August 24, 2025 • 50 mins
Hey family, I have a question for you. Have you ever found yourself making excuses, even for the things you deeply desire? Join us as we explore John 5:5-8, where "These Walls of Excuses" crumble before a powerful, unexpected command, revealing profound truths about our own justifications and divine intervention. Pull up a chair and listen to discover a moment where human limitations meet limitless grace!
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God Bless,
Pastor Tim
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
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Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
Join: Brothers In The Word | Facebook
6 pm CST: Wednesday
8 am CST: Saturday
God Bless,
Pastor Tim
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So much for the introduction and for all that you do.
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to brothers in the word. My
name is Tim Smith, the youngest child of Clara Jones.
The city is back up, it's a must, and we outside,
So please do me a favor before we get started.
Please like, love and share this teaching. Please like, share
and love this teaching. That is the only offering that
(00:21):
I'm going to ask you for. I need you to
offer this teaching to someone else who may be standing
right now behind the wall of excuses. I want to
talk to everybody listening to the sound of my voice,
whether you're on top of the mountain or whether you're
wrestling in that proverbial valley. David I think he called
it the valley of the shadow of death. This word
(00:44):
right now is for you. It's not for your neighbor.
It's not for the person you're invited. It's for you.
It's for the person who feels stuck. It's for the
person who feels like the walls are closing in. It's
for the person who is tired of being tired, the
person who is about to give up. This word is
for you. Please don't check out right now. So today
we're not just going to have a Bible study. We
(01:05):
are staging an intervention. We are serving an eviction notice
to everything, everything that has held you captive. So I
need you to eliminate every distraction. If you're at home,
silence the notifications, silence the noise, because what God wants
to do in this moment is too important for you
to miss. I need everyone, everyone, please take detailed notes.
(01:27):
Please take detailed notes. Your mission, should you choose to
squabble up, is this identify and demolish one longstanding excuse
in your life before this teaching is over. That one
excuse that you've been holding on to, that one excuse
that just seems like it's waiting for you when you
(01:50):
wake up every morning, when you lie down at night,
it's right there with you, it's tucking you in. That's
the challenge, that's the charge. I want you to demolish
just one, the one long standing excuse in your life
before this teaching is over. So let's go to the word.
About our lesson today is going to be found in
John chapter five, verse one through nine. John chapter five,
(02:13):
verse one through nine. But what I'm going to do
is we're going to concentrate on verses five through eight,
But I have to give you the entire context of
what this lesson is all about, because I want you
to see what's up ahead of the lesson. I even
want you to see us after the scriptures as well.
So I got to give you context these walls of
(02:34):
excuses you have your Bible gone es v. John Chapter five,
verse one through nine. After this, there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now
there is in Jerusalem by the sheep, gave a pool
an aramic called Bethesda, which was five roof colonnades. Those
are like five porter and easily a multitude of invalids, blind,
(02:59):
laying and paralyzed. For an Angel of the Lord. You
may not have this verse in your Bible. I had
to go and grab this verse because in some manuscripts
verse force not included. But I wanted to include this
verse just so we can have the context of this scene.
Verse four. For an Angel of the Lord went down
at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water.
(03:22):
Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water
was healed of whatever disease he had. One man was
there who had been an envalide for thirty eight years.
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? Underline that, underline that
(03:44):
in your spirit? Do you want to be healed? Sick
man answer, sir, I have no one to put me
in the pool. When the water stirred up, and while
I'm going, another steps down before me, Jesus said to him,
get up, take up your bed, and walk. And at
once the man was healed, and he took up his
(04:08):
bed and walked. Let's go to work Wall number one
taking notes, the wall of wrong waiting, the wall of
wrong waiting. So let's set the scene, because I don't
want to assume everybody is familiar with this story. The
Bible says there is a pool called Bethesda, but that's
(04:30):
the means house of mercy. But that's the means house
of grace. And at this house of mercy there's a
multitude of inbolence. We have a sea of brokenness. People
who are blind, people who are laying, people who are paralyzed,
people are all gathered together in one place. Why are
(04:51):
they there. Verse four again, which isn't in all manuscripts,
but it explains the tradition of what's happening here. Says
that they were waiting for an angel of the Lord
stir the water, and whoever stepped in first after the
stirring of the water by this angel was healed or
whatever disease they had. Please understand, only one person could
(05:14):
get healed, the first one who got into the water.
That's going to be important when we get down to
verse seven. So, but that's you have a house of
mercy operating on a system of superstition, competition, and scarcity.
You have a spiritual lottery system at the House of Mercy,
(05:39):
and an angel might come down at certain times, and
only the first person in the water gets the miracle.
Only one person. That's it, God, bless you, thank you
for coming out. Good night. Only one person. And that
is the essence of waiting wrong. They were waiting on
(06:01):
a maybe they were waiting on a ster, they were
waiting on a feeling. They were waiting on a whirlpool
in the water. And can I just be real with
you right here, right now, because we're family, how many
of us have camped out by a pool of superstition,
waiting for a stern. Camped out at a church, waiting
(06:23):
for a ster we say, God, I'll serve you when
I feel a certain way. God, I'll get serious about
my purpose when I get a sign. God, I'll forgive
them when the angel of my emotion stirs the waters
of my heart. We're sitting in churches, We're sitting in programs,
We're sitting in relationships. We're waiting for a move that
is based on a tradition, not on the truth to
(06:46):
poo God is. We're sitting by pools of Instagram, pools
of religion, pools of public opinion, pools of past experiences.
And we have convinced ourselves that this is the only
way to get a miracle. This is the only way
to get our breakthrough, This is the only way to
get our quote unquote blessing. So we're waiting for a feeling,
(07:08):
waiting for a goosebump, waiting for the music to swell
just right. I'm gonna jump in as soon as he
hit that note. Waiting for the lighting in the church
to be just right, Waiting for the water, the bubble.
We're waiting for our material blessing while the word made
flesh is walking right past you. Jesus steps into this
(07:31):
scene of desperate, competitive waiting, and the Bible says in
verse five, he sees one man. All this sickness is there,
and he sees one man. He's intentional with this look.
(07:51):
It doesn't say the man saw him, and that's important,
but he saw him. Jesus saw the one man. One
man was there who had been an invalid for the
thirty eight years. So you have a multitude of brokeness,
a sickness. There's no nurse on staff, there's no doctor
on call. Jesus looks in at one individual, and I
(08:17):
just want to encourage somebody right now. You may feel
like you're one facing the crowd. You may feel like
you're one facing a crowd of dysfunction. You may feel
like your problem is among millions. But Jesus will walk
past a multitude just to get to you. He will
bypass the crowd to have a conversation with you. Everybody
(08:40):
can be up running, hooping and holland jumping, dancing, getting
a blessing, and Jesus will come up and have a
conversation with you. I've experienced that, so I know firsthand
he'll do it. You know why, because his grace is
not a lottery system. His mercy is not a name,
and claiming his mercy is not competition. Jesus sees you,
(09:02):
he knows your name. Jesus calls you by grace. By grace,
are you saved? Not of works, lest any man should boast.
This pool is a pool of works. It's not a
pool of mercy. It's not a pool of grace. Jesus
knows how long you've been lying there by the pool
(09:23):
of your issue. Not just a number. You are a
divine appointment for him. The unfortunate thing about this man,
this man's identity was his location. He was the man
at the pool. That's how they identified him. That's Bob
(09:47):
at the pool. He was the pool guy. Identity totally
swallowed up because of his affliction. For thirty eight years,
his identity was tied to his inability. He had lost
his name, he had lost his identity. He had become
a fixture of permanent residence of the House of Mercy
(10:07):
air Corps, and he never got any mercy. Imagine that
you're sitting in the House of Mercy, but you don't
get no mercy. You're sitting in the House of Grace,
but you don't get any grace. You just get stagnant condemnation.
This man was a living landmark. You could give people
directions to him. And you know what she did is
(10:30):
that yeah, yeah, yeah. What you need to do is
you need to just go down, make a left on
Judas Street, then make a left at the blind man,
go past the lame woman, and when you see this
guy who's been on this mat since Moses was in diapers,
you've arrived. This man's picture was on Google Maps, and
we do the same thing. Family. Let's be honest, let's
(10:51):
keep it real. We've let our issues become our identity.
We've become landmarks of our own limitations, limitations that have that,
limitations that we put on ourselves. We're no longer a
child of God with a struggle. We are the depressed one.
(11:15):
We are the anxious one. We are the one who
always messes up the relationships. So you know what we've done.
We've accepted the location of our problem as the definition
of who we will always be called action. Identify the
pool that you've been sitting at. It what superstitious or
(11:41):
conditional system have you been waiting for for your breakthrough?
