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 Together on Mission podcast. It's good to be together. I'm excited to chat and just chat with each other in the presence of Jesus and then continue to chat with Jesus throughout the day.
So turn to the Gospel of John. As you've probably noticed, with a few exceptions, the last week or two, I've been in the Gospel of John and really desperately reading the Gospel of John. And that's kind of what I do in the morning. I read through the Gospel of John and then Luke and then Mark and then Matthew.
And so. And as I'm reading a passage, I just say, God, what do you want to show me about yourself today? And then what do you want to show me about me? And what do you want to say to me out of this story or this saying of Jesus or this teaching or whatever?
Because the word of God is living, spirit of God is moving, and that's my morning practice. And then really, this podcast is me getting the opportunity, and I'm blessed to have the opportunity to share that then with whoever's listening. And so I. I'm just excited to.
To be doing this, and I hope. And this is what it's doing for me. It's just developing more of a morning prayer rhythm, a friendship with Jesus, a conversation with God. And so anyway, John, chapter five will be in verse one in just a minute.
The title of the podcast and also the question, I want Mornings. What do you want? What do you want? What do you really, really want?
What are you hoping for? And if you're anything like me, and I imagine that some of you are a little bit like me, you know, we often settle for far less than what we want because it's risky to want. It really is risky to want. It's vulnerable to share what we want.
Oh, I'll share what I need. You know, God, here's what I need. But want is vulnerable. And it's vulnerable to share what we want with Jesus.
It's vulnerable to share what we want with others. And I'm just gonna. I'm just gonna stop right here and just give us a little bit of space to think about that question. What do you want?
And maybe something small, you know, or what you think is small. It might be something kind of large that you're a little bit insecure to even say or to say in the presence of Jesus. But what do you want? What's in your heart?
What's got a place in your heart. What do you. And on that note, I just want to look at John 5 beginning in verse 1. Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.
Now there was in Jerusalem, near the sheep Gate, a pool which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and is surrounded by five covered colonnades. And here a great number of disabled people used to lie. The blind and the laying, the paralyzed. Now one who had been there and had been an invalid for 38 years, when Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in that condition for a long time, Jesus said to him, do you want to get well, sir?
The invalid replied, I have no one to help me in the pool when the water is stirred, when I'm trying to get in, someone else goes in ahead of me. Then Jesus said to him, get up, pick up your mat and walk. And at once the man was cured and he picked up his mat and he walked. Now this is a very Jesus esque story.
I mean we have healing stories throughout the gospels. But there's something unique about the story because Jesus says, what do you want? Do you want to get well? Now we're get back to that in just a moment because there's an odd part of this story, the whole thing about the water being stirred.
And just a tip, when something seems odd in scripture or confusing, it's probably odd and confusing to most people. And this is one of those sections that's a little bit odd and confusing. There was this belief that at the pool of Bethesda angels would come and stir up the water. And if you were able to get anything healed and so forth.
And whether that was actually true or not, nobody really knows. But that's what this man is meaning when he says when the water stirred, someone gets in ahead of me, but that' and confusing to everyone. And it's certainly not the punch of the passage. There are some ways in which this passage punches and one of them is this man has been in the for 37 years.
It's a long time to be lame. It's a long time. And it's long enough to stop desiring being healed. That's the point.
It's long enough to forget about what you actually really, really, really want. It's long enough to forget vulnerability and wanting because it's just been so stinking long. It's long enough for resignation and self hatred and hopelessness to actually settle in. So back to us for just a minute.
You know, what do you want? What have you been Praying for what can you see? You know, when you can't sleep at night, you close your eyes and you kind of dream. What do you want for that loved one?
Or what do you want for the church or the business or the ministry or the marriage or the relationship that you're in the midst of right now? What do you. What do you want? And maybe you've wanted it for so long that it hasn't happened, or it hasn't happened to the degree that you want it to happen.
And there is some resignation or hopelessness that has actually, you know, set in. My son's club soccer coaches. Years ago, when the ball got loose on the field, he would yell, you gotta want it. You gotta want it.
And that would motivate the team of soccer players to go after it. And I think that's what's going on in this, you know, in the story. Because the Christianity of the story is when Jesus says, do you want to get well? Right?
Do you want to get well? Now, that sounds insensitive, that Jesus. What do you mean? Do you want.
You. Of course he wants to get well. Why would Jesus ask that question? Well, it's either insensitive or it's truly, truly sensitive, right?
I mean, it's either rude or it's Jesus seeking to enter in this man's deep heart and to bring his desire to the surface. What he really, really, really wants, right? It's Jesus inviting him out of resignation and hopelessness to actually dream and actually express his desire, right? Do you want to get well?
And this man's answer deep in his heart is, yes. Yes, I do. And part of the point of the story is that, you know, we can't, or this man can't do the healing, right? We can't make the healing happen, but we can want it, we can express it, we can tell people about it, we can tell Jesus about it.
And actually we can go after it. We can't make it happen, but we can express it. And of course, there are general things that all of us wrong. We all want to be satisfied.
We want to have peace, we want to enjoy relationship. But then there are those specific things, right? Those risky things, those things that we dare to hope about or dare to dream about. You know, those things that we really, really want.
I think part of the story is saying that God likes when we're vulnerable enough and honest enough to say what we want. I want to write this, I want to do this, I want to build this, I want to say this, I want to see this happen. God, I want you to do this. I think God likes when we live out of our heart and express our wants and our desires.
And, and unfortunately some of us have grown up in family of origins or churches that weren't good at facilitating our desires, right? More of a cerebral tradition. And so there was a bit of a death of desire in this story, right, where Jesus says, what do you want? And then Jesus gives him what he wants.
This story is a resurrection of desire, you know, and some of us have been taught not to want, right? That it's unspiritual to want. It's okay to tell God or others what you need, but what you want. But see, God wants to give us the desires of our heart.
You know, a good parent wants their kids to share their desires with them. And God's the best parent ever, you know, and of course desire can go wrong. I know some of you are thinking, you know, desire can go wrong. You can be abused like anything.
We can become expected and demanding and self centered. But remember, those are the abuses of desire. Desire is good, hope is good, and telling God what we want is good, that's part of what prayer is, you know, so Jesus says, do you want this? And Jesus says, what do you want?
And God is asking us what we want and he's asking us to live out of that desire. So this morning let's go over this passage, specifically the part where Jesus says, do you want to get well? What do you want? And then Jesus gives this man, you know, what he truly, truly wants.
Let's go over this passage, let's take a little bit, let's pray a little bit. And specifically this morning, let's pray the prayer of request. And let's get vulnerable, let's get raw. Let's get rid of resignation and hopelessness and just say, oh God, oh God, oh God, this is what I want.
And God will love that and just enjoy that conversation with him for the rest of the day and we'll talk tomorrow. Thanks for listening to the Daily Disciple podcast. We truly hope that you were encouraged by it today. Now if you'd like to support or if you have any questions about the Daily Disciple podcast, feel free to contact us through our Inland Vineyard Church app.
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