From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: God does not look for perfect people to do His work. Noah was a drunk, Abraham was old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses was a murderer, Gideon was afraid, Samson was a womanizer, Rahab was a prostitute, David committed adultery, Jonah ran from God, Naomi was a widow, Job went bankrupt, Peter denied Christ, Martha was a worrier, the Samaritan woman had been divorced five times, Zacchaeus was short, Timothy had an ulcer, and Lazarus was dead. And God did miracles in their lives, and He will do one in your life too.

Guest (Male): That introduction is pretty clear. God can work a miracle in your life. You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. We think of all these Bible characters that Pastor Jeff just mentioned as good people, saints of God who did courageous things to accomplish God's purposes.

But in reality, they're just people, just like you and me. The good things they did were done by God through them and in spite of their failings and weaknesses. And the good news is, the same can be said of our lives if we will stop making excuses.

Today, part two of the message, "No More Excuses" from the series, "It's All About Jesus." When you go online, you can listen to this message again if you missed it, or download a free MP3 of any broadcast, as well as Pastor Jeff's sermon outlines. Today, we're going to be looking at the story of how Jesus healed a man who had been crippled for 38 years and was waiting for his miracle. Have your Bible open now to John chapter five and get ready to live a life with no more excuses.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: This is a story of physical healing, but I am convinced that most of the healing that needs to take place is not so much in the physical. We have much greater needs in the emotional and in the spiritual. But there are three actions that you must take in order to get well.

Action number one: to get well, you have to throw aside your excuses. God is a God of hope. I don't care what your situation is, God is a God of hope. So if you are going to get well, the very first thing that you have to do is throw away all your excuses.

Action number two: to get well, you have to rise up by faith. The man gives Jesus the excuse in verse seven, and then Jesus says in verse eight, He doesn't commiserate with him. He doesn't say, "There, there." He doesn't say, "You're right, nobody knows the trouble you've seen, nobody knows your sorrow." He doesn't go into any of that. He doesn't click on the "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" Linda Ronstadt song. What He says to him is, "Arise, take up your pallet and walk."

To get well, you're going to have to rise up as the Lord commands. You're going to have to rise up by faith. Do you want to get well? Then get up! Do you want to get well? Then get up! Some people don't want to get well. They want attention. They want to win the lame game. Jesus says, "Listen, if you're serious, if you want to get well, then get up! Get up by faith."

Get up from your prison that you're in. People live in a prison, in a pool of "woe is me," in a pool of "alas," in a pool of hopelessness in this prison. The Lord came, the scriptures say, to open the prison doors.

Jesus' first sermon in Nazareth: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord."

The Lord opens the prison door and then He says, "Get up!" And it takes faith to do that. He doesn't pull you out of the prison. He opens the door so that you can get out. He releases the shackles so you can get out, but He doesn't pull you out. It takes faith to do that.

This man had to rise up. He had to respond in faith. There's a lot written about this guy where people were saying he had no faith at all. But I think he had faith because when Jesus said to him—and he hadn't gotten up in 38 years—it doesn't sound like he was born crippled. He became crippled.

For 38 years he has not gotten up. And so now He says to him, "Arise." He says to him, "Get up." The guy easily could have said, "Yeah right. Did you not hear my excuses? Do I need to play my whine over again? It's hopeless, I'm helpless, there's no way. Look how crippled I am."

He had to respond to the Lord. He says, "Get up," and the man somehow pushed off, and the crooked legs were made straight. Immediately there was a miracle and he was made whole, and he couldn't believe it. It was, "Wow! Look what happened to me!"

In your situation, the Lord wants you to get up. He says to you, "Get up." You say, "But Jeff, I can't get up." That's what this man was thinking. "How can I get up? I can't get up." You do it based on the word of God. The Lord wants you to do what He says. If He says to you, "Get up," then you do all you can to get up.

