Kyle Lounsbury: Brothers and sisters, good morning.
It is great to be together.
It's great to have our Korean and Spanish speaking ministries in
the service this morning with us.
Amen.
Grateful to be able to speak this morning and be able to, uh, preach the word.
I'm very grateful for Dr.
Greg and him, uh, doing just a great job going through our Nehemiah series,
talking about rising up and building.
Amen.
And today we're actually gonna take a break from that series.
As I give the lesson today, we're gonna look at a, what I call a Jesus moment.
Amen.
Okay.
So you can just start turning your Bibles over to John chapter five.
But before we read that, what I wanted to do this morning is share a story.
All right.
I wanna start off with a story, and we're gonna close, uh, our
sermon today with communion.
All right.
So I'm doing like a sermunion.
The story I wanna tell is a story of Roger Banister.
Anybody know who this man here is?
Alright.
A few of you may know.
Dr.
Greg knows that's why he's a doctor.
Amen.
For decades, experts believe something very specific about the human body.
Do you know what that was?
It was believed to be impossible to run a mile in under four minutes.
Doctors said the heart couldn't handle it.
Coaches said the lungs would collapse, and Sports Rider
said it was a physical barrier.
The body simply could not cross.
You see, athletes trained at this for years and they kept missing the mark.
Four minutes, one second, four minutes, two seconds.
Close, but never under.
It became more than a number.
It became a psychological wall.
But then on May 6th, 1954, a 25-year-old medical student named Roger Banister
stepped onto a track in Oxford, England.
He was just a med student, wasn't even a professional.
He wasn't a professional runner.
Between his medical student commitments and studies, he would
train to run, and that day he clocked a three minute and 59.4
second mile.
He just broke it.
So for the first time in human history, this barrier was broken.
But here's the part that matters.
This barrier didn't stay rare.
46 days later.
A runner named John Landy broke the same barrier and broke his time.
Within a few years, many more athletes followed, and today
over 2000 different runners have recorded an under four minute mile.
What had been called impossible for decades became over time an expectation.
At the most elite level.
You see, the limitation wasn't physical.
Rather it was a belief, and for years, the world was waiting for something
that wasn't actually impossible, but they became comfortable with being
stuck, comfortable with a barrier.
You know, sometimes in our walk with God, we can get put into some
seasons of waiting longer than necessary, not because God hasn't
moved or God can't do the impossible.
Right, right.
But because we've accepted being stuck in waiting, and sometimes the longest waiting
seasons aren't even caused by God's delay, but by our acceptance, as we look at John
chapter five, we're gonna see a story where Jesus walks onto the scene and sees
a man that had been waiting unnecessarily.
In John chapter five, we're gonna go ahead and read in verse one.
The title of today's lesson is Waiting to Walking.
Waiting to walking John chapter five, verse one.
Sometime later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals.
Now there's in Jerusalem near the sheep gate, a pool, which an Aramaic
is called Bethesda, which is surrounded by five covered colonies here.
A great number of disabled people used to lie.
The blind, the lame, the paralyzed one who was there had been an invalid.
For 38 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,
sir, the invalid replied, I have no one to help me into the water or
the pool when the water is stirred.
Well, I'm trying to get in.
Someone else goes down ahead of me.
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 he walked.
I'm gonna stop there.
I love this passage.
I love how short and simple, yet powerful this interaction
is that Jesus has with this man.
And I, I'm the kind of guy when I speak, I like to break the
lesson down into three points.
All right?
I'm a campus minister.
We like to keep it clear.
So I've got three points that I'm drawn from the text that I feel like impacted me
that I wanna share with you this morning.
The first point is Jesus moves towards stuck people.
Jesus moves towards people who are stuck, who are sick, who
are lame, who are struggling.
That's the God we serve.
And we see that there's this man here at this pool who is stuck.
Now, a little background on the pool.
We, we know that, uh, the, the sheep gate or the, the pool
was located by the sheep gate.
And in Aramic it's called Bethesda, which Bethesda means
House of Mercy or House of Grace.
And what's, what I find ironic about this story is that the House of Mercy
became a house of waiting for this man.
He had been there 38 years.
You know, as I started studying this out, I really had a lot of questions.
I was like.
How, how was it that in the ancient world, they thought that if you just go sit by
this pool, that it would miraculously, the water would stir and then you
jump in and miraculously get healed?
Like, how is that even possible?
So I started studying this out and I, what I learned is that in Arche, the archeology
has actually discovered these five covered colon colonate and they've uncovered
this pool and what it looks like from.
