John Chapter 5:7-9

What God started in the spirit will not be completed in the flesh and what is impossible with man is possible with God. And we're supposed to walk. We are supposed to walk.

Maybe you've been lame for a little while. And Jesus is this morning saying, you know what, get up and walk. Walk, advance, step by step, move by move. What is walking?

Well, Webster's describes it, walking is advancing on foot in such a way that one foot is always on the ground. I like that. Isn't that a good one? Maybe change that last word to rock.

Be even better with it. One foot always on the rock. Welcome to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. David is a senior pastor of The Bridge in Kernersville, North Carolina. As he continues teaching in John chapter five with the message It's Possible with God, we want to welcome one of David McGee's associate pastors, D.A.

Brown, into the program today. Welcome, brother. Hey, Bob. I hope if you're listening right now, you do not change the radio station. With all that's going on in our country, with all that's going on in the world, God wants to speak directly to you today. Maybe you're feeling hopeless. Maybe you're feeling fearful.

Maybe you're feeling like you can't do anything about what's going on around you. Well, God can. And today he wants to speak to you right where you are at. I hope you're listening. And this is an excellent time to listen as David McGee begins his teaching It's Possible with God. We are in John chapter five and remember we kind of left off with verse six with the incredible question that Jesus asked this man who had been laying there for 38 years. He asked him if he wanted to be made well. And we talked about what a bizarre kind of question that it was.

Well, we're going to see more bizarre things now. In verse seven, the sick man answered him, sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. But while I am coming, another steps down before me.

I want you to notice something. Jesus asked this guy, do you want to be made well? This man did not answer the question.

It was a pretty basic yes or no question, wasn't it? But what happens with the man? What does he immediately do? He immediately starts talking about man.

He immediately starts talking about what's gone wrong in his life. And I think that's really interesting. I think it's really interesting the way this man answered the question. We asked the question last week, do you want to be made well?

That's a good question this week. Do you want to be made well? What is your answer to that question? Sadly, some people say, no, I don't want to be made well.

I want to stay just where I am. And I don't want to grow. I don't want to be drawn closer to the Lord and how sad that is. Somebody will come up and attempt to correct you or attempt to draw you closer to the Lord by applying God's word into your life. And instead of listening, instead of gleaning, instead of growing, you say, oh, no, no, no, I really don't want to be made well. I don't want to be healed of this. I don't want to be a further disciple of the Lord. And that's a real test when God's word or God's people come to us and attempt to correct us. So when the Lord asks you that question, when he's asking you that this morning, do you want to be made well?

I hope you give a resounding yes. I hope you don't start listing all the reasons you can't be made well. All the problems that you have, because that's what happens sometimes. But this guy immediately starts talking about what's gone wrong. He begins, I think it's fair to say that, and not that he doesn't have reason. I don't want to sound like I don't have compassion, but it begins to complain. He begins to murmur. And the sad thing is while he's doing that, it's making him incapable of saying yes.

He's so busy telling about these other things that he can't give Jesus the answer that he needs to give him. Yes, I want to be healed. Yes, I want to be made well.

And how often we do this? Jesus comes to us and says, do you want to be made well? Well, there's this and there's that. And I got this and I got that. And you know, I was born and mom didn't hold me enough. And you know, she, she weaned me too early and I've got this and I've got that and I've got a chemical imbalance. I can't be made whole. I can't be made well. I don't know what I'm going to do.

How tragic. When Jesus himself was obviously able to heal us, ask us the question, do we want to be made well? And we start telling him all the reasons we can't. We start pointing to other people and other things. This verse actually reminds me in John chapter 21, 22. And in exchange, Jesus was having with Peter and John and John asked about Peter and I love Jesus's reply. He says, what is that to you?

You follow me. That's a good verse because often we're like, well, what about this? Well, what about that? What about this guy? What about that girl? And Jesus says, what is that to you?

Follow me. I'm sure before that I, you know, I had, I had been guilty in the past during worship of being out in the congregation, worshiping the Lord, but looking around the room does watch other people worship. And actually, I'm glad you're sitting down, actually critiquing the way that they were worshiping. How bizarre is that?

How hypocritical is that? Well, they're not look at that. They're not holding their hands, right?

Oh yeah. Worship and look at worship. You don't really know the Lord. You're not a disciple. Put your hands down.

And Jesus is like, what are you doing? Follow me. I've shared the rock story before. Well, maybe some of you don't. I'll share it again.

