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We've been in a series entitled "Let Them," but today I want to shift to "Let Him." This shift is important and powerful because it reframes the entire conversation.
"Let Them" showed us that how you see you will determine how you allow others to treat you. But "Let Him" is about how God transforms you.
We've praised God for being a healer, a provider, a lawyer in the courtroom, a doctor in the sickroom, a father to the fatherless, a friend to the friendless. But when was the last time you praised God that he's a change specialist?
There are people in this room who remember who you used to be and what you used to do. There are singles who should be praising God because he changed your appetite—you don't like who you used to like because he changed your heart. He changed your conversation, your thought process, your heart, your mind. He's changing what's happening in your house. He's a change agent.
One of the sad things about Christianity in the 21st century in America is that we have limited Jesus to only saving us, but not changing us. We have millions of Christians that are saved, but never changed.
My assignment is to help believers think and thinkers believe. Some of us right now, if we can be honest, have gotten frustrated because we've been saying, "God, I love you. I feel like I've been praying more. I've been serving more. I've been reading my Bible more, but there's some areas in my life where I don't see the fruit of change yet."
Is there anybody that has a holy agitation that says, "I'm tired of being stuck and saved at the same time"?
Here's the truth: It is impossible to experience the transformation of Jesus without fully understanding and embracing grace.
Grace is God's unearned favor. This means I can't do anything to receive this favor. I can't earn it. I'm not even qualified for it. It's a free gift that has been given to me.
This is why nobody should be arrogant, because the favor on your life—you did nothing to receive it. God picked you for some reason in spite of you.
Unearned favor gives you both forgiveness for your past AND power for your future.
The moment you get saved, he erases the evidence of who you used to be and what you used to do. But he doesn't stop there. He also gives you the power to become who he's calling you to be and what he's calling you to do.
This is why some people are confused about why you have what you have and how you are where you are. You look at your neighbor and say, "It ain't nothing but a G thing." I'm not qualified to have what I have, but I'm graced for it. I may not have the degree, but I'm graced for it. I may not have the experience, but I'm graced for it. I may not have the stature yet, but I'm graced for it.
How are you raising your children when you didn't have parents growing up? I'm graced for it. How are you up there preaching when you barely spoke when you were young? It wasn't speech therapy. It's something called grace.
For some of you, you're confused about why God is calling you to do something that makes no sense to you. But it makes perfect sense to God. Because it's not about your gift—it's going to be about his grace.
What if you have a dysfunctional relationship with God because you have a distorted view of grace?
What do you do when you only limit grace to saving grace and not sustaining grace? What do you do when you only allow God's grace to save you but not lead you? This is what Dallas Willard called vampire Christianity—where Jesus just gives you his blood but not his principles.
Grace forgives sin but never makes peace with it. This is what Bonhoeffer calls cheap grace.
You know you've used grace as a permission slip when you were on your way to do something you knew was wrong. On your way to do it wrong, you said, "God, forgive me." And you knew you were wrong. "God, forgive me." And you still did it anyway. Then after you did it, you got scared and said, "God, if you get me out of this..."
This is cheap grace—grace that's only strong enough to save you but not strong enough to restrain you.
Some of us got saved and started confusing faith and grace with works righteousness. We tried to live right our way into our relationship with God.
Where a permission slip is abusing grace, a performance plan is when you try to earn grace. But you can't earn grace based on what you do. You receive grace based on what Jesus did. He perfected the work that you needed to be closer to God on the cross. There's nothing I can ever do to earn grace from God.
With a performance plan, grace becomes something you must perform to deserve. But grace cannot be earned.
Grace is a power source. It's not something you use before you eat food. Grace empowers you to change.
If this is the year to become, we're going to need the grace to be transformed into the image of Christ.
Here's the tension: Grace may be freely given, but it must be personally received. God will extend grace to you, but he will never force change on you. Because it's easy to be saved, but it's hard to become changed.
At some point in your life, you have to stop resisting, stop explaining, stop negotiating, and let him work. Look at your neighbor and say, "Let him work."
I promise you, if you let him work, you may come in one way, but you won't leave out the same way. You may come in crying, but you'll leave out shouting. You may come in depressed, but you'll leave out with joy—full of glory, joy unspeakable. Let him work. You may come in sick, but you'll leave out healed.
John is showing us a man who's been stuck for over 38 years. He had a condition that he was struggling with for over 38 years.
Imagine this: he comes to church on New Year's Eve saying, "This is my year. I'm going to change." He's shouting, praising God, crying. The clock turns to 12:00—nothing changes. 2005, nothing changes. 2010, nothing changes. 2015, nothing changes. 2030, nothing changes. 38 years and he's been stuck.
But I'm not just talking about a man in the text. What area in your life has been stuck for too long? Have you been stuck in a dead-end relationship? Are your finances stuck? Is your faith stuck? Are your children's attitudes stuck?
I came to get unstuck what's been stuck in your life. You may have walked in one way, but I'm telling you, the God of the breakthrough is anointing you.
John gives us details. He doesn't just say he's sick—he says he's been sick for 38 years. But he gives us something unique. He describes the place.
