DO You want to be free

WELCOME

Good afternoon, The Vine Collective.

Tonight we are closing out this series.

Five weeks ago we started something called UNLOCKED. And the premise was simple but weighty — we said that a lot of people love God, come to church, serve, pray, worship, and show up faithfully — and still have areas of their lives that are bound.

We have spent four weeks pulling back the curtain on that reality.

Week 1 — Invisible chains. The things nobody sees but everybody carries.

Week 2 — How bondage bends your life over time until bent starts to feel normal.

Week 3 — The lies that lock us. How every chain needed your agreement first.

Week 4 — Crowned in chains. How even the gifts God gave us can become thrones that trap us.

And tonight we close it all out with the hardest question of the entire series.

Because it is one thing to identify your chains. It is another thing to understand where they came from. It is something else entirely to see the lies you agreed with and the thrones you built.

But none of that sets you free.

You can know every chain that has bound you for years and still walk out of this building bound. Because knowing is not the same as wanting.

Tonight we are going to talk about the one thing that stops most people from walking in the freedom God already purchased for them.

And it is not what you think.

It is not a lack of power. It is not a lack of knowledge. It is not even a lack of faith, most of the time.

It is something quieter. Something more uncomfortable. Something we do not like to admit about ourselves.

Sometimes we do not want to be free.

Because being bound has become familiar. And familiar feels safe. And safe feels good. And freedom — real freedom — asks us to pay a price we are not always sure we want to pay.

So tonight, the question we are going to sit with is the same question Jesus asked a man who had been bound for thirty-eight years.

And it is the question that will determine whether the last four weeks actually changed your life — or just entertained you for a season.

Do you want to be made well?

OPENING PRAYER

Father, in the name of Jesus —

Tonight we are not here to be impressed. We are not here to be inspired for a few hours and then walk back into the same life. We are here to be honest.

So Lord, we ask You to do what only You can do. Move past our performance. Move past our familiarity with church language. Move past the version of ourselves we have learned to present.

And get to the actual heart.

The part of us that has made peace with things You never asked us to make peace with. The part of us that has built a life around what was always supposed to be temporary. The part of us that has grown comfortable with chains that Your Son already broke.

We are not asking for information tonight. We are asking for freedom.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

INTRODUCTION

The Chain You Would Rather Keep

There is a kind of chain we have not talked about yet in this series. And I have saved it for last because it is the one that keeps people bound even after every other chain has been identified.

It is not the chain of fear. It is not the chain of shame. It is not the chain of lies. It is not the chain of pride.

It is the chain of comfort.

The chain that says, "I know I need to change, but I don't actually want to pay the price of changing."

The chain that says, "I know this is hurting me, but I have organized my whole life around it."

The chain that says, "I know God wants more for me, but what He is asking feels like too much."

This is the chain that makes people sit in church for twenty years listening to sermons about freedom and never actually walk in it.

Not because they cannot. But because somewhere, deep down — they are not sure they want to.

Because freedom is not free. It costs you the comfort of staying the same.

And that is the honest word I want to bring tonight.

Because we have spent four weeks talking about what binds you. Tonight I want to talk about why, even when you see the chain clearly, you might still not reach for the key.

MAIN TEXT — JOHN 5:1–9

The Man at the Pool

Turn with me to John chapter 5.

Jesus goes up to Jerusalem for a feast. And near the sheep gate there is a pool called Bethesda. And around this pool, the Scripture says there was a great multitude of sick people. Blind. Lame. Paralyzed. All waiting for the moving of the water.

Now read what happens next. Verse 5 and 6:

Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"

— John 5:5–6 (NKJV)

Stop right there.

There is a multitude at this pool. Sick people everywhere. And Jesus walks through the crowd and goes straight to this one man.

Thirty-eight years.

That is not a season. That is a lifetime. That is old enough to be someone's whole identity. That is long enough for everyone in his community to know him as the man at the pool. That is long enough for his chain to become his name.

And Jesus — who already knows everything about this man — walks up and asks the most surprising question in the whole story.

Not "Can I heal you?" Not "Let me heal you." But "Do you want to be made well?"

Why would Jesus ask that?

Because Jesus knew something about long-term bondage that we do not like to admit:

After enough time, even the bondage becomes something people are not sure they want to leave.

POINT 1 — FAMILIAR IS NOT THE SAME AS FREE

Why This Question Matters

When you have been bound for thirty-eight years, you have built a life around being bound.

You have routines. You have a spot at the pool. You have relationships that exist because of your condition. You have an identity shaped by your limitation. You have an explanation for why your life looks the way it does. You have a story you tell yourself and others about what happened and why you are stuck.

And if Jesus heals you — all of that changes.

You cannot be the man at the pool anymore. You cannot tell the same story. You cannot rely on the same sympathy. You cannot keep the same excuses. You cannot avoid the same responsibilities you have been avoiding because of your condition.

Healing does not just give you a new body. It gives you a new life. And a new life has new demands.

That is why Jesus asks the question. Because He knew something about this man that is true about many of us:

Sometimes what we call bondage has quietly become our comfort.

And the proof is in how the man answers.