I hear people say it all the time. I got
to get the church to get my blessing, So Monday
through Saturday, there are no blessings available for you. They
got to go sit by their pool, and just like
this man, they're sitting and they're waiting, And just like
this man, years are going by, years are going by,
(12:03):
years that you cannot give back. Time is the most
precious commodity that you have. This man wasted thirty eight years.
How many years have you wasted? What exactly are you
waiting for? You're waiting for a job, waiting for a promotion,
you wait for an apology, You're waiting for a feeling.
(12:23):
You're waiting to be recognized. I pray you're not waiting
for a feeling, because we walk by faith, not by feelings.
It's time to stop waiting for the water to stir
and turn your attention to the word. Who is speaking
question for you? What limitation have you allowed to become
(12:47):
your identity? What limitation have you put on like a
coat you wear it every day? Whatever that limitation is
in your life, I need you to idea, but it
cannot identify you, walter number two, Let's keep going the
wall of wilful wallowing, the wall of wilful wallowing. Let
(13:10):
me explain this to you. So Jesus, knowing this man
has been in this state for a long time, he
has said one word to him. But he knows, he
knows his situation. Why, because he's God. He walks up
to this man and he asked this man a question
for me that is so profound, so piercing, that it
(13:32):
should shake every one of us to the core. Verse six.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that intimate
knowledge that he had been in that condition for a
long time, he said to him, do you want to
be healed? He stepped over everybody else, he stepped past
(13:54):
everybody else, and he's having a conversation with this man
laying next to the poor. Do you want to be healed?
Wait a minute, Jesus, what kind of question is that? Jesus,
that's a redundant question. You're at a hospital, you're at
a hospice, you're standing in icu essentially, and you walk
(14:15):
up to a man who's been sick for nearly four decades,
a man whose entire existence revolves around his sickness. And
Lord Jesus, you asking this man if he wants to
be healed, if he really wants to get better. Really, Jesus,
that that's the question, that's what you want to say
(14:35):
to this man. It seems almost insulting, It seems obvious
on the surface. Of course, the man wants to be healed.
Why else would he be there. But this is what
I need you to understand about Jesus. Jesus never asked
idle questions. Never. I wish I could take you through
(14:57):
the gospels. You will be a mad is that the
number of questions he asks people. And he's never asking
for information. His questions are surgical instruments designed to expire
to expose what's really in your soul. It'll speak to
what's really in your soul. On the surface, it can
(15:18):
be one thing, but he's probe me into your soul.
He's probed me into your heart. He saw some blind
men over in Matthew chapter nine, verse twenty eight, and
he asked them, do you believe that I am able
to do this? Wasn't questioning his power. Of course he
could heal them. He's questioning their faith. To Martha in
(15:41):
John chapter eleven, verse twenty six. He tells Martha that
he is the resurrection and the life. You know, her
brother Lazarus has died, and she's mad at Jesus. And
he's telling her, Martha, I'm the resurrection in the life,
and she's thinking he's the resurrection in the life in
the future. And he's trying to get her to understand. No, Martha,
I'm the resurrection and the life right now. And he said,
(16:02):
do you believe this? In other words, he's forcing her
to move past her grief and into a declaration of
faith right now. Remember Peter, we talked about him last week.
John Chapter twenty one, verse seventeen. Jesus asks Peter three times?
Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you
(16:24):
love me? He's not looking for information from Peter. You
know what he's doing. He's performing spiritual rehabilitation on a
man who denied him three times. So Jesus questions are
never surfaced questions. He bypasses the superficial and he cuts
straight to the soul. And this question, to a man
who has been on his back for thirty eight years,
(16:45):
is perhaps the most foundational question of all, and it
is a question for all of us. Do you want
to be healed? All to trade the comfort of your
condition for the responsibility of resurrection. Jesus is saying, are
(17:09):
you done with this for real? Are you ready now?
Because you see, sometimes the sickness is more comfortable than
the cure get a lot of attention. I talked to
her brother the other day in the hospital and he
told me, yeah, a lot of people are calling. So yeah,
you get a lot of attention when you're sick, and
(17:30):
people can find comfort in that. The excuse is easier
than the execution. Staying on the mat, staying on that
proverbial bed means that you have no responsibility. And guess what,
everybody around you knows that you have no responsibility. People
feel sorry for you. They bring you a corn beef
(17:51):
sandwich from ap Deli. They'll bring you fried chicken with
sauce on it from Harrod's. They'll bring you Italian beef
from Patillo's. You don't have to work. You have a
built in reason for every single failure in your life.
You never have to take accountability. You don't have to
take care of your family. But guess what healing means.
(18:11):
You have to get a job. Healing means you have
to carry your own weight. Healing means you have to
learn to walk in the world that you watch from
the sidelines. And this is the ultimate question, And if
you really stop to think about it, it echoes back
to the very first question in the Garden of le
(18:32):
Genesis three nine. After Adam and Eve had sinned, God
walks into the cool of the day, and he simply
asked one question, where are you? This is the foundational
question of God to humanity When he said that in
the garden, it wasn't a question of geography. God knew
(18:53):
Adam's physical coordinates. It was a question of spiritual and
relational position. Where are you, Adam, in relation to me?
Where are you in relation to the truth? Where are
you in relation to your purpose? So Jesus' question the
(19:14):
pool side Bob is the New Testament echo of God's
question to Adam? Do you want to be healed? Do
you want to be healed? As another way of asking
where are you? Do you want to stay hitting in
the bushes of your excuses, or do you want to
walk out of this garden, out of this paralysis, and
into the new reality with God? That's what God is
(19:38):
asking all of us today. He's asking you the same
thing right now. Not do you want the pain to
go away? No? No, no, no no no. Do you
want to be made hole? There's a difference from the
pain going away and being made hole. The pain going away,
the pain will eventually come back, but being made whole
(20:02):
means that you're now complete. There's a difference. One is
about comfort, the other one is transformation. Call to action.
And I want you to answer this question for yourself
right now, out loud, wherever you are. Do I want
to be healed? Do I really want to be healed?
(20:23):
Put in the work for my healing? And I want
you to be honest. What are you afraid of losing
if you get here? Or better yet, who are you
afraid of losing if you get here? Are you afraid
of losing the sympathy? Are you afraid of losing the excuse?
(20:46):
Are you afraid of losing the familiar pain? Question for you?
What comfort have you found in your condition? We all
number three, the wall of blaming others. The wall of
blaming others. Let's analyze this man's response to Jesus, because
(21:08):
Jesus is going to ask this man a very simple question,
but the response to Jesus' life altering question, and it
reveals the third and perhaps most common wall that we build.
Look at verse four. Jesus asked this man a simple question,
do you, sir, want to be healed at this point
(21:29):
in time? Simple yes or no? A simple yes or no.
But the man doesn't answer with a yes or no.
Just like Adam and Eve, he doesn't answer with a
yes or no. You know what he does. He gives
a report, He gives a reason, He gives an excuse.
These walls of excuses. Verse seven, the sick man answered Jesus, Sir,
(21:52):
I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is third up and while I am going,
another steps down before me. Wow. He doesn't say yes,
and he doesn't say no. He says, let me tell
you why I can't. Let me tell you who's to
(22:15):
blame for me being here? He immediately deflects, and he
blames others. Blame number one, lack of help. I have
no one, That's what he tells the King of Glory.
I have no one. It's therefore nobody supports me. Nobody
(22:37):
is here for me. If only I had a better team,
if only I had a better family, a better pastor,
a better spouse, better children, better seblings. Then I be
hereed now, one time did that man point the finger
at himself? He pointed the finger at everybody else. Blame
number two. Unfair system. You know the system is rigged
against us. You know that, right, he says, while I
(22:58):
am stepping down another steps before me. Yeah, it's the
system's fault. It's the white man. Other people get breaks,
other people are faster, other people are smarter, other people
are better connected. This is the oldest excuse in the books.
This is Genesis chapter three being recycled all over again.
(23:20):
Whenever you hear Genesis chapter three, just think scene of
the crime. That's how I bookmark Genesis chapter three. That's
the scene of the crime. God confronts Adam about his disobedience.
Adam that you eat of the tree I told you
not to eat from What does Adam do? Adam does
(23:42):
something that is so profound and it is so ingrained
in us. He tells God, the woman you gave me,
she gave me the fruit, and I ate. Adam blames
Eve and he blames God in the same sentence. Then
(24:06):
God goes to Eve since the Eve, what happened? What
does she do? The serpent? Deceive me? She blamed the serpent.
It's the blame game. It's the original sin of shifting responsibility,
and we're masters at it. We received it from Adam
(24:28):
and Eve. We have become professional excuse makers and blame shifters.
We have a reason for every excuse in our lives.
We got the people excuse, We got a down pack. God,
I can't live for you. I can't live for you
for real because of the people you put in my life.
