Rise, Take Up Your Pallet, Walk
First B Jackson
2024-08-25

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Good morning, everybody. How are you? Good. Good. Glad to see you.

We're gonna start off with sunshine in my soul. Would you stand with us and we're gonna sing hymn number seven forty seven. The hymnals are up here at the front. If you want one, the words will come up on the wall and we can all sing off the wall. But if you want one, they're up here.

Sunshine in my soul today.

More glorious and bright than those in any earthly sky for Jesus is my light.

Let's see if there's another verse. There is another verse.

That's what I was thinking about. There is gladness in my soul today sunshine

Y'all sound good this morning. That's great. Leaning on the everlasting arms. What a fellowship. What a joy divine.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I do have a few announcements, and here they are. Moving up and in. I think we're fine.

We're gonna be alright. Y'all got plenty of space. Right? You can spread out if you want to but you don't have to move up and in. This is the season in Jackson in Teton County for Old Bills Fun Run.

Old Bills Fun Run is a community event by the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole. It helps non profit charities and for this reason, they're like 600 non profits in Jackson. One of those is the First B benevolence fund. So First Baptist Benevolence fund, if you want to help us to be able to say yes when people are in need, you can give to First Be's Benevolence Fund through Old Bills Fun Run and it'll amplify your giving. Usually, a dollar in is like a dollar 50 out.

So that's a pretty good investment. 50% on investment is pretty good and you can help us to say yes. I have one just one that I'll mention this week that I got a call from somebody that goes to church here without any HIPAA violations, told me about a situation at the hospital where a young couple that doesn't speak English had a baby at six months. So three months premature, twenty twenty five weeks or something like that. And they don't speak the language, and foreigners on a foreign land having a hard time.

The baby was flown immediately to the neonatal intensive care unit or as quick as they could to get the baby to Ermick over in Idaho Falls. And mom, it was an emergency c section, so she's being repaired and having to get kind of healed up from that. And I got the call from the nurse who stayed a couple of extra hours on her shift and was distraught just for them. Right? So she called and I said, well, tell them and tell anybody who's listening that if they need help, we can we can we may be able to help with that.

So if they need a ride or whatever. So Thursday, I got the call from the hospital and they said, hey, would you be willing to take this couple to Idaho Falls? Now, that's the kind of thing that I'm talking about where we can say yes to that sort of thing. So for that couple and for that baby, I wanna pray. For the fire that's burning right now, I'd like for us all to pray.

And before I even leave this announcement and get to the next ones, would y'all pray with me? God, there are so many things that are going on in our immediate scope. Some of them are within our sphere of influence and we can help and others of them Lord are like a raging wildfire that we we personally individually cannot help Lord, but when we can't, know you can and we call on you. We call on you as humble and obedient servants. Would you show us the things that we can change and that we can help with?

And would you also, Lord, would you intervene in a mighty way for your own glory and lord for our good and the good of this community. In Jesus name, we ask your blessing on all of these situations that that feel so confusing to us. Would you shine sunshine on our souls today individually and on each of these situations? Would you bring whatever is necessary to calm those situations in Jesus name. Amen.

Amen. Journey through the Psalms. This is in Bondurant. Next weekend, Saturday and Sunday, the Bondurant Fellowship which is kind of kind of a church plant. A lot of folks who have been here for a long time at First B are getting together on the weekends, on Sundays, and Bondurant Fellowship.

This is the second time they've done this. Getting together for a worship hootenanny next weekend. The band from First B will be playing on Saturday evening and on in in We're to in the if you'd like to make the trip, if you want to camp out, you could almost call this the third camp out of the season. For first B but Bondurant Fellowship, Worship Hootenanny, August 31, September 1, that's next weekend and you can find out more information if you want to at bondurantfellowship.org/hootenanny. Sounds good.

Awana, it's that time. Can you believe it? Awana leaders meeting, Awana volunteers and leaders meeting, September 9 at 6PM in the Fellowship Hall and that is in preparation for the beginning of Awana which happens on the September 16. So not just Mexican Independence Day, but September 16 is coming fast. And that's the beginning of Awana.

September 16, the kickoff date, but one week before that is the ninth we'll feed you for the leaders meeting on September 9 at six. You're also invited ladies. This is the Women of Legacy luncheon. It's tomorrow Jackson, August 26. That's tomorrow at the Presbyterian Church of Jackson Hole eleven to one.

