- Week 31
- Scripture Reading: – Rev 3:14
- Topic: – Are you LIVING in Lo-debar?
How long are you still going to hang out by the Pool?
You can come to Church just to feel better? But never get well!
When we preach the Gospel [Good News] the Tide of the Holy Spirit starts coming in. The immovable becomes movable, the incurable becomes curable, the unreachable becomes reachable and the impossible becomes possible.
God was silent for 400 years between Malachi and Matthew. So this miracle took place in the New Covenant but also still under the Old Covenant. And then God decided in His Mercy and Grace to let Jesus take a ‘detour’ and enter by the Sheep Gate and heal this man on the ‘Sabbath’.
Act 4:34 says that there were no needy amongst the people “Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold,”
Phil 2:7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in human likeness.
Jesus was limited to one place because He emptied Himself. We don’t have to wait on an angel and we have the Holy Spirit.
John 5 [grace] Pool of Bethesda [House of Mercy] – near the Sheep Gate
John 5:4
for an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
Blind, lame, paralysed, – waiting for the movement of the water. That is what we are doing right now! Stirring = Anointing! You have to start recognizing when the Holy Spirit is here to minister to us.
John 5:8
Jesus saith unto him, ① Rise, ② take up thy bed and ③ walk. They were not Christians, born again, etc. Jesus points to Himself as the ‘source’ of healing, not the pool, occurrences or angels. The world will tell you that is not ‘lawful’, and give you all the excuses to believe or do something for God.
When he left his house that morning to go to the same place he went for the last 38 years, he did not anticipate that Jesus will be at the Pool! Jesus made a detour at the Sheep Gate! [Sacrifices, smelly, noisy, etc.]
The rich, famous, and religious people avoided the Sheep Gate. Are you not glad today for the detour that God has made into your life? There was at the time a feast of the Jews in Jerusalem and Jesus was on His way there!
Raise your hand if you want God to do anything for you in your life!
If we look at this part of Scripture we see a man at the right place at the right time! Just as we are gathered here today right place, right time, God through His Holy Spirit is here.
People might think after 38 years that you will never change – but then Jesus shows up! Everybody says “but Jesus” You see Jesus took a detour to specifically go to the Pool of Bethesda, searching out the lost. Just as He is already here to make time for me and you today! Then Jesus asks the obvious question “do you want to get well?” Opportunity, right place, right time!
Two people attend the same Gym. The one grows and the other one stays the same. Some people want to grow without commitment. “I will not change” God wants to change us, not always our circumstances. What needs to change in your life? Jesus answers and heals when we don’t deserve it!
Psalm 51:10
create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Or you can come to Church just to ‘feel better but never get ‘well’. Stay in your comfort zone and leave unchanged. Stay at the pool of comfort and rest. Surround yourself with people with the same problem as you and then feel normal and secure with your similar problems (sin). How long are you still going to ‘hang out by the pool?
From time to time
The world says “1st one in wins! [Religion] But the [grace] of God [Jesus Christ] the greater the problem, the greater the mercy – a miracle! So if you are here today and you need something from God guess what?
You are in the right place, right time, for your breakthrough to begin! For those who are begging God for a breakthrough today, this is not the way to do it! You don’t have to beg for something that Jesus Christ has already done for you at the Cross!
You don’t have to beg Him for what He died to give you!
The lame man had a reason, an excuse why he could not receive his breakthrough. You see faith has the ability to rise above your circumstances, but he did not know it for 38 years. He explained his [situation] to Jesus.
Jesus explained to the woman at the well that she did not need a bucket to get water, because Jesus in you produces the Living water that never shall run dry. It will bring healing, restoration, joy, peace, etc. Worship God in Spirit & in Truth! Jesus saw that the man could not get to the water that is why the Water came to him!
Grace & Salvation
This is what Grace & Salvation is all about, the ‘Water’ came to us. Breakthrough begins where my excuses end! Jesus stepped right past all his excuses and gave him a commandment.
His focus was always on other people. While you are always waiting for God to come down, God is waiting for you to get up, breakthrough does not begin when your situation changes, but when you get up, not waiting for people or circumstances. This is the place where breakthrough begins, change me Oh God.
The only thing that’s keeping you from receiving your breakthrough is your not believing that it is possible! Don’t live with things in your life that Jesus died for on the Cross, so that you can be free!
Breakthrough begins within!
Stand up and walk!
The No 38 [work, labour] speaks about Calling, Purpose, Destiny, and God’s work. Israel’s entry into its destiny was delayed for 38 years. Deut 2:14 Stand up and walk [considered as working on the Sabbath] the rest of God speaks of ceasing from doing your own work to do the ‘work of God’ [rest of God].
Heb 4:10
for he that is entered into His rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. Isa 58:13 If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
Mark 2:27
And He said unto them, The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath: 28 Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the Sabbath.
We don’t have to wait for the stirring of the water. We are born again, Spirit-filled believers, with the Holy Spirit living in us. It doesn’t matter how long you’ve had your problem, you can leave it here this morning! “Go and sin no more”
Rom 8:11
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. In the pool of Mercy, the Holy Spirit is looking for somebody to reach out by faith and receive.
Psalm 103:1
[A Psalm] of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, [bless] His holy name. 2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: 3 ① Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; ② who healeth all thy diseases; 4 ③ Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; ④ who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies; 5 ⑤ Who satisfieth thy mouth with good [things; so that] thy youth is renewed like the eagles.
Word of God
The Word of God in your mouth will change your situation! The joy of the Lord is your strength. Jude 1:20 But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
May God’s Word Bless you!
The Author: Pastor Johan Venter
From: Impact Pentecostal Ministries
Pastor Johan Venter was born in 1961 and grew up in Odendaalsrus (Freestate) where he matriculated. Whereafter he attended the Police Force College for 2 years in Pretoria and served in the Army for 2 years during which Johan met his wife Charmaine.
Between 1997 and 1999 Johan and Charmaine completed Pastoral training at the Christian Revival Church Bible School under the leadership of Pastor At Boshoff. Over the years they both faithfully served in various Ministries until 2019, when God led them to ‘step out of the boat’ and start the “Impact Pentecostal Ministries” in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal.
They currently host the Church service at La Gratitude Home for the Aged every Friday morning. They are truly blessed and grateful for God’s Grace and are excited to see what God is going to do for the ministry in the future.
You can make a difference
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Your donations will be greatly beneficial in the provision of food and other basic necessities for the less fortunate elderly people that require assistance.
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