(24:48):
My family is toxic, my friends are bad influence. I
have no one to help me. We'll use the past
excuse God. You don't know what I've been through. They
ain't gone through what I gonna God, if you had
my trauma, my history, my baggage, you understand. While I'm
still stuck here, God, do you want to be here?
The personality excuse God, This is just the way you
(25:11):
made me. This is just who I am. I have
an addicted personality. I'm not just a disciplined person. God,
this is my thorn in the flesh. You know. We
got to make it spiritual. So for thirty eight years,
this man had perfected his story. Like many of us,
his excuse was his testimony. He had told it so
(25:32):
many times that he believed it more than he believed
in the possibility of a miracle. He wasn't even looking
for a miracle. He just wanted to tell somebody his story.
He's talking to the miracle worker and all he could
do was recite the manual of thirty eight years of misery.
Jesus is offering him a new future, and he responded
(25:55):
with the old report. Wow, so here's your call to action.
I want you to write down the primary excuse you
use or why you're not where you want to be.
I want you to look at where you want to be,
and then I want you to identify that thing that
(26:16):
you keep making an excuse for. That you won't go around,
that you won't go over, that you won't go under,
that you want to just move out of the way.
I need you to stop replaying the report of your
problem and start talking to the person of your solution.
Come unto me. All you that labor and a heavy
(26:36):
laden and I will give you rest. That's what Jesus says.
He says, take my yoke upon you, because theo you
got is too heavy. It's wearing you out. He says,
My yoke is easy, and my burdens they are light.
My Bible tells me that he is a rewarder, rewarder
(26:57):
to those who diligently seek him. Got a question for you.
I want you to think about this. Who or what
have you been blaming for your paralysis, for the reason
why you can't move? Who or what have you been
blaming for your paralysis? Wall number four, our last wall,
(27:20):
the wall of defiant deliverance. Now we arrive at the culmination,
and I need you to pull up to this wall
with me. Jesus listens to this man's well rehearsed excuse.
I love this, I love this, I love these little
nuances of scripture. So this man gives him this excuse
(27:42):
to let me of blame, and Jesus does something in
that moment, very radical, very very profound. You know what
he does. He ignores it, look at the merse. He
doesn't acknowledge anything that this man has just told him
and offer him any sympathy. He doesn't offer him a
(28:03):
pat on the back. He doesn't say, yo, bro, I
agree with you. Yeah, that's jacked up. How they did
you dah man, you have a tough life. He doesn't
even offer to push the man in the pool. And
I think Jesus is wrong for that. You know it
could have pushed that man in that pool. Noe. He
doesn't speak to any of these excuses. He speaks a
(28:24):
sentence that shatters every single wall that man has ever built,
in every single wall that you and I have ever built.
Look at verse eight. Underline it, write it down. Jesus
said to him, pull side Bob, thirty eight years, thirty
(28:44):
eight year veteran. He said, get up, take up your
bed and walk. Get up, take up your bed and walk.
Those of you that are listening, get up, take up
your dead and walk. This is not a suggestion, this
(29:06):
is a command. Matter of fact, this is a divine command.
Let's break this down. Three commands, three divine commands. Jesus
first command, get up, doesn't acknowledge anything foolside Bobin said,
doesn't even He doesn't even shed a tear for this man.
(29:29):
Get up. And this is what I need you to
see in this command. This is the command of resurrection.
So he's not just telling him to get up, He's
resurrecting him. The Greek meaning of get up is not
just stand up. No no, no, no, don't see it. Please,
don't see it like that. That's not what he's saying
to this man. That's why you have to go underneath
(29:51):
these words. The brother Malcolm said, you got to go
behind the words. This is the exact same word used
in Matthew twenty eight to six. Do you know what
Matthew twenty eight six was? The women came to the tomb.
The angel was at the tomb, and do you know
what he said to those women? He said, he's not here,
(30:12):
for he has risen. He has gotten up. He has risen,
just as he said. Jesus is looking at a man
who is functionally dead, spiritually dead, emotionally dead, mentally dead,
dead to hope, dead to purpose, dead to movement, and
he's speaking resurrection life into him. He is literally saying
(30:36):
to this man, rise from the dead. Remember that power word. Arise.
That's what Jesus are saying. Arise. Your excuses have been
keeping you in a graveyard of potential. Arise. Your blame
has been a tombstone over your destiny. Hear me, family,
(30:57):
Arise your self. Pity has been an embalming fluid that
preserves your paralysis. Arise, and right now Jesus is standing
over your situation, over your proverbial thirty eight year old issue,
and he's speaking a resurrection word to you right here,
(31:17):
right now. Get up, Get out of the tune of
your own making, Get out of the tomb of your excuses. Arise,
let's go. This season of waiting by this pool is up.
Your deliverance is on the other side of your obedience.
(31:39):
Always remember that you want to find deliverance, you got
to go find obedience because that's where it is. It's
on the other side of your obedience. Arise, Jesus. Second
command to the man, take up your bed. I love
this command. This is a command of dominion, and it's
(32:01):
so powerful. And of the three commands, this is the
most powerful. This is the most powerful command for me.
Here's the reason why. That bed that he's laying on,
that matt that Jesus is telling him to pick up,
that was the symbol of his sickness. That was the
(32:23):
tangible proof of his ilment. It was the stage for
his suffering. You couldn't see him without that, Without that bed,
there were twins. They were intertwined. You couldn't see one
without the other. It was the one thing that carried him.
It was the one thing that defined him. It was
(32:44):
the one thing that confined him for thirty eight years.
It was his excuse made tangible. And Jesus says, the
thing that used to carry you, I'm now commanding you
to care. You got to hear this in your spirit.
Please hear this in your spirit. God is saying, it's
(33:07):
time for you to pick up the very thing that
has been your prison. The very thing that has been
your prison. God wants you to turn it into your platform.
That depression that had you. He's saying, take up your bed,
pick it up, carry it as a testimony of God,
who is your joy. That addiction that had you in
(33:28):
a choco. Take up your bed, pick it up, and
carry it as a story of your deliverance because you
can now go help others who struggle with the same thing.
That history of abuse that made you a victim, that happened.
But God is saying, take up your bed, pick it up,
(33:49):
carry it as evidence that you are now victorious in Christ, Jesus.
God is commanding you, right here, right now, take authority
over the very thing that once had authority over you,
that one thing that identified you, that one thing that
was always attached to you. You come around the corner,
(34:10):
and come around the corner with you. That bed you've
carried is about to become your message. That thing you
laid on is about to be the thing that you're
going to stand on. The Bible says, having done all
the stand, stand, Jesus third command and walk. Three commands
(34:30):
he gives to this man. When the man gives Jesus
all of these excuses, Jesus basically tells him, miss me
with that final command, and walk. This is the command
of obedience. It's not enough to get up. It's not
enough to take up your bed. You have to walk.
(34:53):
You must walk. Family, you must walk. You must move.
As a prophet. JA James Brown once said, get on
the good foot, you must walk. Faith is a verb.
Everybody say that faith is a verb. It is action.
(35:13):
Deliverance requires discipline. Your healing is activated by your obedience.
Not The man wasn't healed and then he got up. No, no, no, no, no.
Look at the order of what's happening. The power to
walk came as he decided to walk. The miracle was
(35:38):
in the walk. So many of us are waiting for
God to do everything for us every single day, were
just sitting around. Wait. God speaks the word, but we
must provide the walk. God gives the command, but we
must provide the walk. Walking is what takes you away
(35:59):
from the pool. Walking is what takes you away from
the crowd, separates you from the crowd of invalids, the blind,
the lame, and the paralyzed. You have to walk out
of the old environment. You have to walk out of
the old conversations. You have to walk out of the
old mindsets. You cannot get a resurrection word and then
(36:21):
stay in the graveyard. You must walk. Why because walking
is the proof of your healing. Imagine the looks on
the faces of those people in that pool when that
man picked up that bed and he walked right on
and out of the house of Mercy, the house of grace,
(36:45):
the pool by the pool of the festa. He walked
up out of there because mercy was in him, Grace
was in him. It wasn't a title, it wasn't a
name up on a marquee. We have to lift this.
We spend so much time trying to put something up
(37:06):
and point people to that. No, no, it has to
be in you. Here's the call of action for you.
What is the bed air quotes? What is the bead
in your life? What is the tangible symbol of your
long standing excuse name it? Name it in the name
(37:31):
of Jesus. I want you to see yourself picking it up.
I want you to see yourself taking authority over it.
It no longer defines you. You define it, and you
define it as your testimony. We overcome the enemy by
the blood of the lamb and by the word of
their testimony. There's a man over in Mark chapter five.
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Jesus went through a storm to get to this man.
He got on the boat around Mark chapter four or
thirty five. He told you, disciples, we're going to the
other side of the sea. We're going to the other
side of this lake. And while Jesus and the disciples
are a powerful thing, just as on the side, the
Bible says, and there were other little ships with them.
