Note: The main audio (44min) contains the sermon. This embedded audio (8min) allows me to read the message below to you.
Today, we are packing our bags and taking a quick flight to Union Church - Charlotte in Concord, North Carolina. Pastor Brian Bullock has a powerful word for us in Get Up Now, which focuses on Jesus’s miracle at the pool in Bethesda (John Chapter 5)
Jesus walks up to a man who has been paralyzed for over 30 years and asks him a question that sounds rhetorical at face value but a test of faith principally. He asks, “Do you want to be healed?”
I can imagine the look this man must’ve had. If he was anything like us today, he probably had a series of thoughts rushing to his mind at that moment — Who is this man? Why does he ask if I want to be healed? Is he mocking me? Does he not know I have been trying to get healed for over 30 years? Why else would I be at this pool? Why else would I have been trying to get someone to help me get into the miracle water? — and if he is anything like me, all of those thoughts would’ve been projected into a twisted look shown on his face.
The man responds, “I can’t, Sir. For I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”
Instead of entertaining the nature of his condition or circumstances, Jesus responds as the spiritual gangsta he is and says, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” And instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking!
So here you are. In the thick of your circumstances. Maybe you aren’t at a pool waiting for someone to save you, but you have been in a battle of your own in some way, shape, or form. Maybe you’ve been working on yourself — trying to do what God wants, turning away from an old habit or way of thinking, staying hopeful in a waiting period, holding onto faith, fighting the temptations of complaining, and giving up.
Maybe you aren’t paralyzed, but you have some condition. Maybe it’s your attachment to your pride — no one should be able to talk to you that way.. who do they think they are? Or your expectations of how things should be. Maybe it’s the way you need to get even after feeling wronged or need to have the last word. Maybe it’s the way you won’t move if you don’t have all the evidence you need before taking the next step. Maybe it’s the way you already feel tired just by thinking about all the work that comes with saying yes.
Idk what circumstance you are in or what condition you have. But I do know this: when God asks you a yes or no question, the answer is always YES. He doesn’t care what your past life has taught you to believe in. He doesn’t care how many times you tried before or what didn’t work in the past. He doesn’t care what has or hasn’t worked for others. He doesn’t care if others have been stuck where you are desiring a breakthrough.
You will be the first! The first millionaire, the first healthy marriage, the first homeowner, the first to be close and loving to your family and stay that way, the first to bring a sense of home to your family, chosen family, and strangers alike, the first to graduate college or graduate school.
Jesus simply wants to know one thing from you. Do you want to be healed? If your answer is YES, take your circumstance and your conditioning and press forward! Do not lose heart, His grace is sufficient.
With Love & Grace,
De’Zhon Grace
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