I think that Sherry Turpin has quite a bit to do with this. I don't know a lot about it myself but if you want more information, you can call us tomorrow morning or talk to Diane and she'll help you figure out how to know more about that. She's over there. If you'd like our church wide emails or our Bible study emails, first b in the Bible, you can sign up form at first b Jackson or just let one of us know and we'll sign you up. And this morning, the names are not up there but the there was a baby dedication for Ben and Sarah Walters, little boy, Elijah Matthew Walters.

And he is so cute and they are so great and I just wanna let you know we did a kind of a dry baptism this morning for Elijah, Matthew, Walters and I think that's it. Do you Is there another one? Women's Community Women's Study of yeah. There's another one. I'll know that one too.

I'll get to that in a minute. Community went thank you, Blake. Community women's Bible study is gonna start up here on September 4. So that's not this Wednesday but next, ten to twelve, that's starting up here September 4. Is there anything else?

There's this, and I'll mention it probably again, but Unite for Israel, it's an event that Rabbi Mendelson from the from the Chabad Center asked me, Rabbi Zalman Mendelson asked me if I'd mentioned this. This is happening next weekend on the square. There are three folks who have been to Israel recently and what they experienced during their trip. They're gonna be talking about there's two folks from a Jewish perspective and one from a Christian perspective. It's a solidarity event that Rabbi Mendelson asked me to mention.

So I mentioned it. September 1, that's next Sunday, 5PM. So it's at the same time as at Hootenanny, but that's happening on the square right there. Cliff, Sobin, Mark Schiller, and Diana Watkins are gonna be the speakers for that. I think that's it.

Would you all stand with me? And may this be our prayer, not just right now in this hour, but may this be our prayer that God would open our eyes. Let's sing it again. Amen. What a friend we have in Jesus.

Amen. Let's keep it rolling. Amen. Y'all can have a seat. I'm gonna ask the ushers to come forward and here they come.

Would you pray with me? God, we are so, I am so thankful to be here this morning. I'm thankful that you, Lord, are giving us breath in our lungs. I'm thankful that you are super intending and guiding by your spirit. I'm thankful, lord to be a part of the continuing body of Christ.

I want to be productive and helpful in the advance of the gospel and I believe lord that we're gathered in your name for that very reason. May we be humble and obedient servants looking to carry forward the thing that changed our life. To be offering that in a winsome way, in a helpful way, in a good and loving way. Lord, but not compromising the truth. In Jesus name, we ask that you would be using us to do your will, Lord, in your way.

Would you bless these offerings to do that work? We pray that you take everything that is given to you and that you would multiply to do your will, Lord, in your way. In Jesus name, amen. I'll get with you afterwards. Okay.

Thank you, Judy. Beautiful. So, the text, if you get our, if you did get our Emails like our our little bulletins that we send out, the text this week, you might have seen was John five one through 18. When you read over that, you thought, he must be stepping away from that series that he's been doing on the 12 steps. I'm not but this is the scripture where we're gonna go today but since repetition is the key to learning and I've repeated this a lot.

I'm gonna keep on repeating it because I think it's helpful. We're gonna go through the what we've gone through so far. Is that alright with you all? Okay. A little buy in from the crowd.

Yeah. Step one, in the 12 steps. Now, this was developed in the late nineteen thirties by a few people who sincerely believed that they needed help and they started to see a pattern emerging when people were actually set free and they went back and they tried to codify. It started out with just six steps. They added a few more that seemed like intermediate.

You don't have to take as long between steps as I have been taking. Okay? Now, when I get up on Sunday morning and I say, step one and two is this, it'd be cruel to leave you at step one. We admitted that we were powerless over our problem, that our lives had become unmanageable. Actually, probably the best way to start this is having had a spiritual awakening, we admitted that we were powerless over our problem and that our lives had become unmanageable.

For those folks that started this, alcohol was the problem and they stated it in this that we were powerless over alcohol. It might not be your thing. Alcohol might not be your thing but whatever it is, we all all of us without any exceptions, all of us in the room have a sin problem and whatever that is, we may have a more of a proclivity towards that than other people. It's nice to understand that that's true. We're not all tempted in the same way but nothing is uncommon among men, the Bible says.

We've all been tempted. Jesus was the only one that was tempted and was able to withstand it every time, all the time. But we've all been tempted and we've succumbed to that temptation. We admitted that we're powerless over whatever our problem is, that our lives have become unmanageable, and this is deflation at depth. If you take that and you hold on to it, it will just completely humiliate you or humble you depending on how you take it.