So Jesus and his disciples are one boat. Other little
(38:14):
ships are following them. Somebody's always following you. And in
the middle of their journey, a demonic storm breaks out.
Where's Jesus. He's at the bottom of the boat. Sleep
on a pillow. The disciples four brothers on that boat,
a fisherman, their father's own fishing companies, Peter and Andrew,
(38:37):
James and John. They don't know what to do with
this storm. They run down to the bottom of the
bottom part of the boat and they wake Jesus up,
and they're upset with Jesus. We're up here trying to
save our lives and you down here sleeping. And Jesus
gets up. He speaks a word to the wind. He
speaks a word to the sea. He said, be muscle,
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and everything stopped. The water looked like glass. Jesus looked
at his disciples. Why y'all wake me up? Where's your thing?
Why are you so fearful? You could have handled this situation.
Here's the thing. Jesus had an appointment on the other side,
because in Mark chapter five, there was a man in
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the cemetery. I think the Bib called it the gatherings.
Man is out there cutting himself. He's possessed with demons,
and Jesus, seeing this man, walks up to him. The
demons began to cry out, and Jesus said, what's your name?
They said, we're legion because we're many legion could be
(39:44):
anywhere from three thousand and six thousand demons, and Jesus
commands the demons to come out. The demons ask Jesus, okay,
if we not leave this region where we talked about
this a couple of weeks, and Jesus sent them over
into a herd of pig. The pig went over the
water the cliff and they drowned. But here's the thing.
When Jesus healed that man, and when his family and
(40:07):
his friends saw him, they couldn't believe what happened. And
the man wanted to stay with Jesus. And you know
what Jesus told him. He said, that's not going to
benefit me at all. He said, go back to your family,
go back to your community, and show them what God
has done for you. That's why it's so important, family
(40:29):
for us to stop making these excuses, Stop making these
excuses to stay in the graveyard, Stop making these excuses
to verbally mutilate ourselves, saying that you ain't this and
you ain't that. No, you are a child of God.
Whose reporter you're going to believe? Are you going to
believe the report of the devil? Or are you going
to believe the report of God. If any man be
in Christ Jesus, if any woman be in Christ Jesus,
(40:51):
there are new creation of old things that passed away. Behold,
all things are new. This man who got up with
that man who walked out, he was going to be
a testimony to everyone who saw him. So we've looked
at four walls. We've looked at the walls that we build.
We've looked at the walls that we build around ourselves.
(41:13):
These walls of excuses, the wall of waiting, the wall
of waiting wrong, where we camp out by pools of superstition,
waiting for a feeling instead of listening to the word
of God. The wall of willful wallowing, where we get
so comfortable in our condition that we're afraid of the
responsibility that comes with a cure. The wall of blaming others,
(41:37):
where we deflect and defer responsibility for our own paralysis,
pointing the finger and everyone and everything else. The wall
of defiant deliverance. That's the wall that God himself shatters,
and he shattered it with a three part command. Get
up from your death, take up your old identity, and
walk into your new reality. Look at verse nine. The
(41:59):
Bible says in vers nine, and at once the man
was healed thirty eight years and at once the man
was healed, did the angels third a warder? And at
once the man was healed, and he took up his bed,
and he walked it out. That man was crip walker.
He qrip walked right about that pool. He was like, deuces,
(42:20):
I'm out of here. At once. Family the moment he
aligned his will with the word of Jesus, thirty eight
years of stagnation came to an end. Thirty eight years
of silence, thirty eight years of excuses were silenced by
one act of obedience. By his act of obedience, thirty
(42:45):
eight years of excuses were done. Hear me, the same
power that emptied the tomb in Jerusalem two thousand years
ago is available to empty every single excuse that you have.
See these excuses keep us from doing anything for the
(43:06):
Kingdom of God. Yeah, it will let us do all
of these other things that don't really amount to anything.
But the same voice that spoke to the man at
the pool speaking to you right now. So I want
to give you your final cause to action, and I
need you to do this for me. Call to action.
(43:28):
Call to action Number one. I need you to demolish
the primary wall. It's important that you do this. You
identify your biggest wall. You named it your primary excuse.
Right now, I want you to verbally renounce it. Say
it out loud in the name of Jesus. I tear
(43:51):
down the wall of blame, self, pity, fear, anger, etc.
I will no longer live of here. My lease is
up and I'm moving out today. Number two a bed.
What is the one thing I have a mindset, a
(44:13):
relationship that has defined your limitation. Whatever that is, that's
your bid. So your second action is to write down
one practical step you'll take this week to carry it.
What I mean by to carry it, take authority over
it instead of letting it have authority over you. If
(44:39):
it's a negative mindset, you'll carry it by capturing every
negative thought and replacing it with scripture. If it's a
toxic relationship, you will carry it by setting new boundaries.
You carry it. It doesn't carry you. Remember that you
(44:59):
carry it, it doesn't carry you. Take the first step.
Your healing is in your walk. Number three, take the
first step. Your healing is in your walk. Your third
action is to do one thing right now today, immediately
(45:23):
after this, immediately after hearing this. I want you to
find that thing that validates your healing. The matt was
his validation of his healing. Send that text you've been
afraid to send it. Fill out the application, start the business,
(45:45):
throw away the junk food forgive the person, pour out
the liquor, get rid of the poem, get rid of
the drugs. Make a move that aligns with the miracle.
Make a move that aligns with where God is taking
you to. Please. We don't have time. We don't have calendars,
we don't have seasons, we don't have months to keep
(46:07):
giving to these same excuses that we keep making because
at this point in time, we see now that if
I don't carry this thing, it's gonna carry me about
in got it. Do me a favor. If this teaching
(46:30):
shook a wall in your life, can you do me
a favor? Can you do brothers in the world a favor?
Can you share it? I need everybody to get active
in your share. I need you to carry this the
same way God is telling you to carry away those excuses.
So everybody who's listening right now on the podcast you're
(46:50):
on spreaker, if you're on Spotify, if you're on Amazon Music,
if you're on iHeart Radio, drop a rating, forward it,
text the link. If you don't follow brothers the word,
I'm inclined to believe you might just be a hater,
but for real, let's flood the timelines with resurrection, obedience
every way in which we can access and touch someone.
(47:13):
Let's share. You might be having a conversation with someone,
and I pray this word will come back to you
and you'll tell them hold on, wait, I got something
for you. I got a gift for you. Here, listen
to this. I think this will help you. You all
know the conversations that you've had with people. You all
know because you're tired of their excuses. Okay, now you
have something that can help them. Okay. So I want
(47:34):
you to lift your voice wherever you are in your
spirit and just say a rise. We have to arise.
We cannot stay here, we cannot stay stuck. Now, we
have to get up. We have to take up our
vEDS and we have to walk. And so I am
praying that you will demolish every last brick of these
(47:56):
walls of excuses. I got one last question. For you,
and I need to know this. What bed are you
carrying out of this moment? What bid are you carrying
out of this moment? Can't can't you can't lay on it.
I need you to carry it out of here. I
(48:16):
need you to take it, take it and show somebody, Hey,
this is what God is doing for me in my life.
I've been thinking about this word all week, and I
want all of us to really be intentional about the
words that come out of our mouth. And here's the
reason why I say that. The Bible says life and
death are in the power of the tongue. Life and
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death are in the power of the tongue. So either
you're speaking life or either you're speaking death. Here's the
thing about speaking death. You can speak death to some
things that you used to do. You can speak death
to some things that you used to be, and then
you can speak life to where you're going. You can
life to what it is that you want to see
(49:02):
in your life. Okay, So please make sure to do that,
because I never want us to just get in the
habit of just hearing the word of God. But I
want us to really start walking out and start living
the word of God. I stumbled into a prayer group
this morning with some men. The brother invited me to
and I got there a little bit late, and the
(49:23):
brothers prayed for me. And one of the things the
brother prayed for me, he said, I prayed that you
will do even more than what you're doing right now.
And I just sat there like, Wow, Amen, thank you Lord,
Because what I'm doing is not allocated to a church.
It's not it's what I'm doing is what I see
Jesus doing the Gospels. Everywhere he went, he tried to
(49:46):
impact somebody every conversation he had. You should sometimes just
go and eavesdrop on some of the conversations that Jesus
has with people and it will really really fascinate you.
So to the entire family, thank you all so much
for being here. Thank you all so much for sharing.
Thank you all so much for just rocking with brothers
in the word. Everybody who knows about the podcast, please
(50:10):
just start sharing it. Just grab the link and start sharing.
I am really trying to be intentional about doing as
much as we can do to be a blessing everything
to me. You guys are my church. This is my
church right here. When I get a chance to hang
out with you all through this digital sanctuary, And if
there's anything that we can do, please reach out and
(50:31):
please let us know. Send us a word of encouragement,
send us a word of prayer, Send whatever you want
to say, whatever you want to share, Just hit us up.