POINT 2 — EXCUSES ARE THE LANGUAGE OF PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT SURE THEY WANT TO CHANGE

Listen to His Answer

The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."

— John 5:7 (NKJV)

Look at this carefully.

Jesus asked a yes or no question. "Do you want to be made well?"

The man did not say yes. He did not say no. He gave an excuse.

He explained the system. He talked about why it had not worked. He pointed to other people. He described his obstacles. He made it sound reasonable that he was still there.

And I want you to hear me carefully right here — because this is where the finale of this series lives.

A lot of us have become really good at explaining why we are still bound.

We have developed our story. We have rehearsed our reasons. We have a whole explanation for why we have not changed yet.

"Well, my family was never like that growing up..."

"You don't understand what I went through..."

"Every time I try, someone else..."

"If I had the support, the time, the money, the help..."

"I've been praying about it..."

"It's a process..."

And some of that is true. Some of it is real. Real wounds. Real obstacles. Real circumstances.

But at some point in every story, there is a line between explanation and excuse.

Explanation says, "Here is what happened to me."

Excuse says, "And that is why I cannot change."

The man at the pool was not wrong that nobody helped him into the water. But he was so fixated on the pool that he missed the fact that the healer of the whole world was standing right in front of him.

And that is what excuses do. They keep us staring at the system that has not worked while God is asking a completely different question.

POINT 3 — THE ISRAELITES IN THE WILDERNESS

When Freedom Feels Like Too Much

I want to show you something in Exodus that connects to this exactly.

God has just delivered the Israelites out of four hundred years of slavery in Egypt. Four hundred years of whips, forced labor, oppression, and cries for rescue.

God parts the Red Sea. Destroys Pharaoh's army. Leads them out with a cloud by day and fire by night. Miraculous provision. Supernatural deliverance.

And about six weeks into the journey — six weeks into their freedom — listen to what they say:

And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

— Exodus 16:3 (NKJV)

Read that again.

They are talking about Egypt — the place they just spent four hundred years crying out to be delivered from — as if it were a buffet.

"We sat by the pots of meat. We ate bread to the full."

That was slavery. That was bondage. That was generations of oppression. And now that they are free — now that they are in the wilderness on their way to the promise — they are romanticizing their chains.

Because the wilderness was uncomfortable. The wilderness required faith. The wilderness asked them to depend on God for daily bread instead of the predictable rhythm of slavery.

And they would rather have the comfort of their chains than the uncertainty of their freedom.

That is a pattern in human beings that we have to name tonight.

When freedom gets uncomfortable, we start remembering our bondage as better than it was.

Somebody gets delivered from an unhealthy relationship — and six months later they are romanticizing the person who hurt them.

Somebody gets delivered from an addiction — and in a moment of stress they start fondly remembering the thing that nearly killed them.

Somebody leaves a church that was spiritually abusing them — and starts missing the "community" that was actually control.

Somebody finally walks away from people-pleasing — and feels so uncomfortable in the silence that they want to go back to performing for everyone.

The wilderness is hard. And when the wilderness is hard, our memory lies to us.

We forget the weight of the chains and only remember the food next to them.

POINT 4 — FREEDOM HAS A PRICE

What It Actually Costs

Here is the honest truth that this whole series has been building toward:

Jesus already paid for your freedom. That part is done. The cross, the tomb, the resurrection — the price that needed to be paid for bondage to lose its legal claim on your life has already been paid.

But there is a different kind of price you have to pay to actually walk in that freedom.

And that is the price we do not talk about enough.

Freedom costs you every comfort you built around your bondage.

It costs you the identity you built around your wound.

It costs you the story you have been telling.

It costs you the permission your chain gave you to avoid certain responsibilities.

It costs you the relationships that only worked because you stayed the way you were.

It costs you the excuses. It costs you the sympathy. It costs you the predictability of being bound.

And it asks you to trade all of that for something you cannot fully see yet.

That is why Jesus asks the question. Because freedom is not just given — it is chosen. Again and again. Not once. Daily.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

— Galatians 5:1 (NKJV)

Notice — Paul is talking to people who have already been set free. And he is telling them: now stand fast in it. Now refuse to be entangled again.

Which means freedom is not a one-time event. It is a stand.

And some of us have been set free legally but never stood in it practically.

POINT 5 — THE QUIET SURRENDER

Why We Go Back

There is a verse in Romans that puts language to the exact thing we are talking about.

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

— Romans 6:16 (NKJV)

Paul says something uncomfortable here.

He says that you are the slave of whatever you obey.

Which means if you keep obeying the chain — even after Jesus has broken it — you are still serving it.

The chain itself has no power over you anymore. But the pattern does. The routine does. The familiarity does.

And every time you choose the old thing instead of the new thing God is inviting you into, you are quietly saying, "I am not sure I want to be free."

That is not condemnation. That is clarity.

Because sometimes the honest answer to Jesus' question is not a loud no. Sometimes it is a quieter answer:

"Not yet. Not today. Not all the way."

And God is not looking for performance. He is not looking for perfect answers. He is looking for honesty.

Because the moment you can be honest with God about the fact that you are not sure you want to let go —

That is the moment He can actually start working on the part of you that is still holding on.