I am powerless, but step two is we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. So if I were to short form that one, it would be a willingness and a belief and a seeking. So, I can't but I'm willing to believe that there is someone who can and I'm looking for that. So, willingness, belief, and seeking For step two, we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. My power is limited but there is a power that's greater than mine.

Step three, is we made a decision to turn over our will and our lives over to the care of God. So, step one, I can't. Step two, God can. Step three, I'm going to let him. That's the and I will say this, I said, you don't have to wait a week between each step.

I gave you one and two and then waited a week and gave you three and then waited a week and gave you four and then waited like three weeks and gave you five because I was gone for a couple weeks. This one, we made a decision to turn our will in our lives over to the care of God. The earliest writings from the group say, step one, two, and three probably should happen at a meeting or in the space of the time of a meeting if that makes sense. It's it doesn't have to take you a long time to know. I can't, he can, I'm going to let him.

It's fine. Don't worry about the speed it takes you to get there. If you mull over deflation at depth, it gives you more time for the enemy to give you trouble. God can and I'm going to let him as good. It is a decision to surrender your will and the way we've been operating our lives has gotten us in this sticky situation is what we'll keep doing unless we find a power greater than ourselves and allow it to work.

We made a decision to turn our will in our lives over to the care of God as we understood it. This one, I don't hear this preached in church. I've never heard it preached in church before. I have heard it preached in the basement of churches before. I've heard it preached at sawmills in the break room before but I've never heard a series like this at church and part of the reason is because we tend to have our view of how God works and who God works with and how he does it and we tend to limit the ways that he does to just our way of thinking.

Denominations tend to do that. People individually tend to do that and so step three, for some Christians when they read this, they say, why don't they just say Jesus? Just say Jesus. He's the answer to the question. We made a decision to turn our will in our lives over to the care of God.

As we understood him is a statement of humility. Okay? I know that I don't know everything there is to know about God nor would I presume to know the way that he works. This series of steps as we have had a spiritual awakening, God has birthed this to, I can't, he can't, I'm gonna let him and here we are making that decision to turn it over. I'm gonna let him And then we make we made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

So we look at ourselves in the mirror, soberly seeing what we see, and it's hard to do that. It's hard to do that. We made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Now, this is collective. It says we and ourselves, but you can individualize that.

I looked and made a searching and fearless moral inventory, and I didn't like what I saw. I saw something that fell short. Step four is hard. Now, I they they would call that the self examination phase. I know what I've been doing is not working.

I'm willing to explore something else. I'm seeking that. God, show me your way. As I understand it, I wanna go into it and this is what I see to be my problem. And if you don't have a list, that is the biblical list.

That's the vice list from all of the New Testament. So, Galatians five and in Corinthians and in Timothy and all over the New Testament. This is the list of all of the vice lists in the New Testament combined. I guarantee you, your own personal proclivity is up there somewhere. And as you examine the list, you know, if you're doing a fearless and searching moral inventory, if you just do it against the people around you, you might be tempted to say, I'm better than that guy.

Good grief. Look at him. But if you stand and you look at yourself in the light of Jesus or if you stand and you look at yourself in the light of the word and you see these things on this list. If you want it, I'll send it to you. I know somebody take a picture of that from there.

You're not gonna be able to read it. But it's available. You can ask me and I'll give you a copy of it. If you see yourself anywhere here, step five is having had a spiritual awakening. We admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our our realms.

I mentioned this one last time, last Sunday when I preached and I mentioned that and in the next couple of days, I had multiple people that came to me and said, I knew this for some time. I've admitted it to God and I'm telling you, would you pray for me? Yeah. Absolutely. Praise God.

And I heard from several of y'all that said, hey, so and so they didn't tell me the names, but somebody came to me and said this, and I just wanted you to hear that because it's what we need to do. Actually, confession is good for us. It is the mechanism by which first John one nine says, that we can be made whole. If we homologueo, say the same thing as God, confess our sins, he is faithful and just and he will forgive us of our sins and it goes beyond that and says, and he will purify us from all unrighteousness. If he helps you to get over with that sin that you've brought to him and he cleanses you from that, don't be surprised if something else shows up.

Okay? God almighty, a bruised reed he would not break. A smoldering wick he would not extinguish. That's the way it describes Jesus. And if you come to him having admitted your issue, he forgives that issue and it says he'll purify you from all unrighteousness.