He says, "In the city called Bethesda is a sheep gate, a pool, and five covered porches."
Jesus says, "I am the gate." No one comes to the Father except through me.
Once you get to Jesus, the pool is a metaphor or representation of the Holy Spirit. It says in the Bible, "Out of your belly will flow rivers of living water."
But then it says there are five pillars. Jesus, once he ascends, said, "I will give gifts to men for equipping the body." These are the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers—the fivefold grace gifts.
Jesus said, "I came to give the full fivefold gift."
Bethesda in Hebrew literally means the house of grace—a place that forgives you of your past and gives you power for your future.
Some people look at you and wonder, "Why do you go to that church in the rain on your off day?" They don't realize what the place did for you when you were sick.
Do you remember where you were when you first came to this place? Can you start praising God based on where he brought you out of?
There's power in the place. And sometimes the enemy does spiritual warfare by changing your appetite, by hanging out in the wrong place, by removing your hunger to be in the right place.
Some people feel like going to church is just religious routine. They don't realize: this is where I come to get spiritually fed.
In the place of grace, with the Holy Spirit moving and fivefold ministry gifts activated, the text says there are crowds of sick people. Specifically, there are three types.
Blind people represent life with no vision. Be careful when you're in love with somebody with no vision, because they'll lead you nowhere fast.
Lame people represent life with no strength. They can see. They know where to go, but they lack the strength to get there.
Some of you may not be blind, but what do you do when you're lame and don't know it? You know what you want, but you lack the strength to get there. You desire to be closer with God, to have a more intimate relationship with God, but you lack the strength to stop hitting the snooze button.
What do you do when you want to get in shape? I want the six-pack and the muscles that I used to have, but I lack the strength. The spirit is willing, but... sometimes we need a spotter.
Some of you are going to have to be honest and say, "I'm too lame to try to do this by myself in this season." You need some accountability to give you strength where you're weak so you can get back up on your feet.
Is there anybody in this room grateful for God sending people who are strong where you may be weak? In seasons when you wanted to tap out, they tapped in and said, "I'm not going to let you give up. I'm not going to let you die in this. We're about to go through this together."
Paralyzed people are saved and stuck at the same time. What do you do when time is moving, but your life is not? When time is moving, but the relationship is not? When time is moving but your career is stuck?
What do you do when time is moving but your bank account is not? What do you do when time is moving but your faith is stuck? Because for some of us, we experience disappointment in the past that made us lose our faith in the present.
They're in a place of grace, a religious place, but still experiencing limited progress. They have a sermon notebook full of notes, but no change. They're expecting change but not experiencing change.
Some people will judge them and say they don't want it bad enough. But that's a lie. We know they want it because they showed up to the place to get it.
Watch this: they have the hunger, but they lack the how. They're hungry to become, but they don't know how to become.
Some people get in a season like this and start blaming the place. They'll say, "I tried church. Church don't work. I went there for at least 6 months, and nothing changed in my life." But what if there's nothing wrong with the place? What if there's something wrong with their practice?
What do you do when you're in the right place with the wrong practice?
They're showing up to experience spiritual breakthrough while practicing religious superstition. They're mixing the word of God with their horoscope. They come on Sunday and listen to their pastor, but they're putting their pastor's voice on the same scale as their favorite podcast.
Every voice should not carry the same weight.
The text says in verse six: "When Jesus saw him and knew he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?'"
Jesus asked him, "Do you want to get well?" Look at how he responds.
What if the issue isn't the place, but the practice? What do you do when you're in the right place with the wrong practice?
People are showing up to experience spiritual breakthrough while practicing religious superstition. They're mixing the word of God with their horoscope. They come on Sunday and listen to their pastor, but they're putting their pastor's voice on the same scale as their favorite podcast. Every voice should not carry the same weight.
The text says in verse six: "When Jesus saw him and knew he had been sick for a long time, he asked him, 'Do you want to get well?'"
Jesus asked him, "Do you want to get well?" Look at how he responds.
The sick man answered: "Sir, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water is stirred up."
He's expecting spiritual breakthrough, but practicing religious superstition because his faith is in a pool, not God. Verse 4 is normally omitted from the Bible because they later added a local tradition. They believed an angel would come and stir up the water once a year, and the first person in the water would get healed. This is why all these sick people are in the place of grace practicing religious superstition—calling it revival when it's really emotionalism.
They heard this from a spiritual source, and because they heard it from a spiritual source, they believe God said it. Be careful when you don't know the difference between a word and the word.
They've allowed their faith to shrink God down to the level where he can only bless one person at one time. But I serve a God so big that when He blesses you, He ain't ran out yet. If He blesses my neighbor, He must be in my neighborhood.
I dare you to praise God for everybody on your row. Look at your neighbor and say, "I'm going to praise God for your breakthrough." And praise God for their breakthrough. I dare you to tear the roof off and praise God like you know He's going to bless not just one person in your house, but everybody in your house—not just your last name, but even your in-laws' last name. Your kids' kids are getting blessed.
I serve a God that will skip steps. He'll break rules to bless me. He'll do stuff that makes no sense to man, but perfect sense to God.