The study of this is that it was actually some underground springs
underneath the pool that would cause the water to bubble up others.
And if you notice, verse four is actually not included in most of
our bibles because they believe it was to, it was added later on.
But verse four really talks about that some believed an angel
would come and stir the waters.
So I don't know, which is true.
All right.
I, I tend to believe it was more of a spring and there was maybe
a little more, uh, uh, of a, just a science based explanation.
But hey, you never know.
So we don't truly know.
That's a question we'll have to ask God one day.
Amen.
But the reality is they believed that this water had power.
They believed that when you got in this water, something would heal you.
And so hundreds of sick and disabled people would be laying there by this pool.
You see, this wasn't just a place though of sickness.
It was a place of delayed hope for many people.
And we see in verse five, this man who had been there for 38 years,
lying there, sick, handicapped,
stuck,
and Jesus then walks into this place.
Full of sick people.
And what does Jesus do
says when Jesus saw him lying there, he picks him.
Jesus goes to the one man that had been there 38 years out of, out of a crowd
of suffering people, people who had been waiting, people who had been sick, people
who were trying to get into that water.
Jesus singles out one man.
He didn't wait for that man to call out to him.
He didn't wait for the water to stir and then go and help him.
No, he walked into the waiting place and he picked him.
You see, I wanna relate this to us for a minute here.
Jesus picks us and OC church.
We've been through a lot.
Let's just face it.
We've been through a long journey.
We have many new members.
I know Kevin men or uh uh, uh, Greg mentioned Kevin Mains last week, and I
had college students who go, who's that?
And amen.
That's great.
We have new people, but for a lot of us, and I knew Kevin, even though
I wasn't an OC Stewart, his son was my campus minister, so I, I felt the
loss distantly, but losing Kevin, our church leader, that put us into a
transition, put us into some waiting.
Then three years later, we're hit with a global pandemic.
That delays everyone and everything.
You with me?
Yes.
And then after that we had leadership transitions and different changes,
and then we started renting out our building and we had more
waiting and more transition.
And we've been wondering what's next?
What's God gonna do with us?
I wanna remind us, Jesus does not avoid churches who are in transition.
He actually moves toward them.
He moves towards people who've been waiting, people who maybe have been
stuck, and just like he moved toward the invalid Jesus is moving toward you.
Amen.
He's moving towards the teen that's in here this morning and maybe teens,
your're, feeling unsure if your faith is really your own or if it's your parents.
Jesus is moving towards you.
College students.
He's moving towards you.
Maybe you feel stuck in a sin that you can't overcome.
He's moving towards you.
God members who have been in here, maybe you feel tired and
you feel burned out and exhausted.
He's moving towards you as well.
Amen.
And maybe you're visiting with us, or, or you walked in here
for the first time and you're a little curious of what's going on.
Maybe you're cautious, you're like, I don't really know.
There's a lot of people hugging at me.
And man, Jesus is moving towards you as well.
Amen.
I wanna remind you, you're not disqualified because you feel stuck.
This man.
Was not the most spiritual person in the story.
He had been there 38 years and Jesus saw him.
He was laying on that mat, and then Jesus moved toward him.
The second part of this verse, I love and I think we can gloss over
as Jesus learns that he had been in this condition for a long time.
Jesus learned he had been in this condition for 38 years.
I'm still 10 years away from 38 of just being alive.
I can't even imagine being sick and on a mat for 38 of 'em.
And I think that detail matters church, because Jesus was aware that
this wasn't a new struggle for him.
Jesus was clearly aware that this wasn't just a bad week or a rough
season or a moment, but this had been going on for decades, a
long time of pain and suffering.
But then I find it so funny, and Jesus does this in the
Bible all the time we see it.
But Jesus asks a question, and I find this question so interesting because
it's to me, common sense, but he asks him, do you want to get well?
I mean, Jesus, he's been sick 38 years.
Of course he wants to get well, right In that first glance, it looks obvious.
But I think Jesus is not asking about his desire in theory, but if he's really
ready for true change, because what's the invalids response in verse seven, 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 of me.
I'm stuck.
Jesus, what does he start doing?
He starts making excuses.
Jesus asked the most simple question ever.
All he needed to do was say what?
Yes or no?
I guess, but I don't know why he would do that.
All he needed to do was say, yes, and this is his response.
Can we relate to this?
Sometimes Jesus is standing right in front of us.
He's saying, do you want to get Well?
We're like, oh, but I got all, oh, I, ah,
he's just saying, can you just say yes, my second point.