That's gonna require these first four steps happening over and over. Oh, I didn't even realize this one but you set me free from that other one. Will you do it here? I'll follow after you. Yes, and that is the way he sanctifies us.

It's primarily about agreeing with him. So if you see it on the list and you see it in your life, it shouldn't be there and you say that to God, he works through that and James also says it's good to confess our sins each to the other or to each other and pray for each other. You don't have to tell it to everybody all the time but it is helpful for you to tell it to somebody. It's really helpful. Somebody with skin on them as my family used to say.

It's helpful. You can pray and God will heal you. You can pray and God will but he also says to share it with one another. Bear one another's burdens. The prayer of a righteous person and God has made righteous is powerful and effective.

So, that's the lead up. That's just the ramp. First five steps. Now, we're going to go to John five and I said last week and I'll probably say it again that I love preaching just a paragraph of scripture where it's just straight scripture. This one I chose because of step six and we're working that direction.

But after these things, this is the way John chapter five starts off and context is very important. So if it's just removed from its context, you might not know what else is going on. But after these things is after the first four chapters and in the first four chapters of John, we have that great prologue about the eternality of Jesus. John one one preceding Genesis one one. And we've got these great 18 verses about how awesome and transcendent God is and how he has placed Jesus here.

Then, we get the story of John the Baptist. We move through that. We've got a miracle at Cana where his first disciples come to believe in him. We've got John three with that great interview with Nicodemus. Wonderful.

Wonderful. A guy comes at night. He's one of the religious leaders but he's open. He's willing. He's looking.

He's examining. And we get John three sixteen. We get John three seventeen too. We get the story from Numbers 21 that God has made a way and you just need to look that way. Right?

God has made a way. If I be lifted up, it's just like that snake on the pole from Numbers 21. I'm not gonna go into it. God has made a way. Don't don't snub the way that God has made.

John four, we get the Samaritan woman at the well. Right? And it's not just for the Jews, but also for the Gentiles. Beautiful, beautiful passage all through John one, two, three, four. Things are going great.

Wonderful. And then it says, after these things, bump, bump, bump. Oh, there's a feast of the Jews. There's a feast of the Jews. This is happening.

We know that there are several feasts of the Jews where people go to Jerusalem several times a year. In this one, it does not mention his disciples being with him. John is writing it. Presumably, he was somewhere nearby. I knew that but after these things, there was a feast of the Jews and when we see the Jews here, Jesus was Jewish.

John, the guy who wrote the book was Jewish. All the other disciples, the first five that came to believe in Canaan, all of them were Jewish. The Judeans were Jewish, Samaritans were not, but we've seen a lot of Jews in this first four chapters. But after these things, there was a feast of the Jews tells you there, but context, I'm gonna I'm gonna say something. I'm going on a limb here.

I advertised already for the Unite Solidarity event for Israel. I don't want for you to read the Jews and read it antisemitically ever. Okay? It has we have a history. In the history of the church, we have a history of reading this even in the early church.

We have a history of reading the Jews and just think those bad guys. And Martin Luther had a history of reading it and the older he got, the worse his anti Semitism got. And to read the Jews right here, it's not all Jews. In fact, John uses this expression over 70 times. It's it stands out.

If you're reading Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you might miss it mostly because Matthew, Mark, and Luke only mentioned it six times and most of the time, it's the king of the Jews. Are you the king of the Jews? Right? And the king of the Jews written on the sign above Jesus on the cross. So, they barely use it at all but John uses it 70 something times.

What does he mean? So, for context, most of the major groupings of the nation, the nation of Israel had had a favorable reaction to Jesus. It even went beyond the nation of Israel and I'll say, the disciples of John the Baptist, those who had gone out when he was preaching a baptism of repentance from sin. He is preaching that and there were people who came from Galilee and from Judea and they came from all around and they went to him and a lot of those folks when he said, here he is. Lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world, follow him.

I must decrease. He must increase the disciples John had gone for Jesus. Several, a lot of them. Other Judeans because they were coming from Jerusalem down to the riverside and seeing what John had preached some of them and then when Jesus is pointed out, some of the Judeans have believed. Even Samaritans we saw in chapter four, not just the Samaritan woman at the well but it says, she dropped her water pot, ran back to town, and then Jesus and the disciples went and they went into town and it says they stayed there for three days.