You have to exercise the faith to begin to get up, and then He has to give you the power to get up. It's just like with Peter. When Peter walked on water, the Lord said, "Come." The Lord didn't grab Peter and pull him out of the boat. The Lord invited Peter to come walk on the water with Him. He said "Come," and Peter had to leave the security of the boat. He had to take that step of faith, and boom! Steps on the water.

What happens if you get out of a boat and step on water? You sink like a rock, and I sink like a rock. But if the Lord says "Come," all of a sudden the water becomes hard like this tabletop. That's what happened for Peter. And that's what happened for this guy when the Lord said, "Arise, get up," and he stepped out in faith.

He pushed off by faith and all of a sudden he could stand. It's the same situation when Jesus told the man with the withered hand in Mark chapter three. He had that hand that was all like that, and He said, "Stretch out your hand." "Stretch out my hand? That's mean! That's cruel! Why would you ask me to do that?"

It's like taking a guy's crutches away and saying, "Now you walk." I would fall down. Jesus said, "Stretch out your hand," and the guy could have just said, "Forget you! You don't know what you're doing." But he did. He said, "Okay. You're saying stretch out my hand. I've never stretched out my hand. It's a withered hand, but I'm going to do it."

You take that step of faith and then the miracle comes. That's what happened with this guy. Listen, don't say that you can't do it. Because Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." If the Lord tells you something to do, then you step out and do it, and God will enable you to do what He said to do.

That's living by faith. That's walking by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It's just doing what God says. You say, "Jeff, I know about Philippians 4:13. I've heard that verse before. I've even memorized it." I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. That is probably for other people. Not for me. It doesn't work for me. Works for other people, works for you maybe, it doesn't work for me.

These promises of God, they're good for other people. They just don't seem to do for me. I am just hopeless, I am just helpless. Now we're back to the excuses, aren't we? You've already gone back to the excuses.

Let me tell you something. God does not look for perfect people to do His work. There are no perfect people. God takes imperfect people and chooses imperfect people to do His work. I don't care what kind of lameness you have. The Bible is filled with lame guys that God used.

Noah was a drunk, Abraham was old, Isaac was a daydreamer, Jacob was a liar, Leah was ugly, Joseph was abused, Moses was a murderer, Gideon was afraid, Samson was a womanizer, Rahab was a prostitute, David committed adultery, Elijah was suicidal, Jonah ran from God, Naomi was a widow, Job went bankrupt, Peter denied Christ, Martha was a worrier, the Samaritan woman had been divorced five times, Zacchaeus was short, Timothy had an ulcer, and Lazarus was dead.

And God did miracles in their lives, and He will do one in your life too. Listen, to get well, you have to throw aside your excuses. To get well, you have to rise up by faith. To get well, action number three, you have to take responsibility for your life.

Jesus said to him, "Arise, take up your pallet and walk." Immediately the man became well and he took up his pallet and began to walk. It's not only just arise, but there are other things that you need to do. I give you the power when you take that little step of faith. I straighten out your legs and I strengthen your legs that haven't held you up for 38 years. Now I am giving you an assignment. You take up your pallet and you walk.

Listen, it's time. It's time for you to throw away the excuses, to rise up by faith, and it's time to take up your pallet. What does that mean to take up your pallet? It means you take responsibility for your life. That thing that has been carrying you for so long, you pick it up, and you take authority over that.

Say, "I am not going to be a freeloader anymore. I am not going to be somebody that just waits for other people to take care of me." You know why a lot of people don't want to get well? Because then there are things expected of them. If I'm sick, if I'm an invalid, nothing is expected of me. I just lie there, and nobody expects me to do anything.

But when I get well, then there are expectations put on me. A lot of people don't want to get well because they like it when no one asks them for anything and no one expects anything of them. Jesus said, "Take up your pallet. That thing that has been carrying you, you start carrying it. And you take responsibility."

I was thinking about this in terms of the situation in America with so many homes and so many husbands and so many dads. They just abdicate at home. They don't lead their wife. They don't lead their children. They don't lead them spiritually. They don't lead them emotionally. They are just always at work and they are not really doing anything with the family.