I, you know, and this is, I'll tell you in front. This is a weird story, but I'll tell it anyway. Years ago, long, long, long time ago, I was in a fellowship and there was this one guy God was using to refine me. I didn't get along with him, but God was using him as a tool to form me into the image of God.

And I had a hard time with him. And one time during worship, you know, I'm sitting there and I'm watching him and he's over there. He's got his eyes closed. He's got his hands up. And I'm, and I'm thinking, what are you doing?

You're not a worshiper. Put your hands down. And the bizarre and on the way in the church that morning, I had picked up a rock outside. It just was an interesting rock.

It was on the sidewalk. I looked at it. I thought that's pretty cool.

Put it in my pocket. So I'm standing there in the worship and, and the most bizarre thought came to my mind. I thought I ought to throw this rock at it. And I think now here's where the, I think that was from the Lord. Maybe not.

But anyway, so I'm saying, and I'm thinking, yeah, he's got his eyes closed. He'll never know who threw the rock. And I was so convicted by that because I would remember the passage.

He who's without sin cast the first stone. And I kept that rock with me for about two years. Every time I put my wallet and my change on the dresser, I put the little rock out on there.

And then the morning I put it back in. And as I walked with that rock in my pocket, I looked around at people and I thought, and this verse was a key verse in that. What is that to you?

You follow me. See the man's answer showed that he wasn't looking to God for his healing, but look in the man, be careful family. We do this and we do this often. We trust in other people's prayers and we don't trust in our prayers. We trust in other people's counsel and we don't trust in God's counsel. We trust in the healing that man offers and pseudo healing, false healings. And we don't trust in the healing that God can bring. And no doubt a lot of things happen in this life and maybe you're here this morning and you need spiritual healing or physical healing or emotional healing or mental healing.

Again, we spoke about this last week. Don't seek your healing. Seek him who heals.

That's how you begin to walk in the fullness that God has. Don't seek joy. Seek him who is joy. Don't seek love. Seek him who is love and don't seek peace. Seek the Prince of peace. Don't seek spiritual gifts.

Seek the giver. This, this man was looking at something that was actually getting in the way of his healing. When Jesus said, do you want to be made? Well, he's looking at the pool. He's got his eyes on the wrong thing.

If he'd have looked into the eyes of Jesus. And what I find intriguing is the man is looking at what he thought was his source of healing, but it was actually in the way of where his healing would come from. See, sometimes we do that God. Sometimes we're waiting on some healing meeting or we're thinking, well, it's going to come from this counselor. Sometimes it might, but don't get your eyes off of Jesus. Sometimes we're waiting for some big emotional move of God and God is waiting on us to make a move, to take a step towards him, but our eyes aren't on him. Our eyes are on something that we think is going to heal us. Don't look for something to heal you.

Look for someone to heal you. If you think about this, this is a really sad situation. The guy's been there 38 years.

He had no one to help him for that long. That should soften your heart because there's people like this in our communities. There's people like that here this morning that are lame. They're not walking with the Lord and they need somebody to pray for them and encourage them. What happens is, once you start focusing on Jesus, you'll start to see people all around you who are in need. You won't have to look far from ministry, I assure you. We'll be right back with more from David Magee on Cross the Bridge. Right now, here's a word from associate pastor D.A.

Brown. Hey, Bob. Excited to be here today with you, and we want to pray for some people in these cities in our listening audience in California.

Santa Maria, Scotia, Shasta, Soledad, Soquel, South Lake Tahoe, and Stockton. God, thank you for the people in these cities listening today. We pray that they would have an expectant heart right now, that you're going to speak to them right where they're at and in the situations they're going through. God, we pray that you would protect them. If there are some in the listening audience who are sick today, we pray that you'd please heal them. And Lord, we pray that everyone would be in a Bible-teaching, Bible-believing church, and give those pastors wisdom on how to navigate the waters in a tumultuous situation. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.

Thank you, brother. And now, let's get back to David Magee as he continues teaching verse by verse. Verse 8. This is good stuff. We're not hurrying through this chapter, because there's so much rich stuff here. Jesus said to him, rise, take up your bed, and walk.

Now, I want you to know something. Jesus didn't say, well, when people get in line in front of you at the pool, how's that make you feel? He didn't ask that question. He didn't say, well, I can't believe they do that to you.

That's wrong. He didn't say, how in the world did this happen to you? He didn't say, now, who sinned, your mother or your father that you're like this?

He didn't say any of those things. He just told the man, get up and walk. And I love the fact that he said, take up your bed and walk. Now, understand, this wasn't a big mattress.