Poor Peter didn't need a thing the whole time or at least he says it. At least he says he didn't anyway. He didn't go inside. He had all kind of rules he had to follow. Even the Samaritans, the people of Galilee, especially Capernaum, we see around there that people were coming to him in a very favorable response in the first four chapters.

Even some of the servants of Herod, it says, had believed which is great. But the one standout exception were the rulers, even the small town rulers. I'm gonna say, when we hit the Jews in this passage, let's say hyper religious jerks. Okay? I'm not saying Jews are hyper religious jerks.

I'm saying that there were people who were in opposition. There are people that Jesus was threatening their position and their power. He was questioning them and they felt so holy and so righteous in what they were doing that they were hyper religious jerks. It is possible, people of first b, for us to be hyper religious jerks. Okay?

Please, let's don't. So, after these things, there was a feast, a religious feast of the Jews and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He was Jewish and he followed after those things. He knew a little more about what those feasts were about than the other guys. Jesus went up to Jerusalem and now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate, there is a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda.

If you're looking through archaeology for a long time, they had not found this place and so people gave the book of John a very late date of writing but John describes this place. It's a pool having five porticos and in archaeology, in the last couple hundred years, a hundred and fifty years, they have found all kinds of stuff that's in there and this is one of those places. You can go to it today. I have been there. Several of you all have been there.

Now, Jerusalem by the sheep, there's a pool which in Hebrew is called Bethesda having five porticos and in these porticos lay a multitude of those who are sick and blind and limping or paralyzed. This is a new American Standard Version. If you got the email from us this week, we always use new American Standard in that email and you might have seen chapter, I mean, five verse three and it skipped from three and it just says four five. It skips it. I did a sermon about that a while back about the history of the Bible in English and how and when and what are we using, which manuscripts and all that.

John five four is this, it's an explanatory note that I believe John put in there but other people believe that it was added later. I won't arm wrestle you over it but it says and it makes the story make more sense that in this time, there was an angel or is believed that an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water and then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever disease he had. It was a cure all for the first person who jumped in after the angel stirred the water. That's verse four. Verse five, so now there was a man there who had been ill for thirty eight years.

I'm not gonna do it. Should I do it? In the first service, I said, who are y'all is 38 years old? And I had like three or four people. I'm looking around.

Hey, Connor's a little young. A couple times over. Alright. I'm twice that. That's good.

38 is a long time. I'm 53. To suffer from something, anything for thirty eight years is a pretty bad thing, you know. There's a man there who had been ill for thirty eight years. Get your mind around that and he's hanging out right here next to this pool where there is at least a superstition and maybe truth.

I'm we're not sure. There is a tradition that these are healing waters but just for the first person to get in there. Right? Now, I'm from Shiloh, Georgia which is near Manchester, Warm Springs. I've got somebody here that's known me my whole life back in the back.

And Warm Springs in the the thirties and forties was where Franklin Delano Roosevelt went to because he had polio and he felt that the water of Warm Springs was helpful. Was it helpful? Maybe. There's some collegiate who knows what in those springs that's supposed to help, but he believed that it helped and he put a lot of backing into it to try to make a place. My brother still he works for the Warm Springs Rehabilitation Institute, Roosevelt Rehabilitation Institute.

The healing waters, we don't know whether they were real to heal this guy. That's the way it's presented. Now, man was there for thirty eight years. He believed that that was it. Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus. Upon seeing this man lying there and knowing the condition, knowing that he had already been in that condition for a long time. Jesus knows our every weakness. I was saying just a few minutes ago. Jesus knows.

I love when it says Jesus seeing this man. In a lot of places, it says had compassion on him. Right? In other places, but that's that's what he did. The story goes on to describe.

Jesus upon seeing this man lying there knowing that he'd already been there in that condition for a long time, he said to him and whenever you see the asterisk in the New American Standard Version, that asterisk is a historical present. It's where the text says says, but it's in the past tense but it gets you into the story. It says, knowing that he had been there for a long time, he says to him, do you want to get well? Jesus is asking, do you want to get well? Now, he's been suffering for thirty eight years.

It feels like the guy said, doggone it, Jesus. You know I want to get well And you just feel like, why do you have to ask? But step six is we were entirely ready to have God remove these defects of character. I'm not saying to be paralyzed or is a defective character. It's just a parallel story.

Step six is to and you can individualize it. I'm ready. I can answer yes to the Jesus. Are you ready to be made well? I can answer yes or I can answer no, right?

