From His Heart

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Listen, there's not a promise in the Bible that says anytime I get sick, God promises to heal me. We pray for that, but we don't know that for certain. But listen, one thing we do know for certain: that the Lord wants to heal every disease of the heart.

He wants to fill you with His Spirit so you have love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and gentleness, and faithfulness, and self-control. That's something for every believer in Jesus to claim. That's healing. Listen, here's the question today: do you want to be well?

Guest (Male): This is From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, who has an important and insightful question for you today: Do you want to be well? Now, maybe there are some things that have happened in your life that left you wounded and hurting.

If so, the question for you today may sound strange, but it's an important one that Pastor Jeff is asking. And we hope your answer is yes. In today's lesson, he'll explain how to let go of the excuses that leave so many people victimized, and move intentionally from hopelessness to healing.

The lesson is called "No More Excuses" from the eight-lesson series that we're in for the rest of the month. It's all about Jesus. Now remember, if you miss any of these lessons, you can listen again online, download a free MP3 of the broadcast and the sermon notes from Pastor Jeff when you go to fromhisheart.org.

Click the "Listen" link. Open your Bible now to the Gospel of John, chapter five, as Pastor Jeff Schreve explains that when God is in control of our lives, there are really no more excuses.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: John chapter five, verse one, the Scripture says this: After these things, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew Bethesda, having five porticoes or five porches.

In these lay a multitude of those who were sick, blind, lame, and withered, waiting for the moving of the waters. For an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. Whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted.

A certain man was there who had been 38 years in his sickness. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time in that condition, He said to him, "Do you wish to get well? Do you want to get well?"

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." Jesus said to him, "Arise, take up your pallet and walk." And immediately the man became well and took up his pallet and began to walk.

A great story, a great miracle in the Word of God. Now let me ask you a question as we get into this Scripture. How many people have ever seen the television show "The Biggest Loser"? You've seen "The Biggest Loser." You know "The Biggest Loser" is really, really popular.

It's a play on words because who wants to be a loser? If you're 500 pounds, you want to be a biggest loser, right? And it's all about people who are grossly obese and they go on this diet and they go on this exercise program, and they have these people yelling at them and pushing them, and pushing them, and pushing them so that they can lose weight.

The winner gets, I think, $100,000. But if you win, even if you come in second, it's a pretty cool deal because you lose lots of weight. But it's tough. We like to watch that show and you're sitting on the couch eating Oreos watching, "Boy, look at them. Man, that looks hard."

Let me tell you, it is hard to diet and exercise. Can I get an amen? It's hard to diet and exercise. Really hard. You know if you've ever played word association games? Black, you say white. Open, you say closed. Diet, you say pizza buffet.

It's just one of those things. That's the way it is for me because when I just think of diet, I think, "Oh." And exercise. Man, there are a million excuses of why you shouldn't exercise or why you can't exercise.

Maybe you've tried some of these. You just say, "I'm too tired. I'm too tired to exercise. I know I need to, but I'm too tired. I'm too busy. I am just so busy. No time to exercise." How about this one from some ladies: "Why don't you exercise?" "I don't like to sweat. I just don't like to sweat. It's just not cute to sweat."

Some people say, "Well, it doesn't do any good. I've tried it. Jeff, I went on a diet for three days. I hit that treadmill for at least 13 minutes. I didn't look any different, so it doesn't work." Or my favorite, which I use on myself quite a bit: "I look good fat." I mean, some people can't pull it off. I can pull it off.

Have you ever stood in front of the mirror not to look at the external but to look at the internal, to see what's really in your heart, to look deeply within? What do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see lust, greed, selfishness?

Do you see insecurity? Do you see jealousy? Do you see bitterness? Do you see spiritual immaturity? Do you see a lame, weak, withered faith? Do you see when you look honestly in the mirror deep inside, do you see that your life is really all about me?

