No Power In The Pool

Today is called There's No Power in the Pool.

I was gonna s title it There's a P in the Pool but I didn't.

You're welcome.

There's no Power in the Pool in 1945.

Who was I no, I was gonna ask who was alive in 1945, but we'd get a lot of hands in here.

So maybe you remember you were hanging out with a guy named William Sinus, S-A-I-N-I-S, from Chicago.

This guy in Chicago.

He tried to bring his pet, the goat, into Wrigley Field for the World Series.

For good luck.

Do you guys know what happened?

Yes, they lost.

They kicked him out, and legend says that it put a curse on the Cubs that they could never win again.

And for 71 years, Cubs fans, loyal Cubs fans, I have pity on them all, they tried everything to live to lift this curse that they lived under.

They they had priests come in and sprinkle holy water on the field.

That didn't work.

Fans brought goats back into the stadium to reverse it.

People had lucky jerseys, lucky seats, lucky rituals, and generation after generation waited for the right year, the right moment, the right break.

And I guess it happened.

Did it happen?

Yeah, just kidding.

I know it happened.

I wasn't gonna mention that it happened.

I just this morning we're gonna talk about we're gonna meet a man who waited 38 years for his lucky break.

He lay by a pool surrounded by hundreds of other lame people who needed a break.

They were all hoping to be the lucky one or the one who tried the hardest or had enough skill so that when the water moved they would be healed.

And what this man is gonna find out that it's never about luck, and it's never about effort, it's about a person.

And that's what we're gonna learn today.

So we start John chapter 5 like this.

John 5 · chapter mention

After this, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheepgate a pool, which is in Hebrew called Bethesda, having five porches.

I'll pause right there.

Up until about 40, 50 years ago, Bible critics said this proves the Bible is false because they had never discovered in all their archaeology a pool.

But guess what happened?

Yeah, they found it.

Guess how many porches it had?

Five, of course, because it always is, right?

So it had five ports.

In these lay great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, and paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.

Then we get to verse four, and it's really interesting because verse four, a look a few years later, someone inserted this into the the narrative here.

This isn't originally written by John, but still part of the Bible because it's just explaining why they had such a crazy that everyone needed to understand why there was this crazy belief about the stirring of the water.

So he's giving us some contextual background.

And it says here in verse 4, for an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water.

Then whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the water was made well of whatever whatever disease he had.

So is that true?

Well, they believed it.

Were people really healed by an angel?

I have no idea.

Maybe God did send an angel to Jerusalem every once in a while just to heal people.

Um, but that's what they truly believed, and so that's what was in there.

We're gonna find out it's kind of silly to put your hope in that type of thing, but we'll see.

Verse 5.

Now a certain man was there who had an effer infirmity 38 years.

And when Jesus saw him lying there, he knew that he had already been in that condition a long time.

And he said to him, Do you want to be made well?

That's a very interesting question.

The sick man answered him, Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up.

But while I'm coming, another steps down before me.

Jesus said to him, Rise, take up your bed and walk.

And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed and walked, and that day was the Sabbath.

So what do we see in this story?

We see three characters that I'm gonna talk about.

We have the man, okay?

And this man in the bigger picture of things speaks of all of us when we're helpless, which is our state that we're born into.

We are helpless.

We cannot fix ourselves, heal ourselves.

That's the condition that we're in as human beings.

We have the pool, okay?

And we're gonna that's gonna represent for us the powerlessness of religious solutions.

Like, I came to church today because I'm religious.

No, you didn't.

I came to church today because you trust in God, and that's a relationship.

Unless you came to church today because you're religious, which this will profit you nothing, right?

That's not gonna help you at all.

So what's going on here?

We're gonna really see the Bible shows us there is a complete worthlessness towards religion and its solutions to our problems.

And then we're gonna see Jesus is the third character, he is the giver of grace, right?

He initiates by healing and giving grace, he fully heals, he doesn't heal part way or a little bit, but he takes care of the problem completely, and he gives free and full life.

That is the end result of Jesus impacting your life, is you have a real, true, full life.