As one wife told me who ended up getting divorced, she said, "I take care of everything from the mailbox in. He handles everything from the mailbox out. He is out in the world earning the money and I'm taking care of everything at home." He was an absentee husband and an absentee dad, and the home just cratered.

Hey, take up your pallet! Take responsibility! Guys, you be the husband God wants you to be. You be the dad God wants you to be. You be the one that is getting your family ready to go to church. You be the one that is putting your kids to bed and reading them Bible stories and praying for them. You don't let your wife do that. You do that and you take the lead.

Makes all the difference in the world. It's time to take up your pallet and to do what God says to do. It's time to walk in newness of life. Take up your pallet and walk. Life has changed for you, crippled guy! Because you are not the crippled guy anymore. You are healed guy.

So now I want you to walk. When the Lord does a work in your life, He says, "Now I want you to walk in newness of life." Romans chapter six, verse four: "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."

You are raised to walk. I always say that when I baptize people: buried with Christ in baptism, raised to walk in newness of life. The old you is dead! That old life you had is gone! You have a brand new life in Jesus! The Lord saved you so that you would walk with Him. Walk in freshness and newness, in excitement, in joy, in righteousness.

After this guy gets healed, they ask him because he is carrying his pallet. Jesus told him, "Take up your pallet and walk." So he is carrying his pallet. It is on a Sabbath. The scripture says that in verse nine: "And immediately the man became well and took up his pallet and began to walk. Now it was on the Sabbath on that day."

When you read that you think, Sabbath. Uh oh. It is a bad deal because it was on the Sabbath and Jesus healed the guy on the Sabbath and he is carrying his mat on the Sabbath. You are not supposed to do that. The religion police are going to come swarm you.

That's what they did. They said, "What are you doing carrying your pallet? You're doing work. It's the Sabbath. You're not supposed to carry stuff on the Sabbath." He said, "I just got healed. The guy that healed me told me to do this." Then they said, "Who was it that healed you?" He said, "I don't know. He slipped away."

Then he was in the temple praising God for his healing. And then Jesus found him, verse 14, and He said to him, "Behold you have become well. Do not sin anymore so that nothing worse may befall you." That means obviously this guy's sickness was because of sin. Not everybody's sickness is because of sin.

In John chapter nine, a man is born blind. That had nothing to do with his sin or his parents' sin. Jesus makes that clear. But this guy's situation was because of sin. He says, "Don't sin anymore. Listen, I didn't save you, I didn't raise you up so that you could have a brand new life of sin. I saved you and raised you up so that you would soar, so that you would walk in victory, so that you would walk with me."

That's why the Lord does that for you and me. He says, "Take responsibility and take responsibility for your walk with me. And seek me as silver and search for me as for hidden treasure, and spend time with me and set your heart to seek me and to walk with me and to do what I say." That's your responsibility. God will not do that for you.

You have to decide, "I'm going to walk in newness of life." Have you ever heard the proverb that says as a dog returns to its vomit, so does a fool to his folly? Dogs return to their vomit, and a fool so often goes back to his own folly.

Jesus is saying to this guy, "Hey, you've been made whole. You've been made well. Don't go back to your life of sin. Don't go back to the vomit." Some of you are here and God has done things in your life. You've seen His miracles, you've experienced His miracles.

He broke those chains of sin that were on you and addiction that were on you. And now you're wanting to go back to the vomit and you're creeping over to the vomit so you can scoop it up again. As a dog returns to its vomit, so does a fool to his folly. The Lord says it's time to walk in newness of life. It's time to cut off that filth and that vomit in your life and to walk with me. It's time to understand that there will always be opposition.

Guest (Male): While we would prefer that would not happen, there will be opposition. Pastor Jeff Schreve returns on From His Heart in just a moment to conclude the message called "No More Excuses." He is going to outline the predicted opposition this healed man faced from those who should have celebrated this great miracle. But they didn't. They were not fans of Jesus at all.

Listen, are you a fan of Jesus? If not, then you've fallen for the lies of the devil and it's infected many areas of your life. You likely don't recognize the work of the devil in you. That's why Pastor Jeff has written a new book that points out the way the devil schemes his way into the lives of people and blinds us to the truth.