This was a little mat that you would roll up and carry on your shoulder, carry on your back, or carry on your hand. But the point here is Jesus was saying, you know, that thing that had you trapped, that thing that you were laying on for so many years, I want you to pick it up and carry it around like a trophy, because that no longer has you in bondage, but you've been set free. See, and I think as we're set free, there are trophies that the Lord gives us. You can walk around and say, you know, I used to be trapped by this, and I'm not trapped by it anymore. I used to be trapped by this. I used to be trapped by drugs or by alcohol or sexual misconduct or this or that or materialism. I'm not trapped like that. That's a trophy now for the Lord Jesus Christ.

And walk around with it. Because the reality is, every one of us have been at this point before, lame and not able to move, and Jesus says, rise, take up your bed and walk. Maybe that describes you now. Maybe you've come to the point where you realize you can't heal yourself. You can't fix yourself.

And you know what? That's a good place to be. It's a distressing place to be. But you realize this morning you don't have the strength to heal yourself. The Lord needs you to come to that place for you to realize that He alone can heal you. See, because a lot of popular truths now out there suggest you can heal yourself if you'll just do these steps, these three steps, these four steps, these 10 steps, these 12 steps. If you'll just do these things, you'll be healed. But you have to come to the end of all that because when all is said and done, most of that is pretty ineffective. But the Lord can heal us. And as long as we're putting hope in other things, the truths of pop psychology or the truths of Freud, as long as you're putting trust in those things and trust in yourself, you can't be healed. Or trust in well-intentioned Christian friends.

See, at some point, all that glatters to the ground. And at that moment, we get to the end of our rope, we get to the end of our hope. But at that moment is when hope walks in in the form of Jesus Christ. When you say, I can't, He says, I can. I've been waiting for you to get to that point. Just like lifeguards will wait. They tell you, don't ever try to save somebody who is struggling that thinks they can save themselves because it won't work.

Wait until they realize they can't save themselves and then you can go in and help them. I understand it's a difficult place. But the reality is we can't fix ourselves. But the Lord wants to fix us. The Lord wants to heal us. Yes, we don't have strength, but the Lord wants to give us His strength. What an amazing thing.

What an awesome trade-off. Because the thing that is holding you down that perhaps has overpowered you, it hasn't overpowered God. Let me assure you that. He's waiting for you to hand it to Him and to bring about your deliverance.

And maybe you're sitting out there and you go, well, pastor, that all sounds good. But I've been struggling with this one thing for years. How many years? 38 years? This man had been laying there, had been suffering for 38 years.

And what a difference a day made, huh? One day he wakes up at the pool. He's thinking, I've been here. I've always been here.

I'm always going to be here. And Jesus comes and Jesus sees him and Jesus speaks to him and everything changes. See, guys, that's part of why hope springs eternal because what a difference a day makes in the presence of the Lord. What a difference a day makes in the presence of the Lord. Today could be that day in your life. This could be the day where everything changes. Helplessness can melt into the strength of the Lord. Bitterness can melt into the comfort of the Lord. And bondage can be dissolved into the freedom of the Lord in one day, in one moment. What an awesome thing. And think about that. Today could be the day that changes your life.

I'm excited. Amen. Praise God. Verse 9. And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked.

He got up and walked. Now, I like to do this. When I'm studying, I like to place myself in that position of watching these things occur. And think about it. If you were at the pool that day, you saw this man that had been laying for 38 years laying there and somebody walks up and tells him and speaks to him and says, get up and start walking. You realize what most of us would think.

That's not right. That man's lame. I can't believe that guy would come up and tell him to walk. Doesn't he know he can't walk?

Because that's the way we think sometimes. And some of us need to get up and walk this morning. We need to exercise our feet of faith. And I'm sure it was a scary thing for this man to try his feet that had failed him so many times to get up once again and try this. But he did it. And guess what?

God did it. And again, perhaps that describes some people here. You've tried so many times to walk in this, to walk in that, and to walk in the power and the peace and the strength of the Lord. And you've failed so many times. Don't let that discourage you from trying it one more time. Because you know, at some point, your excuses become your bondage. I can't do that because I can't do this. And you're not trapped by what trapped you originally.

You're trapped by your excuses. I can't do that. Well, I don't have the strength to do that.

I can't do that. See, when Jesus tells you to do something, it's no longer impossible. It's no longer impossible. With His commandments come His enablement. Jesus has told us to do a lot of stuff in this book.