If you want to hold on to the sin, if you want to hold on to the character defect and you just want forgiveness for it for now, Then, that's not the answer, right? That's that kind of stops your progress. I I hesitate to mention. I I I don't not that I wanna keep it a mystery, but overeating is a thing for me. I've mentioned it a few times over the years that just kinda hogging hogging out is my thing.

And when the emotional turmoil or the pastoral load or whatever gets to be pretty heavy, there's such a thing as a clergyman's coronary. Have you ever heard of it? Where you just kind of take on so much that you just take in so much. And I have always felt that a part of my personality and my identity earlier years, I've always felt like it was my identity to just I'm a heavy I'm a healthy eater, meaning like healthy like a lot. And being able to eat two or three times as much as other people was just normal, and taking on like Michael Phelps quantities of calories in a day was pretty normal for me.

And I'm somewhat athletic. I haven't I haven't exercised since 1996, but until recently, until recently, I dislodged the kidney stone in 1996 by doing a sit up, at least I blamed it on that. And I I swore I'd never do another one. And I have kept that promise. I found other ways.

But you know what? I was approaching this and when I got to step six, I was like, can I hold on to my part of my identity being that I'm a pig and that I'm a healthy eater or that I you know, when you're at a funeral and you're just trying to why wouldn't hurt wouldn't hurt her feelings, you know? I'll have a little of everything or I'll have a lot of everything and then I'll have all of the banana pudding that Roseanne bring brings, you know? If that's my that's my deal and I want to hold on to that being my deal, then I'm not likely to get better. Right?

And so for an alcoholic, almost of us know about an alcoholic meeting, some alcohol economist meeting is something we see on TV where they stand up front and they just say, hey, I'm so and so and I'm an alcoholic. There's a lot more to it than that, but that is something that's a part of it and it's to recognize the problem that we have that we can't fix, recognize God can't, say, I'm gonna let you examine yourself, take it to God, step five, take it and tell somebody else. That's why a group, small group stuff is so good because you can share and do life together when you're entirely ready for God to remove these defects of character. Let's go back to the story. Now, the sick man answered him, do you want to be made well?

The sick man answered him and said, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. Does that sound like an excuse? Yes. It does. But you know what?

Let's go on. First of all, he didn't have a small group. If he'd have a small group, they'd have picked him up and chucked him in the water. Soon as it stirred. But he was just there by himself and he can't make it better.

God can but the way that God chooses to do this is usually in community, usually. Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up but while I'm coming and I'm making my way there, maybe dragging himself on his arms to get over there, another one steps down before me. Seems like everybody else always gets the goodness and I just get left behind. It sounds like a lament. It sounds like an excuse, but you know what?

Jesus took his excuse for a yes. He was saying, this is the reason whether he was putting his faith in a superstition or whatever else. When Jesus says, are you ready to be made well? He starts with what sounds like to us excuses, but the next the next line says that Jesus took that as a guess. And Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed, and walk.

Now, what could the man not do for thirty eight years? He could not rise. He could not take up his bed, and he could not walk. But are you ready to be made well? Well, I can't for this reason and that reason and Jesus says, alright, this is gonna show whether you're ready or not.

Rise, take up your bed and walk and immediately, the man was made well. He took up his bed and he walked. Amen. I love the Greek on that. It says, rise, take up pallet, walk And it says, rose, took up pallet, walked.

It's so beautiful. Immediately, it's thrown in there too. The humility to say that you can't and that you know God can and you're gonna look for the way. This is how I lack. I know my problem very well.

I've been dealing with it for thirty eight years. These are the things that I think are keeping me from getting better, but I'm open. Here it is. Done. Amen.

Now, it was the Sabbath day. Oh, bum, bum, bum. Now, it was the Sabbath day. Now, Jesus is just speaking. So, he tells him what to do but the guy does it and so rising, no problem there.

Picking up his palate. Oh, sin on the Sabbath. Walk. Depending on how far you walk. Also sin, carrying something already sinned.

Doesn't matter how far you walk. You picked it up, that was wrong. Carrying it, that's wrong. So the Jews read that hyper religious jerks. Not all Jews.

Again, don't read it as anti semitic, but there were some hyper religious jerks that were saying to the man who was cured. It's the Sabbath and it's not permissible for you to carry your palate. I'm looking for it. I'm looking for everybody else's sins. But that man answered them and said, he who made me well was the one who said to pick up your palate and walk up.