Get into the word of God, and the word of
God will get into you and we'll see you next time. Peace,
So much for the introduction and for all that you do.
Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to brothers in the word. My
name is Tim Smith, the youngest child of Clara Jones.
The city is back up, it's a must, and we outside,
So please do me a favor before we get started.
Please like, love and share this teaching. Please like, share
and love this teaching. That is the only offering that
(00:21):
I'm going to ask you for. I need you to
offer this teaching to someone else who may be standing
right now behind the wall of excuses. I want to
talk to everybody listening to the sound of my voice,
whether you're on top of the mountain or whether you're
wrestling in that proverbial valley. David I think he called
it the valley of the shadow of death. This word
(00:44):
right now is for you. It's not for your neighbor.
It's not for the person you're invited. It's for you.
It's for the person who feels stuck. It's for the
person who feels like the walls are closing in. It's
for the person who is tired of being tired, the
person who is about to give up. This word is
for you. Please don't check out right now. So today
we're not just going to have a Bible study. We
(01:05):
are staging an intervention. We are serving an eviction notice
to everything, everything that has held you captive. So I
need you to eliminate every distraction. If you're at home,
silence the notifications, silence the noise, because what God wants
to do in this moment is too important for you
to miss. I need everyone, everyone, please take detailed notes.
(01:27):
Please take detailed notes. Your mission, should you choose to
squabble up, is this identify and demolish one longstanding excuse
in your life before this teaching is over. That one
excuse that you've been holding on to, that one excuse
that just seems like it's waiting for you when you
(01:50):
wake up every morning, when you lie down at night,
it's right there with you, it's tucking you in. That's
the challenge, that's the charge. I want you to demolish
just one, the one long standing excuse in your life
before this teaching is over. So let's go to the word.
About our lesson today is going to be found in
John chapter five, verse one through nine. John chapter five,
(02:13):
verse one through nine. But what I'm going to do
is we're going to concentrate on verses five through eight,
But I have to give you the entire context of
what this lesson is all about, because I want you
to see what's up ahead of the lesson. I even
want you to see us after the scriptures as well.
So I got to give you context these walls of
(02:34):
excuses you have your Bible gone es v. John Chapter five,
verse one through nine. After this, there was a feast
of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now
there is in Jerusalem by the sheep, gave a pool
an aramic called Bethesda, which was five roof colonnades. Those
are like five porter and easily a multitude of invalids, blind,
(02:59):
laying and paralyzed. For an Angel of the Lord. You
may not have this verse in your Bible. I had
to go and grab this verse because in some manuscripts
verse force not included. But I wanted to include this
verse just so we can have the context of this scene.
Verse four. For an Angel of the Lord went down
at certain seasons into the pool and stirred the water.
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Whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water
was healed of whatever disease he had. One man was
there who had been an envalide for thirty eight years.
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? Underline that, underline that
(03:44):
in your spirit? Do you want to be healed? Sick
man answer, sir, I have no one to put me
in the pool. When the water stirred up, and while
I'm going, another steps down before me, Jesus said to him,
get up, take up your bed, and walk. And at
once the man was healed, and he took up his
(04:08):
bed and walked. Let's go to work Wall number one
taking notes, the wall of wrong waiting, the wall of
wrong waiting. So let's set the scene, because I don't
want to assume everybody is familiar with this story. The
Bible says there is a pool called Bethesda, but that's
(04:30):
the means house of mercy. But that's the means house
of grace. And at this house of mercy there's a
multitude of inbolence. We have a sea of brokenness. People
who are blind, people who are laying, people who are paralyzed,
people are all gathered together in one place. Why are
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they there. Verse four again, which isn't in all manuscripts,
but it explains the tradition of what's happening here. Says
that they were waiting for an angel of the Lord
stir the water, and whoever stepped in first after the
stirring of the water by this angel was healed or
whatever disease they had. Please understand, only one person could
(05:14):
get healed, the first one who got into the water.
That's going to be important when we get down to
verse seven. So, but that's you have a house of
mercy operating on a system of superstition, competition, and scarcity.
You have a spiritual lottery system at the House of Mercy,
(05:39):
and an angel might come down at certain times, and
only the first person in the water gets the miracle.
Only one person. That's it, God, bless you, thank you
for coming out. Good night. Only one person. And that
is the essence of waiting wrong. They were waiting on
(06:01):
a maybe they were waiting on a ster, they were
waiting on a feeling. They were waiting on a whirlpool
in the water. And can I just be real with
you right here, right now, because we're family, how many
of us have camped out by a pool of superstition,
waiting for a stern. Camped out at a church, waiting
(06:23):
for a ster we say, God, I'll serve you when
I feel a certain way. God, I'll get serious about
my purpose when I get a sign. God, I'll forgive
them when the angel of my emotion stirs the waters
of my heart. We're sitting in churches, We're sitting in programs,
We're sitting in relationships. We're waiting for a move that
is based on a tradition, not on the truth to
(06:46):
poo God is. We're sitting by pools of Instagram, pools
of religion, pools of public opinion, pools of past experiences.
And we have convinced ourselves that this is the only
way to get a miracle. This is the only way
to get our breakthrough, This is the only way to
get our quote unquote blessing. So we're waiting for a feeling,
(07:08):
waiting for a goosebump, waiting for the music to swell
just right. I'm gonna jump in as soon as he
hit that note. Waiting for the lighting in the church
to be just right, Waiting for the water, the bubble.
We're waiting for our material blessing while the word made
flesh is walking right past you. Jesus steps into this
(07:31):
scene of desperate, competitive waiting, and the Bible says in
verse five, he sees one man. All this sickness is there,
and he sees one man. He's intentional with this look.
(07:51):
It doesn't say the man saw him, and that's important,
but he saw him. Jesus saw the one man. One
man was there who had been an invalid for the
thirty eight years. So you have a multitude of brokeness,
a sickness. There's no nurse on staff, there's no doctor
on call. Jesus looks in at one individual, and I
(08:17):
just want to encourage somebody right now. You may feel
like you're one facing the crowd. You may feel like
you're one facing a crowd of dysfunction. You may feel
like your problem is among millions. But Jesus will walk
past a multitude just to get to you. He will
bypass the crowd to have a conversation with you. Everybody
(08:40):
can be up running, hooping and holland jumping, dancing, getting
a blessing, and Jesus will come up and have a
conversation with you. I've experienced that, so I know firsthand
he'll do it. You know why, because his grace is
not a lottery system. His mercy is not a name,
and claiming his mercy is not competition. Jesus sees you,
(09:02):
he knows your name. Jesus calls you by grace. By grace,
are you saved? Not of works, lest any man should boast.
This pool is a pool of works. It's not a
pool of mercy. It's not a pool of grace. Jesus
knows how long you've been lying there by the pool
(09:23):
of your issue. Not just a number. You are a
divine appointment for him. The unfortunate thing about this man,
this man's identity was his location. He was the man
at the pool. That's how they identified him. That's Bob
(09:47):
at the pool. He was the pool guy. Identity totally
swallowed up because of his affliction. For thirty eight years,
his identity was tied to his inability. He had lost
his name, he had lost his identity. He had become
a fixture of permanent residence of the House of Mercy
(10:07):
air Corps, and he never got any mercy. Imagine that
you're sitting in the House of Mercy, but you don't
get no mercy. You're sitting in the House of Grace,
but you don't get any grace. You just get stagnant condemnation.
This man was a living landmark. You could give people
directions to him. And you know what she did is
(10:30):
that yeah, yeah, yeah. What you need to do is
you need to just go down, make a left on
Judas Street, then make a left at the blind man,
go past the lame woman, and when you see this
guy who's been on this mat since Moses was in diapers,
you've arrived. This man's picture was on Google Maps, and
we do the same thing. Family. Let's be honest, let's
(10:51):
keep it real. We've let our issues become our identity.
We've become landmarks of our own limitations, limitations that have that,
limitations that we put on ourselves. We're no longer a
child of God with a struggle. We are the depressed one.
(11:15):
We are the anxious one. We are the one who
always messes up the relationships. So you know what we've done.
We've accepted the location of our problem as the definition
of who we will always be called action. Identify the
pool that you've been sitting at. It what superstitious or
(11:41):
conditional system have you been waiting for for your breakthrough?
I hear people say it all the time. I got
to get the church to get my blessing, So Monday
through Saturday, there are no blessings available for you. They
got to go sit by their pool, and just like
this man, they're sitting and they're waiting, And just like
this man, years are going by, years are going by,
(12:03):
years that you cannot give back. Time is the most
precious commodity that you have. This man wasted thirty eight years.
