Welcome to the daily disciple podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Good morning everyone and welcome to the daily together on mission podcast. This is Travis and it is as usual, wonderful to be with all of you. We're going to read a bit from John chapter 5, we're going to pray, we're going to reflect, we're going to meditate on this passage and then we're just going to continue to have a conversation with Jesus throughout the rest of the day because we are friends, that are friends of Jesus.
And so John chapter 5, beginning in verse 2, the title of the podcast this morning is desire. Now there in Jerusalem near the sheep gate was a pool, and in Aramaic this pool was called Bethesda, and it was surrounded by five covered colonnades. And here, every day, a great number of disabled people would lie blind, lay in the paralyzed. Now one who had been an invalid for 38 years was there, and Jesus saw him and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, and Jesus asked him, do you want to get well?
Sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. Well, I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead with me, and then Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And once the man was cured and he picked up his mat and he walked. And this is the famous story of Jesus healing this invalid at the pool of Bethesda.
It's an incredible story, and it has an odd part in it. And some stories in scripture have odd bits, you know, the stirring of the water. What's that about? Well, there was a Jewish legend that randomly periodically angels would come down and stir this pool, and whoever got in first would be healed.
Now whether that's historical or not, I have no idea, I highly doubt it, but that was the myth. And this pool was in Jerusalem, and it was where a number of paralyzed and lame people waited for the water to stir. And Jesus saw this man, verse 6. He saw him.
There were other paralyzed people, other lame people, other blind people there, but Jesus saw him. Jesus cares about him. Jesus sees me. Jesus sees you.
Jesus saw him. He cares about us. And yes, this is a story about healing. There's no question about that, but it's a story about desire.
And notice, for 38 years, this man had been in England, 38 years, plenty of time for resignation at the deepest level to set in. And we know that story. We know that story of resignation, of losing hope, of those desires just whittling away or sinking or fading into the background. That's called resignation or hopelessness.
And this man was clearly in that place. So what does Jesus do? Jesus goes after him. Verse 6.
Do you want to get healed? What do you want? Tell me what you want. What is your desire?
And when we read that, we think, well, that's insensitive, or is it utterly sensitive? We think, wait a minute, Jesus, that's rude. Or is it not rude? Or is it exactly what this man needs?
What I need? What you need? Jesus is trying to get this man back into his heart, back into what he wants, back into his desires. And that's exactly what God is trying to do to us, because desires, you see, are that which God created, placed in us, so that we might be set free and let loose to live the kind of life that God created us to live.
And of course, I know what you're thinking, desires can be abused. They can go dark. They can go selfish. Of course they can.
Anything can. But that doesn't mean that desire is God intended it, is bad. It's good. It's part of what it means to live a life that's truly life.
So the question presses, what do you want? What do you desire? And are you maybe settling for far less than what God created you to go after? What do you desire?
And where have you lost hope? And what relationship or what venture? What are your life? Have you lost hope?
Have you kind of resigned and maybe have begun to make excuses? Verse 7, the envelope says, I have no one to help me into the pool. There's no one to help me into the pool. I can't seem to get into the pool, right?
Where in your life are you saying things like, well, nobody's willing to help or nobody sees me or I can't seem to get a break or I can't or they won't or I'm not or I've tried or they this or they that. What is your excuse to hide or to refuse to voice your desires? What God's placed in your heart? What you truly want?
And the reality is we can't do it. We can't give ourselves the desires of our heart. We can't heal ourselves. But Jesus wants us to want it.
He wants us to say it. He wants you to own it. He wants you to tell Him what you desire. Tell others what you desire.
Speak it out because the reality is it is a partnership. In verse 8, Jesus says, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And it wants the man was cured, right? But he did need to stand up.
Right? If he hadn't have stood up, he wouldn't have known that there was actually a healing that took place. I mean, there is this partnership of God giving us our desires, us fighting resignation, us risking and being vulnerable to express those desires. God in His mercy and His timing bringing us into the desires that He's placed in our heart and us participating in walking out those desires.
So what do you want? Specifically, what do you want? What do you want to do? Or do you want to write something?
Or do you want to raise someone? Or do you want to go? How do you want to risk or stand or speak? And Jesus loves this topic.
He loves for you to talk about what you want, what's in your heart because He placed it there. He loves when we're vulnerable. Of course, it's scary. It's scary to say it.
To God, to others, it's even scary to say it to ourselves. But there are only two kinds of lives. Risking, vulnerability, saying it, going after it or living a life of resignation. And this story is saying you choose.
But this story is also saying Jesus has chosen you to be a man, a woman, a husband, a father, a leader, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a parent that lives out of your desire. And when you do that, other people will see that and they will begin to believe that God has given them desires to live out of as well. Because God wants to give you the desires of your heart. So what do you want?
And yes, I'm going to say it again. Sometimes desires go wrong. Sometimes they get twisted. Sometimes we get entitled and we want everything.
And God owes us. But that is the abuse. Those are abuses of a beautiful, God-given thing that makes life worth living. So let's read this verse this morning.
Let's spend a little bit of time on this verse this morning. Let's take this journey of desire. Let's read it slow. And let's let the question press.
What do you want? What do you desire and then just express it before your God this morning and continue to have it in your heart as you walk throughout this day with Jesus? And we'll talk soon. Thanks for listening to the daily disciple podcast.
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