APLA - Wait for the Lord (1)

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In John 5:1-17 we see the story of a man who was waiting 38 years to be healed when Jesus shows up, stirs his faith and heals him immediately.

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Everyone Loves to Wait

I. How fun is it to wait?!
a. Story about when I was waiting for spaghetti.

We Have to Wait

I. Everyone has to wait.
a. God has given us promises, and sometimes those take time.
b. What happens when it feels like all you’re doing is waiting and time is flying by with God not doing anything? What do we do with that time? Does God hear us during those moments and is he sleeping as the Elijah told the prophets of Baal that Baal was?
c. Have you ever felt like that? I have.

God Takes His Time

After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. 3 In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. 5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

(John 5:1-3)
I. Bethesda that is, “house (place) of mercy,” from the cures there.
II. Imagine
a. Close your eyes and imagine the scene.
b. What did you see? Could you see the people?
c. How did you feel? Could you sense the hope?
d. People came from all around for the hope of mercy. The stories of the people being healed and cured created a hope that was rampant all over Jerusalem and the known world.
III. God is Not in a Rush

6 When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

(John 5:6)
a. Jesus had probably passed by this man many times going into Jerusalem. If this man was an invalid… a “an infirm or sickly person… a person who is too sick or weak to care for himself or herself” - definition from dictionary.com
IV. What do you want?
a. Listen to the question Jesus asks, why does he ask the man this?
b. Are you comfortable with where you are or not? God always has more for us. His supply never runs low. What do you want?

51 And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?”

(Mark 10:51)
c. Don’t let the delay, delay your faith!

7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.” 8 Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.” 9 And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked.

(John 5:7-9)
d. Do whatever Jesus tells you to do.

5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

(John 2:5)

Waiting Is Action

30  Even youths shall faint and be weary,

and young men shall fall exhausted;

31  but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles;

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

(Isaiah 40:30-31)
I. Waiting is Renewal
a. Waiting is an active searching of God and his heart.
II. Waiting is Faith Oriented.
a. As you wait, point your faith at Jesus. Jesus is the living water and when he stirs the water, let him stir your soul to believe again.
III. God is Always at Work
a. God is always working even when we aren’t aware of what he’s doing.

17 But Jesus answered them, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”

(John 5:17)
b. Waiting is the New Testament way to power.
IV. IHOPU Student Awakening Story
a. If you would have told me 11 years ago that I today would be crying in prayer because God let me go through that experience, I would have laughed and cried in your face. This experience was one of the hardest/most difficult times in my life. I would leave the Prayer Room daily before I was supposed to because I could not handle the laughter that was coming from the people in the Prayer Room and would go home and cry my eyes out in private to God.

Wait on the Lord and Stir Your Faith

I. What miracle are you waiting for?
a. Healing
b. Financial provision
c. Salvation of a friend or family member?
II. What would it look like?
a. God is always at work in our lives. The delay isn’t a denial. Come to the mercy house.
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