Find a WAY! (John 5.1-17)
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After this there was a festival of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
Now in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate there is a pool, called in Hebrew Beth-zatha, which has five porticoes.
In these lay many invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.
because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].
One man was there who had been ill for thirty-eight years.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
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 making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.
Now that day was a sabbath.
So the Jews said to the man who had been cured, “It is the sabbath; it is not lawful for you to carry your mat.”
But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Take up your mat and walk.’ ”
They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take it up and walk’?”
Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had disappeared in the crowd that was there.
Later Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you have been made well! Do not sin any more, so that nothing worse happens to you.”
The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Therefore the Jews started persecuting Jesus, because he was doing such things on the sabbath.
But Jesus answered them, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.”
Intro:
I am enamored how God is downloading into us as it relates to this idea of “PRODUCTIVITY”.........
.......and if you have any sensitivity to the moving of the Holy Spirit I want you to really dial in to what we are talking about, especially on today.
(pause)
Freedom family,
When it comes to our relationship with God......
.......our entire relationship hinges on the mindset that says,
“Find a WAY!”
(pause)
And in our relationship with God.....
.........following every entry point of chaos......
We find God postured in a love position that suggests,
“I’m not going to shrink in my level of productivity.....
....but instead
“I’m going to “Find a WAY!””
(pause)
Freedom......
I don’t know how you feel about it......
But I feel most alive......
I feel most connected to God....
When I am operating behind the scenes of chaos with a mindset that says....
I’m going to..................“FIND A WAY!”
(pause)
And when we consider this demonstrative episode of finding a way.......
......what we are really saying is that we are, “Finding Productivity”
(slight pause)
And so the question becomes......
Where do we find Productivity?
......and not only that but
Where does productivity Reside?
(pause and expound)
And so.........
I wanted to investigate Jesus’s approach to finding productivity in chaotic moments!
Because....
After all, Jesus is the Master Finder when it comes to.......
.......locating productivity especially in chaos.
(pause and expound optional)
See....
Its easy to talk about being productive when our environment promotes it...
But what happens when......
........Life screams STOP being PRODUCTIVE!
..........How do you shout back
“I’m Finding a Way!”
.......when your children are depending on you?
.........when your husband doesn’t have the coordinates?
.........and when your wife is stumbling over pain?
....How do you shout back
“I’m gonna PRODUCE if it kills me!”
(pause and expound)
Look at the text......
Summarize verses 1-7.......
John’s Gospel starts out this biblical narrative by describing the chaos!
(pause)
And according to the text.....
This CHAOS included all kinds of problems......
It was an atmosphere that included more problems than productivity
And here in John’s Gospel the paint that drips from his brush of description.......
.......is filled with the color of sickness
But I have lived long enough to understand that.......
.......sickness is not the only color of chaos!
(slight pause)
Because.......
.............chaotic scenario comes in many colors!
(slight pause)
And sometimes......
the problems outnumber the possibilites of productivity...
(pause)
And the bible says....
.......there was a man lying down in this area of CHAOS
.....who saw no possibilities of productivity...
.....in this climate of bedlam
(pause)
And what struck me about his actions is that the text says in verse 6.....
“Jesus saw him, “Lying there!”
The bible says that he has been lying there for 38 years........
......and some scholars suggest that this 38 years was considered to be a lifetime of a generation
.....and so the thought is that he has been lying down like this his entire lifetime.
(pause)
And somebody might be thinking........
“What does it matter in the first place?”
(pause)
But what if I told you that someone was watching him for 38 years......
......and if all they saw him doing in his lifetime was laying down in his chaos
.......it would paint a picture of how you were supposed to respond to your own individual chaos!
(pause)
Hopefully.......
......at that point we would start to understand the power in our response!
Based simply on the fact that........
..........somebody is watching for how we respond!
(pause)
Barrel:
Freedom......
....tears almost came down my face when I thought about who I watched respond to chaos!
Because what I started realizing........
.....is how God surrounded me with folk who were in a dogfight with chaos
.........but kept getting up
......because they knew the eyes of a young child was learning how to produce!
(pause and expound on the “laying down in chaos”)
And.....
I don’t know who you are.........
but God wants me to preach a WORD to somebody who has decided to “LAY DOWN in chaos”
(slight pause)
But before you lay down and get comfortable...........
..........look back over your shoulder
........because there’s somebody watching you
........trying to learn how to respond!
(pause)
This is why God told Joshua to tell Israel to place 12 stones in the Jordan.......
So that when future generations would ask,
“What do these stones mean?”
They could tell them......
“This is how we RESPONDED!”
NOTE: picture in your mind single mother/father, etc
(pause and expound)
But in my spiritual imagination.....