So part one, a lame fool party.

It's got so many levels.

Let it wash over you.

It works like three ways.

The man is helpless, okay?

All men are.

So it says again, after the this, there was a feast of the Jews.

Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and there was a certain pool called Bethesda, having five porches, and in these lay great multitudes, sick, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water, right?

And verse five, there was a certain man who had infirmity 38 years.

Verse 7, the sick man answered him, I have no man to put me in the pool when the water stirred up, but while I'm coming, another steps down before me.

What do we see in this?

We see he could not fix his condition.

He couldn't fix his condition.

None of them could.

All right, but he had been there 38 years.

Do you know what happened 38 years ago in our world?

George Bush Sr.

was elected.

Read my lips.

No new taxes.

So this guy in 38 years had never been able to figure out how to be the chosen one, how to be the elected one, how to be healed, to get what he needed.

He could not figure it out.

He wanted to receive the blessing, he just didn't figure it out.

He couldn't do it.

He was like the broccoli to H.W.

Bush.

A current events joke from 38 years later.

That's the deep cuts you're here for.

He never laid in the right spot, the right porch, right?

Or he never said the right prayer, or he never tried hard enough, you know, to wiggle or worm his way to the water.

Someone always beat him, you know.

And I bet he got the conscious, you're the conscious voice in his mind saying, you just don't cut it.

You're not good enough.

And I bet he was hopeless.

In fact, his words kind of sound hopeless, don't they?

Have you ever been hopeless?

Because his hope up until this point in his life has been in his own earning God's favor, or even worse, his hope was in luck.

Luck.

And God doesn't use either of those things.

I want you to hear it really clearly.

God never uses your earning blessings.

That never works.

He refuses to deal with people on the basis of, hey, you decide you do come to church today, here's a blessing.

No, it doesn't work that way.

He gives blessings because he's good and he loves you, and that's called grace.

We never earn a blessing.

We're completely free from the whole system of earning blessings.

We talk about that every week.

If you haven't heard that yet, I'm so sorry because I've tried to say it every single day.

But the thing we're focusing on today is that luck also is not a strategy with God.

Luck doesn't exist.

God absolutely controls everything, including what cards you get at Doug's Poker Game on Thursday nights.

Was I not supposed to mention that?

Sorry.

There's no such thing.

You didn't hear that.

Just kidding.

So God refuses to allow luck or performance-based religious actions to determine how his grace flows into our life.

His love for you is not based on your performance or luck.

It's that simple.

It's based on Jesus.

So there is no help or blessing found in self-sufficiency.

It only keeps us from the grace God wants to lavish on you as his kids.

He wants to pour his love and grace on you.

And this is what we mean when we say all men are helpless.

We mean we cannot get God's help or grace on our own.

We can't obtain blessings and the life we need by our own goodness, merit, etc., or luck.

We are one of the lame people at the pool, and it is a lame pool party.

Part two.

Religion is powerless.

Religion is powerless.

Not what you expect to hear at church if you grow up in church.

You're like, there's power in church, but there's not.

There's no power in there's power in Jesus.

There's power in his name, there's power in his actions, his grace, his love, his mercy.

There's no power in religion.

What we define religion as is when we're trying to produce acceptance and righteousness or holiness through rules, rituals, and human effort.

That's what most people have in their idea, in their head, the idea of religion, is what do I do to prove myself or impress God?

It may look impressive outwardly, but it can't give spiritual life or change our hearts.

That's what's so bad about religion.

That's why you always hear it said very truly, Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship.

Good job.

20 Jesus points for you, according to my religious rules.

So, but we're learning that there's no power in the pool, and the pool represents religion.

There's no power in the pool.

I'm gonna give you three things for that.

Number one, rules, religious rules expose sin, but they cannot defeat it.

So the Ten Commandments.

You go to church to learn the Ten Commandments, right?

No, but that's what religion is.

The Ten Commandments are really good at telling us what is wrong about us.

Do you know the Ten Commandments are not a list of ten things you do to be right?

