Help for the Hopeless

          This entry is my take on the sermon that I heard this morning from church.  Bolder Ridge Fellowship Church, that is. I will say that these past two weekends/Sundays have been really helpful for me and that I can feel God working in my life because of where I am going now. I have moved out of the old and big and into the new and small. Last Sunday and today have been really hard for but I have felt the Lord talking to me and challenging me through this church. It is like with this sermon today. Below are the verses that we went over and below those are my ideas and what I took from the sermon. This is no way the true translation of the Bible. This is just how it applies to my life and maybe someone else's out there. Maybe it will get them to come to Bolder Ridge Fellowship Church? Maybe I can do this every week/Sunday and put it up somewhere where more people can see it? Whatever the reason, I just hope that it will change a few lives or make people think at least.  

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John 5:5-6 New International Version (NIV)

5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 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?”

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John 5:7-9 New International Version (NIV)

7 “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.”

8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath.

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John 5:10-14 New International Version (NIV)

10 and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

11 But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

12 So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

13 The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

14 Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.”

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Romans 13:14 New International Version (NIV)

14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

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              I love the question that verse 6 gives us to think about. That question is: "Do you want to be made well/whole?" I was thinking about that question during church today and the situation that I have been in lately and I do want to be made well/whole in Christ but I can't do that without God's help. I can't do that when I am holding on to the things of this world and trying to run them my own way, which I think is best. I would be neat if we could ask this question to ourselves daily and every time we have to make a choice in life, big or small. 
               Now verses 7-9 are some tough ones but they show us what can be done once we give the thing/s that we need to over to God. It is about doing the impossible. The guy at the waterside couldn't get in the water by himself because he was hurt. When he tried, someone always beat him to it. He was trying to do the impossible himself without any help. Well, let's just say in my life, right now, I have tried that and it doesn't work at all. All it does to us humans is make us tried from all that worrying and stressing about it. it also makes us miss out on the important things in life and even the little things that are good sometimes. 
               In those verses too, there is a part where Jesus says, "Get up! Take up your mat and walk." Another way to look at it is this: "Chose to obey God's command." Jesus gave that man something to do and believe. Because that man did it, he was healed of his sickness and made well again. Again, for me, it meant telling a friend what I thought because I needed to get it off my chest. That thing was weighing me down in so many ways. I would worry some nights and be happy all of the sudden. It was like I was on an emotional roller coaster almost. I was also always wondering things. When I was doing those things, small things and chances passed me by. I notice when I give it over to God and obey His Commands, things got better, I was more at peace and I could think straight and use what I knew to get the jobs done that I needed to in that moment. I wasn't worrying about what tomorrow held but instead was focused on today. 
                Then in the verses 10-14, Jesus was saying to this man, "Get away from there and unattached from it because you have a new life in my." I am phasing it. It was hard for the man to get away and become unattached to it because he had been beside that fountain for so long hoping to get in it some day. As humans, we can get attached to objects like that, still could happen today, people that we are close to, things that we have like car, money, clothes, and so on. We can get so attached to things that we lose sight of God sometimes. We lose sight of what the "REAL" Thing is. We don't notice that we lost sight until that thing or person doesn't make us happy anymore or doesn't care. We fill those holes in our hearts with things and once those things are gone we try to fill those holes up with something else when really those holes need to be filled with Christ.
              I know for me, personally, things have been holding me back from a lot of things in my life. I didn't do things because of this one thing. Now that I have let go of the things, there are holes that need to be filled with something greater and that only God can fill really. When God fill those holes, it will only make be stronger for Him. Better then anything or anyone can ever do. I need to get off of the merry go round that I have been on for years. I need to stop wasting time when it doesn't matter to people and turn to God and see how He wants me to live. Yes, I do need to make some big and small changes in my life but if it gets me closer to God, then it is all worth it in the long run. 
            That is it for this entry but like I said at the start of this one, I hope I can do more of these kinds of entries every Sunday from now on. That is my goal at least because I want to reach people out there and I even want to get people to come to the church that I do. I know it might be hard to reach people in Bentonville or even AR and get them to start coming/going to church for that matter but the least I can do is try. Oh! by the way, the title of the sermon today is the title of this entry and that is how I will title the entries from church on Sunday.