......as we watch this man in today’s text,
- Everybody else sees him and accepts or agrees with his action of laying down....
Because......
- Everybody else understands what he’s going through and has less expectations for his recovery....
- Everybody else considers his reasons justified.....
- Everbody else seems satisfied because it looks like the man is in the right place.
(pause)
But Jesus takes one look at him
.......and his condition
.........and says the complete antonym to everyone else when he asks......
“Do you wish (or desire) to be made well?”
(pause)
And what I hear Jesus asking in my spiritual imagination is.....
“Why are you still laying down......in chaos?”
(pause)
And what I really hear Jesus saying is .....
“Your Chaos........doesn’t have to STOP you from PRODUCING!”
(pause)
And so the question becomes....
What does it look like to find Productivity, especially in moments of chaos?
(pause)
And I believe Jesus gives us the awnser to this question......
.......in his instructions to this man at the pool of Bethesda.
Look at it now....
Jesus said to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
Jesus says in the text.....
Find a WAY to.......Stand up!
Stand up (Hb - Rise)
.......In my spiritual imagination I hear Jesus teaching us to manage our thinking better.
Because in order to rise up especially in chaos means that we have to......
Differentiate between pretending and producing
Because........
pretending to stand up........
.....looks completely different from actually
producing a standing position.....
Proverbs 23.7a says,
“For as a man thinketh in his heart.......so is he!”
(pause)
And so.......
When Jesus instructs this man to take this first action.........
......it requires him to shift his thinking from desiring to doing!
(pause)
And so the first thing we are going to have to do if we are going to...
“Find a WAY!”
..........is to move our focus beyond our desires in a way that promotes the desire into the action of doing!
(pause)
As a matter of fact Jesus is saying.....
“If you desire to walk, do something about it, and STAND UP!”
But I been waiting for 38 years.......
Jesus says,
So WHAT!!!
........Find a WAY to STAND up anyway!
I don’t care how long you been down there...
I don’t care about who wouldn’t help you.......
I don’t care about who left you............
“FIND a way!”
(pause)
Find a way.......to Take your mat
2. Take your mat (Hb - Pick up)
Freedom........
When I heard Jesus tell this man to “Pick up his mat!”
I heard so much more.............
and the first question that popped into my spiritual imagination was....
“If I could produce anything..........what would I produce?”
(pause and expound)
And at the end of the day......
Jesus is handing this man the responsibility of Productivity!
And........
.......if we are going to “Find a WAY!”
........it is going to involve a certain level of responsibility
(pause)
Freedom....
Why didn’t Jesus say......
“Leave your mat behind”
(slight pause)
He could have just said......
“Stand up”
and......
“Leave your mat back here...”
(slight pause)
But I believe that the reason Jesus says....
“Pick up your mat!”
.......is because the bible teaches
“to whom much is given much is required!”
(pause)
And so........
When we start “Finding a Way!”
........we don’t get to be irresponsible with what we are producing
.....but there is a certain level of responsibility that we have.
(pause)
And what I heard God saying in the text is that,
Some of us are leaving behind some things that God wants us to PICK UP!
Pastor why do I have to PICK it up?
Because Jesus told you to!
..........and if you can’t be obedient
......your production is only going to go to a certain level!
(pause)
This man does not have to do this........
But if he stops here........
.......there’s something more complete that he will never experience.
(pause)
And so God says.......
After you PRODUCE...........be responsible through the PROCESS!
....and Find a way to,
“Pick it UP!” (look at somebody and holler Pick it up)
(pause)
Look at it now......
Find a way.........to Walk!
3. Walk - (Hb - Live)
.......after Jesus says to Stand up........
and after Jesus says Pick it up........
Jesus finalizes “Finding a Way!”
......by saying “Walk or Live”
(pause)
And the reason why this is so powerful is because...........
Whenever we find a way.......
(slight pause)
.....lying down in chaos
is REBUILT into....
....living out our life productively
(pause)
And what I hear Jesus saying is..........
If anything is living I expect it to be PRODUCING!!
Now.......
“FIND a way!”
..........to REBUILD
.......so that your life is moving the way I created it to move!
(pause)
The Challenge:
Watch this now....
.....because some of us are at a level of productivity that suggests
....we are standing
.....we are even picking up our mat
(slight pause)
But we’re not “WALKING!”
(pause)
And while......
Productivity in some areas of our lives is good....
What if God is calling us to more?
(pause)
Because.....
Jesus didn’t say to this man...
Stand up, Take up, and that’s enough productivity.....
(slight pause)
Jesus said......
After you’ve done that........
“Now I need you to Walk!”
Find a WAY!
............COMPLETION..............