How many years have you wasted? What exactly are you
waiting for? You're waiting for a job, waiting for a promotion,
you wait for an apology, You're waiting for a feeling.
(12:23):
You're waiting to be recognized. I pray you're not waiting
for a feeling, because we walk by faith, not by feelings.
It's time to stop waiting for the water to stir
and turn your attention to the word. Who is speaking
question for you? What limitation have you allowed to become
(12:47):
your identity? What limitation have you put on like a
coat you wear it every day? Whatever that limitation is
in your life, I need you to idea, but it
cannot identify you, walter number two, Let's keep going the
wall of wilful wallowing, the wall of wilful wallowing. Let
(13:10):
me explain this to you. So Jesus, knowing this man
has been in this state for a long time, he
has said one word to him. But he knows, he
knows his situation. Why, because he's God. He walks up
to this man and he asked this man a question
for me that is so profound, so piercing, that it
(13:32):
should shake every one of us to the core. Verse six.
When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that intimate
knowledge that he had been in that condition for a
long time, he said to him, do you want to
be healed? He stepped over everybody else, he stepped past
(13:54):
everybody else, and he's having a conversation with this man
laying next to the poor. Do you want to be healed?
Wait a minute, Jesus, what kind of question is that? Jesus,
that's a redundant question. You're at a hospital, you're at
a hospice, you're standing in icu essentially, and you walk
(14:15):
up to a man who's been sick for nearly four decades,
a man whose entire existence revolves around his sickness. And
Lord Jesus, you asking this man if he wants to
be healed, if he really wants to get better. Really, Jesus,
that that's the question, that's what you want to say
(14:35):
to this man. It seems almost insulting, It seems obvious
on the surface. Of course, the man wants to be healed.
Why else would he be there. But this is what
I need you to understand about Jesus. Jesus never asked
idle questions. Never. I wish I could take you through
(14:57):
the gospels. You will be a mad is that the
number of questions he asks people. And he's never asking
for information. His questions are surgical instruments designed to expire
to expose what's really in your soul. It'll speak to
what's really in your soul. On the surface, it can
(15:18):
be one thing, but he's probe me into your soul.
He's probed me into your heart. He saw some blind
men over in Matthew chapter nine, verse twenty eight, and
he asked them, do you believe that I am able
to do this? Wasn't questioning his power. Of course he
could heal them. He's questioning their faith. To Martha in
(15:41):
John chapter eleven, verse twenty six. He tells Martha that
he is the resurrection and the life. You know, her
brother Lazarus has died, and she's mad at Jesus. And
he's telling her, Martha, I'm the resurrection in the life,
and she's thinking he's the resurrection in the life in
the future. And he's trying to get her to understand. No, Martha,
I'm the resurrection and the life right now. And he said,
(16:02):
do you believe this? In other words, he's forcing her
to move past her grief and into a declaration of
faith right now. Remember Peter, we talked about him last week.
John Chapter twenty one, verse seventeen. Jesus asks Peter three times?
Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you
(16:24):
love me? He's not looking for information from Peter. You
know what he's doing. He's performing spiritual rehabilitation on a
man who denied him three times. So Jesus questions are
never surfaced questions. He bypasses the superficial and he cuts
straight to the soul. And this question, to a man
who has been on his back for thirty eight years,
(16:45):
is perhaps the most foundational question of all, and it
is a question for all of us. Do you want
to be healed? All to trade the comfort of your
condition for the responsibility of resurrection. Jesus is saying, are
(17:09):
you done with this for real? Are you ready now?
Because you see, sometimes the sickness is more comfortable than
the cure get a lot of attention. I talked to
her brother the other day in the hospital and he
told me, yeah, a lot of people are calling. So yeah,
you get a lot of attention when you're sick, and
(17:30):
people can find comfort in that. The excuse is easier
than the execution. Staying on the mat, staying on that
proverbial bed means that you have no responsibility. And guess what,
everybody around you knows that you have no responsibility. People
feel sorry for you. They bring you a corn beef
(17:51):
sandwich from ap Deli. They'll bring you fried chicken with
sauce on it from Harrod's. They'll bring you Italian beef
from Patillo's. You don't have to work. You have a
built in reason for every single failure in your life.
You never have to take accountability. You don't have to
take care of your family. But guess what healing means.
(18:11):
You have to get a job. Healing means you have
to carry your own weight. Healing means you have to
learn to walk in the world that you watch from
the sidelines. And this is the ultimate question, And if
you really stop to think about it, it echoes back
to the very first question in the Garden of le
(18:32):
Genesis three nine. After Adam and Eve had sinned, God
walks into the cool of the day, and he simply
asked one question, where are you? This is the foundational
question of God to humanity When he said that in
the garden, it wasn't a question of geography. God knew
(18:53):
Adam's physical coordinates. It was a question of spiritual and
relational position. Where are you, Adam, in relation to me?
Where are you in relation to the truth? Where are
you in relation to your purpose? So Jesus' question the
(19:14):
pool side Bob is the New Testament echo of God's
question to Adam? Do you want to be healed? Do
you want to be healed? As another way of asking
where are you? Do you want to stay hitting in
the bushes of your excuses, or do you want to
walk out of this garden, out of this paralysis, and
into the new reality with God? That's what God is
(19:38):
asking all of us today. He's asking you the same
thing right now. Not do you want the pain to
go away? No? No, no, no no no. Do you
want to be made hole? There's a difference from the
pain going away and being made hole. The pain going away,
the pain will eventually come back, but being made whole
(20:02):
means that you're now complete. There's a difference. One is
about comfort, the other one is transformation. Call to action.
And I want you to answer this question for yourself
right now, out loud, wherever you are. Do I want
to be healed? Do I really want to be healed?
(20:23):
Put in the work for my healing? And I want
you to be honest. What are you afraid of losing
if you get here? Or better yet, who are you
afraid of losing if you get here? Are you afraid
of losing the sympathy? Are you afraid of losing the excuse?
(20:46):
Are you afraid of losing the familiar pain? Question for you?
What comfort have you found in your condition? We all
number three, the wall of blaming others. The wall of
blaming others. Let's analyze this man's response to Jesus, because
(21:08):
Jesus is going to ask this man a very simple question,
but the response to Jesus' life altering question, and it
reveals the third and perhaps most common wall that we build.
Look at verse four. Jesus asked this man a simple question,
do you, sir, want to be healed at this point
(21:29):
in time? Simple yes or no? A simple yes or no.
But the man doesn't answer with a yes or no.
Just like Adam and Eve, he doesn't answer with a
yes or no. You know what he does. He gives
a report, He gives a reason, He gives an excuse.
These walls of excuses. Verse seven, the sick man answered Jesus, Sir,
(21:52):
I have no one to put me into the pool
when the water is third up and while I am going,
another steps down before me. Wow. He doesn't say yes,
and he doesn't say no. He says, let me tell
you why I can't. Let me tell you who's to
(22:15):
blame for me being here? He immediately deflects, and he
blames others. Blame number one, lack of help. I have
no one, That's what he tells the King of Glory.
I have no one. It's therefore nobody supports me. Nobody
(22:37):
is here for me. If only I had a better team,
if only I had a better family, a better pastor,
a better spouse, better children, better seblings. Then I be
hereed now, one time did that man point the finger
at himself? He pointed the finger at everybody else. Blame
number two. Unfair system. You know the system is rigged
against us. You know that, right, he says, while I
(22:58):
am stepping down another steps before me. Yeah, it's the
system's fault. It's the white man. Other people get breaks,
other people are faster, other people are smarter, other people
are better connected. This is the oldest excuse in the books.
This is Genesis chapter three being recycled all over again.
(23:20):
Whenever you hear Genesis chapter three, just think scene of
the crime. That's how I bookmark Genesis chapter three. That's
the scene of the crime. God confronts Adam about his disobedience.
Adam that you eat of the tree I told you
not to eat from What does Adam do? Adam does
(23:42):
something that is so profound and it is so ingrained
in us. He tells God, the woman you gave me,
she gave me the fruit, and I ate. Adam blames
Eve and he blames God in the same sentence. Then
(24:06):
God goes to Eve since the Eve, what happened? What
does she do? The serpent? Deceive me? She blamed the serpent.
It's the blame game. It's the original sin of shifting responsibility,
and we're masters at it. We received it from Adam
(24:28):
and Eve. We have become professional excuse makers and blame shifters.
We have a reason for every excuse in our lives.
We got the people excuse, We got a down pack. God,
I can't live for you. I can't live for you
for real because of the people you put in my life.
(24:48):
My family is toxic, my friends are bad influence. I
have no one to help me. We'll use the past
excuse God. You don't know what I've been through. They
ain't gone through what I gonna God, if you had
my trauma, my history, my baggage, you understand. While I'm
still stuck here, God, do you want to be here?