Right.
Excuses can keep you stuck.
When we make excuses, it can keep us stuck.
Brothers and sisters, the man says, I've got no one.
I've got no one to help me.
Someone else goes ahead of me.
Well, I think that translates in our context to, well, it's not my fault.
I'm in this spot.
It's the system, it's the church, it's the timing, it's the people around me.
For 38 years, he was stuck.
Brothers and sisters.
Yeah, he was stuck waiting, and I think some of us have been saying
some similar things when things get better or more unified or
when we move back to the building.
You see, waiting at times can be wisdom.
Amen.
There's a season for discernment.
There's a season to wait and be wise, but waiting can also become an excuse.
You see the past year, year and a half.
We've been in a waiting season as a church.
I know I've felt that there's been uncertainty, transition questions,
but if Jesus is speaking clearly now and we are still waiting, that's no
longer patience That becomes avoidance.
And personally, I wanna share that I've had to check my own heart in this area.
You know, for the, for the past several years, I've been dreaming
and excited about the, the idea of even being here in this moment right
now, and it feels great to be here.
I'm excited.
I'm encouraged.
God's doing great things, but to be real with you guys, I started putting a lot of
hope and security and trust in the system of us coming back to the building thinking
when this happens, then God will move.
And I've started to let that take more control of my view of God than who God
is simply just saying, I'm right here.
I want to help you get well.
Come on Kyle, come on.
And the reality is we've been back here in the building for the past month.
This is our fifth Sunday here, and it's been awesome.
Amen.
It's been awesome.
We can cheer for that.
Let's cheer it up.
It's been great,
but I want to say this and if you can relate to this, amen.
I was waiting for a building to fix what only obedience to Jesus can fix,
and I needed to repent of this mindset because building or
not Jesus is still present.
Jesus is here because we are the church.
Amen.
Come on, Kyle.
And so church, we gotta be honest with ourselves.
Let's be honest with ourselves.
Some of us have said, I'll engage and start to give when things get better.
When we're back in the building, or I'll start to serve when
the staff gets more unified.
And amen, we need to be more unified and we're working on the
unity for brothers and sisters.
The waiting time is over.
The time is now.
Let's lean in.
Let's not answer Jesus.
With excuses.
Let's answer him with yes Lord.
Amen.
Yes.
I want to be.
Well preach it.
Amen.
You see the waiting season that you're in, maybe personally outside of the
church context, I do wanna speak to that as well because I know some of
us might be in here and we haven't yet made the decision to follow Christ.
And for those of you who haven't made that decision yet, I want to encourage you
that Jesus is standing here right in front of you, saying, do you want to get well?
It's time to take that next step in your faith.
It's time for you to be open about whatever's going on in your life.
It's time for you.
If you haven't been baptized, get baptized.
Be renewed.
Become a new creation.
Amen.
Let's get well together.
Let's build together.
The waiting season is over.
And the waiting season doesn't have to define us, right?
But excuses can define us.
So we must ask ourselves, do we really want to get, well, not in theory,
but for true change from within.
You see, verse eight.
Jesus then says to him a command, and this is my last point here,
pick it up.
Jesus says in verse eight, then Jesus said to him, get up.
Pick up your mat and walk.
What I love about Jesus is this man answers in verse
seven with all these excuses.
He says, I have no one to help me.
And it is not like Jesus empathizes or Jesus goes, oh, I'm really
sorry that's been going on.
Now Jesus empathizes with us, but in this moment, what did this man need?
38 years?
And he couldn't answer with a simple yes, Jesus gives him a command.
He says, get up.
Pick up your mat and walk.
A simple command, but a powerful command.
But don't miss this part here.
Jesus says to pick up your mat, he says to pick up your mat.
He doesn't just say, Hey, just start walking or just
start getting, getting better.
Just start moving along.
What does he say?
Pick up your mat for 38 years.
This man had a mat that he was laying on.
I got my, my wife's mat here.
Get this mat out.
I'm gonna sit on the mat.
Sorry.
Camera, crew.
38 years.
38 years on this mat.
Yeah.
You know, this mat became something to him.
This mat wasn't just a thing to sit on.
I believe this mat became his identity.
This mat became who he was, his address, his routine, where he was always
at, oh yeah, you wanna go see him?
Oh yeah, he's on his mat.
Go visit him.
You know where to find him.
Every morning he woke up on this mat.
Every night he went to sleep on this mat.
That mat defined him.