In this story, we've been going through the miracles because John shares seven miracles. They're miracles with a message, they're signs with a significance, and they're designed to point to Jesus, to show us that He is indeed God, to reveal His glory, all that God is. When Jesus would do a miracle, it revealed His glory, revealed that He was God.

We talked about the water turning into wine, first miracle He did. Then last time, we talked about the healing of the nobleman's son. The passage we just read is unique to John, just like those other two are, the healing of the cripple at the pool of Bethesda.

This is an interesting story in that there was a place, and there is a place. I've been there right by where the temple was. There's this place, this pool. It's called the pool of Bethesda, which means house of mercy. There are these porches there, and the lame, and the sick, and the blind, and the withered would gather there.

They had this idea in their head, it was some kind of superstition. If you notice in the Word of God where it says in verse four that an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water. If you have a Bible like mine, it has a note: This verse is not found in many manuscripts.

It was probably added so we would understand why these people gathered there. It was a scribal note. There was no angel that went down to stir up the waters. There was nothing magic about these waters, but the people believed that, and that's why they gathered there.

Doubtless there was some kind of a spring, an intermittent spring that would come up through that pool and bubble in the waters, and the people said, "Wow, there's something going on in the water. Get down in the water and then you can be healed."

It was a nasty place. Can you imagine a multitude of lame people, of crippled people, of sick and withered people all congregated in one spot? People that couldn't get up, people that had open sores. It would stink there. It would just be a place you'd be like, "I don't want to go here. I don't like it here."

Jesus goes there one day when He came up to the feast and He was there in Jerusalem. He came by the pool of Bethesda, and He stops and He sees this guy who had been sick for 38 years. Crippled and lame for 38 long years.

He says to that guy an interesting, interesting question: "Do you want to get well?" Wow. Do you want to get well? What kind of a question is that? Do I want to get well? I've been sick for 38 years. Why would you ask me do I want to get well? It seems like a no-brainer question, right?

I mean, do you want to get well? Of course. It's kind of like the question that your dad asked when you were a kid: "You want a spanking?" Let me think on that. Of course I don't want a spanking. Do you want to get well? Of course I want to get well.

So we look at that question and we think it's a little cruel to ask that guy, "Do you want to get well?" And it's a little bit like why would you ask that? But if you look deeper, you will see that Jesus is asking a very profound question, a very sobering question, a burning question: "Hey, do you really want to get well?"

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. Much greater needs.

The Bible never promises that every person who ever gets sick is going to be healed in the physical. You're not going to find that in Scripture where, "Hey, I can just know for sure that if I get cancer, the Lord is going to heal me of cancer." We pray for that.

Unless you have a strong word from God, you're not going to find it in Scripture where every Christian who has faith and gets on his face with his cancer, with his crippledness, with his disease, with his whatever it is physically and prays that God will heal them of that.

Listen, the Apostle Paul had some kind of ailment, a thorn in the flesh he called it. He prayed three times that the Lord would take it from him, and God didn't take it from him. Christians die. Christians get sick and die. The most godly person on the planet gets sick and dies.

I think that Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, was one of the most godly men who ever walked the earth as a follower of Jesus Christ. God used him in such a great way. I had the privilege of meeting him, and the sweet aroma of the knowledge of the Lord was all over that guy. But Bill Bright got sick and he had a lung disease, and he prayed for God to heal him, and God chose not to do that and he died.

Listen, there's not a promise in the Bible that says anytime I get sick, God promises to heal me. We pray for that, but we don't know that for certain. But listen, one thing we do know for certain: that the Lord wants to heal every disease of the heart.

He wants to fill you with His spirit so you have love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and gentleness, and faithfulness, and self-control. That's something for every believer in Jesus to claim. That's healing.

Listen, here's the question today: do you want to be well? Do you want to get well? Do you want to be whole inside? When you look in the mirror, do you want to see love and joy and peace? That can happen. 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. Now Jesus asked this guy in verse six, "Do you wish to get well? Do you want to get well?" The answer to that is yes or no. It's a yes or no question. Yes, I want to get well. No, I don't want to get well.