And we can read it some stuff and go, wow, that's just impossible. You're right. In your strength, it is.

You can't do it. Jesus went a little bit further in John chapter 15 verse 5. He says, for without me, you can do nothing. For without me, you can do nothing. That's the words of Jesus. But what happened to discovering the strength within?

What happened to discovering the champion within? Well, this is the words of Jesus. He says, without me, you can't do anything.

I'm not going to leave you hanging with that one because there's another one in there. Mark chapter 10 verse 27, but Jesus looked at them and said, with men it is impossible, but not with God. For with God, all things are possible.

So there's our comparison. Without Him, we can do nothing. With Him, we can do everything.

There's nothing we cannot do with Him. What an encouraging verse. Do you realize some of us try to live out Christianity in the strength of our flesh, in the power of our flesh? We think we can do it. Some people here may have been taught that you can do it. You can do it.

A little train that can. If it's going to be, it's up to me. Some churches are touting this stuff. It's very unbiblical. You can't do the work of the Spirit in the power of the flesh. And if you try to live out the Christian life and the power of the flesh, let me assure you, you're going to fail. There's no way you can do it. People come to me and they go, well, I'm trying, trying, trying, trying, and boy, this Christian life is just hard.

And I'll look at them and say, it's not hard. It's impossible. You can't do it. But He can. And He's willing to give you the power to do it. But don't depend upon your power.

What a frustrating way to live. Paul asked the Galatians who were struggling with, he said, are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? You were made perfect by the Spirit of God at salvation. And it's that same Spirit that will continue to work in you to bring about your sanctification, your purification. The life lesson here is what God started in the Spirit will not be completed in the flesh.

And what is impossible with man is possible with God. And we're supposed to walk. We are supposed to walk.

Maybe you've been lame for a little while. And Jesus is this morning saying, you know what? Get up and walk, walk, advanced step by step, move by move. What is walking? Well, Webster's describes it. Walking is advancing on foot in such a way that one foot is always on the ground. I like that.

Isn't that a good one? Walking is moving in such a way that one foot is always on the ground. Maybe change that last word to rock.

Be even better with it. One foot always on the rock. Taking these steps one by one. And you know, quite often we try to, we think we can get up and we can sprint.

And that's not a good idea. Walk. We think, well, I'm not sure I can walk.

I'm not sure I'll walk right. You know what? I'm sure a baby is quite overwhelmed with the concept of walking as they try to get up and the whole balance thing gets up and it tries and it fails and it falls over. But you know what?

I've never seen a father when a child is doing that at a year and a half or what I've never seen a father come up to the baby to the child and goes, oh, you're not trying. What are you doing? Falling over like that. Get up. Oh, you're hurting yourself. Pain is just weakness leaving the body.

Just get up. Come on, start walking again. No, the father's earthly fathers don't do that. Our heavenly father doesn't do that. He's encouraged that we're trying. He's encouraged that we're taking steps that we're actually walking.

He's pleased and we need to be walking. We need to be walking in the truth and then the light. We need to walk in the love and the grace. We need to walk in the spirit and in faith. We need to walk in the gifts and the good works that God has prepared beforehand for us. Walk as children of the light and walk worthy of the high calling of God. We're to be walking. We're to be walking. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking him to help you to live for him. Now, God wants you to pray this prayer so much that he died to give you the opportunity and the ability to ask him to forgive you. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me that I could be forgiven and I believe you were raised from the dead that I could have a new life and I've done wrong things. I have sinned and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name.

Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer, according to the Bible, you've been forgiven. You've been born again.

Jesus said he would not turn anybody away who comes to him and he came for those people who knew they needed forgiveness, those who were sick, not the righteous. So congratulations, friend. You just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit crossthebridge.com to receive our First Steps package with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ.

Or you can write to Cross the Bridge at P. O. Box 12515, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, 27117, and share how God is working in your life. Well, DA, before we go, what are some ways that we can bless our listeners? Each day you can wake up with encouragement from Pastor David through the Word of God with his email devotional, life lessons to consider, a daily reading plan, and a thought to meditate on throughout your day from the heart of David McGee.

That sounds good, Pastor DA, and again, it's been great to have you with us on the program today. But tell us, what else can our listeners find on crossthebridge.com? If you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 10 a.m. Eastern Time, or on Thursday nights at 7 p.m. Eastern Time? Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There, you'll experience a live service from David's home church, The Bridge, in North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening and join us next time as David McGee continues teaching verse by verse in the Gospel of John.