They're a list of ten ways that you suck as a person.

You do not measure up.

It's not measuring how good you are.

Randy's this good.

No, it's measuring how short you fall from the moon.

Yeah, you you don't measure up at all.

That's what the law is.

It can't supply the power to do what's right.

It just tells you you're wrong, you're wrong, you're wrong.

And that's why it's not the gospel.

That's why that's not the real message of Jesus.

In fact, scripture says that our sinful passions are aroused by the law.

Look at Romans 7, 5.

It says, For we were when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work on our members to bear fruit to death.

That means rules make us more, they make us want to sin more.

Don't think of a purple elephant at all.

Do not do it.

And it says immediately the first thing you think about, right?

Romans 6 14 says, But sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace.

So the law can't set you free from sin, but grace must set you free from sin.

Say grace always sets you free from sin.

When you're struggling with sin, you don't need more law, you need more grace.

That's how the world works, that's how God's world works.

That's how the gospel works.

Grace does not mean God being lenient on you.

Oh, boys will be boys.

Sorry, you murdered your neighbor.

That's not grace.

Grace does forgive, but grace also transforms us with a power, we call it the Holy Spirit that lives inside us.

And he causes holiness to be the definition of your life.

And that's why when you become a Christian, you start realizing I hate participating in sin anymore.

I hate it.

It bothers me.

I used to love it.

I mean, I used to party, I used to do all this, I used to do all that, and it all met my needs, and then I met Jesus, and my heart was truly satisfied.

And now all these sinful things, they just seem icky to me, unless I really steer my conscience.

But my heart hates sin now.

Why?

Because your heart is united to Jesus and you share his heart.

That's what salvation is.

You share the heart of God after you've been cleansed of all your sin.

And that is why we teach the identity to all the people in the church, and we don't teach them here's a list of rules that you have to keep to be a better person.

We teach them this is who you are in Christ.

This is who you are.

And you are one with him in your heart.

So religious rules can't change you, can't help you.

Number two, religious regulations cannot transform you either.

I'm gonna read to you Colossians chapter 2, verse 20.

Colossians 2:20

This is one of the most incredible verses.

It says, Therefore, if you died with Christ, which you did, so it's it's rhetorical, from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations?

So there's the question: Why do you put any rules on yourself?

Because you already died with Jesus.

What does that mean?

If you died with Jesus, you also rose with him, which means his life, you share his death, but you share his life also.

So he goes on, he says, What rules do not touch, do not taste, do not handle?

That's the rules you hear when you go to church, especially as a five-year-old.

Don't touch this, don't taste that, don't handle this, right?

Which is what a lot of you people think of when they think of Christianity.

Oh, those are all the things I can't touch, can't taste, can't handle, like this.

Just rules, don't do this, don't do that.

Verse 22, which all concern things which perish with the using according to the commandments and doctrines of men.

These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

That means all the rules you can put on yourself as a Christian, don't do this, don't do that, don't do that.

The moment you start believing that rule, you get prideful and saying, I could do that.

I could stop cussing, I can stop doing this, I can stop doing that.

The moment you believe in the rule that you will be blessed if you follow the rule, if the moment you're doing that, you're believing in self and you've cut yourself off from the life of Christ.

Not that he's abandoned, you're not losing your salvation, but you're not going to experience victory.

And you know what you're gonna do?

You're gonna try so hard to stop sinning, and then what's the first thing you're gonna do?

Sin.

Exactly what you didn't want to do.

Why?

Because you're cut off from that source, his life.

The gospel says this without any rules at all, you have died and risen with Christ, and he shares his heart with you.

And without any rules at all, you just keep your eyes on him and you walk with him, and you may fall, and he'll pick you up, and you will sin a million times less by just keeping your eyes on Jesus than you ever could by putting rules and boundaries around you.

Because it's all about where is your faith.

The problem with rules isn't that rules are bad.

The problem with rules is you suck at keeping rules.

I am terrible at following rules.

Why?

Because when I'm trying to do it, I'm trusting in me.