The book is called "The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning In to God's Truth." It is our gift of thanks to you for your support of any amount to From His Heart this month. The book will give you the tools to recognize, battle, and defeat the lies of the devil that are insidious in our world today.

To get yours, make a gift to From His Heart when you call 866-40-BIBLE, 866-40-BIBLE, or go online to fromhisheart.org and request the book "The Devil's Newsroom." You can find out more about how to get the series and how to receive Christ as your Savior when you go to fromhisheart.org and click the "Why Jesus" link.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Here is the crippled guy from 38 years and now he is walking. He is in the temple praising God. What do the Pharisees do? What do the religious leaders do? "You're not supposed to be carrying your pallet! What are you doing here?"

"The guy that healed me told me to do this." "Well, who healed you?" "I don't know." Jesus finds him in the temple and the guy finds out it's Jesus. So he goes back to the religious leaders. He says, "Hey, this guy Jesus, he is the one that told me to do that! He is the one who healed me!"

They turned their anger off of this guy onto Jesus because He is healing on the Sabbath. There is opposition. Listen, if you walk with God, there will always be opposition. The opposition often comes within the church. It comes from the Pharisees. It comes from the religious people in the church who are joy suckers.

They don't enjoy anything that God does. They like rules and regulations and tight little boxes. God is the God outside the box. You try and put a box and God says, "I'm going to break that box. I'm bigger than any of your boxes." And the Pharisees in the church are like, "We have to build a stronger box! And we have to have harder rules and harder regulations and this is how you're supposed to worship God and walk with God and this is how you're supposed to pray." God has lots of ways that He does things.

If you try and live your life to please the religious elite, you'll never please God. These religious folks, they're mad at the guy and then they get mad at Jesus because He is healing on the Sabbath. Then watch verse 16: "And for this reason the Jews were persecuting Jesus, they were seeking Him and going after Him because He was doing these things on the Sabbath."

But He answered them, "My Father is working until now and I myself am working." For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because not only was He breaking the Sabbath but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. He is deserving of death.

Great miracle took place that day. No rejoicing by the religious leaders. Just hatred to the point of saying Jesus needs to die because He broke our rules, because it's all about rules. And it's all about us. Uh-uh. It's all about Jesus. It's all about Jesus. It is all about pleasing Him. It is all about following Him. He made Himself equal with the Father, making Himself equal with God because He is God. And we follow after Him.

I don't know where you are today. I don't know what needs to be fixed inside of you today. I don't know if there is bitterness in your heart, I don't know if there is jealousy, I don't know if there is some wound you're holding onto from the past. But I know the Lord asks, "Do you want to get well? Do you want to get well?" Will you arise?

Guest (Male): The question indeed seems a strange one for someone who is crippled emotionally or spiritually. But as the Lord made clear, it is a valid one that needs to be asked by us all when it comes to our sin and struggles. Do you want the healing that only Jesus can bring?

Please go to fromhisheart.org, click the "Why Jesus" link and discover the love that Christ has for you and how you can love Him forever. A quick reminder: for your gift of any amount today to From His Heart, we'll send you Pastor Jeff's new book, "The Devil's Newsroom." Just go online for details at fromhisheart.org.

Our time is gone for today. I am Larry Nobles, trusting you received a blessing from today's teachings and will join us next time for the last message of the month that will answer the question that we all have when we don't understand God's ways. It is called, "When God Doesn't Make Sense." Here is part of what's to come.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Have you experienced in your life some tragedy, some kind of difficulty, some kind of huge problem that came in like a cruel intruder? And you said, "Who signed me up for this? Why did this happen? God where are you?" Maybe death has touched your life, your family. Maybe sickness has come in. God where are you? What do you do when God doesn't seem to make sense?

Guest (Male): That is on Thursday for an encouraging message from Dr. Jeff Schreve, who will share real truth, real love, and real hope. Remember too that no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.