The personality excuse God, This is just the way you
(25:11):
made me. This is just who I am. I have
an addicted personality. I'm not just a disciplined person. God,
this is my thorn in the flesh. You know. We
got to make it spiritual. So for thirty eight years,
this man had perfected his story. Like many of us,
his excuse was his testimony. He had told it so
(25:32):
many times that he believed it more than he believed
in the possibility of a miracle. He wasn't even looking
for a miracle. He just wanted to tell somebody his story.
He's talking to the miracle worker and all he could
do was recite the manual of thirty eight years of misery.
Jesus is offering him a new future, and he responded
(25:55):
with the old report. Wow, so here's your call to action.
I want you to write down the primary excuse you
use or why you're not where you want to be.
I want you to look at where you want to be,
and then I want you to identify that thing that
(26:16):
you keep making an excuse for. That you won't go around,
that you won't go over, that you won't go under,
that you want to just move out of the way.
I need you to stop replaying the report of your
problem and start talking to the person of your solution.
Come unto me. All you that labor and a heavy
(26:36):
laden and I will give you rest. That's what Jesus says.
He says, take my yoke upon you, because theo you
got is too heavy. It's wearing you out. He says,
My yoke is easy, and my burdens they are light.
My Bible tells me that he is a rewarder, rewarder
(26:57):
to those who diligently seek him. Got a question for you.
I want you to think about this. Who or what
have you been blaming for your paralysis, for the reason
why you can't move? Who or what have you been
blaming for your paralysis? Wall number four, our last wall,
(27:20):
the wall of defiant deliverance. Now we arrive at the culmination,
and I need you to pull up to this wall
with me. Jesus listens to this man's well rehearsed excuse.
I love this, I love this, I love these little
nuances of scripture. So this man gives him this excuse
(27:42):
to let me of blame, and Jesus does something in
that moment, very radical, very very profound. You know what
he does. He ignores it, look at the merse. He
doesn't acknowledge anything that this man has just told him
and offer him any sympathy. He doesn't offer him a
(28:03):
pat on the back. He doesn't say, yo, bro, I
agree with you. Yeah, that's jacked up. How they did
you dah man, you have a tough life. He doesn't
even offer to push the man in the pool. And
I think Jesus is wrong for that. You know it
could have pushed that man in that pool. Noe. He
doesn't speak to any of these excuses. He speaks a
(28:24):
sentence that shatters every single wall that man has ever built,
in every single wall that you and I have ever built.
Look at verse eight. Underline it, write it down. Jesus
said to him, pull side Bob, thirty eight years, thirty
(28:44):
eight year veteran. He said, get up, take up your
bed and walk. Get up, take up your bed and walk.
Those of you that are listening, get up, take up
your dead and walk. This is not a suggestion, this
(29:06):
is a command. Matter of fact, this is a divine command.
Let's break this down. Three commands, three divine commands. Jesus
first command, get up, doesn't acknowledge anything foolside Bobin said,
doesn't even He doesn't even shed a tear for this man.
(29:29):
Get up. And this is what I need you to
see in this command. This is the command of resurrection.
So he's not just telling him to get up, He's
resurrecting him. The Greek meaning of get up is not
just stand up. No no, no, no, don't see it. Please,
don't see it like that. That's not what he's saying
to this man. That's why you have to go underneath
(29:51):
these words. The brother Malcolm said, you got to go
behind the words. This is the exact same word used
in Matthew twenty eight to six. Do you know what
Matthew twenty eight six was? The women came to the tomb.
The angel was at the tomb, and do you know
what he said to those women? He said, he's not here,
(30:12):
for he has risen. He has gotten up. He has risen,
just as he said. Jesus is looking at a man
who is functionally dead, spiritually dead, emotionally dead, mentally dead,
dead to hope, dead to purpose, dead to movement, and
he's speaking resurrection life into him. He is literally saying
(30:36):
to this man, rise from the dead. Remember that power word. Arise.
That's what Jesus are saying. Arise. Your excuses have been
keeping you in a graveyard of potential. Arise. Your blame
has been a tombstone over your destiny. Hear me, family,
(30:57):
Arise your self. Pity has been an embalming fluid that
preserves your paralysis. Arise, and right now Jesus is standing
over your situation, over your proverbial thirty eight year old issue,
and he's speaking a resurrection word to you right here,
(31:17):
right now. Get up, Get out of the tune of
your own making, Get out of the tomb of your excuses. Arise,
let's go. This season of waiting by this pool is up.
Your deliverance is on the other side of your obedience.
(31:39):
Always remember that you want to find deliverance, you got
to go find obedience because that's where it is. It's
on the other side of your obedience. Arise, Jesus. Second
command to the man, take up your bed. I love
this command. This is a command of dominion, and it's
(32:01):
so powerful. And of the three commands, this is the
most powerful. This is the most powerful command for me.
Here's the reason why. That bed that he's laying on,
that matt that Jesus is telling him to pick up,
that was the symbol of his sickness. That was the
(32:23):
tangible proof of his ilment. It was the stage for
his suffering. You couldn't see him without that, Without that bed,
there were twins. They were intertwined. You couldn't see one
without the other. It was the one thing that carried him.
It was the one thing that defined him. It was
(32:44):
the one thing that confined him for thirty eight years.
It was his excuse made tangible. And Jesus says, the
thing that used to carry you, I'm now commanding you
to care. You got to hear this in your spirit.
Please hear this in your spirit. God is saying, it's
(33:07):
time for you to pick up the very thing that
has been your prison. The very thing that has been
your prison. God wants you to turn it into your platform.
That depression that had you. He's saying, take up your bed,
pick it up, carry it as a testimony of God,
who is your joy. That addiction that had you in
(33:28):
a choco. Take up your bed, pick it up, and
carry it as a story of your deliverance because you
can now go help others who struggle with the same thing.
That history of abuse that made you a victim, that happened.
But God is saying, take up your bed, pick it up,
(33:49):
carry it as evidence that you are now victorious in Christ, Jesus.
God is commanding you, right here, right now, take authority
over the very thing that once had authority over you,
that one thing that identified you, that one thing that
was always attached to you. You come around the corner,
(34:10):
and come around the corner with you. That bed you've
carried is about to become your message. That thing you
laid on is about to be the thing that you're
going to stand on. The Bible says, having done all
the stand, stand, Jesus third command and walk. Three commands
(34:30):
he gives to this man. When the man gives Jesus
all of these excuses, Jesus basically tells him, miss me
with that final command, and walk. This is the command
of obedience. It's not enough to get up. It's not
enough to take up your bed. You have to walk.
(34:53):
You must walk. Family, you must walk. You must move.
As a prophet. JA James Brown once said, get on
the good foot, you must walk. Faith is a verb.
Everybody say that faith is a verb. It is action.
(35:13):
Deliverance requires discipline. Your healing is activated by your obedience.
Not The man wasn't healed and then he got up. No, no, no, no, no.
Look at the order of what's happening. The power to
walk came as he decided to walk. The miracle was
(35:38):
in the walk. So many of us are waiting for
God to do everything for us every single day, were
just sitting around. Wait. God speaks the word, but we
must provide the walk. God gives the command, but we
must provide the walk. Walking is what takes you away
(35:59):
from the pool. Walking is what takes you away from
the crowd, separates you from the crowd of invalids, the blind,
the lame, and the paralyzed. You have to walk out
of the old environment. You have to walk out of
the old conversations. You have to walk out of the
old mindsets. You cannot get a resurrection word and then
(36:21):
stay in the graveyard. You must walk. Why because walking
is the proof of your healing. Imagine the looks on
the faces of those people in that pool when that
man picked up that bed and he walked right on
and out of the house of Mercy, the house of grace,
(36:45):
the pool by the pool of the festa. He walked
up out of there because mercy was in him, Grace
was in him. It wasn't a title, it wasn't a
name up on a marquee. We have to lift this.
We spend so much time trying to put something up
(37:06):
and point people to that. No, no, it has to
be in you. Here's the call of action for you.
What is the bed air quotes? What is the bead
in your life? What is the tangible symbol of your
long standing excuse name it? Name it in the name
(37:31):
of Jesus. I want you to see yourself picking it up.
I want you to see yourself taking authority over it.
It no longer defines you. You define it, and you
define it as your testimony. We overcome the enemy by
the blood of the lamb and by the word of
their testimony. There's a man over in Mark chapter five.
(37:54):
Jesus went through a storm to get to this man.
He got on the boat around Mark chapter four or
thirty five. He told you, disciples, we're going to the
other side of the sea. We're going to the other
side of this lake. And while Jesus and the disciples
are a powerful thing, just as on the side, the
Bible says, and there were other little ships with them.
So Jesus and his disciples are one boat. Other little
(38:14):
ships are following them. Somebody's always following you. And in
the middle of their journey, a demonic storm breaks out.