The guy doesn't answer it yes or no. He answers it this way. The sick man answered Him, verse seven, "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."

What does the man do? The man gives the Lord an excuse. It's an excuse of why I'm not well. "Do you want to get well?" "Well, let me tell you why I'm not well." And then he goes in with his excuse. You know what someone said about an excuse? They defined it this way: an excuse is the skin of a reason stuffed with a lie.

Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure. I want you to think about his excuse, because what he said to Jesus and his excuse for being in the shape that he was in is the same excuse we use for our life and for our situation and why we're not well internally.

We say to the Lord, "You don't understand how badly I've been hurt." That's a big excuse people use. "You don't know how crippled I am. You wouldn't be asking me do you want to get well if you knew how crippled I was, if you knew how much I had been hurt, if you knew what people had done to me." Wow.

I would imagine at the pool of Bethesda, with all these sick, lame, blind, withered people, that they sat around and played the lame game. Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the lamest of them all? I am. I've been sick 38 years. I've been lying here 38 years. I win. What does he win, Johnny? He gets to lie here some more.

I mean, what do you win? You don't win anything. But have you ever noticed that people like to do that? They like to one-up on their difficulties and their problems. They play the lame game and, "Oh, you don't know how bad it is for me."

They start singing with Louis Armstrong: "Nobody knows the troubles I've seen, nobody knows my sorrow." I should be in the choir. And we sing that. And we sing the Linda Ronstadt song, "Poor, Poor Pitiful Me" and, "You don't know how crippled I am, and you don't know the hurts that I have."

And you're up here saying that's an excuse, but you don't know anything about me. And look at you. You're talking about being fat. You're not fat. And you look very healthy and you look very happy. And man, you're handsome. And I say, "Yeah, okay. I'll give you all those things."

But listen, I've been hurt in life. I've had things come in my life that have hurt me. I've lost loved ones. I've had difficulties come in. I've had emotional scars and physical scars and things like that. Everyone has.

So don't use that as an excuse. "Oh, you don't know how badly I've been hurt. I can't get over this situation because you just don't understand because this happened to me and this left such a hole." You can always find someone who's been hurt worse than you if you really want to play the lame game. But we use that as an excuse.

Here's another excuse. "Well, you don't understand that it's not my fault. I've been crippled for 38 years, and you're asking me about getting well. Well, when the water gets stirred up, I don't have anyone to help me. There is no man to help me. No one wants to help me."

Insight: people don't like to help a person who whines a lot. You noticed that? "I don't have anyone to help me." Gee, what a shocker there. Yeah, nobody wants to be around you because you're just whining about your situation.

But here he was and he has this attitude that nobody's helping me and it's not my fault that I'm in the shape that I'm in. I am a victim here, Jesus. Have you noticed in our country how we like to teach everybody that they're the victim?

Oh, you're an alcoholic? Well, let me tell you, you're an alcoholic because you have a disease called alcoholism. It's not your fault, you have a disease. I mean, would you chastise somebody if they had leukemia? No, and you have alcoholism. Oh, you can't stop shopping? You have shop-a-holicism or whatever they call it.

It's not your fault. You don't need to be blamed, you need to be pitied. It's not your fault. Man, our society is just filled with people who don't want to take any fault. They just want to play the victim.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve today, and as we've learned so far, so many people play the victim in modern culture, and it really stands out when someone rises up and takes responsibility for their own actions.

In just a moment, Pastor Jeff will provide some hopeful encouragement about the first thing you must do when you're hurting. So many people today struggle and are overwhelmed by the noise of our culture and unsure of what to do and who to believe.

But because of friends like you, the clear, life-changing truth of God's Word is going out across the airwaves and digital platforms and helping people recognize deception, find hope, and anchor their lives in Scripture. Jesus told us, "You will know the truth and the truth will make you free." That's in John 8:32.