That's a another one. So, it's not just you that's sinning, it's that guy for encouraging you to sin. They asked him, who is that man that said, pick up and walk? Who is it? Tell us the name.

We're going chase him down too. Who is the guy that said pick it up and walk and the man but the man who was healed, formerly formerly paralyzed, sick guy, but not anymore. The man who was healed didn't know who it was. Let's go back to that step of God as we understand him. Like, God is willing to help.

He's here to heal. If people don't walk the Baptist line or they don't walk the Methodist line or they don't walk the Presbyterian line of reformed theology or whatever it is, for us, sometimes that's problematic. This guy didn't even know who Jesus was. No idea. Do you wanna be made well?

The man said, he'll didn't know who it was because Jesus had slipped away while there was a crowd in that place. I love it when Jesus slips away while there's a crowd in that place. It was great for Nazareth's Ridge when they're gonna throw him off to his death. He slips away from among them, it says. And then here it says, he slipped away while there was a crowd forming.

Now, you saw a guy every day at the pool for thirty eight years, and then he's standing vertical instead of horizontal, that draws a crowd. You know, the people who are lying there, the people who had people around them ready to chuck them in the pool were there and it draws quite a crowd and then, you know, hyper religious jerks tend to draw a crowd too and so there's a crowd forming and Jesus just quietly slips away. Afterward, John says, afterward, Jesus found him. Jesus finds him in the temple and says to him, hey, behold, you've become well, you're whole. Don't go on sinning.

It's a kind of continuous action verb there. Do not sin anymore. Don't go on sinning so that nothing worse happens to you. If we look at that, we might be tempted to think that this man's sin is what got him in the state that he was in. It's not necessarily the case that that is true.

It might have been, we don't know. Not enough information there to say definitively that, yeah, he had a drunk cart accident and and that's what hurt him. We don't know what hurt him. But he says, you've become well. Don't sin and and he says it as a passive like you didn't have anything to do with it, but you have become well.

Don't go on sinning so that nothing worse happens to you. Now, chapter nine story in John is about a story of a man born blind and his disciples explicitly asked the question, who sinned? This guy or his parents that he would be born blind? And Jesus makes it very clear that it's not because of sin that that blind man was suffering his blindness. He said all of these things were for God's glory and actually for that man's good eventually.

Right? So we know that it's not necessary. This man's physical malady probably was not a result of his sin. It could have been, but we're not given that information so it could have been. But there certainly are sins that can harm us physically, overeating being one of them, substance abuse being another, multiple sins, lots of different kinds of sins can hurt us physically.

So Jesus is being pastoral and being loving to say, hey, step back from the edge. Allow me to help you with all of that stuff. The man went away and he informed the Jews that it was Jesus who made him well. This is comical to me to see that, you know, Jesus heals and slips away quietly. The man who has been made well, rising, carrying his palate, walking, and when he finds out that it's Jesus and the aftermath of it, he runs back.

I can imagine him going back and say, hey, I know who it was. You're looking for the guy? You're looking for the guy for good reasons, I'm sure. You're looking for the guy. This is about Messiah, isn't it?

Hey, he just made me well. It's Jesus. His name is Jesus. I know you're looking for who it was, and this is the guy. He went away and formed the Jews, hyper religious jerks that it was Jesus who made him well and for this reason, these hyper religious jerks were persecuting Jesus because he was doing things on the Sabbath.

He was breaking the rules. Well, are multiple places where we see this being a point, but the Sabbath was made for man. God knows us and when he made the rules, he made the rules to help us. He made the rules for a good reason and the law is good and it is helpful and if we walk by it, we will be avoiding many sins but these Pharisees, most of which were Pharisees, some sadducees, probably maybe others who are feeling threatened. Their way was the only way and their understanding was the only understanding.

And they were threatened by Jesus' freedom and freeing him and that man's freedom. Jesus answered them and said, listen, my father, father God, he is working until now and I myself, I am also working. I'm doing the job he sent me to do. If you want to know more about that, you can go back to that chapter on the Nazareth Nazareth where he said, he was here to set the captives free. He said, he's here to heal the lame and the blind and the deaf and he was here for their maladies.

He was taking them on. My father's working until now and I myself am working and for this reason, therefore, the hyper religious jerks were seeking all the more to kill

him. He

just set that man free. That was his crime. To do it on a on a Sabbath because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he broke it by commanding someone else to break it. The other guy broke it. They're both in trouble but he also was calling God his own father.