You know, for us, I think sometimes we have mats in our lives that define us.
That's right.
That can be our identity.
You know, some of us have been lying on the same mat for so long.
It begins to feel normal.
It begins to feel safe.
Yeah.
It begins to feel like, oh, I, I actually like my mat.
That's why I'm gonna make my excuses.
Do I want to get what?
Oh, I don't know if I want to get up from my mat.
I don't know if I really want to change.
And we've gotten stuck.
Yep.
Come on.
Copy.
The three mats I think that we could probably relate to is, I think
the first one's the failure map.
Yeah.
For some of us.
That mat is the fear of failure and a decision.
Maybe in the past you regret, maybe it's a mistake you made, something you're ashamed
of, and even though God forgave you, you're still allowing that to define you.
I think others of us could be maybe the wounded church mat.
We're all people and people sin people hurt each other.
Our church is not perfect and people have been hurt.
And for some of us, this mat is a mat of pain.
And wounds from the past, the losses, the painful memories.
Maybe it's the hope that was deferred, something you prayed for for so
long, God hasn't answered on it yet.
And over time, caution became your identity, became your mat.
Or maybe getting negative or critical became your default.
You see, you can't build the future of a healthy church from
the posture of self protection.
Wow.
We have to lean into one another and build one another up.
And for others of us, I think this can relate maybe more to
some of our youth in our campus, is the mat of insecurity or fear.
We live in an anxious generation.
Maybe you question your capability, your sense of self-worth.
I'm not leadership material, so do I really have value in God's kingdom?
Can be the lie.
Maybe you've attempted to follow Jesus, study the Bible, but it didn't work out.
And culture tells you your struggle is your identity, but
Jesus wants to redefine you.
Church, Jesus wants to write the story.
Jesus wants to redeem you
and notice something powerful.
What Jesus says, he tells him to get up.
Pick up his mat and walk.
I love that, that, that imagery.
He says, pick it up, pick up the mat.
Pick up this mat, this identity you've been sitting on for so long.
Pick it up, carry it.
And what does he say in verse nine?
He does, he says that once the man was cured, he picked up his mat and he walked.
The mat that once carried him becomes the thing that he's carrying.
The mat that he was identifying with no longer has power over him,
and that's redemption.
Brothers and sisters, that's what Jesus wants to do in the OC church.
Jesus wants to redeem.
He wants us to carry these mats and he wants us to go forward and build for him.
Imagine for a moment, brothers and sisters, a church where
we're all carrying our mats.
We're not defined by 'em.
They're pieces of us.
They're useful, they're great.
We all have our gifts.
We all have our different things we identify with, but
we're not identified by this.
We're identified by God.
Imagine the impact we can have.
Imagine the, the, the community will have in here when we're no
longer allowing these to define us.
You know, as we transition to our time of communion, I want us to
remember where this comes from.
We're able to carry these mats because of the cross.
We're able to have redemption because of what Jesus did for us.
Jesus is standing there saying, do you want to get well?
And Jesus has paved the way for us to get well.
You see the cross, it won't erase your past, but it will redeem it.
It can redefine it.
You can go from waiting, stuck, being identified by your mat to
a place of walking with Christ.
Yeah, moving forward for him.
And so as we get ready to pray here in a moment, always remember
where the power came from.
Always remember, it's from the cross of Christ, brothers and sisters.
If we're gonna lean into this new era, we have to put it at the foot of the cross.
The man picked up his mat because Jesus spoke.
We stand today because Jesus died and rose.
That's why when he says to get up.
Pick up your mat and walk.
We all can do the same.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for this morning, so thank you so much,
father, for the example of Christ.
Lord, thank you for stories like this that are so relatable and so relevant,
and just for the ability for us in 2026 to connect with these ancient scriptures
that are gonna help us draw closer to you.
Thank you for.
The example of this man who eventually, even though he made his
excuses, he obeyed Jesus' command.
He got up, he picked up his mat, and he walked.
I pray that you would help every single individual in here this
morning to pick up their mat and walk.
I pray that we can go from this place of being stuck and waiting
and begin walking with you.
Lord, you want us to walk with you?
Lord, we love you.
We thank you.
We're so grateful to be able to serve a God like you.
I pray that as we take the communion and reflect on the cross and the sacrifice
of Jesus, Lord, that you would humble our hearts, fill us with gratitude.
Fill us with a sense of peace that only can come from you because
you want us to have a new life.
You wanna redeem us, you wanna redefine us, and you want
to help us to move forward.
We love you, Lord.
We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.