POINT 6 — RISE, TAKE UP YOUR BED, AND WALK

The Command After the Question

Watch what Jesus does after the man gives his excuse.

Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."

— John 5:8 (NKJV)

Three commands. Rise. Take up your bed. Walk.

Jesus does not argue with the excuse. He does not validate the story. He does not ask a follow-up question about the pool.

He just calls the man to action.

Because at some point, freedom stops being a conversation and starts being a decision.

At some point you have to stop describing why you are stuck and start obeying the voice that is telling you to move.

Rise — change your posture. Stop lying where you have been lying.

Take up your bed — take responsibility for what used to hold you.

Walk — move forward into a life that does not revolve around your condition.

And notice something beautiful. Jesus did not say "Leave the bed there."

He said take it up.

Because that bed was the evidence of where he had been. And now, instead of being the place he was stuck — it became the testimony of what God had done.

What held you becomes what testifies of Him — but only if you actually rise.

Some of us have been waiting for a feeling to show up before we obey. We have been waiting to want it badly enough. Waiting for the emotions to align. Waiting for the fear to disappear.

But Jesus is not waiting for you to feel free before He calls you to walk.

He is calling you to walk so that you will know what freedom feels like.

BRINGING IT HOME

The Whole Series in One Question

So tonight, as we close out UNLOCKED, I want to bring the whole series to one honest moment.

You have identified the invisible chains.

You have seen how bondage bent your life over time.

You have confronted the lies you agreed with.

You have repented of the thrones you built.

And now here you are — at the end of the series.

And the question is not: "Do you understand now?"

The question is: "Do you want to be made well?"

Because understanding does not heal. Conviction does not heal. Attending does not heal. Even agreeing with the preacher does not heal.

What heals is surrender. What heals is honesty. What heals is choosing — over and over — to rise, take up your bed, and walk.

Some of you have been coming to this altar for years. Not this specific altar — but altars in general. Responding. Crying. Praying. Believing for a moment.

And then going home and picking the chain back up because it felt more familiar than the wilderness.

Tonight I am not asking you to respond the way you have always responded.

I am asking you to answer the question the man at the pool did not answer.

Do you want to be made well?

Not "Do you want to feel better?"

Not "Do you want a breakthrough moment?"

Not "Do you want a good church experience?"

Do you want to be made well — knowing what wholeness will cost you? Knowing what you will have to leave behind? Knowing what you will have to stop explaining and start obeying?

That is the question.

ALTAR CALL

Tonight I want to give you space to answer honestly.

Not to perform. Not to look spiritual. Not to give me the answer you think a pastor wants.

God already knows what the answer is. He is just waiting for you to stop hiding from it.

Maybe for you the answer is a clear yes. You are tired. You are done. You have seen the chain clearly and you are ready to leave it at the altar tonight. If that is you — come.

But maybe for you the answer is harder. Maybe the honest answer is, "I want to want to be free. But I am not sure I do yet. Part of me still likes the comfort of how things are."

If that is you — that is actually a beautiful place to be. Because God can work with honesty. He cannot work with pretending.

He is not asking you to have it all figured out. He is asking you to bring Him the part of you that is still holding on.

So come. Come if you are ready. Come if you are almost ready. Come if you do not feel anything but you know the Spirit is nudging you anyway. Come if this whole series has been building to this moment in your life.

This is not about emotion. This is about decision.

Rise. Take up your bed. Walk.

MINISTRY PRAYER

Father, in the name of Jesus —

Tonight we are not hiding anymore. We are not pretending. We are not performing.

We are telling You the truth about ourselves.

Some of us have been bound so long that the chain has become comfort. Some of us have built a whole identity around what You want to heal. Some of us have rehearsed our excuses so many times that the excuses sound like wisdom.

We repent of all of it.

We repent of preferring the familiar over the free.

We repent of romanticizing our Egypt.

We repent of staying at the pool when the Healer was right in front of us.

We repent of explaining our bondage instead of obeying Your voice.

Lord, tonight we answer the question. Yes — we want to be made well. Even with the price. Even with the uncertainty. Even with all that we will have to leave behind.

We want what You want for us more than we want the comfort of staying the same.

Give us the courage to rise. Give us the grace to take up what used to hold us and let it become testimony. Give us the strength to walk — not by feeling, but by faith.

Break the chain of comfort. Break the chain of excuse. Break the chain of familiarity.

And set us free — not just legally through the cross, but practically through our daily surrender.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

CLOSING WORD

This is how we close UNLOCKED.

Not with a chain-breaking moment you will forget by Wednesday.

Not with an emotional high that fades by the end of the week.

But with a question that will follow you home tonight. That will wake you up tomorrow morning. That will meet you again on Tuesday when the familiar chain starts whispering your name.

Do you want to be made well?

Because the cross paid the price. The empty tomb proved the victory. The Spirit lives inside of you to make the freedom real.

But only you can answer the question.

And your answer — not just tonight, but every day — will determine whether the last five weeks were just a sermon series or the beginning of an actual new life.

You have been given the key.

Now it is time to walk through the door.

Go be unlocked.

In Jesus' name.