And God refuses to allow that to work.

He says the only path to life is trusting in my son.

The only source of life is my son flowing through you.

And that all happens as you look at him in faith.

Look at him.

And you can do it.

And God is urging you to do it even today.

Paul warns against don't touch, don't taste, don't handle.

They appear, it says, they appear spiritual.

Oh, when you go to churches, you may go to another church that says you go to a church in a bar.

Ha ha ha ha! You guys all sin so much.

I mean, look, there that wall is lined with alcohol, the devil's juice.

You got the devil's lettuce over here.

No, I'm just kidding.

Why is there that attitude?

And there is.

Because there's this idea that your righteousness, your blessings are tied to what you do.

But if we keep our eyes on Jesus, we can meet in the middle of the most sinful place you can imagine.

And my eyes are on Jesus.

I am holy and righteous in Christ.

I'm not gonna be up here like handing you whiskey, but we'll have wine later.

Don't worry.

It's just grape juice.

That's no way.

Okay.

What we're seeing here is that external restrictions cannot create internal righteousness.

The Holy Spirit alone, the Holy Spirit alone produces Christ in us.

Not a checklist.

Where did we get the idea that being a Christian was a checklist?

Oh, I'll go to church today.

Oh, I got I forgot to read my Bible, so I guess I can't be blessed today.

Well, that must be why I got in a car accident or got stopped by the car because I didn't pray this morning.

God is not doing that.

Those are not a checklist.

Okay, so the third thing we're seeing here about this, there's no life in the pool, is that religion focuses on performance instead of focusing on Christ.

Religion says, work harder so God will accept you.

The gospel says, Christ is in you, you're already accepted, you're already forgiven, you're already righteousness, righteous.

Jesus has already accomplished what religious effort could never achieve.

Well, if I don't have to earn anything from God, what do I do?

You just rejoice.

You give thanks, you praise him, you live your life free.

I don't have to earn my way to God.

I can freely respond to him and by giving him, by choosing to give him my whole heart and life.

I can serve him with all the I do.

We've been given complete forgiveness.

God didn't forget about one of your sins, and He didn't, He's not caught off guard by the thing you did today or the thing you're gonna do tomorrow.

You're still forgiven.

You can't lose it by sinning.

You have permanent acceptance, you have new life, you are united with Christ.

All these things you're not gonna lose.

So relax, take a breath, and give thanks to God.

So the Christian life is not about climbing towards God, it's about learning to rest in Christ, who already lives in you and expresses his life through you.

And the fourth thing we see in this, there's no power in the pool, is the spirit replaces rule-based living.

So the Holy Spirit actually replaces it.

Paul says in in 2 Corinthians 3 6 that the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

See at the end of that verse right there, the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.

If you want to try to live by the letter of the law, I'm a Christian and I do this and I do that, I do that, your spiritual life will die and shrivel.

Because the letter kills, it doesn't give life.

Only the spirit gives life.

This doesn't mean believers are careless and we don't care what we do.

It means holiness and righteousness flow out of us through trusting Christ, not from fear, condemnation, shame, or trying to keep the Ten Commandments as a rule for life.

It doesn't flow from those things, it flows from faith in Jesus.

I know that I'm falling short, but I trust in you.

So the spirit creates new inside you.

When you become a Christian, you start to want different things.

Because here's what happens: deep down inside you, the thing you most want anymore once you become a Christian is to please your heavenly father.

That's the only thing that'll meet your needs.

It's like, and that's why daddy issues are a big thing in our in our relationship with God, because the faults that our father had in us, and maybe he treated us poorly, maybe he abandoned us, maybe you never knew.

Just whatever the situation is, we get these preconceived notions of what a father is, and then we get a real heavenly father who's perfect, and it's hard for us to deal with the dissonance between what we know of fathers and what we're told God our father is.

And God's okay with that, he's gentle with that.

He's like, I don't need to prove myself.

I love you, I will never abandon you, I'll never forsake you.

And if you want to learn how faithful I am to you, just read my word, and it's written right here for you.

