Joyce Meyer - Why Does God Keep Me Waiting? (08/20/2019)
In John 5, Jesus encounters a man crippled for 38 years at the Bethesda pool, asking if he's serious about getting well. The man's excuse—nobody helps him—reveals self-pity. Jesus commands him to "Get up, pick up your bed, and walk," showing healing requires personal responsibility, refusing excuses, stopping self-pity, and taking action—even cleaning up past messes—for true freedom and wholeness.
The Pool of Bethesda and Waiting for a Miracle
John chapter 5, the first eight verses. Later on, there was a Jewish festival, a feast, for which Jesus went up to Jerusalem. And now there in Jerusalem, a pool near the sheep gate. This pool in the Hebrew is called Bethesda. And it had five porches, alcoves, colonnades, or doorways.
So I want you to kind of get a picture of this. Here's a pool. And apparently there's not just one entrance into it. There's five different entrances into this pool. And in these doorways, or by this pool, lay a great number of sick people. Some were blind, some were crippled, some were paralyzed, all shriveled up, waiting for the bubbling up of the water.
For an angel of the Lord went down at an appointed season into the pool, and moved and stirred up the water. And whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in, was cured of whatever disease with which he was afflicted.
So this was like a miracle pool. And once a year, an angel would come and make the water boil up and bubble up. And of all these sick people laying around the pool, whichever one got into the pool first, got a miracle. Sounds pretty good.
The Man Who Waited 38 Years
And then, verse 5, now there was a certain man. This man, we're not giving his name. He was just a certain man. I call him the crippled man. But there was a certain man there who'd suffered with a deep-seated and a lingering disorder for 38 years.
Maybe I'll stop here and ask you how long you've had your problem. When Jesus noticed him lying there helpless... Now, you know Jesus was the epitome of compassion, was he not?
But let's look at how he dealt with this man. When Jesus noticed him lying there helpless, knowing that he had already been a long time in that condition, he said to him, Do you want to become well? Question mark.
Well, what kind of a question is that? And then, he takes it further. Are you really in earnest about getting well? Another question mark.
So, really, in essence, Jesus is saying to this man, who's been laying there 38 years waiting for a miracle, Are you really serious about getting over your problems?
Are You Serious About Getting Well?
So, maybe I just want to stop for a minute and just say that to you tonight. And all the wonderful people watching this by TV. Do you really want to get over your problems? Are you serious enough about getting over your problems to do your part?
Are you serious enough about getting over them that whatever God shows you to do, you would be willing to do it? If he said to you, you need to walk away from this, would you be willing to do it?
You know, some of you, your whole life would change if you'd just get some new friends. Well, I just might as well go ahead and say this because it's in my heart.
Some of you wonderful, sweet ladies, you already know where I'm going, don't you? And you want so much to have somebody to love you. You got somebody in your life that's just been taking advantage of you for five or ten years and they're not serious and they don't ever intend to make it serious and you just keep putting up with it and putting up with it because you're afraid of being lonely.
You know, you'd be better off to be with nobody than somebody that's going to take advantage of you.
Now, you see, I can just pull all the stops out tonight and be really wild because I'm leaving here in a few minutes and by the time I come back, anything I said you didn't like, you'll forgive me for it.
I don't know why I find this so interesting. A man laying there 38 years, he said, are you really serious about getting well?
The Excuse That Kept Him Stuck
The invalid said, now here we come to what the guy's real problem was. The invalid said, sir, I have nobody when the water's moving to put me into the pool. But while I'm trying to get into it myself, somebody else always steps down and gets ahead of me.
I mean, if you really look at that, the guy is saying, Jesus is saying, are you serious about getting well? And he's saying, well, Jesus, I don't have anybody to help me. And every time I try to get in the pool, somebody else always gets ahead of me.
I think it's like a self-pitying type. Well, poor me. Nobody's making it happen for me.
Now, instead of Jesus, Mr. Compassion himself, feeling sorry for the guy, and saying, oh, you poor man. Wow, I didn't know you were going through that. No wonder you... I feel so sorry for you. Here, let me put you in the pool.
Jesus looked at him and said, get up. Come on. And you see that exclamation mark there? I think he got loud about it. Get up.
And you know what? There's a whole bunch of people in the world that that is the only answer to your problem. Get up. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop expecting somebody else to do for you what you should be doing for yourself.
No More Excuses—Take Responsibility
And I can say that with boldness because that's exactly what God had to say to me. All right, Joyce. You were abused. That wasn't fair. It shouldn't have happened to you. It is the reason why you have some of the problems you have, but don't let it become an excuse to stay that way.
Don't let the reason for your pain be an excuse to stay messed up all your life. Amen? I'm going to say that again. Don't let the reason for your pain become an excuse to stay that way the rest of your life.
Jesus says, do you really want to get well? Are you serious about getting well? I'm going to tell you, if you've got a big mess in your life, getting well is not going to be easy.
But it's going to be much better than laying there for another 38 years waiting for somebody to come along and do for you what only you can do for yourself.
I love this. Usually I'll have somebody come up and lay down and act like the crippled man, so you're getting the short version tonight.
And I like the rest of this. Jesus said, get up, pick up your bed, and walk. So he not only told him to get up, he said, and clean up the mess you made while you were here.
See, sometimes it's not about just getting well and going on with your nice little life. I mean, I had some messes I'd made that I had to go back and straighten out.
Sometimes there's a few people you've got to go back and make a few things right with, and there might be a few things that you need to go back and say you're sorry for and get straightened out in your life.