The first thing you have to let him do is let him cook. When you're making a good meal, you don't just use one ingredient. God causes all things to work together. He'll take the bad stuff, He'll take the good stuff, He'll take the highs, He'll take the lows.
But what do you do when you're that bad child in the house that won't leave the kitchen while your mama's cooking? You keep asking, "You finished yet? What you making?" You're getting in the way of the process. And because you're impatient, you go and eat some candy and it ruins your appetite for what you could have had.
You thought that was your dream husband—that was candy. You thought that was your dream job—that was candy. But I'm declaring that God is getting ready to restore your appetite and give you the patience to wait on Him. Let him cook, because impatience is an enemy to your increase.
The first thing Paul calls love is patience. Sometimes in order for God to help you, you have to be willing to give him your secret ingredients. You will always be as sick as your secrets.
Some of us aren't experiencing the breakthrough in our prayer life with God that we could be experiencing because we've only been taught how to confess sin. But God is saying, "No, I want you to also confess your feelings and your faults." You think I don't know you don't like them? The problem is you keep holding on to it in your heart and not getting it out. Prayer is not therapy, but it can be therapeutic.
David had such an unfiltered, unashamed prayer life with God. If you read the book of Psalms, it's like sneaking into his diary. He would say stuff to God like, "God, kill all my enemies." Some of you need to get real with God. Some of you need to be honest and say, "Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I don't feel like it." But don't let your feelings have the last word. Say, "I don't feel like it, but I trust you."
After you let him cook, while he's cooking, you're going to have number two: let him confront. You will never conquer what you're not willing to confront.
What did God need to confront in this text? He had to confront lying and limited beliefs that had changed this paralyzed man's behavior. He was believing something he shouldn't have ever believed—something that could have prevented his healing.
Faith comes by hearing; so does foolishness. You act a fool the most when you're listening to a fool. There are certain people you just can't answer the phone for. So when they call, you send a text message: "I'm in a meeting." Really, you're in a four-staff meeting right now—a meeting with me, myself, and I—because they called and you had to have an emergency meeting.
The paralyzed man didn't even know who he was talking to yet. When Jesus asked, "Do you wish to get well?" he answered with excuses, not faith. He said, "I don't have nobody to push me into the pool. People keep beating me to the pool."
But Jesus had to confront that. Because if He doesn't confront what's going on inside of you, He's going to heal you and you're going to walk yourself back into what He brought you out of. So you're saying you're waiting on the pool once a year? I can only imagine Jesus probably said, "Where you heard that at?"
Number three: let him change. Some of you: the greatest barrier to you being graced for what God has called you to is you saying, "This is just the way I am." You've become a prisoner to your personality.
I'm highly introverted. I like being in my own space. I don't even like talking. And look what God called me to do. When God calls you, He's not just calling your gift—He's calling all of you. "He that is in Christ is a new creature." So if I'm saying I can't do that because of how I'm wired, I'm saying God doesn't have the power to change.
I watched Him change my son, who they diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Now he's thriving in middle school and one of the top athletes in this state. I let him change. I left Rock City years ago bitter, upset, offended, immature. I started pastoring my own church. But when I let God start changing my heart, I walked away from what other people would die for. Because I'd rather be right with God than in my own ego and flesh.
Some of you right now are not allowing God to change you because He may be calling you to apologize and forgive somebody that did you wrong. You're saying stuff like, "I'm tired of being the bigger person." That's why you're the bigger person. You may be the only Jesus that they see. And Jesus was so big, He died on the cross saying, "Father, forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing."
Look at the text, verse 8. Jesus said, "Get up!"
That wasn't just reading—that was a prophetic declaration. Because for some of you, you've been down long enough. Your faith has been down long enough. Your finances have been down long enough. What area of your life has been down? I'm speaking prophetically like Jesus spoke prophetically to him. Get up!
For some of you, you need to get enough faith to call some stuff in your life that's been down and call it back up. It's time to get your mind up. It's time to get your faith up. It's time to get your heart up. It's time to get your family up. It may not change your situation, but it's about to change how you see your situation.
Then he said, "Don't just get up." He said, "Get up and pick up your pallet." In other words, don't just get up. I want you to pick up what had been carrying you. And I want you to have the authority to now carry it.
We've been taught prayers of supplication, warfare prayers. But at some point we have to learn prayers of authority. Yet it's hard to pray prayers of authority when you have an addiction to negative words and empty words—to where you talk in a way that conflicts with your faith. In order for your words to have power, your mouth and your heart have to agree. This is why you can't even be saved without your mouth and heart being on the same page.
For some of you this week, you need to go on a 7-day word fast. No negative or empty words at all this week to get your power back.
Then He says, "Don't just get up. Pick it up and walk." Most people only shout about getting up. But what do you do when you get up and get stuck? He said, "Pick it up and walk." In other words, you're about to have some acceleration. I'm about to get you further faster.
That's for some seasoned saints in the room who feel like you might have missed your opportunity, or you may be too old, and you wasted time. God said, "I redeem time. I'm about to do more with the time you got left than the time you feel like you lost." But He just needs you to keep walking.