Through your partnership, that freedom is becoming a reality for so many. And this month, to thank you for your support of any amount to From His Heart, we'd like to send you Pastor Jeff's new book, *The Devil's Newsroom: Muting Satan's Fake News and Tuning into God's Truth*.

We believe this book will be a blessing to you as you are a blessing to us. Again, make your gift today and call 866-40-BIBLE. 866-402-4253 or go to fromhisheart.org. Request the book, *The Devil's Newsroom*, when you make that gift. We're deeply grateful for you and for your heart to want to share the truth in our chaotic and confused culture. Thank you so much. Now let's get back to the message today from Pastor Jeff's series, "It's All About Jesus." The lesson, "No More Excuses."

Dr. Jeff Schreve: The Metropolitan Insurance Company, they have recorded a list of strange explanations on automobile claims, automobile accident claims. I wanted to share some of those with you. It just highlights how people don't like to take responsibility, how people like to say, "It's his fault. Wasn't my fault, it was his fault."

One man wrote, "An invisible car came out of nowhere, struck my car, and vanished." "The telephone pole was approaching fast. I attempted to swerve out of its path when it struck my front end." "The guy was all over the road. I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him."

"The pedestrian had no idea which direction to go, so I ran over him." Makes sense. And this is my favorite: "I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment." Not his fault.

That's the way people are. So we have these excuses. "Hey, you don't know what I've been through. And hey, it's not my fault because no one is helping me." And then, "You don't understand that my situation is hopeless."

Jesus, I've been here 38 years. Just lying here by the pool. 38 long years with no one helping me. I've won the lame game every single day at the pool of Bethesda. I am the king of the lame game, and nobody's helping me and my situation is hopeless.

Hopeless. Life stinks. God has left me and God has deserted me, and this is all I have, and I'm looking at another 38 years if I live that long. Hopeless. I love what the Scripture says in Romans chapter 15, verse 13: Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

God is a God of hope. I don't care what your situation is, God is a God of hope. Jeremiah 32:27, the Lord says, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?" No. I don't know what your situation is today, and I don't know where you're hurting, and I don't know when you look into that mirror deep within, I don't know what all you see, but I want to tell you this: God is able.

Your situation is not hopeless because God is the God of hope and God can do anything. And so if you are going to get well, the very first thing that you have to do is throw away all your excuses.

Guest (Male): You're listening to From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve, and we've only had time to cover the first point today in this lesson called "No More Excuses." It's from Pastor Jeff's series, "It's All About Jesus." And we'll have part two tomorrow.

Now, the entire series is available online in our resource center, all eight messages. Just go online to fromhisheart.org. Also, when you're there, there are some great resources to help you in your Christian walk. This month, we're also offering as our thank you for your gift of any amount, Pastor Jeff's new book, *The Devil's Newsroom*.

Again, find out about that when you call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. Request the book, *The Devil's Newsroom*, when you make that gift. When you do go online, you can also download any broadcast in MP3 format along with Pastor Jeff's sermon outlines and notes. Click the "Listen" link to get those.

Be sure to sign up for Pastor Jeff's weekly Real Hope email encouragement devotional letter. You'll receive it every Friday morning in your inbox. Again, go to fromhisheart.org and click the signup right there on the homepage. Well, I'm Larry Nobles. Thank you for listening today to part one of the message, "No More Excuses." We pray the program has been a blessing to you and that we can be a blessing to you again on Wednesday. Here's a taste of what's coming up then.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: God does not look for perfect people to do His work. There are no perfect people. So God takes imperfect people and chooses imperfect 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. He'll do one in your life too.

Guest (Male): That's when Pastor Jeff Schreve will return with more truth, love, and hope to a lost and a hurting world. Remember, no matter what, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Find out more at fromhisheart.org.