But if you don't, it doesn't mean I'm not gonna love you.

And it doesn't mean I'm not gonna keep giving you a blessing, working in your life and drawing you to me.

He will continue to draw you because he's patient, kind, and he truly loves you and wants what's best for you.

So these new desires, that's what the Holy Spirit is doing inside.

Now, your brain, the Holy Spirit doesn't fix your brain.

Your brain is fixed by reading the word and believing it, learning his ways, delighting in his truth.

But your spirit is already connected and okay.

But look what it says in 1 John 3.23, it says this, and this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ.

This is his commandment that we believe on Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave us commandment.

So people are like, Jesus wants us to follow the commandments.

Yes.

What are his commandments?

Believe, and then let that flow into loving other people.

Love others as I have loved you.

Jesus, that's how Jesus said it.

I want you to love other people.

A new command I give you love other people as I have loved you.

Well, what do you have to do in that scenario?

You have to be loved by him first.

Well, how do I get loved by God?

You're already loved by God.

Well, how does that impact me?

How do I taste it?

How do I see it?

How do I engage with it?

All you have to do is believe.

That's how we taste his love.

You believe it.

How do you believe something?

You hear it.

Where do you hear it?

You can hear it through the Bible, you can hear it through uh coming to church, you can hear it through worship songs, you can hear it all kinds of ways, but it's the heart.

Is our heart gonna believe it?

Religion is powerless because it offers instructions without life.

Jesus offers life and some instructions too.

But life is the flow.

He said in in John, he says, believe and then love.

Believe and love.

Jesus offers life itself.

He removed our sins on the cross, made us righteous through his resurrection, and now he lives in us through his spirit.

All these are his love for you.

Why did Jesus die on the cross for you?

Because he loves you.

Why did Jesus rise from the dead?

Because he loves you.

Why does Jesus want to live inside you?

That's gross.

No?

He loves you.

He loves you.

Under grace, we don't strive to be loved and accepted.

We live from acceptance with what we already have in Jesus.

This is the greatest truth you'll ever hear in your life.

Is that God already loves you and He's not disappointed in you.

But he does invite you to find real joy, real acceptance through following him.

So if you want to say, Yeah, I'm loved by God, and I'm just gonna go live however I want, bro, okay.

He's still gonna love you, but you might miss out on his perfect plan for your life, and where you'll the only way you'll ever truly find your satisfaction, which is serving him, building his kingdom, serving his kingdom.

So now we see, you know, part three.

Jesus is the hero, he gives grace.

Look what happens.

Jesus says, Do you want to be?

He didn't tell him to try harder, he didn't tell him to wait for the right moment or prove his faith.

He simply said, Do you want to be made well?

And I'm telling you, Jesus is saying this exact same thing to every single one of you today.

Do you want to be made well?

What does that mean?

Does that mean he's gonna heal every physical infirmity in here today?

Well, he could.

But what does it mean for us in 2026 on South Padre Island?

What does it mean?

This man, he was healed immediately.

Jesus initiated the whole thing.

It's a beautiful picture of grace.

Jesus does for us what we can't do for ourselves.

We get that, right?

It's easy.

But he says to him, Rise, take up your bed and walk.

I want you to hear that perspective of the guy who was laying there.

He Jesus told him to do three things that were impossible for him to do.

He couldn't rise, he couldn't take up his bed, you know, that same mat that's been carrying him for 38 years.

Jesus says, I want you to carry that mat, and he couldn't walk.

So Jesus says, I command you to do three things.

You want to be healed?

Great.

I command you to do three things that are impossible for you to do.

So at this moment, Jesus is challenging him to believe him for the impossible.

He's like, You're gonna have to believe me that I can do impossible things.

If you don't think Jesus can do impossible things, you're fresh out of luck, and Jesus won't be able to do many big things in your life.

But Jesus, where did Jesus instruct the man to look?

To the pool?

Or to him.

Can you picture it in your mind?

Maybe the water was stirring right now, and everyone's worming their way down to the water, and Jesus is like, hey, look at me.

Look at me.

