and it helps people find this channel. I realize it's been about a week since the last episode which was on drinking and gambling. Not a how to, but rather what the Bible may say about such things. We, or rather I, concluded that while these things are not necessarily labeled as sins in and of themselves, we still need to use the Bible as our moral compass and allow the Holy Spirit to assist when needing answers about things that may not necessarily be spelled out in the Bible. For example, I'm old enough to recall a time when girls wearing jeans or slacks to church was considered rebellious and how I rebelled when I started wearing jeans on Sunday nights. I argued with my grandmother and other older ones in this congregation that there's no scripture saying girls shall not wear jeans on Sunday nights to the house of God. We are, however, to dress modestly, and I think that's in 1 Timothy two, 9 through 10, where it talks about words or uses words of decency and propriety for how we should dress. And we can go back and forth on that with cultural and societal issues and how that's changed over the years and sometimes not for the better, but anyway, we'll save that for another time. Right now we're going to focus on the book of John, chapter 5, verses 5 through 9. And I do encourage you to read the whole chapter because there's a lot going on here that uh is worthy of being read and studied out on your own. But I want to focus on verses five through nine for this particular episode. And as I'm reading this, I want you to think about a situation or a time where you just felt stuck, and maybe you're there now. But verses five through nine. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there for a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be healed? The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is being stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me. Jesus said to him, Get up, take up your bed and walk. And at once that man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. This past Monday I was at the office and just keeping to myself, doing my work, and I typically have in at least one earbud so I can listen to a podcast or music just to drown out the office chatter and kind of help the day move along a little bit faster. But I pulled up the Deep End podcast with Taylor Welch, and while some may agree or disagree with his approach and ideas on things, but what I like about it is that religion is just thrown out the window, and he's not afraid to dig into topics and present ideas that you're not going to hear behind a pulpit or in a Bible study. He doesn't let the truth get clouded by religion, denominational traditions, and church politics, if that makes sense. So that's what I like about this podcast. It's just open, honest discussion and questions. But anyway, this particular one was titled Wrestling with God and in parentheses, hating God, and in quotations the word blessing, and then hopelessness. The video still had his picture and his co-host picture, and it was captioned, I planned my own death. And I thought, wow, this is the one that I need to really pay attention to, and I have to tell you that it was one that I fought back tears and ended up sobbing most of the way through it because in a lot of ways he was telling my story. What I found is that it opened me up to having probably one of the rawest dialogues with God that I've had in a while. The next thing I knew I was having my own John V experience. The best I can describe it as a spiritual emancipation. I literally felt chains and sh uh shackles snap and pressure and hindrances relieved. And then the words came to my spirit, You are free. Now remove the debris. Just as Jesus healed this man who had been paralyzed for thirty eight years, Jesus was also beginning that healing process in me. Just as Jesus told the man to get up and take up his bed and walk, Jesus had freed me from what was keeping me paralyzed and now telling me to get up, get rid of the debris, and live. Now through past reflection, I know that I have repeated the mistake of waiting on the Lord to do the work that He's already done. God is sovereign and ultimately his plan will prevail, but still we as believers are called to active participation. For example, a lot of people, including pastors, will quote Malachi 3.10, and it's often quoted out of context and with the wrong motives. And I'll just go ahead and read that scripture. Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and try me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open up for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you so much blessing that there will not be enough room to receive it. Now that's a direct quote from God, and it's pretty hard to screw that up, yet we do. God did not promise wealth if you tithe, but he did promise blessing. Now, in our spiritual maturity, we need to realize that blessing and wealth are not always the same thing. Now, Deuteronomy 8 18 says, And you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he swore to your fathers as it is to this day. Now we have gifts and talents and abilities given by God to obtain wealth, but it's not his job to make us wealthy. That falls on us. There's a scene in Grumpy Old Men where Burgess Meredith's character who is the dad, and he's talking to Jack Lemon's character, who is the son, and Burgess is saying that he eats bacon, drinks beer, smokes cigarettes, and has outlived his doctor and most of the experts, and he wondered if he had lived so long that God had forgotten about him since all the ones dying were younger. Well, we might chuckle at scenes like that, we know in truth that the only thing that God chooses to forget is sin at the moment of repentance. But I know the feeling, and I suspect that we're all familiar with times where it seems that God has either forgotten us or he's chosen silence over action and answers when we need it the most. However, we also need to think that it could be that God is the one who is waiting on us, waiting on us to make a move in faith when he has broken the shackles and chains, giving us the freedom to make that move. Maybe we all need to be praying for that John V experience. What would a John five experience look like in your life? For me, that would look like and it is looking like trusting the gift or trusting the giver of my talents, gifts, and abilities, and seeking his purpose, not man's empty promises, answering his call for ministry and not allowing it to be silenced or discouraged by those who don't have a vision, seeking and trusting God's plan rather than someone's opinion which sometimes will leave me feeling discouraged rather than encouraged. For me, letting go of the ruins that no longer serve a purpose and trusting God for new land, new territory, and a new purpose. In short, being ready to go where and when God says go. As always, thank you for listening, and I promise that I will not allow this many days to lapse before recording another podcast. So, once again, I appreciate each and every one of you, and I love you guys. I'll talk to you soon. Good night.