Rise, Take Up Your Bed, and Walk

In one paragraph

Ray walked through John 5:1-18 alongside Steps 6, 7, and 11 of the 12 Steps series, showing how Jesus' question to the man at the pool of Bethesda cuts to the heart of the whole series: do you actually want to get well? The sermon held that honest self-examination, readiness, and humble asking are not just recovery principles but the shape of the Christian life itself. To set up the new passage,...

Read together

1. Psalm 103:1 quoted as an encouraging word before singing 10,000 Reasons
2. Colossians 3:16 read as a send-off before the offering: let the message about Christ in all its richness fill your lives
3. John 5:1-18 the main passage for the sermon, read and expounded throughout
4. 1 John 1:9 cited to show that confessing to God brings forgiveness and purification from all unrighteousness
5. James 5:16 cited to support confessing sins to each other and praying for each other so that you may be healed
6. Philippians 2 referenced to show that Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, contrasting the Pharisees charge of blasphemy

Talk about it

1. Ray talked about the first three steps as 'I can't, God can, I'm gonna let him.' Where in your own life do you find it hardest to move from step two, believing God can, to step three, actually letting Him?
2. Ray pointed out that Jesus asked the man who had been ill for thirty-eight years, 'Do you want to get well?' and took his excuse-filled answer as a yes. What excuses do you find yourself giving when God asks you the same question about something in your life?
3. Ray was open about his own struggle with overeating and said it had become part of his identity, making it harder to let go. Is there something you hold onto that has become part of how you see yourself, and how does that make it harder to ask God to remove it?
4. Step six says we were entirely ready to have God remove our defects of character, and Ray stressed the word 'entirely.' What is the difference between being partly ready and entirely ready, and what does it take to get to entirely?
5. Ray described step eleven as the one he finds most helpful on a daily basis, praying only for knowledge of God's will and the power to carry it out. What would change in your daily life if that became the actual shape of your prayer?
6. Ray noted that the healed man did not even know Jesus' name, yet he was humble and obedient when Jesus gave him a command. What does that tell us about where God can meet a person, and how does it affect the way we think about people who are not yet where we are in their faith?