Live Free with Josh Howerton - Pick Up Your Mat | Ep. 258 | Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Episode Date: January 31, 2024

When Jesus healed the man at the pool, He told him to pick up his mat and walk. Why? His mat was a story, a reminder of what Jesus healed him from. We all have a mat, a story of what Jesus saved us from. How might Jesus be calling you to use your story to reach others who need to be healed with the gospel? For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. A welcome to the Daily Drive. Thanks for joining us for a few minutes. My name is Bro, and we are walking through a book of the Bible called The Gospel of John.

It's a book of good news, chronicling the encounters, miracles, and the words of Jesus. It's written by one of Jesus' closest friends and followers, a guy named John, who was an eyewitness to the incredible things that Jesus did. He closes out his gospel by saying, I could go on and on and on and on about the amazing things that I've seen and heard from Jesus. but I'm writing these things down so that you might believe in him and have life in his name. So we're just tracking through asking God to speak to us through these words, and after years of walking with Jesus, I've got to tell you, I'm with John, I'm a raving fan. There's nobody like him. He really is the way, the truth, and the life. We left off yesterday with an encounter Jesus has with a guy by a pool in Jerusalem.

When I say pool in Jerusalem, this was not a vacation destination or an all-exclusive. infinity edge resort kind of pool, this was a place where people with all kinds of needs would come in hopes of finding help and healing. There was this superstition about this pool that said that at certain times an angel would come down and stir up the water, and when the water got stirred up, the first one in got the healing. Now true or not, that's what they believed. So Jesus walks into this crowded scene by the pool and notices a guy who was a total invalid. Now, I've never liked that ink. English word invalid, because in English it seems to say invalid. And once again, Jesus proves that no one is invalid in the eyes of God, that everyone has great worth, everyone is loved by their

creator, no matter what their condition might be. We left off yesterday with Jesus asking the man an important question, do you want to get well? And we talked about how our answer to that question is vital in finding healing for our soul. The longer we spend in denial, pride, image management and self-reliance paralyzes us to the freedom Jesus came to give us all. Well, this man responds to Jesus this way, verse 7. He says, sir, I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I'm trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me. Now, I don't think he's making excuses here. I believe he's just talking reality. If, in fact, the stirring water is true or if it's fable, this guy is never going to be the first one in the pool.

And there were many there at that pool, all kinds of needs. And this man doesn't express his faith like the nobleman with a sick son back in chapter four that we read about. He doesn't even really answer Jesus' question, do you want to get well? But Jesus says in his compassion to this guy, get up, pick up your mat and walk. At once the man was cured. He picked up his mat and he walked. It's amazing. I've often wondered why Jesus didn't just say, get up and walk.

Why do you have to throw in to pick up your mat? You think you would say, in that nasty mat you've been lying on all these years, you need to burn that thing. Why pick up your mat and walk? I think because his mat was a story. We all have a story. We all have a mat. Some of us spent a good portion of our lives paralyzed by fear, stuck in the past,

crippled by our addictions, habits, pain. But then we came to our same. senses and we cried out for help and we told him, yes, I want to get well. And we surrendered the leadership of our lives to God and began to experience his forgiveness and his healing and his power to start walking a new direction. And now he says to us, not just get up and walk, but take up your mat and walk. Let the story of your changed life spill out and bring hope to everyone around you. You see, we all got a mat. And God will use our mat, our story, to help other people. I love what Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 2 and he says, God saved you by his grace and you believed,

and you can't take credit for this. It's a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us a new in Christ Jesus so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. You see, God planned to use your mat, your life all along. But like me, perhaps you took a detour. You did your own thing called your own shots for a while, but by his grace and power he brought you back. And the scripture is saying, you can't brag about that. He did it. And he did it so that he could use your life to do the good things he'd always dreamed you would do. You know, I never imagine I would get to do something like this with my life. I think all the time,

who am I to get to do this? And I am so grateful. I'm sure there are people in my past who are absolutely shocked that I'm in ministry. But not as shocked as I am. I'm just telling you from personal if you will cooperate with the leadership of God, he will use your mat. He can and will recycle all of your nastiness, your failures, your screw-ups, and your past into this unexpected ministry to help other people. When you become broken, humble, dependent upon God, when you're grateful for his grace, when you're grateful for a second chance in life, you become a real player in God's redemptive plan. You become empathetic, passionate, understanding because you've been there. You know you've been forgiven much, so now you're able to love much.

You realize how futile self-help really is. You know how destructive bitterness can be. You know the freedom of forgiveness. You know the value of complete honesty. You know where to access real transformational power. You know what it takes to make the courageous choice to walk down the different street, because you've done a 180. And you were a person in the process of changing a little more every day, one day at a time.

You just roll out of bed every day saying again today, Lord, I'm just going to act justly. Love mercy and walk calmly with you. So let me ask you, if you were God, isn't that the type of person you'd want on your team? That's the kind of person I would want working for me. Second Corinthians chapter 5 says that anyone who belongs to Christ become a new person. The old life is gone. A new life has begun. And now God uses you and me to carry the message of hope to be his representative,

his ambassador to tell your story of how God woke you up, pulled you out, set you free to really live. You know, sometimes when I'm playing golf or I'm at a picnic or some other out, Outdoor gathering and it starts to rain, someone will turn to me and jokingly say, Hey, bro, you're a pastor, you got connections, can't you do something about this? And I usually just respond, nope, I'm just in sales, not management. The truth is, I used to be in management. Now, it was a self-appointed role, but nevertheless I was still trying to control and manage everything about my life.

And I did a really lousy job. So I had to fire myself, step down, and let God be God. and I like this new sales role much, much better. Here's another one of those pick-up-up-your-mat kind of passages. Paul writes this, Second Corinthians chapter 1. He comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we'll be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. You need to know something about this extremely imperfect guy doing this Daily Drive podcast.

He is a recovering, ego-driven, workaholic who has wrestled with jealousy, sarcasm, resentment, love, gluttony, procrastination, lying, anger, inferiority, insecurity, grief, shame, heartbreak, gossip, malice, etc., etc., etc. But you also need to know that this is a man who's experienced the grace, the patience, the power, and unfailing love of Jesus Christ in his life. He is recycled and is recycling all the garbage, gave me a clean start, took out my cold heart and gave me a new soft one, gave me a new direction to walk and some new shoes to wear. He is transforming me daily with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. And as long as there is breath in my lungs, you will not get me to shut up about the kindness of God. It's part of my recovery journey. It's part of

yours. So today, begin to pray that God would put someone in your path that needs the same kind of touch from him as you have received, because there are people that may never come within a hundred yards of a church. They would never listen to a pastor. They would never download a podcast. They would never pick up a Bible on their own, but they love and respect you. So God wants to use you today, wants to use your recycled life to point them a new direction. So today, pick up your mat and walk. See you back tomorrow. Have a great day. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services. on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time.

For more information, visit lakepoint.com. Church slash daily drive.