“Breaking Free From Brokenness” John 5:2-9a Pastor Kelvin Walker

1. “Breaking Free From Brokenness” John 5:2-9a Pastor Kelvin Walker

4. “I just cut away everything that wasn’t David.” -Michelangelo

5. ..every broken situation in our lives has within it a beautiful masterpiece waiting to be transformed from the massive fractured waste of rock if we would only embrace the brokenness in such a way as to let beauty emerge from ashes.

6. Are you ready for a reality check?

7. John 5:2-9a “Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind, the lame, the paralyzed.

8. John 5:2-9a One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, He asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

9. John 5:2-9a “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

10. John 5:2-9a “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”

11. I. The Ubiquity (Universality) Of Brokenness v.3 – “Here a great number of disabled people used to lie – the blind,the lame, the paralyzed…”

12. “Where human frailty once served as a reason for me to withdraw from the church, with its unruly and divergent congregants, this is now what compels me back to spiritual community. I had overlooked one essential factor—that I am as finite and flawed as everyone else.” – Carmen Renee Berry

13. II. The Transformational Question About Brokenness v.6 – “Do you want to get well?” “Well” (translation): Do you want to be freed? Do you want to be sound?

14. III. The Impending Danger In Brokenness v.7 – “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone goes ahead of me.”

15. “He has given into his illness, become a prisoner of despair…so often people succumb to their illness, ‘bedding down’ with their alcoholism or heart trouble or partial paralysis, or whatever. They become psychological and spiritual invalids, retreating within themselves, avoiding responsibilityand becoming more andmore self-centered as they demand sympathy from others.” - Roger Fredrikson

16. IV. The Bondage-Breaking Word For Brokenness v.8 – “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ And at once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.”

17. Our brokenness may not be our fault. But it is now our responsibility. Jesus has already spoken the word of healing and freedom. But we must get up and walk if we want to be free.

18. In that phrase, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk,’ Christ shows us that freedom is DONE – He pronounced it! (Get up…) But He also shows us that freedom is PROGRESSIVE – we walk it out! (Take up your mat and walk…) The problem is that we want the pronouncementof freedomwithout the walking out,or the WORK of freedom.

19. Are you in denial about having broken places in your life? Is your brokeness in a refusal to see that you are broken? • Are you tired of settling for life on the edge of the pool, waiting for someone to help you in? Remember, freedom is declared. But, it must also be walked out. • In what ways have you ignored the voice of Jesus when He asks that transformational question – “Do you want to get well? Do you want to be freed? Do you want to be sound?” • In what ways have you rejected the idea of needing to be healed of broken places by excusing behaviors that are not consistent with whom God designed you to be?

20. “Breaking Free From Brokenness” John 5:2-9a Pastor Kelvin Walker