Look at me alone.

Jesus is the source of healing, not this magic, luck-based or performance-based pool, which represents a location, a ritual, human effort or religious observations, like none of those things.

God says, do not focus on those things.

It's always funny to me when someone builds a miracle center.

Like, doesn't God do miracles anywhere he wants?

Why does he need a special building?

He doesn't.

The man again, he had been waiting for 38 years to be healed.

So he was desperate, he was broken, and he had been on this mat where he slept on it, he went to the bathroom on it, he waited there.

It probably smelled horrible.

And Jesus says, Pick it up and carry it with you.

Now Jesus didn't say throw it away right away.

He wanted him to pick it up and carry it through the streets of Jerusalem.

Why?

Because everyone who saw this guy walking, and we're gonna see this in the next couple weeks, it causes quite the stir through Jerusalem, almost like a war.

But we'll see that coming up.

But him carrying this mat, this disgusting thing that had been with him for 38 years, as he carried it in victory, it became a testimony to everyone.

Not of look how hard I tried and look what I accomplished, but look at what Jesus did.

Look at and he doesn't even know who Jesus is, but look at what Jesus did will be the testimony.

Some of you have been lying by the pool for a long time.

And maybe that pool for you, like we're saying today, is religion.

If I just pray more, if I just read more, if I just do better, then God will finally bless me and do the thing that I'm so desperate for Him to do.

Maybe it's shame.

I failed too many times to be chosen.

I'm just, I don't deserve luck.

I don't deserve God's blessing.

Maybe you've watched others step ahead of you and you've concluded that you just don't cut it.

But I want you to hear this message.

There is no power in the pool of religion.

There's there is power in the person standing right in front of you, the person who lives in your heart.

He has the power, and he is asking to you, do you want to be well?

Of all the people that ever asked Jesus to heal them, do you know how many he rejected and said, You're dumb.

I don't like you.

You know how many people Jesus didn't heal?

In all the healings, dozens and dozens of healings in the Bible, every single person who asked him was healed.

So now we see Jesus saying, Do you, my friend, do you want me to do something for you?

What are we gonna do?

All it takes is believing.

But I've prayed for years, I prayed for years, I must just not be worthy enough.

That's not the issue.

I must just not be lucky enough, that's not the issue.

The issue is always believe me, keep your eyes on me, expect me to bless you and give you what you need.

He's asking you today, do you want to be made well?

The main obviously the main application is spiritual.

Do you want me to free you from some sin that you've been struggling with?

Do you want me to free you from condemnation, from shame, from any of those spiritual realities?

But it extends even to your very body.

You can ask God to heal you.

We pray for knees, we pray for hearts, we pray for bodies, and God is so faithful to our prayers.

Jesus isn't wanting you to crawl to him, he comes to you.

He didn't tell this guy, crawl over here, worm over here, real quick.

He initiates, he comes to you, and on the cross, he carried away every sin, and in his resurrection, he gives you his own righteousness, his own life.

You don't have to earn it, and you don't have to get lucky.

You simply trust the one who says, Rise up and walk.

What does that mean to us?

You have been called to walk with Jesus.

What is keeping you from doing that?

Rise up from that.

There is nothing that can keep you from walking with Jesus.

Nothing.

This is the direct application for us today.

Well, I don't follow Jesus because I'm ashamed.

Nope.

Nail that to the cross.

I don't follow Jesus because I don't have what it takes.

Nope.

Jesus says, Rise up and you'll have it.

Take the first step to follow me, and you'll get the life, you'll get the strength.

Or you can just sit there and do nothing.

You can sit there and not believe.

And just be self-focused.

I I have no man that can take me into the pool.

I have no help.

I can't do it myself, and no one will help me.

And God's like, I'll help you.

No one will help me.

I will help you.

No one will help me.

Jesus is asking you today, do you want to be made well enough to walk with me?

Stop waiting for the water to move.

Take up your mat and walk with the life that He gives you.

Amen.

Amen.

Okay, we have a real cool thing right now.

We're gonna do communion.