Where's Jesus. He's at the bottom of the boat. Sleep
on a pillow. The disciples four brothers on that boat,
a fisherman, their father's own fishing companies, Peter and Andrew,
(38:37):
James and John. They don't know what to do with
this storm. They run down to the bottom of the
bottom part of the boat and they wake Jesus up,
and they're upset with Jesus. We're up here trying to
save our lives and you down here sleeping. And Jesus
gets up. He speaks a word to the wind. He
speaks a word to the sea. He said, be muscle,
(39:01):
and everything stopped. The water looked like glass. Jesus looked
at his disciples. Why y'all wake me up? Where's your thing?
Why are you so fearful? You could have handled this situation.
Here's the thing. Jesus had an appointment on the other side,
because in Mark chapter five, there was a man in
(39:23):
the cemetery. I think the Bib called it the gatherings.
Man is out there cutting himself. He's possessed with demons,
and Jesus, seeing this man, walks up to him. The
demons began to cry out, and Jesus said, what's your name?
They said, we're legion because we're many legion could be
(39:44):
anywhere from three thousand and six thousand demons, and Jesus
commands the demons to come out. The demons ask Jesus, okay,
if we not leave this region where we talked about
this a couple of weeks, and Jesus sent them over
into a herd of pig. The pig went over the
water the cliff and they drowned. But here's the thing.
When Jesus healed that man, and when his family and
(40:07):
his friends saw him, they couldn't believe what happened. And
the man wanted to stay with Jesus. And you know
what Jesus told him. He said, that's not going to
benefit me at all. He said, go back to your family,
go back to your community, and show them what God
has done for you. That's why it's so important, family
(40:29):
for us to stop making these excuses, Stop making these
excuses to stay in the graveyard, Stop making these excuses
to verbally mutilate ourselves, saying that you ain't this and
you ain't that. No, you are a child of God.
Whose reporter you're going to believe? Are you going to
believe the report of the devil? Or are you going
to believe the report of God. If any man be
in Christ Jesus, if any woman be in Christ Jesus,
(40:51):
there are new creation of old things that passed away. Behold,
all things are new. This man who got up with
that man who walked out, he was going to be
a testimony to everyone who saw him. So we've looked
at four walls. We've looked at the walls that we build.
We've looked at the walls that we build around ourselves.
(41:13):
These walls of excuses, the wall of waiting, the wall
of waiting wrong, where we camp out by pools of superstition,
waiting for a feeling instead of listening to the word
of God. The wall of willful wallowing, where we get
so comfortable in our condition that we're afraid of the
responsibility that comes with a cure. The wall of blaming others,
(41:37):
where we deflect and defer responsibility for our own paralysis,
pointing the finger and everyone and everything else. The wall
of defiant deliverance. That's the wall that God himself shatters,
and he shattered it with a three part command. Get
up from your death, take up your old identity, and
walk into your new reality. Look at verse nine. The
(41:59):
Bible says in vers nine, and at once the man
was healed thirty eight years and at once the man
was healed, did the angels third a warder? And at
once the man was healed, and he took up his bed,
and he walked it out. That man was crip walker.
He qrip walked right about that pool. He was like, deuces,
(42:20):
I'm out of here. At once. Family the moment he
aligned his will with the word of Jesus, thirty eight
years of stagnation came to an end. Thirty eight years
of silence, thirty eight years of excuses were silenced by
one act of obedience. By his act of obedience, thirty
(42:45):
eight years of excuses were done. Hear me, the same
power that emptied the tomb in Jerusalem two thousand years
ago is available to empty every single excuse that you have.
See these excuses keep us from doing anything for the
(43:06):
Kingdom of God. Yeah, it will let us do all
of these other things that don't really amount to anything.
But the same voice that spoke to the man at
the pool speaking to you right now. So I want
to give you your final cause to action, and I
need you to do this for me. Call to action.
(43:28):
Call to action Number one. I need you to demolish
the primary wall. It's important that you do this. You
identify your biggest wall. You named it your primary excuse.
Right now, I want you to verbally renounce it. Say
it out loud in the name of Jesus. I tear
(43:51):
down the wall of blame, self, pity, fear, anger, etc.
I will no longer live of here. My lease is
up and I'm moving out today. Number two a bed.
What is the one thing I have a mindset, a
(44:13):
relationship that has defined your limitation. Whatever that is, that's
your bid. So your second action is to write down
one practical step you'll take this week to carry it.
What I mean by to carry it, take authority over
it instead of letting it have authority over you. If
(44:39):
it's a negative mindset, you'll carry it by capturing every
negative thought and replacing it with scripture. If it's a
toxic relationship, you will carry it by setting new boundaries.
You carry it. It doesn't carry you. Remember that you
(44:59):
carry it, it doesn't carry you. Take the first step.
Your healing is in your walk. Number three, take the
first step. Your healing is in your walk. Your third
action is to do one thing right now today, immediately
(45:23):
after this, immediately after hearing this. I want you to
find that thing that validates your healing. The matt was
his validation of his healing. Send that text you've been
afraid to send it. Fill out the application, start the business,
(45:45):
throw away the junk food forgive the person, pour out
the liquor, get rid of the poem, get rid of
the drugs. Make a move that aligns with the miracle.
Make a move that aligns with where God is taking
you to. Please. We don't have time. We don't have calendars,
we don't have seasons, we don't have months to keep
(46:07):
giving to these same excuses that we keep making because
at this point in time, we see now that if
I don't carry this thing, it's gonna carry me about
in got it. Do me a favor. If this teaching
(46:30):
shook a wall in your life, can you do me
a favor? Can you do brothers in the world a favor?
Can you share it? I need everybody to get active
in your share. I need you to carry this the
same way God is telling you to carry away those excuses.
So everybody who's listening right now on the podcast you're
(46:50):
on spreaker, if you're on Spotify, if you're on Amazon Music,
if you're on iHeart Radio, drop a rating, forward it,
text the link. If you don't follow brothers the word,
I'm inclined to believe you might just be a hater,
but for real, let's flood the timelines with resurrection, obedience
every way in which we can access and touch someone.
(47:13):
Let's share. You might be having a conversation with someone,
and I pray this word will come back to you
and you'll tell them hold on, wait, I got something
for you. I got a gift for you. Here, listen
to this. I think this will help you. You all
know the conversations that you've had with people. You all
know because you're tired of their excuses. Okay, now you
have something that can help them. Okay. So I want
(47:34):
you to lift your voice wherever you are in your
spirit and just say a rise. We have to arise.
We cannot stay here, we cannot stay stuck. Now, we
have to get up. We have to take up our
vEDS and we have to walk. And so I am
praying that you will demolish every last brick of these
(47:56):
walls of excuses. I got one last question. For you,
and I need to know this. What bed are you
carrying out of this moment? What bid are you carrying
out of this moment? Can't can't you can't lay on it.
I need you to carry it out of here. I
(48:16):
need you to take it, take it and show somebody, Hey,
this is what God is doing for me in my life.
I've been thinking about this word all week, and I
want all of us to really be intentional about the
words that come out of our mouth. And here's the
reason why I say that. The Bible says life and
death are in the power of the tongue. Life and
(48:41):
death are in the power of the tongue. So either
you're speaking life or either you're speaking death. Here's the
thing about speaking death. You can speak death to some
things that you used to do. You can speak death
to some things that you used to be, and then
you can speak life to where you're going. You can
life to what it is that you want to see
(49:02):
in your life. Okay, So please make sure to do that,
because I never want us to just get in the
habit of just hearing the word of God. But I
want us to really start walking out and start living
the word of God. I stumbled into a prayer group
this morning with some men. The brother invited me to
and I got there a little bit late, and the
(49:23):
brothers prayed for me. And one of the things the
brother prayed for me, he said, I prayed that you
will do even more than what you're doing right now.
And I just sat there like, Wow, Amen, thank you Lord,
Because what I'm doing is not allocated to a church.
It's not it's what I'm doing is what I see
Jesus doing the Gospels. Everywhere he went, he tried to
(49:46):
impact somebody every conversation he had. You should sometimes just
go and eavesdrop on some of the conversations that Jesus
has with people and it will really really fascinate you.
So to the entire family, thank you all so much
for being here. Thank you all so much for sharing.
Thank you all so much for just rocking with brothers
in the word. Everybody who knows about the podcast, please
(50:10):
just start sharing it. Just grab the link and start sharing.
I am really trying to be intentional about doing as
much as we can do to be a blessing everything
to me. You guys are my church. This is my
church right here. When I get a chance to hang
out with you all through this digital sanctuary, And if
there's anything that we can do, please reach out and
(50:31):
please let us know. Send us a word of encouragement,
send us a word of prayer, Send whatever you want
to say, whatever you want to share, Just hit us up.
Get into the word of God, and the word of
God will get into you and we'll see you next time. Peace,
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