And that's blasphemy if it's not true and it was true. He called God his father, and it was true, and that's what they were seeking to kill him for. Now, he's made the way available for us to be joint heirs. Right? He's made the way available for us to be sons and daughters of the most high.

It's by the blood of Jesus, by the sacrifice he made by the life that he lived out in full, in complete submission to the spirit allowing God to lead him and empower him to do that, and he passes that along to us and allows for us to walk in that. He was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. Now, that's blasphemy. But read about what Paul says about Jesus in Philippians two. This great early hymn of the church where he says that Jesus did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped.

But he made himself a servant. He humbled himself to death even the death of a cross, lowest, most despicable form of death. He lowered himself. He condescended to earth and walked out this perfect life and was beaten, abused, eventually killed on the cross for it. He did not consider equality with something with God something to be grasped.

And this says, what they were holding against him was healing someone on a Sabbath and making God his own father when God really was his own father. Step six is we're entirely ready to have God remove these defects from our lives and if you look over that list or if you just know what it is, in the past week, a couple of y'all have reached out and in the past week, y'all reached out to each other too. If you know what it is and you've come to God with it and you know it and you're carrying it to somebody else, are you willing to be made well Is the question. And step seven is to humbly ask him to remove those shortcomings. Lord, in the ways that I have gone astray, that you've revealed to me, I agree with you, and I'm ready for that to not be a part of my life.

Will you help me to do what you show me is mine to do? So we humbly ask him to remove our shortcomings and he does. Now, I'm gonna skip forward to seven to eleven. From seven to eleven, I know I'm skipping eight, nine, and ten, but 11 is to me one of the most powerful of the steps and it's the one that I come back to, I hope daily. I hope daily.

I think of it all the time and the operative phrase down there in this collective version of it is we sought through prayer and the operative phrase is underlined at the bottom, but we sought through prayer motivation to improve our conscious contact with God. As we understood him, it's not just this way of understanding or that way of understanding denominationally, but we sought through prayer and meditation to go directly to Jesus, directly to God the father through the throne, through Jesus, by the spirit. We sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him, praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out. Now, collectively, that sounds great and it's wonderful and it's encouraging, I think, helpful. But if you individualize it, it's the most pop for me, it's been the most powerful thing in the last six and a half years to me to try to determine what's on me.

What's what's my deal? What is it that I'm supposed to do? Lord, I am seeking through prayer and meditation, speaking to you and listening to you to improve my conscious contact. Some of what's going on I know is subconscious, Lord, but I am through prayer meditation seeking to improve my conscious contact with you as I understand you. Praying only for the knowledge of his will for me.

So, the hyper religious jerks in this passage, they were looking around for who they could see was sinning. Scanning the room. That guy's carrying a pallet. Let's go get on him. Who told you to do this?

Let's get on him. But this step 11 is really nice because it's saying what I'm praying for is your now the knowledge. Lord, I want you to let me know what it is that you want from me and I want the power to carry it out. Go back to that guy laying by that pool even though he started with excuses. Right?

Jesus took the excuses as a yes. He was ready. He was ready. He was humbled for sure. When Jesus gave him the knowledge of his will, rise, take up your pallet, walk.

What did he do? He had the power to carry it out. Humble obedience to the word of God, humble obedience to the spirit of God is so powerful. It is what raised Jesus from the dead. It is the power that is available to us today.

It is the power that is greater than ourselves. So, in Jesus name, can we stand and sing? Take my life, Lord, and let it be consecrated to thee. That's the first three steps right there. It probably gets a lot of the other ones too.

But here we are, Francis Havergold's, take my life and let it be consecrated lord to thee. The altar is always open up here at the end. This is the hymn of invitation and response. If you wanna speak to me, I will turn off my microphone and if you wanna just come up and pray, you're welcome to do that. You're welcome to see us anytime in the rest of the week too.

Take my life and let it be.

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. Take my moments and my days. Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands and let them move at the impulse Take my love, my lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store.

Take myself, and I will be heaped ever only all for thee. Ever only all Take my heart, it is thine own. It shall be thy royal throne. It shall be thy royal

throne. Amen. And as a benediction, here we are from first Peter five ten and eleven. It says, but may the God of all grace who has called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus. After we have suffered for a little while, may he perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you for it is to him that is the glory and the dominion forever and ever.

Amen. Lord, would you bless as we go with peace that passes understanding that we would be not just recipients but carriers of that peace and that grace. May we go forward joyful, trusting you. Amen.